Weekly Devotion: Working 5 to 6
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“Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or are you envious because I am generous?”
-Matthew 20:15
When I hear this story about the workers in the vineyard, I am reminded of my time living in the suburbs of Washington, DC. It was quite common to be driving and come to a corner where there were a lot of people gathered. Washington was home to a large immigrant population from Central America and the men that gathered here were day laborers. They were waiting for some contractor to come by pick them up and work for the day in construction. So every morning these men who were trying to put food on the table for their families or send money home to needy relatives, waited for someone who would choose them to work for the day.
That was the world we are talking about here in the text. The laborers were waiting for someone, anyone to come and choose them to work for the day. It’s easy to think about the workers that were picked first as greedy and at some point there were, but on the other hand, can you blame them? They worked a long day, 12 hours in the sun and they were paid the same wage as the workers who only worked an hour.
The early birds were shocked. They worked all day and they got the same pay, the very same pay! They were steamed.
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It is fascinating what those first workers say to the owner. They say that the owner made them equal to those who came at 5 p.m. They couldn’t stand that they were made equal to these people who didn’t work as hard as they did.
In the world that we live in, it makes sense that the earlier workers were mad. If they belonged to a union, like my parents did, they might file a complaint. There was no sense of justice here for the early workers, the owner went against the prevailing logic.
Now, this is not a story about labor relations. It is a story about grace, radical grace. It’s also a story about the dangers of hubris. Pride can make us blind to the needs of others. Those early workers didn’t seem to care about the ones who came to work for one hour. No one had picked them and they were as just in need of work as the ones who came at six in the morning.
But the workers are not the center of this story. It’s the owner. The owner isn’t God, but he sure describes what God is like. What we see here is an owner who is generous. He chose to pay workers who only worked one hour a full day’s wage. His generosity was overflowing.
God’s kingdom is one of radical grace in that everyone receives the same amount of love. When the Israelites were wandering in the desert, they were given manna. Everyone rich or poor got manna according to their need. If anyone tried to hoard the manna, they would find it spoiled the next morning.
In Acts 2 as the church is being established we are told that in the power of the Holy Spirit, people sold property to help others in need and held their possessions in common. The early church practiced this radical kind of generosity.
The God we serve is radically generous. Are we aware of this? Are we aware that we have salvation from a God who loves us warts and all? Do we realize that we receive a love that is not earned? And do we in turn live generously towards others? Do we realize that the money we earn is a gift from God and we should make sure it helps others as much as help ourselves?
God wants us to show this kind of radical grace where we help people not according to the ways of the world, but according to God’s kingdom. I have to admit that is hard. But can we try to come close to helping others?
May God help us remember our salvation and may our salvation spur us to help those in need.
-Dennis Sanders, Pastor