by Fr. Tommy Lane
We feel sympathy for the workers in Jesus’ parable who worked all day in the vineyard in the heat and yet received the same pay as those who worked for only the last part of the day (Matt 20:1-16). We would have expected those who worked all day to have received more. Yet, everyone received the same standard daily wage, one denarius a day. It is an unexpected surprise at the end of Jesus’ parable. Jesus told this parable to teach us something. What does Jesus want us to understand? Reading the beginning of the parable again will help us understand. At the beginning of the parable Jesus said, “The kingdom of heaven is like a landowner going out at daybreak to hire workers for his vineyard.” (Matt 20:1) So Jesus is explaining to us about the kingdom of heaven, not teaching about economics. He is using economics to teach us about the kingdom of God. Jesus is explaining about our spiritual lives, about God’s relationship with us.
The landowner in the parable, who stands for God, wants everyone to be in his vineyard, which is the kingdom of heaven. God wants us all in the kingdom of heaven. God wants us all in relationship with him, wants us all to enjoy his friendship. But in the parable, those who worked in the vineyard from early morning complained. Reading this parable in Matthew’s Greek, the landowner responded to their complaints by asking them, “Is your eye evil because I am generous?” The complaining workers had an evil eye, which means they were not seeing correctly. Because of their evil eye, their perception of matters was distorted, and they did not see according to God’s plan. In the world of economics, one could complain about unjust wages but when it comes to the spiritual life, whether one follows the Lord from early in life, or follows the Lord only from later in life, whether one works in the vineyard from early morning or only the last hour of the day, there is a place for us from God because God wants everyone in his kingdom, wants us all in relationship with him enjoying his friendship. If someone lived a life far from God in the past, we would rejoice when that person would return to live with God. We would rejoice because that person would now enjoy the happiness of friendship with God. If we didn’t, we would indeed have “an evil eye,” to use the words of Matthew. We care about others; we care about their spiritual well-being and there is nothing we would want more than for everyone to find life with God in his vineyard, enjoying God’s friendship. As Jesus said on another occasion, there is more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine who have no need of repentance (Luke 15:7).
In the parable, those who worked for only the last hour of the day would have been very conscious that they did not deserve the full daily wage even though they received it—it was a gift from the landowner. This reminds us that everything we have is a gift from God. Even if we were baptized quickly after birth and followed the Lord from First Holy Communion, I think we all have reason to identify with the workers in the vineyard who worked for only part of the day because everything we have is a gift from God and we are all undeserving recipients of God’s generosity, love, forgiveness, and welcome. To be technical, we really did arrive in the vineyard later in the day because God’s chosen people, the Jews, were the first in God’s vineyard. We Christians, non-Jews, Gentiles, came into the vineyard after Pentecost.
Paul, in our second reading, gives us a beautiful description of what it is like to be in God’s vineyard enjoying a beautiful relationship with Jesus. Paul wrote, “For to me life is Christ,” (NABRE Phil 1:21) “Life to me, of course, is Christ.” (JB Phil 1:21) In other words, his life completely revolved around Jesus, “Life to me…is Christ.” Jesus was the beginning, middle, and end of his day. Living in God’s kingdom—laboring in the vineyard, to use the language of Jesus’ parable—is a whole way of living, is an entire outlook on life. It is living one’s entire day from beginning to end orientated around the Lord and his kingdom. That is how Paul lived after he met the Lord on the road to Damascus. As a Jewish person, he was already in God’s vineyard, but on the road to Damascus he got a new understanding of God’s vineyard, God’s kingdom, and what friendship with God meant. Before he met Jesus on the road to Damascus, I would say he was a terrorist. He had stood by watching the first Christian martyr, St. Stephen, being stoned to death. He had terrorized Christians in Jerusalem and he was on his way to terrorize Christians in Damascus when he encountered the Lord on the road. From then on, life for Paul was Christ, “Life to me…is Christ.”
Blessed are we in God’s vineyard. Blessed are we who have been gifted by God in so many ways. Blessed are we, because for us, life, of course, is Christ.
© Fr. Tommy Lane 2020
This homily was delivered in a parish in Ireland.
More Homilies for the Twenty-Fifth Sunday Year A
Always a welcome from God 2023
It’s never too late 2017
Called to labor in God’s vineyard 2014
Why be envious because God is generous?
Related: The joy of the Gospel 2021
We do not compare ourselves with others 2016
the last being first: Curé of Ars