From the other side

For forty years every three years there would come a time when I had to read the story Jesus told about the farmer who hired day laborers. Once every three years the story would come up in the list of scriptures to read on Sunday. This is the story of the farmer who went early in the morning to the place where day workers gather and hired the people who were there. When he hired them they agreed on the price he would pay them for the day's work. He took them to the farm and put them to work. Then about noon, he had to go back to town so he dropped by the place and saw some more people, and he hired them. Turns out he was back in town about three o'clock and he rounded up the workers who had gathered there in the afternoon. When the end of the day came, and the farmer paid off the workers, he called out the last ones hired and he gave them the pay that he had agreed to pay the workers he hired in the morning. He gave those who were hired last the same pay.
Those who had worked all day were upset and angry that they did not get paid more if they had worked more. But they got paid what they had agreed was a good pay for a day's work.
This is a hard story for those who want life to be fair. It rubs against our sense of justice and equity. Fairness is not present in this story. But for the forty years I have worked with this story, I have never met a person who read this story from the point of view of the person who got hired last. Everybody who has discussed this story with me took the position of those who had worked hard all day, and they were outraged.
Nobody has thought about the hard working people who cannot find work. Those who show up at the day labor site every morning hoping to get picked up for a day's pay. Nobody has imagined what it must be like to have a family and children and worry every morning whether there would be somebody looking for workers so that you might make enough to buy food for the day. Nobody I have ever taught this story too thought about what it must have been like for those who had not been picked or who had not been able to get to the place on time. Maybe somebody was sick at home and the worker had not been able to get out of the house by early morning. Maybe there were other complications. The best they could do was to get there by mid-day and worry about missing a whole day. Where would they get the money for supper? Then they get hired by the farmer to work. At least, they think they will get a little something. Maybe enough for bread and milk. Then he pays them the whole day's pay. What a delight. What a surprise. What a wondering thing. They were going to be able to take food home tonight. They did not have to go home and be a failure at home for not getting work. They had been given a blessing.
After all most of us have not worked for all the blessings we have gotten. We have worked the last few hours on major projects and gathered the great benefits. We have not put in the sweat and labor to develop the internet, but we get the full benefit of it. We have not produced the food, but we get the full array of products we can choose from. Most of us get more than we deserve and are treated better than we have earned. There is something terribly wrong with the Christian church that has nobody in its midst that rejoices at the hearing of this story. For we are all the ones who have come to the work late and get the full benefit of the master.