Delivered Nov. 4, 2007
by Pastor Marilyn Henderson
There is a phrase I learned before seminary because I was a pastor's wife. "The kingdom of God is now ... and not yet." We used it in seminary as a short way of expressing how, although God's kingdom isn't yet the ruling world order, Jesus did establish the kingdom of heaven on earth and calls all of his followers to live according to Kingdom Law now. This kingdom of God, according to Donald Kraybill in his book, The Upside-Down Kingdom, "... is an inverted or upside-down way of life in contrast to the usual or prevailing social order" (23). Normal operating procedure among humans is not normal in the kingdom of God. Kingdom procedure may not even be the opposite of what we're used to as normal, so Kraybill suggests "upside-down" may be a more helpful way of thinking about God's kingdom.
In fact, Kraybill says, it is this theme of the kingdom of heaven or kingdom of God which sets Jesus' teachings apart, unifying and empowering their message. With this "upside-down-ness" in mind, it has been helpful for me to appreciate the lesson of the "Story of the Workers" by thinking about what Jesus was doing and saying in the previous chapter. Chapter 19 begins with Jesus conducting a healing crusade in the "land beyond the Jordan." He ministered to "large crowds" who had followed him, probably hoping that either they or their loved one would be healed.
Then some Pharisees, who saw themselves as faithful Jews and protectors of both the faith and the people, approached him with another of their questions about the oral law or "tradition of the elders." The topic for that day was divorce and the Pharisees" question was whether it was lawful. Jesus" answered with "what God has joined together let no one separate." Then they asked why Moses had allowed men to give their wives a certificate of dismissal. Jesus replied in a way that is not guaranteed to win friends and influence people! He said that the only reason Moses allowed divorce was because the Israelites were hard-hearted and stubborn in demanding they be allowed to divorce their wives in the first place. Jesus then said, "And I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, except for unchastity, and marries another commits adultery." Jesus was saying that, at the end of the day, God is much more concerned about how people - even women - are treated than about rules created by Moses to appease hard-hearted men.
This raised a question among the disciples about the advisability of getting married. Jesus said that it's not an easy teaching to live out. Only those who are given the gift of remaining single for the sake of God's kingdom can do it.
Then the little children were brought to Jesus. Instead of allowing them to be hustled off by the disciples, Jesus hugged and blessed them in spite of the disciples' "better" judgment. He said that God's kingdom belongs to little children "such as these."
Matthew's version of the Rich Young Ruler follows. The young man and Jesus got to the crux of the matter when Jesus suggested that, if he wanted to be perfect, the young man should give all his wealth and possessions to the poor and follow Jesus. The young man was faced with something he could not bring himself to do. Then Jesus told his disciples that for rich people it is next to impossible to enter God's kingdom, but for God all things are possible.
Then Peter piped up. "Jesus, we've left everything to follow you. What's going to happen to us?" Jesus reassured them all of their own place in God's kingdom and went on to include all followers who go in Jesus' name. And chapter 19 ends with: "But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first."
It seems to me that Jesus, in his last weeks and days of ministry, was almost pounding away at the "upside-down-ness," to borrow Kraybill's term, of God's kingdom. In God's kingdom, people will be well. People will care more about God's laws than people's laws. People won"t want to divorce each other. People will treasure and embrace the child-like attributes of trust, a sense of fairness and justice as well as children's vast ability to love those who seem unlovable. People won"t care about wealth and possessions more than following Jesus. And they won"t care whether they"re first or last, for position will have no meaning.
With this picture of God's kingdom in our minds, listen once more to the paraphrased parable:
(Edited from The Cotton Patch Gospels)
The God Movement is like a farmer who went out to the village square early in the morning - about 6 - the beginning of the day - to hire some field workers for the grape harvest. It was late September and the rains would come soon. The farmer needed all the workers he could get, even if they could only give him an hour or two. Having settled on a wage of $87 a day with the early birds, he sent them to the vineyard.
Then about nine, the third hour of the day, he went to town and saw others standing around idle. So he said to them, "You go on out to the vineyard, and I'll pay you what's right." And they went.
He did the same thing about noon, and again around three, which was the ninth hour.
Then, about 5 pm - the eleventh hour - and just before quitting time at 6, he saw some others just hanging around the village square, hoping someone would hire them so they wouldn't have to send their children to bed that night with empty stomachs. "Why have you been knocking around here all day doing nothing?" he asked. "Because nobody has hired us," they answered. "Okay, then you can go out to the vineyards, too," he said.
At the end of the day the farmer said to his field boss, "Call the workers in and pay them off, starting with those who came last and continuing to the first ones."
Well, those who came an hour before quitting time - about 5 pm - were called up and were each paid $87.
Now those who got there first thing in the morning saw the whole thing. They supposed that they would get much more than the late-comers, but when they were paid off, they, too, got $87. At that, they raised a squawk against the farmer. "These latecomers didn"t put in but one hour, and you"ve done the same by them as you did by us who stood in the hot sun and the scorching wind. You have made them equal with us!"
But the farmer said to one of them, "Listen, buddy, I haven"t mistreated you. Didn"t you and I settle on $87 a day? Now pick up your pay and run along. I"m determined to give this last fellow exactly the same as you. isn't it okay for me to do as I please with what's mine? Or are you bellyaching simply because I"ve been generous - to someone else?"
That's the way it is going to be [in my vineyard]: "Those on the bottom of the ladder will be on top, and those on top will be on the bottom."
According to William Barclay, this was a typical scenario during the grape harvest. It was urgent to harvest the grapes when they were ripe and before the fall rains began and ruined what was left on the vine. Those of us who farm or garden know how important it is to harvest at the right time. If grapes are ripe and ready to be picked and either eaten or processed, rain will be absorbed by the fruit and the grapes will split and will taste watery. it's the same with melon. Rain at the wrong time is detrimental to the harvest.
So the farmer needed as much help as he could get to gather in his grape crop. In those days it was typical to find anyone who could help during this period of intense labour, even for an hour.
Another important fact that contributes to understanding how the disciples heard this parable was that day labourers were at the bottom of the economic ladder. They lived from day to day, never knowing whether they would have work so they could earn enough money to feed their families that day. The day labourer had, literally, no resources to fall back on if something happened to prevent them from working. What the farmer paid them in this story didn't leave much money left over, either. I chose to set the amount at $7.25 an hour for a 12-hour day, an amount that Canadian migrant workers generally receive.
So, at the end of the day in the kingdom of heaven, God wants everyone to have enough, to have what they need for daily living. Jesus does not specify what people need, although his intent in this parable seems pretty clear. People need a living wage. But in the context of what has come before this parable, Jesus also seems to be saying something else.
At the end of the day, in the kingdom where God rules and God's laws are kept fully, people will be healed. People will care more about God's laws than people's laws. People won"t want to divorce each other. People will treasure and embrace the child-like attributes of trust, a sense of fairness and justice as well as children's vast ability to love those who seem unlovable. People won"t care about wealth and possessions more than following Jesus. They won"t care whether they"re first or last, for position will have no meaning. And, at the end of the day of meaningful work, everyone will receive the same wage, the same prize of the grace of God.
Jesus used this parable in two ways. I believe he used it as an obvious example of economic levelling in the Kingdom, where we all have enough. But remember what Jesus said to the disciples just before this parable?
READ MT. 19.27-30
In the verses I just read, Jesus assures the disciples that they will have their place in eternity. BUT eternity will also be shared by those who may not have left everything to serve God. Perhaps they wait until they"re on their deathbed to accept God as their lord. Perhaps they discovered in their 40's a call to missionary work either abroad or in their home countries. Perhaps we"ll share the kingdom with crack-heads, drug dealers and prostitutes.
Because, at the end of the day, we all need God's grace. We are only a part of God's kingdom because of God's amazing grace, because God chose to become human and live as the person Jesus, because God chose to work as a human among humans. God chose to allow others to torture and kill Him. God died - and lived again. And He went to heaven in order to send the Spirit of Jesus to live among people, enabling and empowering, teaching and comforting and doing God's work in and through those who choose to follow the way of God, the way of Jesus.
So, at the end of the day, we need God. And we need God's grace. At the end of the day.
SOURCES CONSULTED
Petitcodiac Mennonite Church