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Matthew 20:1-16 New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

20 “For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. 2 After agreeing with the laborers for a denarius for the day, he sent them into his vineyard. 3 When he went out about nine o’clock, he saw others standing idle in the marketplace, 4 and he said to them, ‘You also go into the vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.’ So they went. 5 When he went out again about noon and about three o’clock, he did the same. 6 And about five o’clock he went out and found others standing around, and he said to them, ‘Why are you standing here idle all day?’ 7 They said to him, ‘Because no one has hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You also go into the vineyard.’ 8 When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his manager, ‘Call the laborers and give them their pay, beginning with the last and then going to the first.’ 9 When those hired about five o’clock came, each of them received a denarius. 10 Now when the first came, they thought they would receive more; but each of them also received a denarius. 11 And when they received it, they grumbled against the landowner, 12 saying, ‘These last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat.’ 13 But he replied to one of them, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong; did you not agree with me for a denarius? 14 Take what belongs to you and go; I choose to give to this last the same as I give to you. 15 Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or are you envious because I am generous?’ 16 So the last will be first, and the first will be last.”

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Parables are meant to make us uncomfortable; meant to turn our understanding of the world upside-down. Let us open our hearts and minds to hear this one from new and uncomfortable angles.

A landowner goes out early in the morning and hires workers. They agree on a denarius—the usual daily wage—and they go to work. Then, at nine o’clock, the landowner hires more workers. At noon, more. At three, even more. And then, at five o’clock—when there is only an hour of work left in the day—the landowner finds people still waiting in the marketplace. He asks, “Why are you standing here idle all day?” And their answer is honest and straightforward. “Because no one has hired us.”

Not because they were lazy. Not because they refused to work. Not because they didn't want to contribute. Because no one had hired them.

And when the day ends, everyone gets paid the same: one denarius. The people who worked all day are furious. They say, in effect, “Wait a minute. We worked all day in the scorching heat. They worked one hour. And you're telling us they are equal to us in value?”

Jesus gives us a parable in which the first-to-be-hired workers discover that the generosity of God does not operate according to human reason or logic. In the 19th century, the first protesters of unfair labor operated on the premise that all work, and all workers, should be respected and valued.

The first Labor Day celebration in the United States took place in New York City on September 5, 1882. Workers marched together, took a day away from their jobs, unpaid, and celebrated the dignity of working people, audaciously claiming that their lives were worth more than the amount of labor that could be extracted from them. Twelve years later, in 1894, Labor Day became a federal holiday.

Think about that first protest parade. Workers decided that they would stop working long enough to insist that their work mattered. They were saying that they, the workers, were not simply units of production. They are human beings. They have families. They have bodies that get tired. They have lives beyond the factory, the farm, the kitchen, the hotel, the classroom, the hospital, the warehouse, the restaurant, the office. And they deserve time to live those lives.

One of the great achievements of the labor movement was not simply higher wages. It was the insistence that human beings deserve time—time to rest, time with family, time for community, time for worship, time simply to be. Labor Unions organized massive strikes and demanded an eight-hour workday and more rest time, using the famous slogan "8 hours for work, 8 hours for rest, and 8 hours for what we will."

Our scripture today suggests a different kind of economy. The workers who came early are not wrong that they worked longer. They did. The surprising thing is that Jesus doesn't tell us they deserved more than the others. Instead, the landowner says: “I choose to give to this last the same as I give to you.” And then he asks: “Are you envious because I am generous?”

An honest answer would likely be, “Yes.” The landowner’s behavior begs a question that is bigger than wages. It is a question about what kind of world we want to live in.

We live in a world that often asks, what is the minimum someone can be paid for doing this work? Jesus invites us to ask a different question: What do all people need in order to fully live?

A living wage is just that; it is the wage that allows a human being to live. To eat. To have a home. To care for a child. To care for an aging parent. To see a doctor. To rest. To participate in community.

The phrase “cost of living” can become strangely abstract. We sometimes talk about the cost of living as though “living” were just another expense on a spreadsheet. But living is not an expense. Living is the point.

The person cleaning the hotel room is trying to live. The person stocking the grocery shelves is trying to live. The farmworker harvesting our food is trying to live. The home health aide caring for someone else's parent or spouse is trying to live. The childcare worker caring for someone else's children is trying to live. The restaurant worker serving our meal is trying to live.

And if our economic system depends upon people performing essential work while being unable to afford the essentials of life, then perhaps the problem isn't that those workers are asking for too much. Perhaps the problem is that we value those jobs—and those lives—too little.

The United Church of Christ has long named this as a moral concern: economic questions are also questions about human dignity—about housing, food, health care, wages, and whether people can participate fully in the life of their communities.

Linking this vineyard parable to our Labor Day Holiday became particularly powerful for me this week. Christianity does not teach us that everything belongs to the strongest or the richest. It teaches us that creation is a gift. That abundance is a gift. That life itself is a gift. And these gifts are for everyone. The question—for the church—and for each one of us is: Who gets to share in it?

The answer, “everyone,” is relatively easy when we are speaking in abstract terms. It is much more difficult to hold fast to that belief when we talk specifics. Our calling is not simply to ask, “What have I earned?” The gospel requires us to ask “Who is my neighbor?” and also, “What does my neighbor need?”

At our best, we accompany one another through crises. Neighbors share food. Workers stand together. And churches open their doors. This isn't charity in the sense of one person standing above another and saying, “I have more, and therefore I will give you some.” It is solidarity. It is saying: Your life is connected to mine. Your flourishing is connected to mine. Your dignity is connected to mine. Your hunger concerns me. Your exhaustion concerns me. Your safety concerns me. Your ability to go home after work and actually have enough energy to be present to the people you love—that concerns me.

One way we can understand the unusual equality of the workers in the vineyard is to view the parable through a profoundly different economic imagination. We are accustomed to asking and placing value on the answers to questions such as: What do you do? or How productive are you? or How much money do you make?

Jesus’ parable prompts us to ask different questions: Are you fully alive? Are you able to love and be loved? To whom do you belong? Are your neighbors able to flourish?

Jesus’ parable does not teach us that effort has no value. It teaches that human worth cannot be reduced to productivity. Because the kin-dom of heaven is not simply a place we hope to go someday. The kin-dom of heaven is God's alternative reality breaking into this one. A reality where the last are brought forward. Where those who have been overlooked are seen. Where the person standing at the edge of the marketplace hears, “Come. There is work for you here.” Not just the select few people, but all people, hear the resounding message; All are cared for. All belong. There is enough for all.

This Labor Day let us remember: Remember the workers who organized. Remember the people who marched. Remember the people who sacrificed wages and risked retaliation because they believed working people deserved dignity. Remember the farmworkers, domestic workers, factory workers, teachers, nurses, hotel workers, restaurant workers, caregivers, custodians, drivers, construction workers, retail workers, and all whose labor makes our common life possible.

This Labor Day let us reimagine the questions being asked in the boardrooms and management offices. Instead of calculating the absolute minimum we can pay our laborers, we need to begin asking what generosity looks like. What does generosity look like in our workplaces? In our wages? In our neighborhoods? In our congregations? In the way we treat the person who has the least power?

This parable leads us to believe that God's economy begins with generosity. And if we are God's people, perhaps we can begin there too. Because God's vineyard was never meant to be a place where a few people flourish while everyone else merely survives. It is meant to be a place of abundance. A place of dignity. A place of justice. A place where there is enough. And more than enough; where there is abundant life for all.

Amen

Rev. TJ Mack – September 6, 2026

Union Congregational Church of Hancock