16th Sunday after Trinity, 2026. Year A.
Jonah 3:10–4:11, Philippians 1:21–30, Matthew 20:1–16
Jesus’ parable of the labourers in the vineyard may seem like a simple message for us. Maybe it is.
All of us, no matter our efforts or labours are equally loved, treasured and valued by God.
Those who labour for just an hour, will receive the same wage as those who have worked all day.
The wages of God, of course are salvation – eternal life in God’s kingdom, and eternity in the joy of the presence of the Lord.
And when we think of it like that, of course, there can only be one wage. There cannot be part shares in the kingdom. You cannot experience part of eternal life, or part of the joy of the presence of God. Half of eternity is still eternity. Half of infinite love is still infinite love. It is an all or nothing experience.
That is why God’s love for us is so complete. There is nothing that you can do that will make God love you any less and nothing that you can do that will make God love you any more.
That is because God’s love is so powerful that it is indivisible. Even the tiniest bit of it is beyond our comprehension of what love is.
If God loves us, and he does love us – each and every one of us, then he can only love us completely and utterly; he can only love us more than we can possibly imagine.
And yet, with this parable, Jesus also touches upon something very fundamental in our human nature.
The parable of the labourers in the vineyard offends out natural sense of justice. There is something in us that rebels at the idea that those who exert more effort are not rewarded more.
Why bother, it is easy to say. If the salary is the same no matter how much we work, if God loves us equally no matter what we do, why not slack off, muck around, don’t take things seriously. It’s OK to that – Jesus says so.
I hope it won’t come as a surprise if I say that I don’t think that is what Jesus is trying to say in this parable.
That instinct for fairness is not a bad issue. Jesus doesn’t criticise it in this parable. In fact Jesus is recognising it and using it in this parable. It doesn’t work if we don’t have a sense of fair play. But Jesus then subverts it to tell us something of the nature of God, and how it differs from our nature.
The owner is clear that the wage agreed is a fair wage for the full day’s work – there is no exploitation taking place here. But he is also making it clear that it is within his gift to decide how much he wants to pay the others. He is not taking anything away from the people who have worked all day. They are getting the reward they are promised, which is eternal life. But the owner, God, is choosing from his own riches to give more to people who may not deserve it, or have earned it, because God’s riches, his love, is infinite, and cannot be earned – it can only be gifted freely by God. We cannot compel God to love us, but we do not need to, because he is generous and faithful.
In a world of zero-hours contracts, workplace efficiency and AI job takeover, and billionaires spending millions to try and avoid paying taxes, Jesus not just talking about the nature of God though. He is reminding us that there can be another way to deal with our fellow people, especially when there are differences of wealth and power. He is reminding us that cutting costs especially the wages of the poor to maximise profits that so often go to those who have more money than they can ever spend, is the not the only way to structure society. It is not the way that God structures his society.
The parable, like all parables, needs to read it in its context as well – it comes immediately after the dialogue with the rich young man who asks what he must do to inherit eternal life, and is told that he must sell his possessions and give the money to the poor.
The young man leaves in sorrow because he has many possessions. The implication is that he is unable to unburden himself of these possessions. Maybe he feels that he has earned them – that he deserves to have them. Jesus has seen into his heart and sees what it is in his life that is separating him from God. In his case it is his relationship with his possessions. This is not a universal rule that Jesus is laying down. It is not even that he is rich that is the problem – it is his relationship with his riches that is the problem. Because he values his riches so highly, the only solution for him is shock therapy – he needs to renounce his relationship with his riches.
For another person it will be something else – each of us have deeply personal things that come between us and God, and Jesus is always pastoral in his responses to situations that he encounters – he doesn’t lay down universal rules or laws, but in every situation he looks to address what it is that is separating that person from God, what in their life is holding them back. For some it is their disease, or their blindness, or their possession by demons.
For the rich young man it is possessiveness over his possessions, and therefore in this parable, Jesus shows an example of a rich man, a vineyard owner, who doesn’t hoard his wealth but instead gives it out freely and even-handedly. It is unfortunate that the young man has already left before he can hear it.
We see a similar dynamic at work in the reading we heard about Jonah. Jonah is annoyed because God has chosen to spare the city of Nineveh, because they have repented, despite Jonah having told them that God is going to punish them. Nineveh at the time was the capital of the powerful and tyrannical Assyrian Empire, an empire built over the previous 200 years on a constant stream of conquests, massacres and pillaging. Nineveh was rich with the wealth of a hundred conquered nations, and built by the slaves that so many of them had become. It was hated and feared in equal measure. This is the city God had sent Jonah to, to warn them of the consequences of their actions if they did not repent. And unlike the Egyptians under Pharoah in Exodus, the Assyrians do repent. They turn to God, and God spares and forgives them.
Jonah is annoyed both because he has lost his credibility, because God hasn’t followed through, and also I think because he doesn’t feel that the Assyrians deserve to forgiven, but God is quite clear that punishment and reward is in his gift.
To demonstrate this, He choses to give Jonah a bush to sit in the shade of, and then he choses to make the bush wither, to show Jonah that this too is within his gift, and also to make it clear to Jonah how valuable the people of Ninevah are to him, as people, even if they are gentiles and sinners.
In his letter to the Philippians, Paul, now in prison in Rome and unsure as to whether he will be freed, or executed, is reflecting on how he both wishes to die and be with Christ, but also to be freed so that he can continue to minister and spread the Gospel.
He is reconciled to either outcome, and is concerned mainly that whichever path God choses for him, he should be able to continue to glorify God. In this he seeks to reassure the Philippians, who are a church that also been suffering from persecution, but is standing firm in the faith. He wants them to know that he shares their sufferings and also rejoices in their faithfulness. The Philippians have not chosen to take the easy path. They could just trust in God’s faithful love, and that he will welcome them no matter what they do, but they are faithful, even though they’re suffering because that is the response to the dilemma of the parable of the labourers.
If we are all gaining the same reward no matter the effort we put in, then why put in the effort. Why, the Philippians might say, why suffer in the name of God, if their reward is the same as those who have not suffered?
Why indeed?
We can do it because, like Paul, this is something that we can take pride in. We cannot boast in the presence of God about our wealth or our beauty or our intelligence – all of these are gifts of God anyway, so how can we boast before God of the gifts that he has given us himself.
But we can boast of our faithfulness. God’s faithfulness to us is shown in the love he bears all of us, love that cannot be compared or even measured. Our only possible response to God’s love and faithfulness is to return that gift with our love and faithfulness given freely back to God, not because he needs it; not because we will earn salvation that way; but because God gives freely to us without expecting a return, but always hopeful that we will respond to his faithfulness and love of us with our faithfulness and love of God.
Amen