The Absent-minded Vineyard Owner and the Upside Down Logic of the Eleventh Hour

Matthew 20:1-16

If you read the parable of the vineyard owner in Matthew 20, you might get the impression that he is a little strange! It’s like he doesn’t understand how a clock works and he doesn’t even know how to plan out the workday. Who ever let this guy be boss? Why, for instance, would he show up at 5:00 p.m. (the eleventh hour) on a workday that ends at 6:00 p.m. and go on some last-minute hiring spree? This guy's actions defy reason. And since we’re reasonable people, we just don’t get it. We have a thinking problem.

Back in the late 80s and early 90s, the church I attended used to have a visiting minister who would preach about once a year. He would often begin his sermon by directing us to put our hands on our foreheads as he would say, “Now, everyone touch your problem!” It was always good for a chuckle, but think about it. While is seems natural to reason our way through life, sometimes we find that what we are really doing is reasoning our way out of it. Despite this, we keep digging in our heals, fighting to hold on to our own way of thinking. Sometimes, we just need to think different.

Those old enough to remember the late 1990s, Apple launched its famous Think Different ad campaign, using photos of famous, creative people who in their time had gone against the grain and pioneered new ground. We take it for granted that people like Martin Luther King, Lucille Ball, Albert Einstein, Nelson Mandela and others pictured on these posters stepped out of the status quo because they were real movers and shakers, not like us. That's because thinking different is a concept much easier to perceive than it is to execute and we know it. It’s even more difficult align our thoughts with the vineyard owner in this famous parable.

Remember when he asked the end-of-day crowd, “What are you doing here standing around doing nothing?” If he was the boss, wouldn't he know? Wasn't he the one who came throughout the day hiring folks and therefore also the one who didn't hire them? So from our perspective, he not only has issues working with a watch, he also seems a little bit absent-minded, doesn’t he? But remember, this is a parable.

Parables are tricky to reason out. They seem to mean one, or even a number of things, but can have an altogether different purpose than what we might have considered. Maybe it will be easier if we just take it for granted that the vineyard owner is just a bit out there and so we agree to let him hire us. After all, it beats standing around, doesn’t it? And we're a humble bunch at the end of the day. Nobody's hired us so we just figure that he sees us as a set of warm bodies that can fill out the last moments of his production line. Let's reason this out! 

Those hired earlier would surely expect to receive full pay, while we who managed to avoid the hot sun and long hours would likely be satisfied with less. But this parable isn't exactly about us and our economic sensibilities. While working in the vineyard should all make perfect sense, it doesn't; and that’s the hardest part about working in the vineyard. Come on everybody, put your hands on your head and, “Touch your problem!”

This parable seems to really be about what some translations call the vineyard owner's generosity, 

"I am not being unfair to you, friend. Didn’t you agree to work for a denarius? Take your pay and go. I want to give the one who was hired last the same as I gave you. Don’t I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?" (Matthew 20:13-15 NIV).

This word generous is from the Greek word agathos which simply means good. This parable is all about the unreasonable ways in which God expresses his goodness. Let's review! The vineyard owner hires those he wants, at the time that he wants them. And as long as they maintain their position in good standing, he pays them according to his goodness and not towards what their actions deserve or the extent to what their service might seem to deserve. That's crazy! Some might say that it is crazy good!

His ways are not our ways and so when his ways invade our thinking, they seem foreign to our minds at first. By our own reasoning, we are uncomfortable with his ways. So while the main message of this parable is about the vineyard owner's goodness, the emotion it produces is likely that of uncomfortability. When he shows up and hires us, we simply don’t have a grid for his business plan. In the parable, the vineyard owner’s actions defied both the early workers' and the late workers' sensibilities and expectations. 

Those hired earlier were uncomfortable with how the owner's goodness to others affected how they thought about things. And likely, those hired at the end of the day felt uncomfortable with a full-day's pay for an hour's worth of work. After all, simply acknowledging that “nobody hired us” was the only qualification they needed to obtain a position. Yet they would likely have preferred this sense of uncomfortability than standing around waiting to be hired.

Another thought for our consideration is this eleventh hour timeframe. Many modern eschatologies and end time theologies elicit great fear, but that is not the setting for this parable. Instead, it is one of hope where everyone gets to participate in the vineyard and everyone, whether slave, free, Jew, Greek, male, female, old young, etc. is given fullness for their participation. And, that just doesn't make sense.

So are we willing to work for this guy? He’s different after all. His logic seems upside down from ours, and to our way of thinking, he might even seem a little absent-minded. But maybe though, since it's the eleventh hour, it's time to start thinking different and begin to put ourselves out there. If we don't let the vineyard owner hire us, he'll go outside of those standing in line and will find those whose theologies of fear don't keep them from service.