Scripture Daily

Context No. 2001 of 4322 · Matthew

Context · Reflection

Matthew 20:7-12: in context

7“They said to him, ‘Because no one has hired us.’ “He said to them, ‘You also go into the vineyard, and you will receive whatever is right.’ 8“When evening had come, the lord of the vineyard said to his manager, ‘Call the laborers and pay them their wages, beginning from the last to the first.’ 9“When those who were hired at about the eleventh hour came, they each received a denarius. 10When the first came, they supposed that they would receive more; and they likewise each received a denarius. 11When they received it, they murmured against the master of the household, 12saying, ‘These last have spent one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat!’

In Jesus' parable, the master of a vineyard hires laborers through the day, some at dawn, some at the eleventh hour with only an hour of daylight left. At evening he pays them all the same wage, a denarius, beginning with the last. When those hired first see the latecomers paid a full day's wage, they expect more; but they too receive a denarius, and they grumble: these last worked one hour, and you have made them equal to us who bore the burden of the day and the scorching heat.

The grumbling of the first workers exposes something we are all prone to: resentment at God's generosity to others. They had received exactly what they agreed to, a fair day's wage; they were not cheated. What galled them was that the latecomers, who had worked far less, received the same, that the master was so generous to those who seemed less deserving. Their complaint was not that they had been treated unjustly but that others had been treated generously; and the generosity to others soured their own fair reward. The master's reply exposes the heart of it: is your eye evil, because I am good? Their grievance was really envy of his goodness to others. This searches a subtle sin in us. We can receive God's grace and goodness in our own lives and yet begrudge his generosity to others, especially to those who seem less deserving, who came late, who labored less, who by our reckoning have not earned what they received. When we see God's grace lavished on the latecomer, the prodigal, the one whose life was long far from him, we can feel, like these workers, that it is not fair, that we who bore the burden deserve more, that God's generosity to them somehow diminishes us. But this is to envy God's goodness, to have an evil eye because he is good. God is free to be as generous as he chooses; his grace to others takes nothing from us; and to begrudge it is to resent the very goodness we ourselves depend on. The elder brother in another parable stood outside, angry, because his father lavished grace on the returned prodigal; and his anger at the father's generosity kept him from the joy of the feast. God's generosity to others is not a wrong done to us but a goodness to rejoice in. Rather than begrudging his grace to the latecomer, we are called to marvel that he is so good, and to rejoice that his generosity reaches even those we might have thought beyond it. Is your eye evil, because I am good? The question searches us: whether we can rejoice in God's generosity to others, or begrudge it, souring his goodness to us by envying his goodness to them.

When I see God's grace and generosity lavished on others, especially the latecomer or the one who by my reckoning seems less deserving, do I begrudge it, feeling that I who bore the burden deserve more and that his goodness to them is unfair, or can I hear the master's question, is your eye evil because I am good, and rejoice that God is generous, his grace to others taking nothing from me?

Sources