My Grapes of Wrath

Whaaaat, two posts in one day?!  Consider it a gift, my loyal readers.

So as I’m sure you all recall vividly, the Matins Gospel read on Sunday was that of the Parable of the Vineyard Workers.  What’s that you say? You don’t remember the Matins Gospel? Oh, you’re not even Coptic?  It’s ok, I’ll work with you on this one.

In Matthew 20, there’s a vineyard, there’s a Guy who owns the vineyard, and there are people this Guy hires to work in His vineyard.  Note: my choice of capitalization.  He first hires some workers at the beginning of the day, and they agree to work the course of that day for 1 denarius. As the day continues, the Owner of the vineyard finds other people willing to work, and hires them to work the course of that day for 1 denarius.  This continues until about 5:00 pm when the Owner again hires more workers and agrees to pay them 1 denarius.  So at the end of the day, everyone gets their 1 denarius, despite the time they arrived.  And this parable used to piss me off.

I was the guy in verse 12 who refused to let the obvious discrepancy go unnoticed.  “Umm, I worked much longer than the guy who showed up at 5:00, and we’re all getting paid the same?”  It just didn’t make sense.  And one time a few years back, someone told me how we shouldn’t be selfish about the reward, and that ANYONE willing to work at ANYTIME was also deserving of the same.  And that was ok for an answer back then.  At least, it made me feel bad about being pissed off.  But this past weekend, someone broke it down in a way that really gave me peace.  And actually, it lined up with my whole mission for Lent.

The guy who worked the whole day DID receive a greater reward.  But the reward wasn’t in the paycheck.  It was in the fact that he got to spend the whole day with the Owner.  So even though all the other workers may have received the same tangible payoff, the worker who showed up in the morning, willing to give up his whole day…that’s the guy who really got to know the Owner.  They got to take lemonade breaks together, they got to understand each other’s habits a little, and I bet you, they probably even had a deep conversation or two.  And by the end of the day, I’m sure the Owner didn’t forget that worker’s name.

Alas, my message for Lent: it’s all about Christ.  Not my reward, not my benefit, not my growth.  Those things will happen with time.  But for now, I just want to hang out with Jesus.  And I’m glad He picked me at the beginning of the day.