The scandal of equality created by generosity
SERMON SEPTEMBER 20, 2026
SEVENTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST
PROPER 20, YEAR A
MATTHEW 20: 20:1-16
From the Gospel: “are you envious because I am generous? So the last will be first, and the first will be last.”
When he told the parable of the laborers in the vineyard, Jesus had left Galilee and was heading south into Judea, towards Jerusalem. This is the land of today’s Israel, including the West Bank and the Gaza Strip and some of Lebanon and Syria. This would be Jesus’ final trip to Jerusalem. It was a journey of about 125 miles taking the most direct route, over a time period of perhaps four to five days, depending on rest stops. But Jesus doesn’t have much opportunity to rest along the way, because great crowds followed him. He stops frequently to heal and teach.
Along the way, he tells his disciples a third time what will happen to him in the great city. Look, he said, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be handed over to the chief priests and scribes, and they will condemn him to death; then they will hand him over to the gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified, and on the third day he will be raised.
Pondering these final things, Jesus gathers into his arms the little children who press around him. His disciples try to shoo the children away, but Jesus tells them, Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not, for of such is the Kingdom of Heaven. Of such is the Kingdom of Heaven – innocents, the powerless.
He answers the question of a rich young man who wants to know what he must do to gain the Kingdom of Heaven. Jesus replies, If you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments. The young man says to him, I have kept all these; what do I still lack? Jesus says to him, If you wish to be perfect, go, sell your possessions, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me. The Kingdom of Heaven is where the poor are rich and the rich are generous.
Then Peter says, Look, we have left everything and followed you. What then will we have? Jesus says to them, Truly I tell you, at the renewal of all things, when the Son of Man is seated on the throne of his glory, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or fields for my name’s sake will receive a hundredfold and will inherit eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first.
At the renewal of all things – in the Kingdom of Heaven – will be found eternal life, and this will be ours as followers of Christ. And once again: in the Kingdom of Heaven, the first will be last, and the last will be first.
This business of first being last and last being first can be hard to take. When my husband, David, and I lived in Nigeria I learned about this first-hand. I love the Nigerian people, and there are things about their culture that are definitely not like ours. Of course!
Consider queuing at the airport ticket counter before going to the gate. Western people are nice and orderly, with ropes to form the passengers into lines. In Nigeria, especially in large airports like Lagos and Abuja, what you have is a free-for-all. An amoeba-like mass presses up against the counter, with folks pushing and shoving, using loud voices, all very serious about getting to the counter first. If you come late and are in the back, no self-respecting person stays there. Woman or man, the thing to do is be vigorous and loud and insist that you belong up front. Eventually you will get there. Believe me, I’ve had to dive into the throng just to get my boarding pass, even though I already have a seat assignment.
Twice Jesus deals with this. Many who are first will be last, he says, and the last will be first. This bothers our sense of justice, does it not? First-come, first-served we say. But reversal is critical to Jesus’ parable of the laborers in the vineyard – which is actually a parable of how properly to deal with power and money. It is a parable about bounty, not scarcity.
The parable speaks not only to outsiders arriving late but also – believe it or not – to faithful disciples ,who may begin to think that their long service gives them a greater claim upon God.
Listen, Jesus says, the owner of a vineyard hires workers at several points during the day:
- At dawn
- About nine o’clock
- At noon
- About three o’clock
- About five o’clock—only one hour before work ends
The first workers agree to the customary daily wage, a denarius. The later workers are simply promised, Whatever is right I will give you. At evening, the landowner pays the last-hired workers first, and each receives a full day’s wage.
The first workers naturally expect more. Yet they too receive the denarius they had agreed upon. Their complaint is not that the landowner has cheated them – it is that he has made the latecomers “equal to us.”
That is the scandal of the parable: not injustice, but equality created by generosity. In essence, in that blessed place, the Kingdom of Heaven there are no rankings: all are equal. We now live in that place, the Kingdom of Heaven, to which Jesus opened the gates when he came to earth. This means that equality created by generosity is the way we should live as followers of Christ. This is justice. And this is scandalous to the world, which has structures that reward the rich and the first-comers, and penalize the poor and the last.
These last folks are not assumed to be lazy, but may be elderly, weak, disabled, socially disfavored, or simply those repeatedly passed over. Think of the lame man who lay by the pool of Bethesda near the Sheep’s Gate for 26 years but still could not get in to be healed by the waters. When Jesus asked, didn’t he want to be healed? I can’t, sir,” the sick man said, “for I have no one to put me into the pool when the water bubbles up. Someone else always gets there ahead of me. (John 5) So Jesus healed him on the spot.
The laggards – the ones who are last – may be women or children, or Blacks or Brown people, Asians or Indigenous. But in the Kingdom of Heaven, they are generously treated as equal to the first-comers. All are healed.
Receiving God’s grace in this way represents participation in the life and reign of God. That gift cannot be divided according to rank. One cannot receive more forgiveness, more adoption, or more belonging to God than another person. This is impossible.
Another thing must be noted concerning the Parable of the Laborers in the Vineyard. The daily wage, a denarius, is the amount that would feed a family for one day. So, when the vineyard owner makes sure that each laborer receives a denarius in pay, he is assuring that a family will be fed. Will be safe from hunger.
This is especially important for us at St. Francis to understand, in light of our call to feed the hungry. We are doing what we can to ensure that families and singletons are fed, passing on the riches that God, the vineyard owner, has bestowed upon us. We do not reach out to the first in line, but to the last, the ones who really do not know where their next meal will come from, and the others who struggle to fill their plates.
As Jesus taught us to pray, “Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy Name…give us this day our daily bread…” Give us, we pray, our daily bread so that we may give the same to your children, our neighbors.
THANKS BE TO GOD. Amen.