SUNDAY REFLECTION (Matthew 20:1-16)

 

    In the parable of Jesus, that the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who woke up early that hires workers for his vineyard. The landowner and the workers agreed on a silver coin for the day, when the landowner went out at nine in the morning, he saw idlers in the square so he said to them, “You, too, go to my vineyard and I will pay you what is just.” So they went. The land owner went out midday and the afternoon and did the same thing.

    Finally he went out at the last working hour and he saw others standing there and he said to them, “Why do you stay idle the whole day?” They answered, “Because no one has hired us.” The landowner said, “Go and work in my vineyard.” And so they did.

    When the evening came, the landowner told his manager to call the workers and give them their wages, beginning with the last and ending with the first. Those who worked at the last working hour they were given A silver coin each. When it was the turn of the first they thought they would receive more, but they too received a silver coin each, upon receiving they began to grumble against the landowner.

    They said, “These last hardly worked an hour, yet you have treated them the same as us who have endured the day's burden and heat.” The landowner said to them, “I have not been unjust to you. Did we not agree on a denarius a day? So take what is yours and go. I want to give to the last the same as I give to you. Don't I have the right to do as I please with my money? Why are you envious when I am kind?”

    What I understand in the gospel is that even though the workers that were late to the vineyard, they were still given a silver coin - the same as the others that were early, a little late and more than a little late. The landowner let the earliest be the last to not get any grumbles when giving out the silver coin even though the landowner was generous enough to give coins to all the workers.

    I connected the kingdom of heaven and the landowner with his vineyard so even though you are late or early to believing in God, you are still welcome in the kingdom of heaven. We must receive what God gives us and rejoice at what others have been given. Sometimes, people expect to receive more because they believed first than others. That is why they are the last ones to enter so they will not grumble when entering.

- John Jobel Vicente