Equal to us

"And when they received it, they grumbled against the landowner, saying, 'These last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat.' But he replied to them, 'Friend, I am doing you no wrong...'"

(Matthew 20:11-13)

I LOVE PARABLES! Especially Jesus' parables. In fact, I'm teaching about parables on our church's Wednesday night "Food For Thought" event. We're doing parables for this year's online VBS. And I'm going to be doing a 4-week sermon series in August on the parables as well. But today, despite reading the Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard, I don't want to talk about the parable. At least not in its entirety.

I want to talk about ONE STATEMENT that was made by the workers who'd been working at the vineyard all day. It was the end fo the day - payment time. All the workers were lined up to receive their wages - from those who'd worked the least (just an hour) to those who had been there all day. When the 1-hour workers got paid an entire day's salary, the all-layers got super excited! They started doing mental math and calculating the HUGE payout they'd be receiving, based on this new information!!! But then they received the usual day's wage as well, they freaked out! "You have made them equal to us," they cried to the vineyard owner.

AND THAT'S THE PROBLEM.

That's why our country (world!!??) is so messed up right now. We still think there are reasons, justifications, circumstances why SOME of us should NOT BE EQUAL to ALL of us. (I know, let's not get into the specific of the entire parable right now - I'm just using this as a jumping off point for today's reflection).

According to the Old Testament book of Genesis, all of us were created in the image of God. ALL OF US. Every single one of us. Period. And yet, over the course of history, we humans have done all we can to separate ourselves from others due to race, gender, age, socio-economic status, politics, religion, sexual orientation, immigration status, etc. (I could go on and on)... The bottom line is: we're creating gaps between us when God never intended them to be there.

Please, let's just stop this. Can't we?!?