This brilliant question was one of the runners-up in our Ask Me Anything online survey last week, and the best way I can think of to address this question is with my favorite parable. It’s really a question about who-deserves-what, and in Matthew 20, Jesus told this story about a vineyard that really gets to the heart of the matter.
He said, “There was a landowner who was looking for workers in his vineyard, so he went out into the city at 6:00 in the morning to find some help.” This was a common occurrence; many people in Jesus’ audience were day-laborers who went out to the town square every morning hoping to be picked up that day.
The landowner picked a group of workers; these were the first round draft picks, the overachievers, the most capable workers. He offered them all a denarius – which was a coin that was considered a fair wage for a day’s work – and they hopped in the back of his truck and went to work.
Three hours later, the landowner went back out to find more workers, and he found some guys who were just OK – they weren’t first-round talent, but they had some skills. Instead of a denarius, he said, “I’ll pay you whatever is right.” They agreed and hopped in the truck. He did the same thing at noon, and again at 3pm, bringing more workers into the vineyard, offering to pay them whatever is right.
The more workers he brings in, the less skilled and valuable they seem to be. And when the vineyard owner goes out at 5:00 to bring in one more round of workers, you can imagine the guys that are left. Their clothes don’t fit right. A few of them are disabled. One of them is cross-eyed. They reek of whiskey. The 5pm group is not the cream of the crop. But he promises to pay them what’s right, and they hop in.
At 6pm, it’s quitting time. The landowner asks the foreman to line them up, starting with the last group – the 5pm scrubs who only worked for an hour – behind them were the 3pm guys, then the nooners, then the 9am crew, then the first-round picks, the 6am team, exhausted after working a 12-hour shift.
The foreman thanks the 5pm guys for their help, and he pays them each a denarius, a full day’s wage, for one hour of work. You can imagine the surprise others standing in line feel as they do the math in their heads: a full day’s wage for only one hour of work? I worked 3 hours; that’s 3 days’ wages! We worked SIX hours! Well we worked NINE! And the 6am crew is ecstatic: they’re texting their wives: “Put on something pretty, baby; we’re going out tonight!”
But then the foreman thanks the 3pm guys, and pays them a denarius, too, the same amount as those 5pm losers, even though they worked three times as long. He does the same with the nooners, the 9am crew, and the 6am team. Thank you for your help today, here’s your daily wage. They can’t believe it. Their excitement turns to anger, especially the 6am guys: “This isn’t fair! We worked longer and harder than anyone out here; we’re entitled to more compensation than these freeloaders!”
It’s lost on many of us how easy it is to live with that frame of mind. When life has been pretty good to you. When you’re born in America. When you’ve been relatively comfortable from Day 1. You’ve never had dysentery or smallpox. When you got the flu, the doctor didn’t show up with a bottle full of leeches. You got a good education. You’ve got a family that loves you. There’s never been a rival tribe across the river threatening to cut your head off and take your wife and children as slaves.
When your life has been a little too easy for a little too long, you kinda start to think you’re entitled to the comfortable life you have. The only logical conclusion, then, is that those who don’t enjoy the same levels of comfort don’t deserve it like you do. And religion complicates the matter even further, because you start to think maybe the reason your life is so comfortable is because God looks after good, church-going people like you.
Which seems to be precisely the kind of thinking that Jesus is warning against in this parable. Just because you’re a Christian, you go to church, and you’re a decent person compared to other people you know doesn’t mean you deserve anything more from God than anybody else does. Being a Christian isn’t about earning credits; it’s about the privilege of knowing God. The reward of working for God isn’t the payday; it’s being with God.
Salvation is really not about getting what you deserve; salvation is realizing you never deserved anything in the first place, and everything you have in life is grace. All of it. Every good thing in your life is a free gift you did nothing to deserve. Even some of the stuff we complain about is grace. Dishes in the sink. Oh my God I have to do the dishes. No – the proper response to a sinkful of dishes is Oh my God I have dishes! Think about the stuff we complain about and how entitled we sound when we complain. OMG I have to go to work. OMG I’m so sick of my car. OMG could the wifi be any slower?
I’ve talked to so many people who used to be Christians and no longer are because they prayed for something to happen and it never did, so God’s not real. Some of it is petty, but some of it is legit – like when someone they love gets cancer and they ask God to take the cancer away, but He doesn’t and they die. I understand the crisis of faith, but I also see how it’s born out of a deeper sense of entitlement. Their assumption is, “We all deserve to live long, happy, cancer-free lives, and we deserve to have God at our beckon call.” But when you study a story like this one Jesus told, the question isn’t just, “Why do 38% of people get cancer?” the more interesting question is “Why don’t we all have cancer?” Why do 62% of us never get cancer? What have we done to deserve no cancer?
The things we complain about are so often grace in disguise. Death itself is grace, in a sense, because if someone dies it means they got to live. And there’s no good reason why any of us is entitled to live, other than grace. The question isn’t “Why do people have to die?” The best question is, “Why does anybody get to live?”
I think Jesus is saying the key to real joy and freedom is realizing that no one – including God – ever owed you anything. You’re not entitled to anything. And yet God has given you everything. And every single thing is grace. So instead of complaining, Jesus compels us to wake up every morning giving thanks, being joyful, saying things like “I have DISHES!” “I have a CAR!” “I have a JOB!” “I am ALIVE.” “I’m working in God’s vineyard, and I don’t care what the paycheck is.” Because I’m ALIVE and I’m with God.
