The story from (Matthew 20:1-16) is one
that asks us to put on the mind of the poet and think in metaphor. On the
surface it defies logic and the world of “fairness” in which we live. But man’s
sense of fairness and God’s “justice” are not the same. Can we blame some of
the gardeners for feeling that they were duped: “what’s going on here; we
worked from dusk to dawn, and these guys arrive just before closing time and they
get the same pay? That’s not fair!” Who
could argue with their logic? Think of it—if you tried to run a business on the
basis of paying everyone the same rate, regardless of how well and long they
worked, your business wouldn’t last very long and you’d have some very
disgruntled employees.
Just
as God’s forgiveness requires that we turn logic on its head and suspend our
belief system of “quid pro quo,” likewise God’s realm of justice and peace defies
our sense of fairness. God’s love has nothing to do with logic or fairness.
These are all part of a human convention and a world based on rules, laws and
logic. There is nothing we can do to
earn God’s love or his kingdom. In this kingdom, everyone receives the
generosity of God’s grace, God’s unconditional love and God’s unfailing mercy.
David
Steindel-Rast writes that “salvation” is
homecoming. When love not power reigns supreme, alienation from ourselves, from
all others, and from God is healed. The moment we realize we can never fall out
of God’s love, we come to “ourselves” like the wayward son in the parable—to
our true self at home in the God Household as a uniquely loved member of the
family. And now we become catalysts for salvation of the whole world, its
transformation from power and domination to service and love. Salvation—and
this needs to be stressed—is not a private matter. (Deeper Than Words, Living the Apostle’s Creed,
p56.)
In
a very real sense, we are all “eleventh hour workers.”
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