The owner went out at midday, and, again, at three in the afternoon, and he made the same offer. Again he went out,
at the last working hour—the eleventh—and he saw others standing around. So he said to them, ‘Why do you stand idle the whole day?’
They answered, ‘Because no one has hired us.’ The master said, ‘Go, and work in my vineyard.’
When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his manager, ‘Call the workers and pay them their wage,
beginning with the last and ending with the first.’
Those who had gone to work at the eleventh hour came up, and were each given a silver coin.
When it was the turn of the first, they thought they would receive more. But they, too, received one silver coin.
On receiving it, they began to grumble against the landowner.
They said, ‘These last, hardly worked an hour; yet, you have treated them the same as us,
who have endured the heavy work of the day and the heat.’ The owner said to one of them, ‘Friend,
I have not been unjust to you. Did we not agree on one silver coin per day? So, take what is yours and go.
I want to give to the last the same as I give to you. Don’t I have the right to do as I please with what is mine?
Why are you envious when I am kind?’
So will it be: the last will be first, the first will be last.”
REFLECTION:
The Lord wants His mission to be a family affair. In the family,
questions about justice and fairness are not about how much is due to an individual child.
They are about what holds the family together. An elder child may do harder chores than his younger sibling,
but he does not expect to have more food on his plate. He is even sad when no one is eating with him.
The food holds the family together. The role of the salary in our Gospel is to hold every worker together in God’s mission.
Disciples and missionaries do not work according to payroll and terms of compensation.
They work to have more workers to share in God’s bounty.
This may sound naïve for those who fight for social equality and justice.
But, a true missionary is very happy when more people come to be part of God’s workforce.
© Copyright Bible Diary 2020
