It's All About the Grapes

Matthew 20:1-16

“For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. After agreeing with the laborers for the usual daily wage, he sent them into his vineyard. When he went out about nine o’clock, he saw others standing idle in the marketplace; and he said to them, ‘You also go into the vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.’ So they went. When he went out again about noon and about three o’clock, he did the same. And about five o’clock he went out and found others standing around; and he said to them, ‘Why are you standing here idle all day?’ They said to him, ‘Because no one has hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You also go into the vineyard.’ When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his manager, ‘Call the laborers and give them their pay, beginning with the last and then going to the first.’ When those hired about five o’clock came, each of them received the usual daily wage. Now when the first came, they thought they would receive more; but each of them also received the usual daily wage. And when they received it, they grumbled against the landowner, saying, ‘These last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat.’ But he replied to one of them, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong; did you not agree with me for the usual daily wage? Take what belongs to you and go; I choose to give to this last the same as I give to you. Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or are you envious because I am generous?’ So the last will be first, and the first will be last.”

Parables are meant to help us understand how God really works.  Jesus also tells them in a way that shocks the audience into really questioning what they have come to believe about God.  That shock opens a brief window of opportunity where they might… just might… be able to see God as God is, rather than the way they have made God out to be.

Seeing God not as God is, but as we have made God out to be wasn't only a problem of the ancients.  It's very much a problem of today as well.  Anne Lamont sums it up this way:  “You can safely assume you’ve created God in your own image when it turns out that God hates all the same people you do.”  Parables in general, and this one in particular, crack wide open a god made in OUR image and calls us back to see God as God is.    

This parable is about a landowner… but not just any sort of landowner… this one is also a winemaker.  That means he’s a little bit of a businessman, and a whole lot of an artist.  An artist whose artistic medium is grapes... their sugar, their acid, and their fermentation.  The perfect balance of sugar and acid in the grapes on the vine happens at only one, perfect moment.  When that moment comes, the winemaker wants every single grape off the vine and into the crusher as quickly as possible.  That’s why our landowner in the parable keeps going out to get more workers because THIS is that ONE… PERFECT… MOMENT.

He gets everyone he could find to start at 6 a.m.  They agree on one denarius for a 12 hour day.  But those workers he found then just weren't enough.  He goes to town again and grabs a second bunch and promises them whatever’s “right.”  Still, there aren’t enough workers… the grapes keep changing until they’re picked, you know!  He is obsessed with getting the grapes in perfect balance… there’s no time to talk about pay, THE ONE… PERFECT… MOMENT is slipping away!  He needs EVERYONE picking… he even hires people at “the eleventh hour”… that last hour’s push, after all, might make the difference in this vintage being Chateau LaFeat Rothschild or Bartels and James! 

Then the day is over.  The grapes are in and it’s time to pay the promised wages.  Everyone gets a denarius.  The one hour folks, the six hour folks, the nine hour folks and the twelve hour folks.  One denarius to each and every one.  Well, that’s just not fair, is it?  It’s socialism!  But the winemaker doesn’t care.  He agreed on a denarius with the first group and said he’d do what’s right for the rest.  A living wage for each is what he thinks is “right” regardless of what anyone says is “fair” or “socialism” or any other “ism”! 

That’s lesson one of this parable.  God cares NOT about FAIR.  God gives what is RIGHT… and what is right is what is needed for life!  But wait, there’s more!  Because a layer or two beneath that lesson, lies another, even more outrageous one.  That first lesson was taught by the businessman side of our landowner.  But just look at what the artistic side of our landowner has to teach.  Imagine that little town the next morning.  Everyone would, of course, already know the story... it's a small town after all!  They know when old Jim stops to get his newspaper.  They're certainly going to know about that nutty winemaker’s crazy payday!  It will have blown up social media over night and in the morning the whole town will be unanimously convinced!  This guy’s crazy!  And… AND they’ve already thought about next year… and oh boy!  Next year this guy’s going to be sorry when every worker in the tri-state area shows up at this guy’s vineyard at the eleventh hour to work for one hour to get a whole day’s pay!  To the folks in the town this winemaker looks like a complete idiot, right?  He’s done something crazy and he's going to pay for that crazy next year and everyone in town can't wait to watch! 

 

But is our winemaker crazy-crazy?  Or is our winemaker crazy-brilliant?  What’s the ONE THING this artistic winemaker cares about most?  Not his reputation.  He could not care less.  It’s certainly not holding onto his cash.  Maybe doing what’s right?  Yeah, a bit.  But what this artistic winemaker wants, more than anything else in the whole wide world is to get his grapes to the crusher in that ONE PERFECT MOMENT when every grape is absolutely perfect.  And what this crazy-brilliant guy has just done is to trick every single person in the WHOLE county to show up for just one hour of work next year at harvest… show up in that one PERFECT hour… the hour in which every grape has reached perfection.

THAT’S the sort of outrageous God we have!  A God who will do literally ANYTHING, spend ANY amount, disregard what ANYBODY thinks, to make sure, on that one perfect day, in that one perfect hour, by hook or by crook, by faith or even by crazy-brilliant flimflam that EVERY SINGLE PERSON in all of creation will end their day standing in the front yard of the Divine Winemaker’s Kingdom and receive everything they need to have an abundant and eternal life.  Amen.