Chapter
13
by Fr. Thomas Keating
The Parable of the Workmen in the
Vineyard
"For the kingdom of heaven is
like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his
vineyard. After agreeing with the laborers for the usual daily wage, he sent
them into his vineyard. When he went out about nine o'clock, he saw others
standing idle in the marketplace; and to them he said, 'You also go into the
vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.' So they went. When he went
out again about noon and about three o'clock, he did the same. And about five
o'clock he went and found others standing around; and he said to them, 'Why
are you standing here idle all day?' They said to him, 'Because no one has
hired us.' He said to them, 'You also go into the vineyard.' When evening
came, the owner of the vineyard said to his manager, 'Call the laborers and
give them their pay, beginning with the last then going to the first.' When
those hired about five o'clock came, each of them received the usual daily
wage. Now when the first came, they thought they would receive more; but each
of them also received the usual daily wage. And when they received it, they
grumbled against the landowner, saying, 'These last worked only one hour, and
you have made them equal to us who have born the burden of the day and the
scorching heat.' But he replied to one of them, 'Friend, I am doing you no
wrong; did you not agree with me for the usual daily wage? Take what belongs
to you and go; I choose to give to this last as I give to you. Am I not
allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or are you envious
because I am generous.?' " (Matthew 20:1-15)
The householder was
not generous in regard to the wages he offered to the first workers, which was
only a denarius, the subsistence wage for peasants. They worked a twelve-hour
day in the scorching heat.
At intervals during
the day the householder went to the marketplace and hired more people. This time
he did not negotiate. He simply said, "I will pay you what is right."
There was no contract, just the hope that he would give them some reasonable
remuneration. At the eleventh hour he went out again and found a few idlers who
had been hanging around all day. By this time a good number of them were
probably well into their cups. So they stumbled into the vineyard, picked a
grape or two, and then it was time to quit.
The householder says
to the steward, "Pay the last ones a denarius." This seems like a sign
of great generosity on the part of the householder. But his generosity runs out
when the ones who worked all day come forward only to get the same amount. They
grumble because they expected to receive more.
The householder's
behavior seems unjust. The hearers would naturally side with the workers who
felt they were mistreated, even though they received what they contracted for.
This parable raises questions about the standard of justice in the kingdom of
God. Should not those who worked more hours have been given more? Evidently,
entry into the kingdom of God is not a question of merit.
Human standards of
judgment are subverted in this parable. Ordinary standards of justice cannot
explain how the kingdom works. Paul discusses this problem at length in the
third chapter of Romans where he points out that God does not distinguish
between persons. Justification and sanctification are gifts and have nothing to
do with social status or personal merit. The teaching of this parable is
extremely important for those on the spiritual journey. Over centuries a secular
standard of values crept into Christian teaching in the form of an elaborate
system of earning heavenly rewards. Hence if we were trained in pre-Vatican II
Catholicism, we might feel challenged or even dismayed by this parable. We were
taught that by going to Mass on Sunday, spending time in prayer and spiritual
reading, frequenting the sacraments, giving alms during Lent, abstaining from
meat on Fridays, and so forth, we would pile up merits so that the punishment
due to our sins would be canceled out. That teaching has been downplayed since
the Second Vatican Council, but the temptation remains for people on the
spiritual journey, particularly if their experience of prayer is going well. If
we enjoy special favors, we might be in great trouble. We might slip into the
presumption that our good deeds had earned those gifts. Hence the necessity of
trusting in God's mercy and not in our own spiritual experiences or
accomplishments.
How do we get into
the kingdom if it is not something that we can earn? We enter the kingdom not by
meriting but by consenting to the invitation. In the parable, grace is
symbolized by the mysterious need of the householder for more workers, and it
seems to be urgent, manifested by the fact that he went out every couple of
hours to find more workers. Those who accepted his invitation entered, and at
the end of the day all received the same recompense. Grace is God's need to
respond to our need. The inner nature of God is thus made manifest to us: God
has to respond, so to speak, to our needs. In this parable God's response is
directed to the people standing there in the marketplace, idle and wasting their
time, gambling, drinking, gossiping, snoozing, or whatever.
Jesus, in this
parable, seems to be trying to justify his practice of reaching out to outcasts
and sinners. Their behavior does not merit anything, but their need is great. It
is their need that he, as God's son, is responding to. Hence his behavior
subverts our idea of how to win God's favor. We do not. God's favor and mercy is
evoked in direct proportion to our destitution--to our lack of inner and outer
resources. Our need is what creates God's need to reach out to us, even if we do
not realize how needy we actually are.
The invitation of
grace to enter the kingdom goes forth again and again and again. No one is
forced to accept. The invitation is extended because of the total largesse and
goodness of God. The very definition of mercy is that it responds to need.
Infinite mercy of its very nature has to reach out to need. God's greatest gift
(response to our need) is, of course, to offer us the divine life itself. This
is why Jesus reached out to public sinners. In manifesting the heart of the
Father, he had to show the Father's urgent concern for those most in need of his
grace and help. Grace and help, of course, are just as gratuitous for the
well-behaved.
Respectable folks in
general do not like this parable. By respectable I mean those who observe the
norms of conventional society, but who are unaware of how much their unconscious
programs for happiness are at work in their lives, and how significant a part of
their good deeds are secretly motivated by the desire for acclaim, power, or
security. The false self easily adjusts to whatever our cultural mindset may be
and co-opts good deeds as easily as the not-so-good. On the spiritual journey we
need to be alert to our secret motivation. Although self-knowledge does not cure
the disease, at least it disposes us to work toward healing, because it shows us
the harm we are doing to ourselves and to others. In trying to face the dark
side of our personalities, mixed motivation, and the damage done to us in early
childhood, our attitude toward our very real limitations is more important than
their healing. indeed, it is a major part of our healing.
The bottom line of
this teaching is that the kingdom is not based on human standards of justice and
equity, but on the infinite mercy of God whose principal need is to respond to
the desperate state of the human condition.
The fallen human
condition is where the kingdom is most active. We are the people for whom Jesus
Christ has come in the flesh to express the infinite concern of the Father for
our sins and their consequences. The spiritual journey enables us to appreciate
more and more the total gratuity of the divine goodness. Acceptance of the
invitation is the key to belonging to the kingdom. We are not prize packages. We
recognize that boundless compassion is the way God is. It is because God is our
Father and Mother that we are invited into the kingdom. That is why our
self-generated projects for holiness are questionable and why we need to
cultivate a disposition of receptivity and openness to the Holy Spirit. Reason
will not get us there. Good deeds will not get us there. The kingdom is sheer
gift.
The problem of a
faithful and virtuous life, as Scott points out, is that it creates the sense of
having earned something from God and thus misses the invitation. Justification
does not come through good works but through the divine largesse. Good deeds are
essential, but only insofar as they manifest our good will. Spiritual progress
is the sheer Gift of God. God is not waiting to crown us with a halo for our
good deeds. God is waiting to forgive us for our sins and press us to heart as
little children in desperate need of boundless love. This parable announces that
human standards of judgment have no place in the kingdom. A new standard is
present, which is God's infinite need to show mercy.
More information can be obtained by reading the book The Kingdom of God is Like .
. .by Fr. Thomas Keating. It is offered in our Book
Store.
