But Jesus, That's Not Fair!

Brad Sullivan

Proper 20, Year A

September 24, 2017

Emmanuel, Houston

Jonah 3:10-4:11

Matthew 20:1-16

But Jesus, That’s Not Fair!

“But Jesus, that’s not fair!”  That pretty well sums up the response of the laborers at the end of Jesus’ parable of the laborers in the vineyard.  They had agreed to work for the day for the usual daily wage.  They negotiated those terms with the landowner.  Then, when they found out that those who worked for only an hour also made the usual daily wage, they felt cheated.  “That’s not fair!”  Well, as a friend of mine was thinking of titling her sermon for today, “Suck it up, Buttercup.” 

Clarence Jordan of Koinonia Farms once said, “Whenever Jesus told a parable, he lit a stick of dynamite and covered it with a story.”  At first glance many of us, myself included, look at this parable and think, “Well that’s not fair, Jesus.”  Then we look a little deeper into the story, and “boom”.  The dynamite goes off.  Our notions of fairness and deservedness, our shoulds and aught tos get blown up. 

True enough, it isn’t exactly fair to pay those who worked only an hour the same as those who worked all day, but look at the alternative.  If the landowner was being fair it, would seem that the laborers who worked all day would have had the landowner pay for only an hours’ worth of work to those who worked an hour for only.  That would be fair, but that was 1/8th of what they needed each day to get by.  So, ultimately the attitude of the laborers who worked all day was, “in order to be fair, you should let those other people starve.  Ultimately, the laborers who worked all day were saying that those who were only able to work for an hour should die.  “Boom.”  The dynamite goes off.

“Well wait, no, Jesus didn’t mean it like that.”  “I thought it was unfair, but I didn’t want the other laborers to die.”  We hear Jesus’ parables, the dynamite goes off, and then while the dust is still settling, we often try to rebuild our world just like it was before Jesus’ pesky meddling.  “No, he didn’t mean it like that.”  “Sure Jesus is the messiah, but he didn’t really mean what he said in this parable.”  “Something in this story got lost in translation.”  It’s easy to try to rebuild too quickly, wanting the security of our previous notions of what is right, without first looking at what Jesus has revealed in his pesky parable dynamite demolition thing.

We often want this parable not to be about money, and it isn’t only about money.  This parable may not be Jesus’ instruction manual for economists, may not be, but the response is often to see the economic flaws in Jesus’ notion of generosity over deservedness.  “This wouldn’t work as an economic system.  You know what people are like.  No one would work more than an hour a day.”  Probably true, and that’s a fair point, but before we rebuild what Jesus demolished over that one security keeping argument, what lessons might there be for us as we consider this parable?

Looking at how people tend to get compensated for their work, we tend to look at averages.  What do others make on average for this same type of work?  That seems fair enough, but in the light of Jesus’ parable, a more appropriate question would be “Is this compensation enough?  While others might make “X” for this job, I know that “X” isn’t really enough in today’s world.  It may be fair in comparison with what others make, but it isn’t really enough.”

For a modern example of choosing to pay what is enough, rather than seems fair by comparison, Dan Price, the CEO of Gravity Payments cut his own salary by 90% back in 2015 so that all of his employees could earn $70,000.  I don’t know that Mr. Price was inspired by Jesus; I’ve read nothing to indicate that he was, but his example shows the possibility of living into the kingdom way that Jesus taught, even in our modern economy.  The company is still going strong, or was as of January of this year when the article I read about it was written.  There were some negative consequences.  Some clients pulled out of the company, fearing their fees would increase.  They didn’t.  Other clients liked what the CEO had done and began giving him their business.  Some of the employees didn’t like the new arrangement and quit because they didn’t think it was fair for those who had been earning less than they to receive the same as they.  These employees felt diminished by their boss’ generosity.  I tend to go with the title of my friend’s sermon on that one.  “Suck it up, buttercup.” 

Like the laborers in the vineyard who worked all day, they felt it wasn’t fair to earn the same as those whom they felt didn’t deserve as much.  Jesus again takes dynamite to our notions of fairness and to the comparisons we so often draw.  “Am I making as much as compared to others?”  “Should those people earn as much as I do when I compare the amount or kind of work I do with the work they do?”  “Do they really deserve to have enough for the work they do?”  “Don’t I deserve more than enough for the work I do?”  Boom.

Such comparison is something else Jesus dynamites in the parable of the workers in the vineyard, along with our notions of fairness and deservedness.  When the dust settles, we might just learn from Jesus that comparison may seem like wisdom, but it doesn’t tend to lead to a good place.  Comparison leads to jealousy and envy.  Comparison leads to being bitter about what someone else has rather than being happy about what I have.  Comparison leads to always wanting more.  Comparison leads to feelings of inadequacy and never being good enough.  Comparison leads to us being deaf to Jesus’ teaching not to worry; his teaching that we are enough as we have been made to be; his teaching not to put our faith in stuff, but to put our faith in him, to trust in our beloved-ness, and to love others as we are loved. 

Theodore Roosevelt, Brené Brown, and others have said variations of the following concerning the supposed wisdom of comparison.  “Comparison is the thief of happiness, and jealousy is usually it’s partner in crime.”  The laborers in the vineyard and the employees of Gravity Payments were happy with what they had, until they started comparing what they had to others.  Then comparison and jealousy stole their happiness away and did absolutely nothing to help them or anyone else.

To the cry that this story isn’t fair, I’d simply say, God isn’t fair, and thank God for that.  God’s Kingdom doesn’t deal all that much in fairness and deservedness.  God’s kingdom doesn’t deal in our jealous comparisons.  God isn’t interested in our hierarchies.  He’s not interested in us raising ourselves up above others because we feel that our greater efforts make us deserving of greater benefits.  In God’s Kingdom, Jesus dynamites or concepts of deservedness, fairness, and comparison.  Then in the crater and debris that is left, Jesus teaches us, and God builds up in us his love, his selflessness, and his generosity toward others.