Commentary on the Gospel of

BD

 

ONE of Jesus' strongest parables: the vineyard owner (the Father) who goes out to hire workers for his vineyard (to pick the harvest to make wine!). The first group has a contract in justice for a daily wage: the usual and they know they will work, and eat and have dignity that day. Then four more times he comes out and chooses more, until at the end, with just an hour to go, he sends still more out. But at the end of the day everyone gets paid the same!!! What's going on here? And those who worked hardest and longest are made to wait on those who worked the least! And those from the beginning are angry and won't deal with the foreman (Jesus) and go back to the owner-claiming injustice. But God's justice is just this: that all are given hope, salvation, life for the day (what we pray for in the Our Father) and that all deserve, from the richest to the poorest, to the healthy to the sick, all are human beings, all are the beloved children of God. We should be grateful to know (if we start early) that we know and have the honor of working for the wine of the kingdom and have pity for those who come late and have missed so much. Who are we? Do we like, or love this God of the least, the last, who puts us all on the same footing? Or are we angry, wanting God to treat us differently than 'them'?

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