Jonah 3:10—4:11; psa 145:1-8; phi 1:21-30; Matthew 20:1-16

My first job was as a dishwasher in a hospital cafeteria. The full-timers would work during the day – the breakfast and lunch shift, while us part-timers would work the dinner shift. It was a private Catholic hospital, with chefs preparing the meals. We’d slop in onto trays, put the trays on huge carts, haul the carts up to the different units, scrub the pots and pans the chefs used, bring the carts back down after the patients ate, unload them, run all the dishes through the dishwasher, put them all away, finish more pot scrubbing, and clean the entire kitchen and serving area.

For $1.07 an hour.  Some of you are thinking, “Slave wages!” Others are thinking, “In my day, we worked for $1 a month. And we were glad to have it!” But in the early 70’s that was typical, minimum wage. I’d been working there for a couple of years, and had risen through the ranks to the elite position of “boy in charge.”  As senior member of my crew, I decided I’d use my new prestige to my benefit. I went in to my boss, Sister Stephanie, and asked – no, demanded! – a raise because of my long-time service, my dedication, my hard work, and my seniority. She had no choice, when confronted with my arguments, but to raise my hourly wage from $1.07 to $1.21. I was quite pleased.

Until I discovered everyone got the same raise because minimum wage had increased. I was crushed.

Why would I be so happy one minute, and so defeated the next? Because it wasn’t the raise itself, it was my desire to make more than everyone else that I was really after. I wanted status, privilege, respect. I wanted to appear better, more authoritative, higher up than the peons only making $1.07. I wanted them to look at me with awe, and say, “Wow. He’s ‘boy in charge,’ and he makes $1.21! He must be good.”

Sound silly when I say it out loud. But take that same line of thinking and see if it fits in your life. Don’t you want people to respect you? To think highly of you? To recognize your status? Maybe not through dishwashing, but through athletic ability, job title, size of your office, grades, toughness, vehicle, style of dress, or even church tenure? And sometimes, if you don’t get the respect and admiration you feel you’ve earned, don’t you feel slighted? I’d worked harder than most in that hospital, was more reliable, I’d been there longer, and I was only making the same amount as they were.

It’s to people like us that Jesus is speaking. We have to back up and take a look at what’s been going on with Jesus so we can understand better why he’s telling this parable.

Right before this text two people have asked Jesus a question. First, a young man came up and said, “Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life?”  How do I get what I want? Jesus said to keep the law. The young man said, “which ones?” Jesus gives him an overview. The man looked at Jesus the way I looked at my fellow workers when I first got the raise to $1.21. He said, “Yup, done all that. Got eternal life in the bag. Anything else? Any other way to prove I’m deserving of everlasting life?” Jesus said, “give away everything you own, and come follow me.”

Then Peter asks, “Hey, that’s what we’ve done! We’ve left everything and followed you. So we must be better than this guy. What do we get?” Jesus replies, “you’re doing fine. But know this, many who are first will be last, and the last will be first.”

Then he tells this parable, and it ends with the same statement, “So the last will be first, and the first will be last.”

Why are those who worked all day so disturbed when those who only worked an hour got the same as they did? Why are we so bothered when others seem to get extra?

Bottom line? I think it’s because we think we deserve more. Look at us – we’re here in church while those others are out golfing, or biking, or sleeping. We’re the ones making the effort, who gave up golf and an extra hour’s sleep. We ought to be rewarded by God for that!

Beyond that, we’re the ones who put in a good day’s work, or who are least looking for work. We’re the ones taking care of our families, going to school, being productive. We’re the ones who pay our taxes, who speak English, who obey the law, who mind our own business. If we don’t get something for all that, then what’s the point? If everyone got the same thing, no one would work, no one would try, no one would care. Society would be chaos.

So when we complain about it, Jesus speaks to us and says, “Friend, I am doing you no wrong; did you not agree with me for usual daily wage? Take what belongs to you and go; I choose to give to this last the same as I give to you. Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or are you envious because I am generous? So the last will be first and the first will be last.”

Jesus, who is the one who knows, who is the undisputable authority on this, tells us that getting what you deserve isn’t how the kingdom of God works. God is generous. God is gracious. God is merciful and forgiving and loving to everyone. All equally. All being loved to the maximum. That can be agitating. But it is who God is and how the kingdom God brings operates.

And we who are baptized into this kingdom are being influenced by God toward this “last will be first” kind of living. As God interacts with us we become more generous, more gracious, more merciful and forgiving and loving. We can cooperate or not. But God moves us to be generous not merely to those who are “boy in charge,” but especially to those who aren’t. God’s kingdom has come amongst us in Jesus. It is here and it’s real; and everyone is invited. Even you and me. Because we have a generous God.