Today in the gospel we have another parable about what the “kingdom of heaven” is like. And when we hear the word “heaven” we immediately think two things: first, something way off in the future, definitely not now, and second, a world operating in a very different environment, maybe in the clouds, where everyone is on their best behavior and a whole different set of rules apply. So when Jesus starts a story that says “the kingdom of heaven is like,” we think he means this is the way things will be like in heaven when things are perfect. It will be great — off there in the future, when everything works like this.
But what Jesus is doing with these kingdom of heaven stories is offering us that kingdom right now. After all, he came to announce that the kingdom had arrived, and that it is a place that people who follow him can actually take up residence in. He wants the disciples to live as if that kingdom is already here, Sounds great, right? Heaven right now? But then there’s this story in today’s gospel, a story about a great way for the world to work off in the future, but a little hard to swallow if we’re thinking about right now.
It would be great, we think, in heaven, if everyone got paid the same no matter how hard or how long they all worked. Because in heaven, you see, the landowner in this story would be God, and we want God to be generous to everyone, even if they don’t really deserve it. At one level, that’s a message from this story we can happily accept. But it turns out this isn’t only a story about that future heaven, it’s actually about us, now, and we can tell that from the story, because this generosity has made people angry.
We hear a lot in the gospel about this kind of anger. You remember the story of the prodigal son who squandered everything and was welcomed back home, no questions asked. But you also remember how angry and neglected his hard-working older brother felt. Here again today, we hear the cry of “It’s not fair,” just like that older brother, and for the same reason. It’s the resentment that people who work hard feel when other people get more than they’re supposed to.
Generosity like this irrational generosity in the gospel where the landowner gives everyone the same pay seems to make people angry. It sets up a fight with a very deep part of our human nature. We all want people to get what they deserve — and in our minds, not everyone deserves the same. For some reason, it’s the successful hard workers, the people who do their duty and play by the rules, the people who win, those are the people who can so easily become resentful and suspicious, seeing injustice when the undeserving get a break they don’t seem to deserve. We’re in a pay for performance society, at least, that’s where many of spend most of each week, it’s part of the air we breathe, And if we pay attention to this gospel it seems to be telling us that the kingdom of heaven is run on some other principle that is chaotic at best. How can this world work sensibly if we reward the undeserving the way they’re rewarded in this gospel?
So if you’re wondering exactly what this gospel means for a parish full of early risers and hard workers like all of us, I’m wondering too. It’s clear that the message to us is that we need to avoid becoming those people who are always saying “it’s not fair” when the undeserving get more than they deserve. And to avoid becoming those people, the only person in this gospel who seems to have the answer about how to do it is this landowner.
We need some of his attitude, this successful man with work to get done who causes trouble with how generous he is. Like him, maybe we should be a little crazy and irrational in how we use our money, giving it to people who may or may not entirely deserve it by our usual standards. Maybe like him, we can go out looking for people who got here late, people who need a break, the people who aren’t getting hired even at the end of the day. Or maybe when you drive down Witherspoon Street in Princeton at 7:00 in the morning and you see a crowd of Latino men waiting to get picked up as day laborers, you’ll realize it’s this gospel scene still here 2,000 years later, and maybe you’ll wonder whether they have a landowner to work for who will give them a living wage, which is all this landowner in the gospel is trying to do. This kingdom of heaven Jesus is trying to get us to live in today involves real people and real money, and he wants this story of the resentful workers to push us pretty hard towards a more gentle and generous way of looking at both.
There really is no doubt that the kingdom of heaven is a world turned upside down. It turns out that Jesus likes latecomers who only did an hour’s work. He also likes younger children, repentant sinners who take a long time to repent, prodigals who come home, and people rushing into the banquet at the last possible minute. It’s a kingdom where everyone gets what they need, whether they worked hard all along or snuck in at the end of the day. It’s a place where the imperfect are given way more than they deserve, and if we’re honest, that is the kind of kingdom that all of us imperfect people should get to work building.