Once again, we can easily miss some of the story of the parable, as in Matthew 20:1-16a, the gospel reading for today. This is the story of the payments a landowner gave to people who worked for various lengths of time. As Westerners, we don’t always understand that landowners and other wealthy people in ancient times sometimes acted as employers, but other times as patrons. In this story, the landowner could be considered as both. When he pays the people who worked a full day a full day’s wages, as expected, he was perhaps acting as an employer. And, when he pays the others, who worked less time, the same amount, he was serving as their patron, treating them as family.
Another misunderstanding as we read the story is caused by differences in worldview. While we definitely have poverty in the Western world, many Western countries are seen as lands of plenty. On the other hand, many people, even today, live in what seems to be a land of limits, where there is never enough, and where even asking for work, rather than waiting until it is offered, is shameful.
Even knowing this, we may well proclaim that the landowner wasn’t being fair. We may well believe that the full-day workers deserved a full day’s wage and the others did not. But then, do we always want what is really fair? If we see God as the landowner, aren’t we a little more lenient in our judgment? Aren’t we sometimes thankful that we receive more of God’s grace than we truly deserve? Do we believe that if someone else receives God’s blessing, God won’t have enough blessings for us as well? Do we sometimes forget that, as the song says, “Our God is an awesome God”?