The 5 o'Clock Workers

You see them on the street corner—lean, tired men whose sunken eyes search yours for a sign—they hold a square of cardboard that reads: “Will work for food.” You see them, groups of men gathered outside the local Home Depot to wait for work, smoking silently or chatting with a companion, watching the passing traffic for that pickup truck to come their way. It might be a painting job, or a landscaper needing strong backs for a day or so; it’s always a hand-to-mouth existence for a day laborer. The truck stops, a knot of men crowd around the driver’s window, gesturing and talking loudly…two jump into the pickup bed and the other five or six silently return to the curb, back to waiting and watching. That’s the context of the story Jesus told his disciples. Jesus had just shaken up his hearers by suggesting that being a good Jewish boy, respected in the local synagogue and loaded with money wasn’t nearly enough to get you into the Kingdom of heaven. Rather, he said: “Many who are first will be last, and many who are last will be first.” He told the story of the landowner you just heard. The hired day laborers were the lowest class of workers in society. If they didn’t work, they didn’t eat. Even slaves were never in danger of starving. Jesus told of the landowner who went out to hire the first bevy of workers by seven in the morning. At 9:00am the boss made another sweep through the marketplace, putting some late risers to work. At 12 and 3 o’clock he came through again, and at 5 o’clock in the afternoon he found a few more who had long given up hope of work, saying: “What are you doing standing around? Get on down to the vineyard and get busy.” The surprised men jumped up, ran to the vineyard and pitched in the last hour of the day. So how is the kingdom of heaven, or the King of heaven, like this landowner? This parable is a testimony to the generosity of God. God found some of you at 7:00am. Your folks probably got you up and had you ready—perhaps they taught you the importance of a lifetime of service in the landowner’s vineyard, and when the truck rolled into the market, you jumped on. Some of you he found at 9:00am or even 12 noon. You took a little longer to come around, but gladly got to work when you were called, and you’ve been plugging away ever since. Some of you weren’t found until 3 pm, or even 5pm, when the Lord walked in on your card game at the marketplace. You’d given up any thought of work for the Master, and were shocked when the door flew open and the Landowner stepped through with a smile and said: “What in the world are you hanging around for? Come on, let’s make something of this day.” So here you are, hoe in hand, at work in the Master’s vineyard. You’re a little embarrassed that it’s so late in the day, but it’s great to be found by Him. Be comforted by this: with great generosity, God sought you out. He is just as happy at finding people at 5 PM as he is with those found at 7:00 AM…maybe more. His major concern isn’t the gifts, skills, and padded resume you bring to the job. His major concern is your need. He didn’t bring you in on His great work because He’s out of options, or because He lacks laborers. It was love that got you work in his good garden, love that cleaned you up, provided for your family, bound up your wounds. God does not pay attention to who swings the hoe best. His generosity seeks to provide for us all. Why does he choose any of us? Paul implores us: Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential, not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him. It is because of Him that you are in Christ Jesus. It’s not about us; we’re all five o’clock workers. Why did he pick you? He made you. He wants you…You are his….And once upon a time, he tapped you on the shoulder and reminded you of that fact. No matter how long you’d waited or how much time you’d wasted, you are his and he has a place for you.” And then it was payday. After the generous way he chose those who would be his, we might have expected a few surprises when evening came and it was time to hand out rewards. The Johnny-come-latelies were the first to be shocked, when they received an entire day’s wage. They felt like they’d won the lottery. An even greater surprise came for those hired early in the day. They were incredulous at receiving the same pay as all the others, and more than a little upset about it. They grumbled and complained: “Hey, wait a minute! These guys only worked one hour and you’re treating them just like those of us who slaved all day in the hot sun! No fair!” The Owner of the vineyard answered them gently: “Friend, we had an agreement, and I’ve kept my end of the bargain. Pick up your tools, take your money and go. I decided to give these fellows the same as I gave you. It’s my money isn’t it? Or are you envious because I’m generous?” Of course the Lord is generous to those who seem to sneak in while the door is closing, but what does that say to those of us who have “borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day?” How many times have you not gotten what you wanted from God…what you ordered…what you hoped for? Sometimes we don’t get the blessings we feel we deserve…sometimes we don’t like what we do get. Why are good people struck down? Why do good people’s marriages break up? Why do certain folks seem fated to carry unreasonably heavy weights of sickness or trouble? Have you been stung by the Master’s generosity to others, even wondering “Why does so-and-so get all the breaks, while my spouse struggles with sickness? Why did my loved one have to suffer? Why am I trying to do the right things and still I’m stuck in this job that’s going nowhere? Friend, I’m not being unfair to you…don’t I have a right to do what I want with what is mine? Or are you envious because I’m generous?” We can’t really see the whole picture. We look only at our tiny piece of canvas. We can’t peer into God’s eternal perspective where “a day is as a thousand years and the suffering of this present age is not worthy to be compared with the glory that will afterward be revealed.” We are invited to agree with the Psalmist: “The ordinances of the Lord are sure, and altogether righteous.” (Ps 19) and with Paul “How unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out” (Ro. 11:33). The only answer I receive about the seeming unfairness of it all is the answer I get when I look at the hands of the Landowner’s Son…at his feet, at his side. It is then that I hide my face with shame at the thought that I could somehow be more fair at passing out favors than the “Giver of all good things” “who did not even spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all...” Paul says, “How will he not also, along with Him, graciously give us all things?” A 17th Century Spaniard wrote about this generous gift: I am not moved, my God to love Thee by the heaven Thou has promised me Nor am I moved by dreadful Hell to stop from offending Thee. Thou movest me, Lord. It moves me to see Thee nailed to the cross and mocked It moves me to see Thy body so wounded It is the insults to Thee, and Thy death that move me. In the end, it is Thy love that moves me And to such a degree that even if there were no heaven, I would love Thee, And though there were no Hell, I would fear Thee Thou needs’t not reward me for me to love Thee For even though I did not receive that for which I hope I would still love Thee just the same He is the giver of all good gifts, even when they bear the disguise of suffering. In a parallel passage from Mark, Jesus recounted the generous “wages” that the servant of Christ might expect. “I tell you the truth, no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age—homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children, and fields—and with them, persecutions…and in the age to come, eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last first” (Mark 10:31). All blessings are His to distribute, even those that allow us to suffer. Life is sometimes hard. When we are confronted with pain, or death, or loss, or persecution, we cry out, “Hey God, this isn’t what I signed up for!” Will we be like the early risers who hammered out a contract before they went to work, or will we be like the latecomers who took the Landowner at his word when he said, “Work today and I’ll pay you what is right?” William Barclay wrote: Many a man in this world, who has earned great rewards, will have a very low place in the Kingdom, because rewards (blessings, health, security) were his sole thought. Many a man who, as the world counts it, is a poor man, will be great in the Kingdom, because he never thought in terms of reward, but worked for the thrill of working and serving. It is the paradox of the Christian life that he who aims at reward loses it, and he who forgets reward finds it.” Are you working for reward, or are you working because you love the Landowner? He has chosen you, picked you off the curb to work in his great harvest field. He has laid up for you rich rewards in heaven, and even now is pouring his love and grace upon you, sustaining you as you bear the burden of the work and the heat of the day. Love him, thank him, and stay with it. It’s almost evening, and the work is almost through. It’s almost evening, and everything will be set right. And today, if you find yourself idle, not yet engaged in the vineyard of the Lord, now is the time, today is the day to make a change. Though it is 5 o’clock