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 men 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, “Friend I am not being unfair to you. Didn’t you agree to work for a denarius? Take your pay and go. Don’t I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?” (Matt 20:10-15)

 

Apparently Jesus was a socialist, because he lacked the business sense of giving workers what they deserved. Yet this was the same man who accepted the idea of taxation (even to Caesar), called for wise investment (Parable of the Talents), and who cursed an unproductive fig tree. Jesus does not wear the facile labels that politicians love to slap on their opponents.

So what can we make of this uncomfortable parable that seems to reward the laggards, those who were idle until the last hour of the Vineyard shift? It is not an anomaly, because it is buttressed by the Parable of the Prodigal Son, by the Parable of the Wedding Banquet (“invite to the banquet anyone you can find”), and by Jesus’ injunctions of inclusion (prostitutes and tax collectors in the kingdom).  The latecomers to the Kingdom are always welcomed.

It is the Gospel of Opportunity that we cannot escape.  The door is always open for those left outside. We can see these people as illegal immigrants, as the long-term unemployed, as the criminal who served his time, as the disgraced public official, as the Wall Street swindler, even as the domestic abuser.  Of course the opportunities are not invitations to repeat offenders, but alternate paths to redemption.

So when John Boehner accuses the unemployed as being habitually lazy (“I really don’t have to work. I don’t really want to do this. I think I’d rather sit around.”) he cuts off the path to opportunity, the opening to succeed. John must have purged this Parable of the Vineyard out of his Bible, because it clearly allows the latecomers to work. It grates on the sensibility that we get what we deserve and that some deserve to suffer for lack of a job.

And if anyone wants to point to malingerers, they can look at Congress, which has given itself a four-month vacation to campaign to save their skins. I guess they are not strictly malingerers; they just found another vineyard to work in during the fall. Maybe we should overlook the fact that it is a self-serving vineyard.

It is fair to point out Jesus’s Vineyard would violate labor law and the unions would be the first to shut him down for such an operation. Unions can be the most ruthless arbiters of fairness, when it comes to fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work.  John Boehner may not be the toughest dog in the junkyard. We are glad to have tough arbiters on our side, when we fight against injustice.

Standing for justice is human, but standing for opportunity is divine.  Those who open the doors will find the Kingdom of God on the other side. Those who shut them may find themselves on the wrong side of justice. It is always safer to give a laggard another chance, because he or she may be no less than a broken politician. Politicians deserve to work the Vineyard, too, even at the last hour of the day. That is the Gospel of Opportunity.