Archbishop of Sydney

Mercy and Generosity

By + Cardinal George Pell
Archbishop of Sydney
25 September 2005

Last Sunday we had one of the most strange and disconcerting of Jesus’ parables, about the labourers in the vineyard (Matt. 20: 1-16).  It offends our sense of justice because those who worked all day receive the same wage as those who began late.

This parable is similar to the story of the return of the prodigal son, whose older brother also complains about the warmth of his father’s welcome to his no-good younger brother.

Some commentators claim that God’s rewards come from grace and not from the merit-points each one of us earns.  Such a claim provokes some questions.  Is God truly just?  Or is He a bit cranky and unpredictable; certainly very kind to the battlers but pretty hard on his friends?

Many of Jesus’ teachings are consoling as well as beautiful, but there is often a strong edge too.  Once in a while he is like an opinion writer in a newspaper who often offends a percentage of his readership, is aware of this and continues to do so.  This parable provokes us to think about the nature of God, about the nature of reward and punishment, about generosity of heart.

First of all we should reject a couple of mistaken interpretations.  Jewish versions had it that the early workers were lazy, while those who came later were very industrious, so evening things up.  But there is no evidence for this.

Independently of one another a husband and wife, after I preached on this topic, put forward the plausible notion that one denarius for a day’s work was what was needed to support a wife and children – a bit like the old “Basic Wage” in Australia sufficient to keep a husband, wife and 3 children in frugal comfort.  Certainly the parable rejects any notion of wealth as a sign of God’s blessing.

In fact the latecomers might have been prepared for early work, but were not in the right place to be hired.  All of this is clever guesswork.

God does love everyone, good and bad, rich and poor, Jews and non-Jews, but he wants us all to believe and do good.  We struggle towards the true meaning, or even meanings in each parable, by considering the whole of Jesus’ teaching.  Individual sections have to be judged in this context.

Just as we are suspicious and unhappy with a child who is only good to avoid punishment or to gain a reward, so Jesus does not want us to believe in the one true God and love one another simply to be rewarded in heaven.  We are called to all this because it is the right thing, respects the rights of others, and our duties to God, brings peace and meaning.  Punishment and reward are real but secondary. 

I am happy to leave judgement to the good God, to rely on God’s mercy and generosity, rather than asking for justice.