Gospel Notes by Michael Whelan SM
“For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. After agreeing with the laborers for the usual daily wage, he sent them into his vineyard.
“When he went out about nine o’clock, he saw others standing idle in the marketplace; and he said to them, ‘You also go into the vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.’ So they went.
“When he went out again about noon and about three o’clock, he did the same.
“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?’ They said to him, ‘Because no one has hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You also go into the vineyard.’
“When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his manager, ‘Call the laborers and give them their pay, beginning with the last and then going to the first.’ When those hired about five o’clock came, each of them received the usual daily wage. Now when the first came, they thought they would receive more; but each of them also received the usual daily wage. And when they received it, they grumbled against the landowner, saying, ‘These last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat.’ But he replied to one of them, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong; did you not agree with me for the usual daily wage? Take what belongs to you and go; I choose to give to this last the same as I give to you. Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or are you envious because I am generous?’ So the last will be first, and the first will be last.” (Matthew 20:1-16 – NRSV)
Introductory notes
General
This parable is unique to Matthew. It explicates the preceding verse: “Many who are first will be last, and the last will be first” (19:30). In fact that very saying is repeated at the end of the parable (20:16). The saying indicates a theme common to the Synoptic Gospels: Jesus reaches out to those on the margins. Thus Matthew 11:19 has already told us “The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Look, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’” God’s incalculable and incomprehensible mercy seems to be the focus in this parable. Money and hours and the law pertaining to such things are all calculable and comprehensible. Mercy is of a different order. There is no way of quantifying that. It has a logic of its own. “As the heavens are high above the earth so great is his hesed (mercy, steadfast love) for those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us” (Psalm 103:11-12).
Specific
the kingdom of heaven is like: The reference is to the dynamic in the story, not just the landowner. Just as Luke’s parable of the Prodigal Son (15:11-32) could be re-named the parable of the Prodigal Father, so this parable of the Laborers in the Vineyard could be re-named the parable of the Generous Landowner (Brendan Byrne SJ, Lifting the Burden: Reading Mtthew’s Gospel in the Church Today, Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2004, 152).
vineyard: Central to the story is the symbol of the vineyard. The symbol is used again by Matthew 21:33-44 in the parable of the wicked husbandman. The symbol is used more than once in the Bible to refer to Israel – for example, Isaiah 5:1-7: “Let me sing for my beloved my love-song concerning his vineyard: My beloved had a vineyard on a very fertile hill. He dug it and cleared it of stones, and planted it with choice vines; he built a watchtower in the midst of it, and hewed out a wine vat in it; he expected it to yield grapes, but it yielded wild grapes ….” etc. The use of this symbol may be found also in Hosea 10:1, Jeremiah 2:21; 5:10; 6:9 & 12:10, Ezekiel 15:1-8; 17:3-10; 19:10-14.
went out early in the morning to hire laborers: Jesus’ listeners would have been very familiar with this practice. Everything in this story is thoroughly comprehensible except the settling of accounts. This landowner represents something very special: “Peter and the rest of the Twelve have indeed left all for Christ, but they must not think that their priority in time gives them an overwhelming advantage. The new parable impresses these lessons, but adds an even more important one—God acts toward us in sheer grace. There is no question of salvation being an arithmetical process, adding up the good deeds and the bad ones and coming out with salvation or loss according to whether the balance is on the credit or debit side. That is not the way to understand the dealings of a gracious God” (Leon Morris, The Gospel according to Matthew, Grand Rapids, MI; Leicester, England: W.B. Eerdmans; Inter-Varsity Press, 1992, 498-499).
friend: The landowner addresses the complainant in a very respectful manner. The Greek noun – Hetaire, meaning “friend” or “comrade” – is used similarly by Matthew in the parable of the wedding guests (22:12) and when Jesus greets Judas in the garden (26:50).
Merit?
In today’s Gospel – Matthew 20:1-16 – Jesus offers a parable that is generally called the parable of the Laborers in the Vineyard. It might be better called the parable of the Generous Landowner. The parable prompts us to ask a basic question: Do I think I can merit God’s love?
In approaching this and related questions, we will be helped if we recall the overarching context given us by the third temptation in the wilderness: “The devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor; 9 and he said to him, ‘All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.’ 10 Jesus said to him, ‘Away with you, Satan! for it is written, “Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him”’” (4:8-10). Repeatedly throughout his Gospel, Matthew tells us that Jesus proclaims the “kingdom of heaven.” This is a new “kingdom,” a new way of being, one which will utterly transform the “kingdoms of the world.”
So, the parable of the Generous Landowner is bookended by a warning: “‘Many who are first will be last, and the last will be first’” – see19:30 and 20:16. Expectations are turned on their heads! A key to understanding this reversal is found in the attitude and actions of the Generous Landowner: “‘Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or are you envious because I am generous?’” The Generous Landowner follows the demands of justice – “‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong; did you not agree with me for the usual daily wage? Take what belongs to you and go’” – but then opens us to a new way of being based on generosity. The early workers merited their pay. The latecomers did not merit their pay. Their pay is given out of generosity. It is gift!
What Pope Benedict says of hope in his 2009 Encyclical, Caritas in Veritate, reminds us that our life in Christ is gift: “As the absolutely gratuitous gift of God, hope bursts into our lives as something not due to us, something that transcends every law of justice. Gift by its nature goes beyond merit, its rule is that of superabundance” (#34).
Sadly, the emphasis on our merit rather than God’s generosity, has, over the centuries, had too much influence within the Catholic culture. Like the workers who expected more than they had agreed upon – “they grumbled against the landowner” – the focus on merit has caused distress to many and generally undermined the “joy of the Gospel” (evangelii gaudium). Focus on merit is focus on self. That is not an appropriate source of joy.
Look on a crucifix and ask yourself: Do I really think there is anything I can do that will make God love me more or less? God’s generous presence is always there for us. Am I there for God’s generous presence?