Daily Lesson for November 30, 2017

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Matthew chapter 20 verses 

‘For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire labourers for his vineyard. 2After agreeing with the labourers for the usual daily wage, he sent them into his vineyard. 3When he went out about nine o’clock, he saw others standing idle in the market-place;4and he said to them, “You also go into the vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.” So they went.5When he went out again about noon and about three o’clock, he did the same. 6And 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.” 8When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his manager, “Call the labourers and give them their pay, beginning with the last and then going to the first.” 9When those hired about five o’clock came, each of them received the usual daily wage. 10Now when the first came, they thought they would receive more; but each of them also received the usual daily wage.11And when they received it, they grumbled against the landowner,12saying, “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.” 13But he replied to one of them, “Friend, I am doing you no wrong; did you not agree with me for the usual daily wage?14Take what belongs to you and go; I choose to give to this last the same as I give to you. 15Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or are you envious because I am generous?” 16So the last will be first, and the first will be last.’

The way we read and interpret this text has a lot to do with where we’re reading it from. If we’re gainfully employed then we like the laborers who labored all day are probably inclined to read the landowner’s action as grossly unfair to those who worked all day long. But if we’re unemployed and cannot find a job, then we are more likely see the parable about the right ordering of things — the world being harsh and unfair and the actions of the landowner setting things to right.

A lot of how we see the world depends on our experience and perspective. A lot depends on whether or not we or somebody we care for has ever beat the concrete and couldn’t find a job or even consideration in the general workplace or the LORD’s vineyard, the church.  Some will read this as a story about unmerited grace. Others will see it as a story about justice. It really depends on whose reading. 

How do you read this story?  Where do you read it from?  And what do these words mean to you: “So the last will be first, and the first will be last.”