Jesus said, “For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. When he had agreed with the laborers for a denarius for the day, he sent them into his vineyard. And he went out about the third hour and saw others standing idle in the market place; and to those he said, ‘You also go into the vineyard, and whatever is right I will give you.’ And so they went. Again he went out about the sixth and the ninth hour, and did the same thing. And about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing around; and he said to them, ‘Why have you been standing here idle all day long?’ They said to him, ‘Because no one hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You go into the vineyard too.’
“When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Call the laborers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last group to the first.’ When those hired about the eleventh hour came, each one received a denarius. When those hired first came, they thought that they would receive more; but each of them also received a denarius. When they received it, they grumbled at the landowner, saying, ‘These last men have worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden and the scorching heat of the day.’ But he answered and said to one of them, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong; did you not agree with me for a denarius? Take what is yours and go, but I wish to give to this last person the same as to you. Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with what is my own? Or is your eye envious because I am generous?’ So the last shall be first, and the first last.”
Matthew 20: 1 - 16
If God really loves us unconditionally, then Hell should be an empty place. But if God is truly just, then everyone should ultimately get what’s coming to him or her. So which is it?
God’s love and forgiveness for us has no limits — it’s unconditional. He loves us when we do good, and when we do ‘not so good’. He loves the kind and the mean, the generous and the stingy, the saint and the bigot. Jesus calls us to love and forgive each other as God loves and forgives us — without strings.
The above Gospel is a parable about God’s generosity and how much he really does love us; how he never shuts off that love, never gives up on us; how he patiently stands in the wings as we go through the hours of our life journey, waiting for the moment when we realize he’s out there — the moment that we turn to him and love him in return; how, with God, it’s never too late. But this Gospel is one of those tough Gospels, like the one about the prodigal son, or about forgiving your neighbor 70 times seven times.
If we tend to be self righteous, it can offend our sense of fairness and justice. How does the worker who punched in five minutes before closing get the same pay as the one who labored all day long? How does the son who squandered away his father’s money merit a welcome home party while the son who added to his father’s wealth is out working and sweating in the field? How does the thief who was crucified next to Jesus get promised a one-way ticket to paradise after living a life of crime?
The underlying question here is: how can God be both the just God revealed by Moses in the Old Testament, and at the same time the unconditionally loving and forgiving God revealed by Jesus in these parables? This dichotomy is the mystery of redemption.
Jesus is telling us that God’s justice is not our justice. He is using these parables to teach us a great lesson: that God accepts us back from wherever we’ve been; that he never gives up on us; that with God, it’s never too late to go home.
If there really is a geographical place called Hell, I think it must be hard to get there. A person would have to know and feel in the depths of his or her being how very much they were loved by God, and then choose to turn their back and walk away from that love for all eternity. I can’t imagine too many people doing that.
God passionately pursues us through the hours of our lives. He waits and waits for the moment that we recognize his love and choose to love him in return. Maybe if we don’t get it right during the work day (the time that we are alive), God meets us at the moment of our death — five minutes before closing, so to speak — and makes us one more offer to still turn to him — an offer we can’t refuse. Maybe heaven is filled with the kinds of people with whom we wouldn’t want to associate. Perhaps when we sit down to our first meal in heaven, we will be stunned to see who else is around the table.
Perhaps God’s mercy and generosity extends even beyond the tax collectors and the prostitutes, to the bigots, the drug dealers and the worse villains in history. Wouldn’t that be a shocker! It would even be worse than seeing those last minute workers in the vineyard getting a full day’s pay. But even God couldn’t possibly be that loving, that forgiving, that merciful — or could he? And could he really expect you and me to be?
There is a movie I saw several years ago that deals with this mystery, the mystery of redemption, in a powerful way. It’s called The Bad Lieutenant and it stars Harvey Keitel in the title role. Though the message of this film is forgiveness and redemption, it contains language and scenes that could be offensive. So, I caution the reader that both the edited R version and the uncut NC-17 version should be viewed with discretion.
Harvey Keitel plays this depraved New York City police Lieutenant. He’s on the take; uses and sells the drugs he confiscates on the street; cheats on his wife; and abuses the teenage girls he stops for traffic violations — all in all, a thoroughly corrupt and decadent person. He’s a heavy gambler, and into the loan sharks for $120,000 for bets he lost on the World Series. The first hour of the film is used to develop his character as a truly unredeemable human being.
Eventually he is called in to investigate a brutal crime: a young nun is viciously beaten and raped by two teenage hoodlums while she prays alone in church. He presses the nun to reveal the identity of the teenagers, but she will not do so. She knows them well from the local high school, but has only compassion for them, for the poverty and hopelessness in which they were raised. She unconditionally forgives and prays for them, and refuses to assist in their arrest.
It is through this horrible crime that the bad lieutenant finds redemption. Moved by the unconditional love and forgiveness exhibited by the nun, and facing death himself at the hands of the loan sharks whom he has no money to pay, he drinks himself into a stupor and passes out alone in the church.
When he awakes, and reality sets in, he breaks down weeping on the floor in front of the altar. It is here that he encounters Christ, and begs for forgiveness for the bad things he’s done in his life. He is comforted by Jesus, and unconditionally forgiven. He is redeemed; and through his redemption he is able to understand and to forgive the teenagers.
Redemption, like so much of the reality of God, is a mystery. But it’s God’s mystery, not ours.
How can God be both loving and just? The answer is that he doesn’t have to be. Love is of God; justice is of the world. If we loved each other the way God calls us to, there would be no need for justice. And if we could feel in the depths of our being, how totally and unconditionally God loves us, there would be no need for anyone to ask for our forgiveness.
In the above Gospel, Jesus gives us some really good news — with God, it’s never too late to go home.
http://www.deaconlex.blogspot.com
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Readers of this blog might enjoy these books by Deacon Lex. Both are available on Amazon.com:
Just to Follow My Friend: Experiencing God’s Presence in Everyday Life
http://www.amazon.com/Just-Follow-My-Friend-Experiencing/dp/1456360728/
The Gospel of You, The Gospel of Me: Making Christ Present in Everyday Life
http://www.amazon.com/Gospel-You-Me-Present-Everyday/dp/1517176077/
Synchronicity as the Work of the Holy Spirit: Jungian Insights for Spiritual Direction and Pastoral Ministry
