***
Gospel: Matthew 20: 1-16
Jesus told his disciples this parable:
“The kingdom of heaven is like a landowner
who went out at dawn to hire laborers for his vineyard.
After agreeing with them for the usual daily wage,
he sent them into his vineyard.
Going out about nine o’clock,
the landowner saw others standing idle in the marketplace,
and he said to them, ‘You too go into my vineyard,
and I will give you what is just.’
So they went off.
And he went out again around noon,
and around three o’clock, and did likewise.
Going out about five o’clock,
the landowner found others standing around, and said to them,
‘Why do you stand here idle all day?’
They answered, ‘Because no one has hired us.’
He said to them, ‘You too go into my vineyard.’
When it was evening the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman,
‘Summon the laborers and give them their pay,
beginning with the last and ending with the first.’
When those who had started about five o’clock came,
each received the usual daily wage.
So when the first came, they thought that they would receive more,
but each of them also got the usual wage.
And on receiving it they grumbled against the landowner, saying,
‘These last ones worked only one hour,
and you have made them equal to us,
who bore the day’s burden and the heat.’
He said to one of them in reply,
‘My friend, I am not cheating you.
Did you not agree with me for the usual daily wage?
Take what is yours and go.
What if I wish to give this last one the same as you?
Or am I not free to do as I wish with my own money?
Are you envious because I am generous?’
Thus, the last will be first, and the first will be last.”
The Gospel of the Lord.
***
***
We live in a society that values being first. We reward the highest achievers, the hardest workers, the first into the vineyard, and the last to leave at night.
We can also carry this belief into religion, thinking that the surest road to heaven is to keep the faith, to never miss Mass, to pray early and often, to excel in charity, to know and live the Scriptures, to be the salt of the earth, the light of the world.
But in today’s Gospel parable, Jesus scrambles these ideas, turning them upside down, leaving us scratching our heads.
“The first shall be last, and the last shall be first,” he says, making it seem like the best place to be is in the back – not the front – of the line.
I’m sure the disciples were as puzzled as we are when they first heard this.
***
Does Jesus mean that sinners will storm heaven before the Saints? That it’s better not to run the race of faith from start to finish, rather to convert on our deathbed?
How can someone who has lived a carefree, reckless, or self-centered life receive the same reward as the virgins, martyrs, and Saints? And before them to boot!
***
Imagine a line forming just outside of heaven with all of humanity waiting for the pearly gates to open. Where would you position yourself in that line – up front with the Saints, in the back with the sinners, or somewhere in between?
Would you let someone else cut in front of you?
Suddenly, just before the gates open, Saint Peter makes a surprising announcement following the theme in today’s Gospel. He tells everyone to make an about-face; those standing in the back are to enter heaven first.
Imagine the cheering, the backslapping, the excitement, and the gratitude erupting from those who stood in last place, never thinking of themselves as worthy of heaven, hoping just to eek their way in.
They’d have quite the story to tell of God’s mercy.
Meanwhile, we who were faithful our whole lives, who were expecting to be first, might struggle with a bit of jealousy. It just doesn’t seem fair.
***
That’s the dynamic at work in today’s Gospel.
A landowner enters a marketplace where he finds an undisclosed number of laborers out of luck, standing idly, waiting for work. So, he hires them throughout the day.
Some start bright and early, others join in the afternoon, while others arrive just before sunset. When the landowner begins paying the laborers, he starts with those in the back, giving each a full day’s wage.
Meanwhile, those who worked all day start doing the arithmetic. If the last ones in get a full day’s wage, then what about the early birds? Surely, they’d receive more.
After all, they are the ones whose shirts are damp and stained, drenched in sweat and stench, whose muscles are achy and inflamed, whose skin was burned by the noonday heat.
But to their dismay, everyone receives an equal wage. So one laborer pipes up, “These last ones worked only an hour, and you have made them equal to us, who bore the day’s burden and the heat!”
Like us, these laborers had an innate sense of fairness. How can someone who’s done almost nothing earn the same wage as one who has worked hard all day?
It isn’t fair.
And apparently, God isn’t fair either.
***
We all know what unfairness feels like.
It’s something that children struggle with all the time. Everything has to be equal.
For example, growing up, my brother and I had to alternate who got to ride in the front seat of the car. We’d also count how many gifts the other person got on birthdays and Christmas. Heaven forbid one received more than the other.
Or maybe you are the one who cared for your aging parents while your siblings did little or nothing to help. But when the inheritance came, it was split evenly amongst the children.
Unfair.
Or you’re the colleague at work who is the first in the office and the last to leave. You work harder than everyone else, but when the yearly bonuses come, you get neither added recognition nor a penny more.
Unfair.
Or, using today’s Gospel imagery, you’re the one who’s been faithful to God your whole life, and now Jesus says that the late comers will receive the same reward as you – making it seem as if all of your hard work was for nothing.
Unfair.
***
Whether or not that’s true, it’s not about when we get into heaven – first, last, or somewhere in between – but that we get in at all.
Cutting the line, or seeing ourselves as more or less deserving than someone else, is a fruitless exercise.
Jesus simply wants us to be grateful that we will be welcomed… whether from the front of the line, the back, or somewhere in between.
***
***
Image credits: (1) Faith on Fire, YouTube (2) Facebook (3) Arlington Catholic Herald