Offensive Generosity

Matthew 20:1 & 9-16

“For the kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. . . . And when those hired about the eleventh hour came, each of them received a denarius. Now when those hired first came, they thought they would receive more, but each of them also received a denarius. And on receiving it they grumbled at the master of the house, saying, ‘These last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat.’ But he replied to one of them, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius? Take what belongs to you and go. I choose to give to this last worker as I give to you. Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or do you begrudge my generosity?’ So the last will be first, and the first last.”

A. Orendorff

Coming on the heels of Matthew 19:30—“many who are first will be last, and the last first”—Jesus’ parable of the generous landowner is meant to serve as both an illustration of God’s lavish grace as well as a corrective to Peter’s self-serving question in 19:27, “See, we have left everything and followed you. What then will we have?” At first, in chapter 19, Jesus responds positively, “Be assured, you will certainly be rewarded: Everyone who has sacrificed to follow me will receive a hundred fold what they’ve lost. In the new world, you will receive eternal life. Even more staggering, you yourselves will sit on upon twelve royal thrones and judge the very tribes of Israel.”

In chapter 20, however, Jesus balances these rewards with the reality that the disciples will not be the sole recipients of this generous inheritance. Many will come at the “eleventh hour” and will likewise receive the very same payment for their labor. “Be careful,” Jesus tells them, “that you don’t grumble against my Father’s generosity. Do not begrudge how He chooses to distribute what belongs to Him.”

The central thought in both passages is this: “The last will be first, and the first last.” And yet the meaning of this phrase is slightly different in each setting. In chapter 19, Jesus is telling his followers to rethink the way the world operates: namely, those who are rich and powerful will one day be displaced by the poor and the weak. In chapter 20, Jesus is telling his followers to rethink the way God operates. As Wright says:

God’s grace, in short, is not the sort of thing you can bargain with or try to store up. It isn’t the sort of thing that one person can have a lot of and someone else only a little. The point of the story is that what people get from having served God and his kingdom is not, actually, a “wage” at all. It’s not, strictly, a reward for work done. God doesn’t make contracts with us, as if we could bargain or negotiate for a better deal. He makes covenants, in which he promises us everything and asks of us everything in return. When he keeps his promise, he is not rewarding us for effort, but doing what comes naturally to his overflowingly generous nature (57).