A Lesson on Charity

Once upon a time St. Peter graciously opened the pearly gates for a man who had been knocking for a while. But as soon as he went in, his jaw dropped at the sight of those who stood there to greet him. Never in a thousand years could he have imagined that some of them would be found there. 

However, his expression soon changed as he saw the surprised look on their faces to see him there in heaven.

All of us need and benefit from the infinite generosity of Jesus Christ. We don’t even have to knock at the door of his heart or seek him out on our way, because he goes looking for us, just as in the parable, the owner went looking for workers at every hour of the day, even to the last. All we have to do is accept his offer to come into the vineyard.

But sometimes we don’t realize how much we benefit from Christ’s generosity, and we often begrudge mercy and forgiveness to others, whose weakness or malice is so obvious to us.

Lucky for us and for every human being that God is not like us in this regard. God can see through even the hardest of hearts into its depth, where the image of Christ is permanently lodged. Because God has been divinely generous in creating us, He is divinely generous in redeeming us.

Today’s parable is about attitudes proper of a mature Christian. “What is a mature Christian’s attitude toward the distribution of God’s gifts, and the use of his own?”

We will look for the answers by considering the primary meaning of Jesus’ parable, then go on to the lessons of charity it teaches us, and the way to apply them. 

The primary purpose of this parable is to instruct us in the way God distributes his gifts.The owner upsets his employees by giving to the late-hired workers as much as the first-hired. Many people still think this is unfair. This Gospel can offend our legalistic sense of justice. What is the point that Jesus was trying to make to the people of his time?

In Palestine in the time of Jesus, the men who were standing in the marketplace were not “kantoboys” loafing around. The market place was the equivalent of a recruiting center. A man came there first thing in the morning, carrying his tools, and waited until someone hired him. 

The men who stood in the marketplace were waiting for work, and the fact that some of them stood on until even five o’clock in the afternoon are the proof of how desperately they needed to work.

These men were daily wage earners; they were the lowest class of workers, and life for them was always desperately uncertain. The daily wage laborers were entirely at the mercy of chance employment. 

They were always living on the semi-starvation situation. The pay was just enough to sustain their family for a day. If they did not find work, their children would go hungry at home. For them, to be unemployed is a day of disaster. However, some Scripture scholars tell us that the first meaning of the parable has nothing to do with money. 

It was a lesson on charity – God’s charity. Jesus told the parable to the Jewish people. They were the ones who had struggled through the ages bearing the burden of serving God, the vineyard owner. 

Now Jesus was telling them that at the Final Judgment the wages of salvation were to be given to these latecomers as well.

The parable teaches that God’s ways are not our ways. The part-time workers stand for the sinners and outcasts of the day. They were the people who took Jesus’ preaching very seriously and reformed their lives. 

They were people like the good thief on the cross, who repented at the last minute and was saved.  They were people like the prodigal son, who repented after leaving home and was welcomed back by his father.

The early workers, on the other hand, stand for people like the Pharisees, who became angry, when sinners repented and entered God’s kingdom at the last minute. They were people like the elder brother of the prodigal son. He became angry when his brother repented and                was received by his father with open arms.

In effect, Jesus says of these people: “Behold how loving your heavenly Father is. Contrast his great love with your own lack of love toward your brothers and sisters.”

Is that unfair or unjust?  Or were they forgetting that neither the Covenant, nor faith, nor grace is earned? The best things in life are free. The Jews retain the honor of being the Chosen People, the first called; but they are not the only ones called. In any case, God gives his gifts as He pleases.

Suppose we change the parable a bit. You are the employer, and a good person. All day you’ve been hiring people. An hour before quitting time, you find your brother walking the streets looking for work.  And you hire him.  When the wages are handed out, you slip him a full day’s pay. What could be more natural, more kind, more just? Well, let us remember that the men in the parable, who came in last, were Christ’s brothers, for every man is his brother.

What lesson of charity does this parable teach us? What is the practical application of the parable to our own lives? 

The parable of the vineyard owner invites us to ask ourselves about our own attitudes toward our needy brothers and sisters. How sensitive are we to their plight? Are we so wrapped up in our own efforts to make a living that we forget about them in their desperate need? Are we so insensitive to their plight that we even find ourselves begrudging them the extraordinary help they sometimes get from people like the vineyard owner?  How different is our heavenly Father toward us.

Let’s close with a story. 

The author Geraldine Marshall says that one of her fondest childhood memories of a birthday is not one of her own birthdays, but one of her father’s.

On one of those days, her father gave her a beautiful stuffed tiger. Geraldine was bubbling over with joy. 

Finally, after she calmed down, Geraldine said to her father: “But Daddy, it’s your birthday. Not mine. I’m supposed to give you a birthday present! Why are you giving me one?”

Her father took her in his arms and said: “Sweetheart, you have given me a beautiful present – the most beautiful present a daughter could ever give her father. It’s seeing the happiness that my gift has given you.”

Winston Churchill, the great prime minister of England said: “We make a living by what we get, but, we make a life by what we give.”