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A WORD FROM THE EDITOR – MARCH 18, 2012
Session Text: Matthew 20:1-16
Session Title: The Wages
Thinking Out Loud
In discussing this parable, one of my seminary professors claimed that one of these days, when he was getting ready to retire, he was going to assign a mountain of homework to his students: grueling exams, multiple research papers, page after page of assigned reading–the works. Then, at the end of the semester, everyone in the class would be assigned a passing grade of “C.”
This professor is still teaching, and shall remain nameless for obvious reasons. His point was that most students would never be able to keep up in such a demanding course. Many would try their best but still fall short of the teacher’s exacting standards. Some would give up entirely. When the final grades were posted, most students would breathe a sigh of relief that their teacher had mercy and gave them a “C” they knew they didn’t really deserve.
But there would be a few, he predicted, who would storm to his office demanding to know why they didn’t get a higher grade. These were the ones who diligently completed every assignment, on time, to the best of their ability. These students would be scandalized because they were convinced that they deserved an “A.”
This illustration attempts to expose how one person can see injustice where another sees only undeserved grace. The scandal of this parable is that everyone is treated exactly the same: those who only worked one hour and those who have “borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat” get the same payment.
Do we approach our relationship to God from a perspective of reward or from a perspective of grace?
About the Editor
Darrell Pursiful is the editor of Formations. He is an adjunct professor at Mercer University and an active member of the First Baptist Church of Christ in Macon, Georgia.
Scripture
Session Text: Matthew 20:1-16
Session Title: The Wages
1 “For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. 2 After agreeing with the laborers for the usual daily wage, he sent them into his vineyard. 3 When he went out about nine o”clock, he saw others standing idle in the marketplace; 4 and he said to them, ‘You also go into the vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.’ So they went. 5 When he went out again about noon and about three o”clock, he did the same. 6 And 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?’ 7 They said to him, ‘Because no one has hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You also go into the vineyard.’ 8 When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his manager, ‘Call the laborers and give them their pay, beginning with the last and then going to the first.’ 9 When those hired about five o”clock came, each of them received the usual daily wage. 10 Now when the first came, they thought they would receive more; but each of them also received the usual daily wage. 11 And when they received it, they grumbled against the landowner, 12 saying, ‘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.’ 13 But he replied to one of them, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong; did you not agree with me for the usual daily wage? 14 Take what belongs to you and go; I choose to give to this last the same as I give to you. 15 Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or are you envious because I am generous?’ 16 So the last will be first, and the first will be last.”
