The Real Deal

What we want v. what we need.

4-24-22

Here's a fun puzzle:

The Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard

 “For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard.  He agreed to pay them a denarius for the day and sent them into his vineyard.

 
“About nine in the morning he went out and saw others standing in the marketplace doing nothing. He told them, ‘You also go and work in my vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.’  So they went.

“He went out again about noon and about three in the afternoon and did the same thing. About five in the afternoon he went out and found still others standing around. He asked them, ‘Why have you been standing here all day long doing nothing?’

“‘Because no one has hired us,’ they answered.

“He said to them, ‘You also go and work in my vineyard.’

 “When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Call the workers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last ones hired and going on to the first.’

 “The workers who were hired about five in the afternoon came and each received a denarius. So when those came who were hired first, they expected to receive more. But each one of them also received a denarius.  

When they received it, they began to grumble against the landowner.  ‘These who were hired last worked only one hour,’ they said, ‘and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day.’

“But he answered one of them, ‘I am not being unfair to you, friend. Didn’t you agree to work for a denarius?  Take your pay and go. I want to give the one who was hired last the same as I gave you. Don’t I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?’

“So the last will be first, and the first will be last.”

The puzzles:

One is: Why did the landowner not pay the workers per hour?

An easy answer is: because he's God and can do whatever in the heck he wants with his money, which is pretty much the answer he gives to Job, a very favorite book of mine. My novel Midheaven is a kind of response to Job.

But I suspect the answer most relevant to the way we live is: God provides what we need, not what we have earned.

The last-hired workers told the landowner that they simply hadn't been hired. But they need the same income to provide for their families as do those who had worked all day.

I'm as sure as can be that God considers what we need, not what we want or think we deserve. And I suspect this is a wise answer not only to this strange parable's question but to most everything that is worst about the world.

Lots of Christians, and lots of churches, assert that if we behave certain ways God will surely bless us with good jobs, comfortable homes, happy and responsible kids or whatever. And, if he doesn't, we may grumble or lose faith on account of he has broken the deal we got presented to us.

But I say, shame on those who portray God as offering such a deal.  

Here's the real deal: God asks us to be thankful for life and provision and to show love (meaning act with compassion and generosity) to everybody without distinction. In return, we will get what we need. And who knows what that may be?

Rather than griping, those workers might've thanked the landowner for providing not only for themselves but also for their neighbors.

I recognize that it's terribly easy to think about what we want rather than what we need, perhaps now more than ever because most of us are subjected every day to dozens if not hundreds of advertisements created by people who have studied the craft of luring us to want stuff we don't need.

So before we gripe or lament about something we don’t have, let’s ask whether we truly need it. And please come back next week to read about Olga, a master of knowing what she needed.

Another puzzle is in the parable’s final line — “The last will be first, and the first will be last.”

I suspect that’s telling us that God favors those who don’t get picked first, those who don’t readily succeed in world. I’d love to hear your thoughts, about anything, but surely about that line.

Meanwhile, please listen closely to the lyrics Kendall Payne sings in this lovely and valuable song.