Parents will attest to often hearing from their children the phrase “That’s not fair!” One scoop of macaroni heaped a little higher on someone else’s plate? “That’s not fair!”
Someone else gets the cookie that is extra loaded with chocolate chips?
“That’s not fair!”
Even a yawning child might protest a disrupted movie for an earlier bedtime hour.
“That’s not fair!”
But who decides what is “fair”? And who decides what is “just”?
The Gospel this Sunday certainly encourages us to ponder that very thought.
In this parable about a landowner hiring and compensating his daily laborers, he seeks out vineyard workers at dawn for an agreed upon day’s wage. When he finds unemployed people in the marketplace later in the morning, he offers these workers, too, the opportunity to earn a wage in the vineyard. Hours later, he finds others ready to work. At noon, 3:00, even at 5:00 pm he is still bringing people to work in the vineyard. The story takes a dramatic turn at the end of the day when the last laborers hired are paid first. Even more troubling, everyone is paid the full day’s wage, including those who only worked one hour! The grumbling commences, especially by those who arrived first…
“That’s not fair!”
And we are not talking about youngsters anymore.
The parable strikes a chord in any human being who is, well, human. We feel on firmer ground when what is being measured makes sense to us, is fair, and is justified in our eyes; laborers getting unearned reward is hardly fair, not to mention their also being first in line! Even when the landowner reminds the workers who arrived at dawn that they were not being cheated, he gets to the deeper heart of the matter when he says, “Are you envious because I am generous?”
Ah, now there is a fair question. So often we get lost in measuring the work and the worth, and we grumble about the blessings we think others are receiving without merit. What damage happens when envy creeps into our hearts? Truthfully, who really is deserving of the FULL reward anyway? It all belongs to the landowner!
And still, He is abundantly generous, giving us so much more than what is really due.
We should be filled with humility and gratitude because “THAT’S not fair.”
