Not Fair!

“…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 20:12-16

Jesus’ parable of the workers is a good news-bad news kind of parable. 

First the bad news:

What we notice about the parable is the unfairness of it all. Jesus plays into our  all-too-human tendency to think, first off, that the universe is arranged with us in the center (it isn’t).  Good people die when they don’t deserve it, cheaters win the match, and people do not get what they deserve. At some point, all of us will be the worker who worked all day and then watched someone who walked on in the last hour get paid the same wage. A fundamental truth is that life is not fair.

Now, the good news:

If we make his parable even more cosmic, though, Jesus is reminding us that God’s love does not work within human equations of what is fair. God loves us all— equally— without measure— regardless of how good we are, how much Church we attend or what religion we follow. God’s love works beyond our comprehension of being merited or evenly given out. 

We will never deserve anything God gives us because we were made to be loved by God, not to earn that love with any kind of work. Whether you show up late or early, you will be loved.