The generosity of God

THE GENEROSITY OF GOD

Mt. 20: 1-16

It just doesn’t seem fair that a person who has worked for only one hour should receive the same amount of money as a person who has worked a full day in the burning heat.  What would be the point of getting up early to get to work at the beginning of the day when you could turn up at the last hour and get paid for a whole day’s work?  Yet this is what happened in the story Jesus told us of the landowner. 

The first men hired by the landowner to work in his vineyard were resentful when he did not pay them more than those who had worked fewer hours.  They failed to realise that out of generosity the landowner had both hired them and paid all of them a full day’s wage in order that they could return home with sufficient money to feed their families.  Had he not hired them, they and their families would have been left without food.  They wrongly judged the landowner to be unjust and were completely blind to his generosity.  The whole point of this story was to stress the generosity of God.  By telling this story Jesus is indicating that we need to change our way of thinking and to see God ways with new eyes.

Here is a case where we must not take the Bible literally.  Jesus by telling us this story is not laying down a rule of how wages should be paid.  He is not talking about a real vineyard but the Kingdom of Heaven.  The owner of the vineyard is God.  Whether you are a cradle Catholic and tried all your life to be a good one or whether you are received into the Church after you have retired from work or on your death bed you will be awarded the same wage, a place in the Kingdom of God.  Jesus is telling us that God does not have favourites.  We are all His children and we are all treated the same.  It is a story telling us about the depth of God’s love.

This parable is not about rewards but about salvation.  It is a strong teaching about grace, God’s generosity.  We shouldn’t begrudge those who turn to God in the last moments of life, because in reality no one deserves eternal life.  Many people, we don’t expect to see in the Kingdom, will be there.  The criminal who repented as he was dying on his cross will be there with people who have believed and served God for many years.  We must not resent God’s gracious acceptance of the despised, the outcast, and even sinners who have turned to Him for forgiveness.  We must not be jealous of what God has given to another person?  We should focus on God’s gracious benefits to us and be thankful for what He has given us. 

This is not the first time Jesus has spoken about the generosity of God.  He told us about the shepherd who had a hundred sheep and who treated all his flock equally.  When one had lost its way, he didn’t say well at least I have my ninety-nine.  No, he loved the lost one just as much as he loved the ninety-nine and searched and did not rest until he found it and restored it to his flock.  He also told the story of the father who had two sons.  When one son had left home the father was never the same.  It seemed as though a part of him was missing.  He would never be happy again until his son had returned home.  When the wanderer eventually did come home, he was loved just as much as the son who had never let him down.  When the older son was envious at the welcome his father had given him, it was the father’s turn to explain just how generous he had been.  He had enough love for both of them, the one who had worked hard all the time and the one who had asked for his inheritance.  What beautiful words, ‘You are with me always and all I have is yours.  But it was right we should celebrate and rejoice,’ are so similar in content and tone to the words of the landowner, “Have I no right to do what I like with my own?  Why be envious because I am generous?”

Heavenly Father, we thank You for the generous love You have for all Your children.  We pray for converts who even at the eleventh hour are rewarded as cradle Catholics are.

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