New Insight from an Old Story

Jesus, as we know, told a lot of stories. "Parables," they’re called. And many of them are puzzling. They turn conventional wisdom on its head: a Samaritan who is good, stopping, at great personal cost, to aid a badly-beaten Jew–his arch-enemy; a conniving steward who is commended for saving his own skin, at his boss’ expense, when he’s about to lose his job; a shepherd who leaves unprotected 99 sheep to search for 1 which has wandered away; a father who rejoices when his son returns home after demanding his inheritance before Dad has died, leaves home, and comes home broke and desperate. All those stories, and others–memorable, and puzzling.


And one that ranks right up there on the scale of "puzzling" is the story of the workers in the vineyard. You probably know how it goes; if you want to find it in your Bible, it’s in Matthew 20:1-16. A vineyard owner (representing God?) has an abundant harvest to bring in. Early in the morning, the vineyard owner goes down to the day labor site, and hires a number of workers for the day, promising to pay them the standard daily wage. Several times throughout the day, he returns to hire more workers–the harvest is the most enormous he’s ever experienced!–and promises to pay them what’s right. They go–including a group hired to work just the last hour. When it’s time to settle up at the end of the day, the laborers are paid from last to first. And they all receive the usual daily wage! Understandably, the ones who’ve worked all day–all day--in the fierce Palestinian sun are furious with their employer for paying all the workers the same wage. The story ends with the owner asking, "Can’t I do what I want with what is mine? Do you begrudge my generosity?"


The answer, of course, is that the owner (God?) can do whatever the owner wishes with what belongs to the owner. If the owner (God?) wishes to be generous, who has a right to stand in the way of that intention?


Now, we might ask a question about this story. It’s a question I never considered, until Pastor Kim Erno asked it during one of our group sessions at the Lutheran Center in Mexico City. ‘What’s more difficult–to work all day, or stand around waiting all day, hoping against hope to be hired?" Hmmmm...interesting question, isn’t it! Which would you rather do?


On a walking tour of the Lutheran Center neighborhood, our group was led into a pleasant park near a small plaza. The park was filled with people at about 2:00 in the afternoon. There were lots of women, children, and older people, as one might expect to find in a park in the middle of the day. There were also lots of men, lined up, leaning against a wall, with unhappy looks on their faces. What were they doing there? Well, they were waiting to be hired as day laborers. They’d been there all day. Some other men had been hired for the day, but these men–I’d guess there were 25-30 of them–had not. And, at that time of the day, it looked like their chances of putting a little food on the family table that evening were pretty slim. I couldn’t help but wonder how many children of those men would go to bed hungry that night–and how often that happened in their lives.


What would be more difficult, we might wonder: to be hired from that park early in the morning, and be paid for one’s work, even if it was hard work in a hot sun–or to stand all day, waiting, hoping against hope, for a day job unlikely to become a reality, knowing your family will be hungry again that night?


That’s the reality for all too many Mexican families. Unemployment nationwide approaches 50%. Small farmers are being forced off the land because they can’t produce corn cheaper than it can be brought to the Mexican market by giant transnational corporations, as a result of NAFTA. How ironic, especially since corn (maize) was first domesticated in Mexico 7,000 years ago. It’s no wonder the Mexican peasants say, "sin maiz - no pais"–"without corn, there is no nation". So what are those peasants doing when they can no longer live off the land? Flocking to the cities, in hopes of finding work there. And some of them do–as street vendors or in other segments of Mexico’s expansive "informal economy". These jobs, however, are not adequate to support a worker and the worker’s family.


Why, if I were in that situation, if I were that desperate, I might even consider crossing the border illegally, taking the risk of being detained, or being acosted by Minutemen, or dying in the desert, or of having no other option but to work in a sweat-shop near the border. If I were in that situation, I think I’d be desperate enough to do whatever it takes to feed my family.


Now, I have one more question. I’ll leave you to ponder it. If God is as generous as the owner of the vineyard in the parable–and we have ample evidence in the Bible of God’s generosity!–and if God favors the last and the least, then what do you suppose God is up to in Mexico?