“Far from withdrawing, God became deeply and compassionately involved with his lonely, guilty, fearful, and insecure human creatures. Deep within him is the urge to mend broken people.”

    Why is self-giving love the greatest power the best news? The following parable answers this question. Even though it may make no logical sense to human beings, we must remember the sign: “Caution — God At Work!” Vineyards and Wages The land and climate of biblical Palestine were almost ideal for vineyards. Rainfall was usually sufficient, and the heat was not too great. Landowners usually planted vineyards on the many hills in Palestine (Isa. 5:1; Jer. 31:5; Amos 9:13). Hired laborers or the landowners themselves usually cultivated the vineyards. But during biblical times it was also a common practice for a large landowner to rent out his vineyards to a tenant (Song of Sol. 8:11; Matt. 21:33-43).’

    The denarius was the common silver Roman coin, and it appeared to be the daily wage of a laborer, who worked a full Jewish day (from sunrise to sunset). One denarius would equal about sixteen cents. Recall the good Samaritan paid two denarii to the innkeeper (Luke 10:35), which suggests something of its purchasing power in the time of Christ. Workers In The Vineyard (Matt. 20:1-16)

Jesus said, “Let me tell you a story...”

    As Jesus moved into Judea, large crowds followed him. Pharisees tested him. The legalistic, self-righteous, religious dogmatists among them misunderstood the activity of God and the rule of God in the lives of people. To them the power of self-giving love seemed like an enigma, a puzzle, a vague threat. To them Jesus said, “Let me tell you a story.”

A man has a vineyard and goes out early one morning to hire people to work in it. He hires several at sunrise and agrees to pay them a denarius, a daily wage. About nine in the morning, he realizes that he has so much work in the vineyard that he needs more workers. So he goes down to the marketplace, where men are standing around talking about the Romans and the weather, and hires them to work in his vineyard. At noon, he realizes there is still a lot of work to be done in the vineyard, so he goes back to the marketplace to hire additional laborers. And again at three in the afternoon, he hires still more. And, then, do you know what the landowner does? At the very last hour of the workday, with only one more hour of sun left in the day, he hires additional workers to labor in his vineyard.

At the end of the day, it comes time to pay the laborers. As he starts to pay the last ones hired, he realizes that they will take home practically nothing to pay for their daily food, clothing, and housing. So he does a great thing! He pays them a full day’s wage — a denarius. Then, he pays those who had worked all day the same standard wage for a day’s labor. But they begin to complain, feeling they have been unjustly treated. The landowner answers each one of them, “Friend, I’m not being unfair to you. Didn’t you agree to work for a denarius? As for the men who were hired last, I decided to give them the same as I gave you. Don’t I have that right? Could it be that you are envious because I am generous?”

    Jesus turned to the hard-hearted, stubborn, dogmatists: “Now do you see,” he might have asked, “why God works the way he does?” Self-giving love is God’s very nature. The single, most powerful force in the world is the self-giving love of God, as displayed in Jesus. How easy to think that people change because of force or threat, that real power is upward mobility. But God thinks differently. He works with things like mangers and moccasins. It’s called downward mobility. It springs from his very nature to love. Not that we deserve his love. He loves us because of who he is, not because of who we are. God is like a landowner who pays his employees, not according to their merits, but according to his desire. We can never fully understand God’s grace. God’s self-giving love cannot be bound by our laws, nor by our economics. Who are we to say how much love God should show to people?

This is Part 3 of a series.
(Next week, Part 4)

© 2001, Prentice Meador. Excerpted from Stories That Astonish: The Parables of Jesus, HillCrest Publishing, 2001. Used by permission.
Title: "God at Work: Downward Mobility"
Author: Prentice Meador
Publication Date: May 19, 2001

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