Twenty-fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time, cycle A

Matthew 20:1-16a

Just before Jesus gave his followers this parable, Peter had asked him, “Lord, we have given up everything and followed you.  What will be there for us?” And Jesus then promises that they will sit on twelve thrones and judge the twelve tribes of Israel.  And he promises that anyone who has given up family, children or lands for his sake will receive a hundredfold, and eternal life besides.”  And then Jesus tells this troubling parable.

I suspect most of us can remember a time in our lives when we were acutely aware of injustice, especially towards ourselves.  In the games I played with neighbor kids the words ``No fair” were flung about with abandon.  When a particularly good pie or cake was served after supper, my sister would say, “why did you give him the biggest?”  Sometimes I’d say that about her piece.  And the difference in size was usually something only a microscope could detect.  I’ve been asked more than once by a child or a grandchild, “Who is your favorite?” or words to that effect.  The last time I was asked this I told the grandchild that my favorite was our cat, Leo.

And that’s why this is such an interesting parable.  I think everyone feels that the vineyard owner was unfair, even though he gives a perfectly good answer to the question of fairness -- Did you not agree to a day’s wage?   And am I not free to do what I wish with my own money?  I wonder how things will go tomorrow when all those workers assemble to be selected for work.  I wonder if a few fights broke out.  

And when we feel that sense of unfairness, that’s exactly what Jesus wants us to feel, I think.  Because you may remember a few weeks ago when he told Peter “Get behind me, Satan!” he followed that with the words, “you are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do.”  And this parable is really telling us something about how God thinks.    

So why should we know how God thinks?  The reason is simple.  We are made in the image and likeness of God, but because of original sin, that image is tarnished.  Before Adam and Eve sinned, we have one statement made by Adam: “At last this is bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh!” he exclaims upon seeing Eve.  Notice that Adam instantly recognizes that Eve and he are in some sense one.  And God of course proclaims, “For this reason a man shall leave father and mother and cleave to his wife, and they will become one flesh.”  Adam is thinking as God thinks.  But when Adam and Eve sinned, it’s obvious from reading Genesis, that they were thinking as human beings think.  “The woman made me do it,” said Adam, when God confronted him.  “The serpent told me to do it,” said Eve.  This parable of Jesus challenges us to think as God thinks.

The key here is that the vineyard owner agrees to pay the usual daily wage.  Soldiers in the Roman army received the usual daily wage, which was a denarius.  This was supposed to take care of the needs of the person for one day, with a little left over.  And that was topmost on the mind of the vineyard owner, who was thinking as God thinks.  God created a world where there is enough for everyone, with a little left over.  He turned the world over to us to see that every person receives what he or she needs not just to exist, but to live.  Our freedom as human beings depends on having enough; then we have true freedom, the power to choose what is good.  We not only need bodily goods -- food, clothing, and so forth; but intellectual goods -- education; and spiritual goods -- the training in virtue, the opportunity to enter into a relationship with Jesus.  And all of that is available to every human being on earth, if only we have the will to do it.  

When we think as human beings, our first priority is to see that we have not just enough, but more than enough, and if we see someone else with more than enough, we are suspicious and sometimes envious.  Because there is only so much pie to share.  

When we think as God thinks, we recognize that each of us human beings is entitled to enough of the things God gives us to live fully human lives, and it hurts us to see that this is far from the case in our world.  And with God’s grace, we try to do something about it. 

It may take a lifetime to become like the vineyard owner.  I think of Mother Theresa who spent her life giving away what she had gotten, by literally begging; she knew there was enough pie for everyone; she thought as God did.  There was a priest in Buffalo who left as his legacy a beautiful church, a large school and a hospital, to serve the people of Lackawanna.  Father Baker would simply begin his projects trusting that the resources needed would come -- and they always did.  Father Baker thought as God did.  

So, as we meditate today on the words of Jesus, let us pray that we will learn to think as God does.