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| (Photo: Jiahui Huang) |
“And about five o’clock he went out and found others standing around;
and he said to them, ‘Why are you standing here idle all day?’ 7They said to him, ‘Because no one has hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You
also go into the vineyard.’” (Matthew 20:67)
When I taught public school in
Los Angles a common sight on my commute to work would be these groups of
Mexican guys standing around on street corners in the early morning hours.
Everybody knew what they were up to. They weren’t gang members or loafers. They
were guys looking for work. Independent contractors knew that, should they
cruise by certain corners at a certain time, there’d be plenty of young dudes
willing to dig, haul, plant, paint, hammer, fetch, carry, or whatever for a
daily wage considerably below the union asking price. Cash payments. No
withholding tax. No green cards. No questions asked.
I think about those guys when I read Jesus’ parable appointed in the
Revised Common Lectionary for Pentecost 17, Year A (Matthew 20:1-16). These
were men like the guys in the story who were just looking to get a day’s work
and make ends meet. The ones that got to the corner early got the gigs. The
latecomers were out of luck.
I imagine there are some folks who’d find those day laborers I used to
see in LA appalling. After all, these
workers were probably breaking the
law. If they’d been legal citizens or on work visas they could’ve gone to an
employment office and wouldn’t be standing around looking to get paid under the
table. Some people might think these guys should’ve been arrested and deported.
They had no right to be here, no right to work or get paid, and certainly no
right to enjoy the benefits which we good American citizens enjoy like
healthcare or public education or a driver’ license. When bleeding heart
do-gooders have the audacity to suggest that these migrants be treated with
dignity and respect as fellow human beings, they make these illegals the equal
to us—we, whose ancestors came ashore
legally, learned English, and contribute to society as God-fearing Americans.
Of course, should we take the attitude illustrated above, it might be
wise for us to remember that these migrant workers are often doing jobs no one else is willing to do. We might
also want to consider that they are willing to work and work hard. They aren’t looking for handouts.
We’d do well to recognize we don’t have a clue as to the situations which put
guys like this on the street corners in the first place. We don’t know where
they’ve come from or what kind of hardships, cruelty, or danger forced them out
of their homeland to seek safety and livelihood in the US. We might be too
quick to judge and too slow to understand. What would Jesus say?
It’s pretty safe to take this tale from Matthew’s gospel allegorically. That
is, we won’t get anybody’s shorts in a bunch if we say that God forgives and
welcomes sinners, no matter when they came to repentance. Remember that old
hymn, “To God be the Glory?”
O perfect redemption, the purchase of blood,
To every believer the promise of God;
The vilest offender who truly believes,
That moment from Jesus a pardon receives.[i]
We’re all pretty okay with the idea that God’s mercy and love extend to
even the “vilest offenders.” But, if we take this parable literally, some people are either going to think Jesus was crazy or
they’ll want to attack the pulpit with torches and pitchforks. Sure! Everybody
can go to heaven, but not everybody should get Medicaid. Some folks would much
rather see children go hungry than accept that someone who might be illegal or
lazy or an addict or in some way gaming the system is getting something they
don’t deserve.
This begs the question, of course, of who are any of us to decide who is
deserving and who isn’t?
This parable has always hit home to me. When I was a kid my dad was out
of work a lot. He was a good worker, but there was an industry-wide slowdown,
and hundreds of hard-working guys just like him lost their jobs through no
fault of their own. This was an emotionally crushing experience for a guy like
my dad who was brought up to believe that honest, good people worked for a
living while deadbeat loafers and cheats sponged off the government. Suddenly
he found himself in the same category as those he had denigrated.
The late hires in Jesus’ story, those who were left standing in the marketplace
at five o’clock, must’ve felt worried and despondent, just like any unemployed
person does. Can you imagine some poor guy standing around and thinking to
himself, “Shoot! I overslept this morning, and then I had to milk the goat for
the babies, and by the time I got to the marketplace there was no one to hire
me. How am I going to tell the Missus I didn’t earn any money today?” But just
as he’s ready to go home and face the music, a rich fellow runs up and says, “Hey!
Can you pick grapes? I’ve got to get my crop in before sundown today. Come to
my vineyard and I’ll pay you whatever’s right.” So the worker thinks, “Thank
God. At least a few bucks are better than nothing.” Imagine his surprise and
enormous relief when the boss gives him the usual daily wage. Now the guy is
thinking, “Praise God! I praise and thank you, Lord, for this man’s generosity
and mercy!”
God does not wrong us, even if we sometimes wrong each other. The
goodness of the Lord should fill our hearts with gratitude, love, and
compassion—just as Christ was compassionate. Judgment belongs to the Lord. It
is for us to reside in the radiance of God’s generosity and do what we can in
our own corner of the vineyard so that all
may be cared for and God may be glorified.
Thanks again for looking in on me. I always enjoy it when you come. Please
leave me a message, won’t you?
[i] “To
God be the Glory” was written in 1875 by Fanny Crosby and William Howard Doan
but it wasn’t a real boffo hit until it was used in a Billy Graham Crusade in
1954. It’s a real foot-stomper. It was included in Augsburg’s Renewing Worship Songbook of 2003, but
didn’t make the cut to go into the 2006 Evangelical
Lutheran Worship (ELW). There’s nothing wrong with it theologically that I
can tell (unless you consider that it might cause one to interpret “belief” as a good work). I
guess it’s just too easy and fun to sing. We Lutherans can be musical snobs. We
don’t like to include a hymn unless it’s either from the 16th
century or sounds like it was composed by Stephen Sondheim.
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