Anyone have thoughts on Matthew 20?
Weird chapter about the workers doing less but being paid the same. Seems like a broken incentive.
Discussion
Each worker was incentivized to work at the pay they agreed to independent of the others. Its in comparing our selves to others that we feel cheated if we earn less, despite having agreed to the pay beforehand.
I take it as saying that we're all equal in our salvation. Those that spend their lives in their faith will have the same salvation as those that find the Lord in their final days. I don't think its as much about incentive as it is the grace of God to save us all.
Assuming you’re referring to Matthew 20:1-16, I think it’s about two things.
1. An instruction not to be jealous or resentful of others. Most prominently to not be resentful of those who are latecomers to God, especially if you’ve been following Christ and working for His kingdom for many years, but I do think more generally as well.
2. The sanctity of contracts and agreements. Each one of the workers agreed to the offer presented, both those who were hired in the early morning and those hired at the eleventh hour and they all received what they agreed to. Verses 13-15 especially highlight this.
Hope you’re having a blessed day!
Wifey related perspective 1 to me.
God gave us free will so what’s the incentive for the disgruntled workers to work again in the vineyard for the employer?
Perhaps if the parable were a real business the vineyard owner would have this trouble, but the reason for that is scarcity. Labor is scarce, vineyards are scarce, grapes are scarce, and money *should be* scarce.
Even so, it’s important to view the parable through the lens of salvation rather than taking it literally. Scarcity itself is a result of the fall (Genesis 3:17) so we should keep it in mind that God’s economics are not necessarily the same as human economics.
God’s salvation is not a scarce good. My salvation does not take away from yours, which removes any legitimate concern about how I came to acquire my salvation. The lifelong Christian should be happy, not jealous, of the deathbed convert.
I think the parable makes more sense if you don’t view it through the lens of scarcity in the economic sense as rules of scarcity don’t apply to a superabundant good like God’s salvation.
If you look at the reward/daily wage as a metaphor for Heaven, then it’s an undeserved reward as it is, for both the full-day and part-day workers - Incentive remains? Ie. If we got paid 25 btc for a day’s work, and the employer paid the same to some half-day contractors, we’d still be incentivized to do it again. And we’d probably be happy, for everyone involved, to be compensated so well.
Concur with the other comments. Most importantly, the story is told from God’s perspective. Who are we to determine who has done more or less? God’s ways are not our ways, God’s thoughts are not our thoughts. We may believe we’re better or more deserving of a particular outcome but that’s not for us to determine. Our relationship with the landowner (God) comes down to faith in His perfect justice, not our own self righteousness.