NOTES for Mat 20:1-16

There are many "financial" parables in the Gospel that speak of reward in heaven, of acquiring the Kingdom of God like a field with treasure, or of capital that must be multiplied. Today's parable reveals another side of "heavenly accounting": those who have labored for God all their lives will receive the same reward as the idlers who barely managed to jump onto the departing train.

The paradox of this approach may cool the zeal of some "acquirers of the Kingdom" who are ready to labor for the sake of reward. But in reality this parable simply transfers the idea of value and reward from the result to the process itself. The result, the final outcome, may be the same for all: "God all in all" (1 Cor 15:28), especially since it cannot be earned, but can only be received as a gift. The special reward for those who are ready to labor is that they are already cooperating with God now, while others are still only waiting for an invitation.

We often want to impose on God our own earthly idea of justice, while His mercy surpasses our earthly ideas, however lofty they may appear to us. The workers of the first hour and of the last received the same pay, and in this is the mercy of the Father, who wants to reward equally all whom He loves. But we so want to be singled out for one merit or another, to have our length of service taken into account...

Yet in spiritual life the earthly notion of seniority has no force. Every day we stand before the Heavenly Father anew, and anew we are hired by Him as workers. The denarius with which He intends to pay us is so priceless that it exceeds any of our labors. Strictly speaking, our merits before Him are too insignificant for us to present them to Him, much less to set them above the labors of our neighbors. But He loves us not for our merits.

The parable of the workers of the eleventh hour, at first glance, assumes an obvious injustice. After all, would it really be right and fair to pay as much for a full working day as for one hour? From the point of view of the laws of the untransformed world, such payment is not only unfair but also economically impractical. And the fact that the vineyard here, as in many other biblical texts, turns out to be a symbol of the Kingdom once again emphasizes that the laws of the Kingdom and the laws of the untransformed world differ, and often differ radically.

And Jesus, of course, tells the parable of the workers of the eleventh hour for a reason, since many of the people listening to Him were deeply and sincerely religious. Among other things, these religious people were sure that, by conscientiously fulfilling their religious duties throughout their earthly lives, they would then receive their reward, having earned for themselves the right to enter the Kingdom and become its inhabitants. Jesus, meanwhile, makes it clear to them that earthly ideas about wages and fair payment for work performed do not apply to the Kingdom. And not because justice in labor relations is unimportant for the Kingdom; every kind of justice matters to the Kingdom. Rather, it is because the Kingdom, in principle, cannot be earned. Not in any way and not by anything. Not by any religiosity and not by any works of piety. And if these works and this religiosity are needed by anyone, they are needed only by people themselves on the way to the Kingdom, during that work in the vineyard without which they would not have received access to the vineyard itself.

And we have to admit that, as Christians, all of us today are in exactly this situation with respect to the Kingdom. Our age is the age of the approaching Kingdom, which enters our world and transforms it, but which has not yet been revealed in all its fullness. And each of us can have, and really does have, a relationship to this Kingdom insofar as we participate in building it, using every opportunity for this spiritual work. And when the Kingdom is revealed in all its fullness, finally transforming the world, each of those who built it will become part of this fullness. The whole fullness, not the part of it that one has earned. For the Kingdom is indivisible. It can be received only whole.

In mastering a science, everything is based on many years of labor, constant labor, labor that accumulates knowledge in you. You cannot understand higher mathematics without studying arithmetic and elementary algebra. You cannot understand quantum mechanics without studying the basics of optics, and so on. The same applies to any sphere of human activity, whether a craft, an art, or a technology. This makes up our life, and we become used to such an order. But this structure of existence is very earthly. The law of gradual growth is extremely harsh: if you do not meet a series of formal parameters, you are not needed. This is inevitable, because here it is not the person that matters, but the progress of the field.

And there is an opposite law, the law of love, love for the person. Here everything is different. Instead of gradual accumulation, there are sudden revelations that turn one's whole life upside down. Here such paradoxes can occur, one of which is described by Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh, when yesterday's seminarians asked him how they could regain the sense of God they had had when entering the seminary. In other words, everything had happened to them in the opposite direction: instead of the gradual growth that was expected, there was a feeling of distance from God. Because there is no method for coming to God, however many methods may be found in the writings of the saints. God reveals Himself to whom He wants, and in the way He Himself finds necessary.

At the turn of the century there was a happiness helped along by the misfortune of the Soviet era: to see human souls that found God only in old age. And how much wondrous purity there was in them, how much burning ardor, how much truth...

When the hired worker from the parable tries to be fairer than his employer, it is funny. When a believer tries to be fairer than his God, it is already a little frightening. Based on our human notions, God ought to reward so many according to their merits, and punish roughly as many as an example!

What is frightening here is that in our attempts to judge in place of God, we thereby move away from Him and become less and less like what He would want to make of us. Christ tells the disciples that in the coming Kingdom of God everything will not be according to our justice, that God will love each person regardless of anything. This is the new Kingdom, and those who intend to become its participants will have to accept God's paradoxical judgment: mercy instead of justice...

Jesus Christ pronounces this sentence several times in the Gospel. Apparently, it is important for Him to bring to the understanding of the disciples the idea that: all what people consider fit, precious, significant does not necessarily appear such to God's point of view. On what scale of values we orientate ourselves? Do they coincide or are they even close to the absolute scale by which God effects his evaluation? Jesus shows several times that such scale, such sample exists and that we can recognize it - it is Him Jesus. Only the usage of such sample implies the necessity of a continuous, lively and dynamic relationship with Him. This sentence is usually employed by Jesus as conclusion of a certain parable, showing that God's “chosen” can turn out to be a dynamic notion, and can pass over from some ones to others. It is not something that is given once and forever with vocation. But the chosen is accepted and should be withheld with the same effort – a lively relationship with God and constant communication with Him.

Jesus Christ pronounces this sentence several times in the Gospel. Apparently, it is important for Him to bring to the understanding of the disciples the idea that: all what people consider fit, precious, significant does not necessarily appear such to God's point of view. On what scale of values we orientate ourselves? Do they coincide or are they even close to the absolute scale by which God effects his evaluation? Jesus shows several times that such scale, such sample exists and that we can recognize it - it is Him Jesus. Only the usage of such sample implies the necessity of a continuous, lively and dynamic relationship with Him. This sentence is usually employed by Jesus as conclusion of a certain parable, showing that God's “chosen” can turn out to be a dynamic notion, and can pass over from some ones to others. It is not something that is given once and forever with vocation. But the chosen is accepted and should be withheld with the same effort – a lively relationship with God and constant communication with Him.