A parable is way of ‘putting things side by side’. The parables of Jesus of Nazareth usually had a contextual meaning. Jesus used a parable to build on his ongoing teaching to his disciples or his other followers. He introduced a parable when a truth or mystery needed an expansion or amplification or an in-depth exploration. All the parables also have a meaning beyond the context in which they were spoken. Some eternal realities or divine truths which needed a metaphor or an allegory to make them simple enough to finite human mind were presented as parables by Jesus. Jesus Himself expounded the meaning of some parables, such as the ‘sower and the seed’ (Mark4:1-9 and v 13-20). Jesus spoke many other parables without giving His own homily to them, allowing people to receive them at the level of their understanding.
One frequently occurring theme of the parables of Jesus of Nazareth was the ‘Kingdom of God’ or ‘Kingship of Jesus’ as some commentators would refer to them. One such parable is the one which appears in Matthew’s gospel, Chapter 20: 1-16. Let me refer to it as the parable of The Landowner and Labourers’.
This parable appears in the Matthew’s gospel immediately after the teaching of Jesus on ‘The disciple’s reward’. ‘And everyone who has left houses, or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or farms for My name’s sake shall receive many times as much and shall inherit eternal life’ (Mat 19:29). The chapter ended with a profound statement, ‘But many who are first will be last; and the last, first’, which incidentally was the same statement Jesus used while concluding the parable of the Landowner and the Labourers. (Mat.20:16). Therefore, it is good to keep this connection in mind while meditating on the parable.
Let me share the meditation on this parable under five subtitles to explore the flavour of the kingdom of God subsumed in this parable.
1.Ability and Readiness
2.Chronos and Kairos
3.Worth and Wages
4.Giving and Grumbling
5.First be last and the last the first
1.Ability and Readiness
The setting of the parable is in a season of activity in the vineyard, might be harvesting or pruning or even planting as indicated by the many labourers called in to work in the vineyard. The landowner ‘went out early in the morning to hire labourers for his vineyard’. He agreed to pay one denarius and sent the labourers to the vineyard (v 1,2). It is my belief that all landowners would choose to employ able and skilled people for a specialised work in a vineyard. Obviously, a pragmatic landowner would be choosy and would engage only after confirming the skills of labourers to do the tasks set out for them. Those who were able would need to be paid at par with their abilities. Every labourer had a price tag corresponding to his or her abilities and experience. For many labourers, the wages would be a deciding factor to work.
The landowner returned to get more people to work in his vineyard from the marketplace, at the third hour, sixth hour, ninth hour and the eleventh hour. The landowner ‘saw others standing idle in the marketplace’ (v.3). They might have come to the market late in the morning. They might have been those who were not so diligent about being on time to be hired because of which they missed the first opportunity. They certainly had a casual disposition, as evident from the parable which described them as ‘idle’. The landowner overlooked that and sent them to the vineyard promising to give them, ‘whatever is right’ (v.4).
There was no mention of the amount or reference to an exchange of discussion on the wages between the landowner and the ‘others’ when the last three groups were asked to go to the vineyard. I wonder why they were referred to as ‘others’ and not as labourers! Were they not traditional labourers skilled to do a designated job in a vineyard!
When the landowner returned at the eleventh hour, there was a conversation with people whom he was about to employ. ‘Why have you been standing here idle all day long’ (v.6). They said to him, ‘Because no one hired us’! The landowner said to them, ‘You too go into the vineyard’. This was a rare gesture- to employ someone at the end of the day! To me it says a lot about the mindfulness of the landlord towards those who were unemployed. He was a socially conscious landlord. He turned his vineyard to be shelter for those who were waiting for a day’s work. This appears equivalent to grace, which we attribute to God as His nature.
I have noticed the migrant workers in large numbers in the prominent traffic junctions of the town next to the village where I live, waiting to be employed from early in the morning. By mid-morning there would be some who were not picked up for any job. They hang around in the marketplace. They had no hope of finding a job on that day. They would have had to try their chance the next day. Often the more able and the experienced were chosen and others got left behind. There might be a few who were regularly left behind.
What is striking in this parable is that the landowner acknowledged and rewarded merit and ability of the first group who was hired early in the morning. He also tested the readiness of the other four groups to go to work when they were offered work in the vineyard. Those who were engaged towards the end of the day were still responsive to the invitation to work. The labourers found an occupation instead of idling in the marketplace. They needed the stimulus to work in order to discover the pleasure of work after having been used to idling. The landowner also got more work done in the vineyard. Thanks for the readiness of those who were idling in the marketplace. It was a win-win situation for both.
I recall how Drs Raj Arole and Mabel Arole, two alumni of the Christian Medical College of Vellore, while working in a mission hospital in Maharashtra discovered that health care in rural areas was almost non-existent because of which there was high incidence of maternal mortality, infant mortality, infectious diseases, water-born illnesses, etc. They went to the John Hopkin’s university in the USA to get trained in public health. On return in the early nineteen seventies, they located themselves at Jamkhed in the Ahemmednagar district of Maharashtra. They encouraged women from the villages around them to undergo training to become Village Health Workers under their supervision. With a base hospital to look after the usual health care needs of the village population, and a network of trained health workers, they began to change the profile of health care in the villages. Who were these women chosen for becoming health care workers! They were women, who were ready to be trained to offer their services to the community. Most of them were not even school graduates. In less than five years, the health indices of the district had changed that the Word Health Organization adopted the model of Jamkhed to popularise it as an effective way of providing primary health care in developing countries. The women were made able because of their readiness. On one occasion while chatting with Dr Arole, about the impact of the Village Health Workers in the community health scene, he mentioned that they chose them the way Jesus of Nazareth chose his disciples. It was not their abilities He sought after but their readiness to follow Him’.
Let me suggest that this parable gives us a flavour of the kingdom of God. The landowner reveals to us the nature of God, who rewards those who are able and those who show readiness to be available.
The Christian Ashram Movement in India, which received a new orientation after Dr Stanley Jones established his ashram at Satal about 80 years ago, is known for a small community, living together to serve people around them. They regard themselves as volunteers and not workers or labourers, and live out of a common purse, each receiving an allowance according to his or her need. The hospitals, schools or other community services which they provide in rural areas stand out as examples of ‘working for others’ and not for wages or compensation. The members of the Christian Fellowship at Oddanchatram, who work in the hospital, still practice this model of receiving an allowance, and not take a salary commiserate with their qualifications. It is an example of like-minded people coming together to live with a mission of readiness for service.
2. Chronos and Kairos
The labourers were engaged on five different occasions of the day. All the five groups got an opportunity to work. All of them worked for a certain period of time in the vineyard. There is a rhythm of work conditioned by the working hours, expectation of work output and work ethics. They are the Chronos events-some things have to happen at a particular time of the day or night in an orderly fashion. No wonder, work can sometimes become a routine occupation or a monotony. For some, work is a drag and yet they work for the sake of salary.
Some people coming much later in the day to work and even just before the closure of the day, would have surprised the other workers! They needed to get a new orientation about work- it was not how long they worked that finally mattered, but how well they worked. The turning point in this parable was when the landowner disregarded the usual work-related norms and invited anyone who was still ready to work in the vineyard, much after the working hour started. His approach to work was strikingly different. He wanted the workers to feel valued and engaged to discover their abilities and sense the pleasure of working with hands. The landowner seemed to present work as a way of discovering one’s own identity and worth. It can be a flavour of only the kingdom of God.
The workers are stewards of God’s riches and are expected to be found trustworthy (I Cor4:2). In the parable of talents, (Mat25, 14-30) the two, who were given five and two talents, when returned to bring their account to the master, received commendation for having worked to double their possession. The one steward, wo kept his talent hidden and did not trade it was reprimanded. God esteems the work and worker.
That is why this parable acquires significance because the idea about work is given a new perspective beyond working hours, wages and ability. The landowner gave an occasion for those who were idling in the marketplace to work even after the time when work normally started. It became their Kairos experience, an opportune time to view work differently. The vineyard metaphorically is a place of communion, because, Jesus said, ‘I am the true vine and my Father is the vinedresser’ (John 15.1). By inviting those idling away, Jesus was opening the door of opportunity to share in this blessed experience of turning the work setting into a personal experience of communion with God and others in the vineyard. It is this consciousness which ought to grow within us so that we make our work and workplace sacred. That is how work becomes a sacrament. The landowner in this parable lifted the veil of all that was material attached to work and opened the door to the workers to consider themselves fellow workers with God (1 Cor3:9).
St Paul in the above passage suggested that ‘you are God’s field, God’s building’, which creates a new understanding about the symbolism in any work we do. God is at work in our lives, while we work. We are being ‘built together into the likeness of Christ’, while engaged in work that was given to us. God is at work in our lives to present us ‘blameless and innocent children of God, above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you appear as lights in the world’(Phil2:15). A labourer becomes a messenger of God in the workplace.
The landowner brought the prospect of making work place an experience of a kairos occasion for the labourers, who were sent into the vineyard early in the morning and at other times of the day. It was also a Kairos occasion for the landowner, who found how the readiness of the those idling in the marketplace enabled them to feel occupied and go back home with a reward more than what they expected. The landowner helped them to feel fulfilled and inspired them for wanting to work instead of idling away in the marketplace.
There are Kairos experiences in the lives of individuals, families, groups and organizations. One such Kairos experience for Dr Frank Garlick, a Professor of Surgery, Christian Medical College, Vellore happened in 1970, when he decided to leave that position to visit mission hospitals to stay in touch with doctors who worked in the rural areas. They needed accompaniment and clinical support. A few doctors working in mission hospitals and some medical students of the college paused him a question, ‘Why is that experienced doctors stay on in the Medical Colleges rather than go to the mission hospitals’! Dr Garlick knew that his time had come to take a plunge to be an itinerant surgeon to train young doctors in surgical skills in the rural mission hospitals. He spent the next seven years visiting mission hospitals and Medical Colleges to create a culture of caring and upbuilding young professionals and medical students. It was this unusual step which led to the formation of the Evangelical Medical Fellowship of India in 1974. Dr Garlick was able to let go of the comfort and security of a teaching hospital and become a companion to many who needed his help. This experience led Dr Garlick into a series of significant events later in his life, such as returning to Australia to establish the first Accident and Emergency Medicine teaching department and training programme in Brisbane, for which he got himself trained in the United Kingdom. On retirement from that job, he went to the Pathan hospital in Kathmandu, where he helped to start a post graduate training programme in general surgery. The Kairos experience can be the beginning of other significant events, which were not foreseen. Dr Garlick’s decision offered such a Kairos occasion to doctors in mission hospitals and medical students in some colleges.
The landowner in this parable took a plunge to invite the ‘idlers’ into the vineyard trusting them to be responsible, which became a Kairos occasion for the landowner and the workers. This is another flavour of the kingdom of God. God brings Kairos occasions into our lives to initiate us into a larger vision and purpose in our lives.
3. Worth and Wages.
This parable gives us a new understanding about worth and wages. ‘And when evening had come, the owner of the vineyard said to the foreman, ‘Call the labourers and pay them their wages, beginning from the last group to the first’. The decision of the landowner to reverse the order in which the labourers were called in, tells us about the importance the owner attributed to the worth of each person instead of viewing the labourers based on the hours of work they had put in.
The last group and all other groups received one denarius. A person’s worth was more than the wage he was entitled to. The landowner valued each person who worked. Each person contributed what he or she could. The landowner’s attitude was generous. He wanted to be considerate towards those who did not get employed till he offered them a job. What if that was the pattern for those workers almost every day! What if they were not skilled enough because of which they were not offered a job! Not being employable would have made them feel small in the sights of others. Is not that the beginning of self-pity! The employment market was suitable for those who could survive the competition of skills and competency. What if the ones employed later in the day were not competitive enough! Is not that the common way some people get displaced from the job market! What if they were less skilled and were denied opportunities in life to get trained further! What if they had some limitations and did not look able enough to be employed!
The less able and the more able are equally worthy before God, because all of us are ‘fearfully and wonderfully made’ (Psalm 139:14). So, the ones who worked for longer or shorter period are alike in worth and value. Those who worked long earned what was due to them and those who worked for shorter period received a gift in acknowledgement of their worth. The Pauline confession, ‘To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak; I have become all things to all men, that I may by all means save some’ (1 Cor9:22) was a language of inclusion of those who were disadvantaged in some way or other. This parable is therefore a pointer towards a fair social economics or distributive justice, where all are worthy to have an occupation or job.
I came across an outstanding example of an enabling process of those who were less privileged to get advanced medical treatment! During my undergraduate studies in the late sixties, tetanus infection was common among labourers. Those who worked in the farm or industrial sites were vulnerable to the infection, if their wounds were contaminated by soil which had tetanus spores. It was not common for adults to be protected by tetanus toxoid injection at that time. Only Children were given compulsory immunisation. Dr Keith Sanders working in the Duncan Hospital at Raxaul around the same time, noticed that many adults, who were daily wage earners, came with tetanus infection and some died in spite of conventional treatment. Dr Sanders felt desperate to do something for them. That was how he introduced the intrathecal route of administration of Tetanus serum when an adult had a life-threatening Tetanus infection. His experiment improved the recovery rate and his published data in the scientific journals became a guideline for treatment of tetanus in adults. I remember meeting Dr Keith Sanders in the Christian Medical Fellowship annual conference in England in 1983. In a conversation I raised this new treatment modality which he discovered for treating tetanus infection in adults. He mentioned, that he was ‘keen to save the lives of the daily wage earners, as they were the only bread winners for the family in most instances’. Dr Sanders was obviously moved by the worth of a person and spent his efforts to restore life! He turned out to be a ‘poor man’s’ friend and an advocate for their wellness.
Let me recall how Nehemiah at the end of the reading from the Law of God before the assembly, after re-building the wall of Jerusalem, called upon people to ‘send portions to him, who has nothing prepared’ (Neh.9;10). They were in a celebrant mood for all that they witnessed in their midst following the rebuilding of the wall of Jerusalem. When people were in that mood of celebration, Nehemiah reminded them of some among them who would not have had enough to live on. Following Nehemiah’s call, ‘All people went away to eat, to drink, to send portions and to celebrate a great festival because they understood the words which had been made known to them’ (Neh9:12). Nehemiah’s invitation to people was to affirm the worth of others who were economically weak and to share their resources with them. Our neighbour is worthy of our full attention.
The fourth flavour of this parable is the worth it attributes to all people alike. It creates a fraternal culture of mindfulness. For existential reasons, wages might be important. A person’s worth is larger than what wages he or she earns can signify.
4. Giving and Grumbling
One disturbing part of this parable is, ‘And when those hired first came, they thought that they would receive more; and they also received each one a denarius. And when they received it, they grumbled at the landowner’ (v10, 11). Their argument was that the landowner equated them to those who worked for lesser hours. They were given what they were promised and yet they were displeased with the landowner. Their reason for grumbling was that others got as much as they also got. Their discomfort was in seeing others treated generously. This landowner reprimanded them for their envious spirit because of his generosity (v.15).
The whole essence of this logic is, ‘.. I wish to give to this last man the same as to you. Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with what is my own?’(v14,15). The parable reaches its climax when the heart of God is revealed at the end of the parable. He is no debtor to anyone. He is generous and gives freely to all, all the time. It is too difficult a thought for some because it takes away their right to claim privileges and advantages.
Those who are able and effective have an attitude of entitlement and tend to claim everything they can, for success, self-promotion and visibility. They do not turn their skills for service or living mindfully of the neighbours. Whereas those, who received favours or consideration are more likely to be oriented towards serving and sharing.
It is a parable of inclusion of those who were left behind without an opportunity and provision. It was similar to what happened to Zaccheus (Luk.19;1-10). He did not find an acceptance in the company of people who were waiting to receive Jesus of Nazareth. In order to see Jesus, he climbed a tree. Jesus while passing by that place invited Zaccheus to come down. Jesus went with him to his home and pronounced salvation to him and his household, when he made confession of his wrongful practices and his intent to give his possessions to the poor and return fourfold what he had defrauded from people.
The giving, forgiving and welcoming God was, whom Jesus revealed to us in this parable. Even those who grumbled against the landowner for his practice of equity were sent away in a charitable way.
I recall the decision of late Dr A.K.Tharien to start a medical work at Oddanchatram, in Tamil Nadu in the early nineteen fifties, at a time when that region had drought and famine for few years. Some well-meaning friends advised him against this, as people would not be able to pay for the medical service he rendered. His decision was to go to a place where people needed medical help badly. I remember talking to him about it on one occasion. His response, was, ‘What is the gospel unless we are mindful of the least among us’! The Christian Fellowship Hospital now is a large hospital, where the local community can come and receive medical help at an affordable cost. It is a place where young doctors are trained to go to more needy areas with a missionary vocation. It is one hospital where the health care professionals make an extra effort to treat everyone without being conditioned by their paying capacity. I have found this as an example of giving without counting the cost or expecting anything in return, which is another flavour of the kingdom of God.
5. The Last first and the first last.
This reversal of the social order is a new perspective about the kingdom of God, which Jesus advocated on many occasions. While narrating the parable of the rich young ruler, Jesus did say, ‘It is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God’ (Mat 19:23). It is a rich man who is entitled to all the privileges of what wealth can bring into one’s life. When the disciples rebuked children being brought to Jesus, He said, ‘Let the children alone, and do not hinder them from coming to Me, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these’ (Mat19:14). Yet another understanding about who can enter the kingdom of God! Children are a symbol of humility, submission, trust and dependence. That is the attitude that God is pleased with.
In this parable, all those who came later in the day to work in the vineyard, received a gratis payment disproportionate to the hours they worked. God grants favours to those who feel displaced or less able to match with the benefits of others. The first lot of workers were discontent because others got compensated equal to them. This envious and self-righteous outlook displaced them from being the first to the last.
The argument of those employed first was that they bore the burden of the day and the scorching heat(v12). For them, it was a justifiable reason to be considered for a better pay. The fairness of the landowner was evident, when he reminded those who grumbled, ‘did you not agree with me for a denarius?” (v13). It was this logic the landowner used to explain to them, ‘I wish to give the last man the same as to you’ (v.14).
The landowner was struggling to bring the last at par with the first by his generosity! This is the fairness of the kingdom of God. All receive the benefit of God’s grace, irrespective of the ability or merit. The first lot who were hired to work received what was legitimately due to them. The last lot of workers received favour and gratis to be brought at par with others who were better off. It was not to promote them above others, but to provide them with the minimum needed for their livelihood. This is the 'scandal of Grace' according to an artist, who painted the parable.
This parable also brings into focus the sovereign grace of God, when Jesus asked, ‘Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with what is my own’? (v15). All the labourers who toiled for short or long hours are created beings, who belong to God. God owned them and would do with them what He would consider best for them. The material resources He distributed among them too belonged to Him, because of which He could be discrete to share according to the needs of each person. God is at work to make even the least in His creation to share in the plenty which God has provided for humans. There is the ‘last’, who too ought to have the prospects for a better future along with the first. The first might have reached their status because of their lineage, heritage or acquisitive living. While God does not take away the plenty of those who occupy the prominent social standing, God is seeking for fair minded people to take an interest in those who remain last socially, economically and morally.
It was this perspective of the kingdom of God which prompted late Dr Sheela Gupta while under training at CMC Vellore to become an Obstetrician and Gynaecologist in the nineteen sixties, to go to the Pandita Ramabai Mukti Mission at Kedgaon, Pune to spend her life time of service with abandoned women, adolescent girls, and women rescued from risky living. I remember asking her about the reason why she left CMC Vellore to go to the Mukti mission! She replied, ‘I wanted to make an effort to give abandoned women a chance to discover a better future for themselves’. One contribution which Dr Sheela made was to prepare women to get married and become families. I know of some families who owe their wellness to Dr Sheela and her interest to support them even after they left Kedgaon. Hers was an effort to give the ‘last’ a chance to rebuild their lives.
It was this thought that prompted Anna and me to be with children with neuro-developmental needs for thirty-seven years now. That is how ASHIRVAD Christian Concern for Child Care was born. We feel good for having been given this mission to give developmentally challenged children an opportunity to look forward to a better future.
Jesus having noticed a ’poor widow throw in two mites’ into the treasury, said to His disciples, ‘..this poor widow has put in more than all those who have given to the treasury’ (Mark12:43). Jesus had noticed ‘how people put money into the treasury. And many who were rich put in much’(v41). Look at the way how the first became last and the last became first through the subsequent comments Jesus offered: ’For they all put in out of their abundance but she out of her poverty put in all that she had, her whole livelihood’(v44). What made a poor widow the last for all purposes, became the first in the sight of Jesus of Nazareth is worth studying. Was it not the state of her heart and her devotion to God, which made her empty her possession into the treasury! The first became the last because, they in spite of their abundance gave their offering reservedly and sparingly!
The Magnificat of Mary (Luk.1:52-53) announced the reversal of the first becoming last and the last becoming the first:
‘He has brought down rulers from their thrones,
And has exalted those who were humble.
He has filled the hungry with good things,
And sent away the rich empty handed’.
This was a song announcing the coming of Jesus, the Messiah and His mission, which He truly fulfilled during His earthly mission. Jesus of Nazareth advocated the first place for those who are normally the last.
The parable of the ‘Landowner and labourers’ is one of the parables Jesus of Nazareth used to highlight the flavours of the kingdom of God. I referred to five flavours of the kingdom of God in this parable arising from my meditation: Ability and Readiness, Chronos and Kairos, Worth and Wages, Giving and Grumbling, and the first be the last and the last first.
M.C.Mathew (text) All images from the internet, sources acknowledged.
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