1st February Trinity 2016, Selfless Selfhood

1st February Trinity

Van Gogh

Matthew 20: 1-16

[But many who are last will be first, and many who are first will be last.] The kingdom of the heavens is like a man, the master of his house, who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard. Agreeing to pay them one denarius a day, he sent them out into his vineyard.

At about 9 o’clock he went out and saw others standing in the marketplace, and he said to them, “Go also into my vineyard, and I will give you whatever is right.” So they went.

He went out again at about noon and at 3 o’clock and did the same. At 5 o’clock he went out and found others standing there, and he said to them, “Why do you stand here all day idle?” They said, “Because no one has hired us.” He said, “You, too, go into the vineyard.”

And when evening came, the master of the vineyard said to his steward, “Call the workers and give them their wages, beginning with the last ones hired and going on to the first.”

Those who had been hired at 5 o’clock came forward, and each received one denarius. Therefore, when it was the turn of those who were hired first, they expected to receive more. However, they too also received one denarius each. They took it, but they began to grumble against the master of the house. “These men who were hired last only worked one hour, and you have made them equal to us, who have borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day.”

However, he answered one of them, saying, “Friend, I am not being unjust to you. Did you not agree with me for one denarius? Take what you have earned and go. I wish to give to the man hired last the same as I give to you. Have I not the right to do as I wish with what is mine? Or do you give me an evil look because I am generous? Thus will the last be first and the first will one day be last. “

1st February Trinity

February 7, 2016

Matthew 20: 1-16

This gospel reading about the day’s wages is often used to illustrate the idea of social justice. And it is indeed that. But it can also be explored on another level.

We are all of us sent from heaven to fields of earth, to work here for the Master, the Lord of the Harvest. Some of us have arrived early and labored long. Some of us have been sent more recently. But each of us laboring toward one goal – the Lord’s harvest of human virtues, grown here on earth.

And in the end, our reward, our ‘one denarius’, is the earning of our own individual selfless selfhood. Some must labor long and hard; others seem to achieve it with what only appears to be less struggle and effort.

A part of what Christ is trying to tell us here is that a desire for a greater reward than another runs counter to the ideal and goal of selfless selfhood. Demanding more in comparison to others is not selfless; in fact, it is spiritually counterproductive. The harvest the Lord is trying to bring in will be the selfless virtues of all of humanity.

Those who have worked longest and hardest to achieve them will rejoice for the others; for we are all working together toward the same goal. And the Lord of the Harvest is generous.