Painting of: Vincent van Gogh, Red Vineyard at Arles, 1888
Ordinary Sunday 25th
Isaiah 55:6-9
Philippians 1:20c-24,27a
Mathew 20: 1-16
You also go and work in my vineyard
Today, through the parable of the landowner, Jesus himself helps us to deepen our understanding of God’s mercy and justice so that our lives may be filled with gratitude. The parable of the landowner illustrates how God’s mercy works and brings salvation to humanity. Moreover, our understanding of justice is broadened so that, in our daily lives, we may act justly and mercifully toward our fellow human beings and other creatures. By living justly and mercifully, we overcome the envy that steals joy from the heart, allowing us to be among the first without becoming the last.
It is narrated that there were three groups of people: those who came at nine in the morning, those who came at noon, and those who came in the evening. In fact, all of them had no work and needed someone to hire them. The landowner was certainly a busy and wealthy man. He could have remained at home or in his vineyard, concentrating on how to make his vineyard produce good fruit. To find workers, he could simply have sent his assistant to do it. Yet what is remarkable is that the landowner himself went to the marketplace to hire the unemployed men he found there.
He went out several times during the day. This means that he did not go to the marketplace merely by chance or for some trivial business; he went there deliberately to look for unemployed men so that they could work in his vineyard and earn money for a living. The landowner knew and understood their social situation well: men without work could not live well; they would become poor, and their position in society would become marginal. The landowner’s attitude revealed his heart and his disposition: he was a man of compassion; he was a man of mercy.
The landowner is God himself; God is a God of mercy. The landowner’s search for workers throughout the day signifies that God actively seeks human beings and helps them so that they may have fullness of life. There are people who hope for work and pray for help: “Seek the Lord while he may be found, call him while he is near.” At the same time, His mercy actively seeks them out in order to save them.
The manifestations of His mercy are described many times by the Psalmist: the Lord gives sight to the blind, hears the cry of those in distress, rescues them, and delivers them from their suffering. Thus, these groups of people working in the vineyard and receiving the denarius embody the reality proclaimed by the Psalmist.
We can also explore the meaning of time and space through the parable of the landowner. Time under God is the time of His mercy. The time of His mercy embraces all time, as the landowner went to the marketplace throughout the day: in the morning, at noon, and in the evening. The whole of time reveals His active mercy, for His mercy is at work from the beginning until the end.
Why? From the beginning, His mercy works and saves human beings. That is why the landowner went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard. His mercy continues to work in the present, as represented by those who were hired at noon. From the last group, we can see that even at the last moment, His mercy still reaches out to save. If the last group had not found work because the day was already coming to an end, they would have remained in a miserable situation. Yet His mercy still came to them at the last hour of the day: “About five in the afternoon, he went out and found still others standing around. He asked them, ‘Why have you been standing here all day long doing nothing?’” Then he said to them, “You also go and work in my vineyard.”
Past, present, and future proclaim His mercy; under His mercy, time becomes the time of salvation. Everything begins with mercy, and everything ends with mercy.
These groups who worked in his vineyard also show that His mercy is present in every place. Wherever we may stand, there is the mercy of God. In every moment of life, God’s mercy is present. Every place touched by His mercy becomes a vineyard. Time and space are united under His mercy and become the place where His mercy and salvation are revealed.
These three groups who worked in the vineyard represent His mercy for everyone. God’s mercy reaches all people, delivering men and women from every nation and tribe without distinction. All of us are the children of our merciful Father. His mercy is like a sweet grape that everyone can taste.
His mercy reveals His justice; there is a profound affinity between His mercy and His justice. What is His justice? His justice is His mercy. His mercy is His justice; God’s justice is permeated by His mercy. His justice is not equality based merely on rights or on human expectations rooted in self-interest. Consider this: what businessman would pay a worker who labored for only one hour the wage of a full day? Does that make God unjust in the eyes of the workers? No. There was an agreement between the landowner and the workers, and the landowner fulfilled that agreement without violating their rights. Moreover, it is the master’s prerogative to be generous toward his workers.
Once again, God is just, and His justice is His mercy. Beyond justice stands charity. His justice is a mystery: it cannot be fully comprehended or measured. As the prophet proclaims: “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”
His justice contains generosity rooted in compassion and love. It is filled with tenderness and care. In this sense, we can say that God is our merciful and generous Father. His justice is expressed in His love for His children.
The protesting workers, who are themselves deeply loved by the Father, illustrate how human beings can fail to be grateful and how narrow-minded they can become in understanding the justice of God. Their eyes are fixed only on comparison, and comparison gives birth to envy. They use the logic of the marketplace: I receive according to what I have earned. Within this logic, generosity has no place. Indeed, every possible benefit is expected for oneself; there is no room for one’s brother.
In fact, they should have been grateful to the landowner because they were given the opportunity to work in his vineyard and were paid according to their agreement. If the landowner had not shown mercy and generosity by giving them work in his vineyard, what would their lives have been like? Yet instead of gratitude, they chose envy. Their joy was destroyed by comparing themselves with the other groups and by calculating everything according to the logic of the marketplace.
As a result, they understood justice merely through comparison: I should receive more; I should have a better life; I should be more successful. They grumbled about the justice and mercy that God bestowed upon others. Yet they themselves had also received justice; they too had been saved. They forgot the Father’s caring love that had already been bestowed upon them.
Why, then, should they grumble about God’s mercy toward others? They should rejoice because our merciful Father is a just Father to everyone. They should be joyful because their brothers were saved even at the last moment. Envy and comparison only cause them to become the last: they were first, but finally they became the last. Why? Because they allowed themselves to be seized by envy. Envy creates turmoil in the heart, making it bitter and causing it to lose its beauty.
The bitter heart occupies the lowest place because, although they are already in the vineyard, their hearts are still in the marketplace. They should repent, as Isaiah says, in order to recognize and experience the mercy they themselves have already received: “Let the wicked forsake their ways and the unrighteous their thoughts. Let them turn to the Lord, and he will have mercy on them, and to our God, for he will freely pardon.”
Jesus Christ is the embodiment of God’s mercy and justice. Jesus is God’s mercy and justice incarnate. Through His suffering, death, and resurrection, we are all brought into the vineyard; we are working there, and we are no longer standing idle in the marketplace. In the vineyard, there is abundance, beauty, and joy. In God’s vineyard, time is the time of salvation, and space is the space of justice and mercy. The abundance of grapes, the beauty of the scenery, and the peacefulness of the vineyard lift our hearts to contemplate our merciful Father.
Meanwhile, the marketplace is associated with conflict, harshness, and noise. There, time is money, and envy easily takes root; it is a space filled with competition for wealth and popularity. Who would want to remain there without any work at all? How blessed we are to have been called into the vineyard!
Let us taste God’s mercy and see God’s justice at work in our lives. Let us enjoy the sweetness of His justice and experience the mercy of the Lord. Let us rejoice with others and be happy when they too receive His mercy and justice. Because of His mercy, we become rich; because of His justice, we are made strong. Then we can celebrate life with grateful hearts for His mercy and His justice, and for all that the Lord has done for us. May our gratitude find expression in the famous song Give Thanks.
Give thanks with a grateful heart
Give thanks to the Holy One
Give thanks because He’s given Jesus Christ, His Son
And now let the weak say, “I am strong”
Let the poor say, “I am rich
Because of what the Lord has done for us”
Whoever we are—workers of the morning, workers of the noon, or workers of the evening—we are blessed by His mercy and His justice. For this reason, our gratitude finds expression in the words of Saint Paul: “Christ will be magnified in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me life is Christ, and death is gain.”
The mercy of God and the justice of God are at the heart of the Gospel. Therefore, as Saint Paul says: “Only, conduct yourselves in a way worthy of the gospel of Christ.”
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