The upcoming lectionary passage in Matthew 20:1-16 strikes me as timely. The attitude we see here—the attitude of the workers who worked all day and are angry about those who received the same pay for less work—this attitude is something exhibited prominently in recent years. I’ll get to that in a minute. But first: it is familiar for other reasons. All of us have felt this way when we are struggling and we see a good go to someone we find undeserving; or maybe less deserving than we think we are. This can be a material good, a lasting love relationship, a professional position or opportunity, and so on.
Envy may be perfectly human when someone gets what we want and seemingly did not work hard for it; but Jesus uses a story to shed light on this flawed calculus. The story is a “kingdom of God” parable, a snapshot of the realm of God and its values. Essentially, the parable says that according to this value system, our actions, our lives, are not measured in the way you and I measure things.
In this parable, the attitude of the workers who worked all day and are angry someone received the same pay for less work—is also evident in the news these days. I can think of several prominent examples. {Read remainder of article on Patheos HERE.}