I just made a trip to Home Depot to purchase some things for the improvement of the Greenhouse Productions prop & wardrobe closet. The sight of those big orange letters and the smell of wood, glue, paint, and potting soil were like a soothing balm to my Western Pennsylvanian soul after months of concrete, sand and strolls through The Grove. It called to mind many an early morning or late night trip with my father to replace that one screw we lost or the extra sheet of drywall we hadn't planned for...
…but I digress. The thing about Home Depot that stood out to me, the one thing that was unfamiliar, was the sight of so many men standing at the gates, hoping to be hired for construction work.
It made me think of the parable of the workers in the vineyard from Matthew 20:1-16. Do you know it? The owner of the vineyard went out in the morning and hired men to work for him for the day for a set wage. They were not enough, so he did the same at 9, at noon, at 3, and at 5 - right before the end of the work day. When it came time for the workers to be paid, they all received the wage he had promised.
Jesus goes on to say that those who had worked the full day thought it unfair that those who had only worked an hour received the same wage. The master of the vineyard reminded them that it was his money to give, and that he had given them the amount they were owed.
"Don't I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?"
And then Jesus interprets His story with the famous statement:
"So the last will be first, and the first will be last."
Matthew 20:15-16
So what are my thoughts? As humans, our first instinct after survival seems to be comparison - "...now that I'm pretty sure I'll live through the day, I want to know where I rank in relation to the five bodies standing in closest proximity to me..." - and we are pretty darn good at it. We, as Christians, talk a lot about giving up our lives for God and relying on Him for survival, but somehow the message of this parable doesn't translate so easily... we continue to do a stellar job at hierarchical organization.
Some Christians have a harder road to walk. Some get their hands dirty. Some get regular headaches. Some have hands covered in ink. Some hold Bibles; some, boom poles; some, guns; some... scripts. Some Christians work 9-5 at a desk, on a roof or in an assembly line. Others are actors, producers, writers, and make-up artists.
The value of the work is not found in what a person does, but in who has asked them to do it. God doesn't tell us to stack these callings against each other and see which is higher on the Tower of Babel measuring stick, He asks us to be faithful to His commands and to be the Body of His Church.
It didn’t matter to the owner of the vineyard that some men worked for twelve hours and others only one. He didn’t compare how much work they had done – instead, he stayed faithful to give them the wage they had agreed upon. In the same way, it doesn’t matter to God whether we join Him early in life or late, or whether we work in a factory or a production company. He gives all of His workers the same grace He promised.
Jesus’ statement that the last will be first and the first, last doesn’t mean we need to grovel to get ahead… it means we should stop thinking about who’s ahead anyway, because no one person's work in the Kingdom is better than another's. He is not saying that Z replaces A, creating a new, reversed, hierarchy. He’s saying that there is now no order except grace, which by its nature puts us all on the same level.
So there are my thoughts. Have any thoughts?
And if you can figure out my title, I'll give you... a high five or something. Googling is not allowed.
