And when evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Call the laborers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last, up to the first.’ And when those hired about the eleventh hour came, each of them received a denarius. Now when those hired first came, they thought they would receive more, but each of them also received a denarius. And on receiving it they grumbled at the master of the house, 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 a denarius? Take what belongs to you and go. I choose to give to this last worker as I give to you. Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or do you begrudge my generosity?’ So the last will be first, and the first last.”
EEOC violation!! Yes, Jesus told a story about a man who went out and hired some day laborers to work for him for the day. He and they agreed upon the fee of one denarius. So, they went to work in the hot sun ALL day. But, the owner of the vineyard saw workers still standing around, later in the day. It was not because they did not want to work, it was because no one hired them. So, the owner agrees to hire them. At the end of the day he pays them all the SAME. In our modern world this would be front page news of another capitalist creating another inequity over common man. This is exactly how the world thinks. Jesus is not telling the story to give us a reason to pay one person one amount (a man) and another person another amount (a woman). He is telling us a story about what the Kingdom of Heaven is like. The tag line at the end of the story is: The last will be first and the first last. What Jesus is saying is that God can do what He wants with His kingdom. The problem with the narrative of inequity is not the concept of inequity. It is that the narrative of the story has become the one all and be all for all areas of life. If the modern day narrative of inequity were to be applied to the Kingdom of God, God would have an EEOC grievance filed against Him. God chooses whom He will. That is both the nature of Salvation and the nature of God. The world has some great ideas and the world has some bad ideas. Sometimes the ideas the world has are great ideas but when applied to all areas of life they fail miserably. In the above story the theme is that the owner wanted to express his generosity. Those who came to work at the beginning of the day did not like that those who worked less were paid the same. It should be noted (in regard to whatever this can teach us about equity) the those who came later were not paid MORE - they were paid the SAME. So, there was equal pay. Yes, those who worked all day worked longer, but that was their agreement. We should be very careful about our philosophies of life. They can at the same time please man but we contrary to good theology.
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