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The householder asked the laborers, “Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Do you begrudge my generosity?”
Matthew 20:15

In today’s gospel God is put on trial, and the charge against him is unfairness.  In the parable the laborers who have been sweating in the vineyard all day are outraged when the householder gives them the same wage that he had given to workers who had labored for a single hour.  The divine answer seems to be: It’s not my unfairness that is the problem; it’s your meanness of spirit. 
            Does this answer satisfy us?  Are we convinced that God really isn’t unfair after all, or that what seems to us to be unfairness is really generosity?  I think many people who hear or read the parable of The Laborers in the Vineyard have a sneaking feeling, which they don’t want to admit even to themselves, that the householder really hasn’t answered the grumblers, that people who have worked for twelve hours really ought to get more than people who have worked for only one, that the householder’s appeal to the original agreement (v. 13: “Did you not agree with me for a denarius?”) may make his action legal, but it doesn’t make it fair. 
            A lot of people go through life feeling that God is basically unfair, but since we can’t do anything about it, there is no point complaining to him, although we may grumble about his unfairness with each other.  God seems unfair because life seems unfair, and a popular best seller has tried to get God off the hook by suggesting that he really isn’t totally responsible for the bad things that happen to good people. 
            I am glad when anyone tries to deal with the problem of God’s unfairness or life’s unfairness, since I am convinced that there is nothing that poisons our lives more than our deep, dark suspicions about God’s goodness and the claim that God really loves us. 
            But one thing has always struck me in this matter.  Why is it that Paul, as he waits in prison for a possible death sentence, writes to the Philippians:

Only that in every way, whether in pretence or in truth, Christ is proclaimed; and in that I rejoice.  Yes, and I shall rejoice.  For I know that through your prayers and the help of the spirit of Jesus Christ this will turn out for my deliverance (1:18-19).

How is it that after all he has been through the apostle declares:

To remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account. Convinced of this, I know that I shall remain and continue with you all, for your progress and joy in the faith (vv.24-25).

Paul wants to die, so that he can be with Christ (v.23), but he decides to continue his apostolic work for the sake of the community. 
            It would seem, then, that the question of fairness or unfairness, of gratitude of grumbling does not have to do just with God.  It also has to do with us.  Some of the most grateful people seem to have the least to be grateful about, and those who have the most of this world’s goods often seem to be the most dissatisfied.  May the cross of Christ, the ultimate sign and proof of God’s love, enable us to believe in the reality of this love, so that we may bear witness to an unloving and cynical world. 

February 4, 2007

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