It was a game changer for me to see that the parable of the workers in the vineyard (Matthew 20:1-16) is actually part of the answer to Peter's question:
“We have left everything to follow you! What then will there be for us?” (Matt. 19:27)
The first part of Jesus' answer, in the following verses, is a reassurance that 'God is debtor to no man' (Matthew Henry's phrase). All those who have made sacrifices will receive a hundred times as much and eternal life thrown in. And then there is a key statement of Kingdom economy:
But many who are first will be last, and many who are last will be first. (Matt. 19:30)
That phrase comes again at Matt. 20:16 - giving a bookend - and the words 'first' and 'last' come up in the middle of the parable (20:8). So this is all clearly part of the same section. Matt. 20:1-16 is the second part of Jesus answer to, "What then will be there for us [disciples who have sacrificed so much to follow you]?"
As so often with Jesus' parables, the application is stinging. And it's particularly stinging for senior gospel workers, missionaries, founders and pioneers - those who feel they have 'borne the heat of the day' and are tempted to look down on their more comfortable, late-to-the-party, 'juniors'.
"You don't know how hard it was in my day when we had to go without meals or heating and work all night with none of the things this new snowflake generation take for granted."
"Surely I deserve some respect from the new assistant minister. He has no idea of the stresses I've had to deal with planting this church and leading it for the last 20 years."
"I did my hard yards getting my hands dirty on the mission field and I'm a senior leader now so I should be doing senior things (with senior pay and privileges) and letting the younger leaders taste some hard work."
In a simple story Jesus takes a sledgehammer to that sense of entitlement.
The first workers (the early pioneers, now senior leaders) had 'agreed to work for a denarius' (v12). There was a time when they counted it a massive grace and privilege to be not only saved but able to serve and please the Master, to plant and water and tend His church. There was a time when they were glad to sacrifice and work hard and were amazed that the Master would one day reward them for what he had given them the strength to do.
But at some point along the way something more transactional had come in. Something of the elder brother's 'slaving' mentality. And it all comes to a head when they see generosity being shown to the younger brothers.
Comparison is the fuel of this anger. Everyone gets £240 on their payslip but for the pioneer-heat-of-the-day-senior-grafters that means £20 per hour whereas for the snowflakey-worker-come-lately that means £240 per hour. How is that fair?
First because it is what each signed up to and second because it was never about remunerating people for their calories expended or skills leveraged or goals accomplished.
Imagine a dad has 4 small children (let's say all under 5) and he helps them make a Mothers Day card and they each have a small part in that - one draws a scribble on the front (roughly resembling a human), one puts stickers on it, the oldest writes a message inside while the youngest does practically nothing but jump up and down supportively. And then they take the card to mum and she loves it and the mum and dad, as a thank you to the children for their kind card, take them out for a wonderful meal...
That's unfair isn't it? The children contributed differing amounts to the card but they all go for the meal.
But it's all grace! It's all vastly disproportionate.
The Father is ridiculously generous.
And he loves to overturn human expectations and hierarchies.
He loves to put the first last and the last first; to bring down the proud and lift up the humble.
As with the little children and the rich man in Matthew 19, Jesus welcomes the small, despised, unqualified, not-economically-active while the mature, esteemed, wealthy walk away sad.
It is so easy for hierarchies to start creeping back into Christ's church (cf. Matt. 20:20-28; 23:5-12) and what the parable of the workers in the vineyard has particularly helped me see is that a key driver of this re-emergence of ugly worldly thinking can be a sense of entitlement coming from past sacrifices.
Let's take the medicine of this parable to kill that martyr complex, restore a joy in Christ and sense of privilege in his service and a rejoicing in seeing younger brothers blessed in their ministries.
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