Matthew 20:13-19: a reflection

13“But he answered one of them, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Didn’t you agree with me for a denarius? 14Take that which is yours, and go your way. It is my desire to give to this last just as much as to you. 15Isn’t it lawful for me to do what I want to with what I own? Or is your eye evil, because I am good?’ 16So the last will be first, and the first last. For many are called, but few are chosen.” 17As Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, he took the twelve disciples aside, and on the way he said to them, 18“Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered to the chief priests and scribes, and they will condemn him to death, 19and will hand him over to the Gentiles to mock, to scourge, and to crucify; and the third day he will be raised up.”

In the parable of the workers in the vineyard, some laborers who worked all day grumble that those hired at the last hour received the same wage as they did. The landowner's reply is pointed: Friend, I am doing you no wrong; you agreed to your wage. Is it not lawful for me to do what I choose with what is mine? Or is your eye envious because I am generous? The complaint was not that the workers were cheated, but that others received grace they had not earned.

This parable exposes a common reaction to grace: resentment that others receive what we think they do not deserve, especially when we feel we have worked harder or longer. The landowner, representing God, defends his freedom to be generous. His kindness to the latecomers took nothing from those hired first; it simply offended their sense of fairness. Grace, by its nature, is not fair in the way we usually mean; it gives freely, and that can offend those who are counting.

Ask whether you begrudge the grace God shows to others, the latecomer, the deathbed convert, the person who seems to have contributed far less than you. The landowner's question is for you: is your eye envious because God is generous? Remember that you too are a recipient of grace you did not earn. Rather than resenting God's generosity to others, rejoice in it, for it is the same generosity that saved you. Let God be as generous as he wills, and be glad, not grudging, that his grace is free.

Lord, in the parable the workers grumbled at your generosity to the latecomers, and their eye was envious because you were good. Search my heart for that same resentment of the grace you show to others. Remind me that I too am a recipient of grace I did not earn. Let me rejoice in your generosity rather than begrudge it, glad that your grace is free, the same grace that saved me. Amen.