Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Matthew chapter 20 verses 1 through 16:
‘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.’
How and where we read this parable says a lot about us and our situation.
If we read it in certain parts of America we are apt to read it as a story about heaven and who gets in and how. We do so mostly because we’ve been taught to read it this way. I was taught to read it this way. The story was about heaven and grace and how with grace those who work faithfully all their lives for the LORD still in the end have to realize that the gates of heaven may be open to those who show up at the last hour also.
That’s not necessarily a wrong reading; but it’s not the only one.
People in other parts of America and in the non-developed world are more likely to see it this way than readers in wealthier contexts. They are more likely to see not only the workers working all day, but also the employed, standing on the sidelines, wishing they could be hired to work. They are more likely to see this story, not as a parable about grace, but about justice.
Where do you read this story? Who do you read it with? It can make a big difference on how you read it.
How do you read it?
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