The Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard that we hear this Sunday is one of Jesus’ most challenging teachings about grace, justice, generosity, and the Kingdom of God.
At first hearing, we may be tempted to judge the landowner as unfair. Why should those who worked only one hour receive the same wage as those who labored throughout the heat of the day? We might even judge the latecomers as lazy. But there is a beautiful detail in the parable that can easily be overlooked.
The landowner asks the last group of workers:
“Why do you stand here idle all day?”
They answer:
“Because no one has hired us.”
Perhaps they were not lazy at all. Nobody chose them.
Perhaps they were the weakest, the oldest, the least skilled, or simply the ones who had been overlooked. Whatever the reason, by five o’clock they were still waiting.
And yet, the landowner goes looking for them.
This gives the parable a deeply pastoral and compassionate dimension. God continues to go out looking for those whom others have passed over.
The person who comes to faith late in life is welcomed. The sinner who returns after many years away is welcomed. The person who has wasted opportunities is given another chance. The wounded, forgotten, rejected, and overlooked are never beyond God’s invitation.
With God, five o’clock is not too late.
This is the radical generosity, mercy, and kindness of God. God does not love us according to how much we have accomplished or how long we have been working. His grace is a gift, not a salary we earn.
Psalm 145 beautifully describes this heart of God:
“The LORD is gracious and merciful,
slow to anger and of great kindness.
The LORD is good to all
and compassionate toward all his works.”
And the prophet Isaiah reminds us not to measure God’s ways according to our limited human calculations:
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
nor are your ways my ways, says the LORD.
As high as the heavens are above the earth,
so high are my ways above your ways
and my thoughts above your thoughts.”
God’s justice is greater than our calculations because it is filled with mercy. His generosity challenges our tendency to compare, compete, and ask, “Why should that person receive as much as I do?” The Gospel invites us instead to rejoice whenever someone experiences God’s goodness.
Perhaps this is also the challenge for us this week: Can we carry the heart of the landowner? Can we notice those whom others overlook? Can we give another chance to someone who has fallen behind? Can we be generous without constantly calculating what another person deserves?
In a world that can be quick to judge, exclude, and divide, may we become a Church that goes out looking for those still waiting to be invited in.
May we carry the generous and compassionate heart of God in the way we treat one another. And may we continue to pray—and work—for a world that is more merciful, more generous, and more kind.
Much love,
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The opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by the author do not necessarily reflect the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints of the Asian Journal, its management, editorial board and staff.
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Fr. Rodel “Odey” Balagtas is the pastor of Incarnation Church in Glendale, California
