Put Another Way

Okay, I know this isn’t Sunday, but I had some more thoughts about the reading from the Gospel According to Matthew from a couple weeks ago and I wanted to pass them on. So in order to refresh your memory regarding the issue, let me very briefly paraphrase the story so you know what I’m talking about.

Jesus was speaking to some people and teaching in parable. A parable is basically an analogy. It is a story designed to teach an abstract concept that can’t really be understood intellectually. In fact, the parables of Jesus are very much like the koans that Zen masters use to teach their students. If you really want to read some great parables that will keep your mind active for a few hours, try “Parables and Paradoxes” by Franz Kafka. Many literary scholars consider Kafka to be the best writer since Shakespeare (and yes, I believe that Shakespeare did indeed write Shakespeare, and for good reason too. Go back and read my blog on the subject.). But Kafka’s parables have nothing to do with the parables of Jesus, other than the fact that they are parables.

The point of a parable is that you either get it or you don’t. It’s kind of like a joke. If you don’t get a joke, someone can explain the joke to you, but then it fails to be funny. You listen politely, and then you say, “Oh, I get it, heh heh (polite laughter).” But you don’t really get it. It just isn’t funny because you didn’t see the humor immediately. The same is true of parables, either you get the point or you don’t. I teach using analogies all day long. Analogies, or stories, as my youngest son (now 31) calls them, are the best way I know to teach. The thing is, in my classroom, if a student doesn’t get an analogy, I can come up with a different one, and perhaps the student will get that one. If you really have to think about a parable, you don’t get it. It either hits you or it doesn’t. So let’s revisit that parable of Jesus.

Jesus told the story (which I updated) of a vineyard owner who goes off in the morning to hire some workers. They agree on what is considered a just wage and they go off to work in his fields. A few hours later, he finds some more workers and hires them. He does the same in the late afternoon, and again about an hour before quitting time. At the end of the day, the land owner calls over his foreman and tells him to pay the workers the agreed amount beginning with the ones hired last, just before quitting time.

The other workers, the ones hired first thing in the morning, start to complain. They felt that they deserved more since they had worked all day in the hot sun and the other guys had only just come. The landowner tells them that he isn’t cheating them. He is paying them exactly what they had agreed upon. He insists that he is free to pay his workers whatever he chooses. So in other words, what’s it to them if he decides to be generous and pay the guys who came late the same amount of money? Isn’t he free to do what he wants with his own money? He then tells the workers to take their wages and leave.

Remember the story now? Well, that story had always bothered me when I was younger because I also felt like the workers who came early were being treated unfairly. Moreover, I read this parable and thought, “What kind of God is this? This doesn’t sound exactly fair!” And some theologians use this story to show that our ways are not God’s ways, and since God is running the show, S/He can pretty much do as S/He likes. It isn’t for us to judge God. Still others would use this to point out that God will show mercy to everybody and that it’s never too late to come to God. Still others will simply say, as Ren said, that it is a mystery.

I think all these interpretations miss the point of the story, and I said so in my Sunday blog a week ago. But I think there is something in the story that still nags at most of us because we come from a post Marxian perspective (Karl, not Groucho). We see the workers as being cheated. However, in first century Judea, there was an agreed upon wage for the day. There weren’t any unions to negotiate the price. You were hired, you worked for the day, and you received the customary wage. It was as simple as that. But we are used to being paid by the hour. I guess I could compare it with those who receive a salaried wage. That is, you get so much a month no matter how many hours you work. Many people have jobs like that. Usually, people with jobs like that work a lot more hours than people who are paid hourly, but that is neither here nor there.

I think, in order to get what Jesus was trying to say across, I would prefer to use a different analogy that people in our time might understand more easily. So I’m going to leave the workers and the wages behind and give you a different analogy or two.

Imagine you are going to prepare a sumptuous meal. You get up early in the morning and tenderize the meat. You go out in the garden and harvest some fresh vegetables. You dutifully wash the vegetables and put them on to boil. You lovingly marinate the meat and put it in the oven, checking on it every once and awhile during the day to make sure it comes out perfectly. Then you prepare the soup—from scratch. I think you get the point. You spend all day preparing this meal, working your ass off. And then, at supper, your loved ones gather round to eat it. And they do. And they love it. It is delightful. You love it too.

Do you suppose that you will find that the food tastes better simply because you have worked so hard to cook it? Of course not! It tastes the same to you. You might get some additional satisfaction of seeing the people you love so happy with the meal, but really, you received the same pleasure they did, and you did all the work. They did nothing. They received the pleasure too.

Or, let’s say you spend a week while your spouse is out of town fixing up the house. You paint it inside and out. You repair every little thing that’s been bothering you about the place for years. You lay down new carpet and sand and refinish the kitchen cabinets. You manicure that back yard. You make the place beautiful. And on the day your spouse comes home from his or her trip, they are thrilled and grateful. You love the place too. It’s beautiful now. Do you think that you will enjoy the environment any more because you did all the work? Of course, you’ll get the satisfaction of (a) a job well done, and (b) making your spouse happy, but will you enjoy the colors more, or the carpet more? Of course not. Your spouse and you both receive the same benefits, but you did all the work. As in the meal, the benefits you receive have nothing to do with deserving them.

Now here’s a real earthy one. Skip this paragraph if you’re easily offended. Suppose you’re a young guy going out with some cute young thing with whom you hope to get lucky. You spend all night trying to be seductive. You take her out to a great dinner and then you go on a long walk on the beach. Later, you go back to your place and make her some strong drinks in hopes of breaking down her defenses (sorry ladies, this is how young guys think. It’s all about strategy.) And in the end, very late, you get what you want, and it’s great—for both of you. But there was no real relationship. This wasn’t anything more than a one-night stand for either one of you. So a week later, you find out your best friend also went out with her, and this time she “put out” a lot faster (and cheaper too). So your pal also had a great time with her. Do you think that you should have enjoyed the sex any more because you worked so hard to get it? I would suspect both you and your buddy had a great time. And I would hope she did too. The satisfaction you receive has nothing to do with deserving it.

As I mentioned before, the church in Antioch where Matthew was written had a population of Jewish Christians and Gentile Christians. And for some reason, the Jewish Christians thought themselves better and more deserving than the Gentile Christians because they had always believed in the “one true God” and had always followed the laws. So naturally, they thought that somehow they deserved a better piece of heaven than the gentiles. And what Matthew (and possibly Jesus) is saying is that God’s love is there for everybody and it has nothing to do with whether or not you deserve it. It has nothing to do with God loving whomever S/He damn well pleases, because it pleases God to love everybody. That is the very nature of God. God loves you whether you like it or not. God loves you whether you choose to accept that love or not.

So, using the analogy of the great meal, I could say that God has prepared a great feast for you. The table is set, and the plate has been set before you. There is nothing you have to do except to eat it and enjoy it. You don’t even have to do the dishes later. And I suppose there are some who might add that you could always choose not to eat that meal. I could also suggest that, as in any meal, you can take what you choose and leave what you don’t like. But I’d be wrong. And so would those be who suggest the former. Because this is just an analogy. Don’t mistake the parable for the truth. The parable only exists to help you understand the truth.

Analogies and parables are nothing more than teaching tools. Life is not a river. Time is not your enemy. Life is not a journey. Life and time are whatever you make them. The point of figurative language is to compare how life CAN be like a river, or a journey, about how TIME could be your enemy. But in the end, life is life and time is time. And workers get paid and meals get cooked. And the nature of God is to love.

Whether or not Jesus every actually said those things, the truth contained in that story is the same. What we receive from God, love courage, strength, faith, compassion, we do not earn. They come with the territory. And so the hard truth is that God loves G.W as much as he loves Joan Baez, although Joan sings a lot better. So there’s really no mystery here. It’s all pretty straight forward. God’s love lives in you. It’s up to you to share it. And God’s love for you is the same as your love for anybody. You don’t love your friends because they earn it. You love them because you love them. And God is just like you. But why wouldn’t S/He be? S/He was created in your image.