Something Bigger

So when the first came, they thought that they would receive more,
but each of them also got the usual wage.
And on receiving it they grumbled against the landowner, saying,
‘These last ones worked only one hour,
and you have made them equal to us,
who bore the day’s burden and the heat.’
He said to one of them in reply,
‘My friend, I am not cheating you.
Did you not agree with me for the usual daily wage?
Take what is yours and go.
What if I wish to give this last one the same as you?
Or am I not free to do as I wish with my own money?
Are you envious because I am generous?’

Matthew 20:1-16a

You called us from the market
and from our own affairs
to labor for your harvest,
and we have done our share.
But you pay us as others
whose work cannot compare.
Shall mercy be unjust, then?
Should mercy not be fair?

We labor for forgiveness,
for working off our debt,
as if our sins were figures,
writ on a balance sheet.
Such hope is all too little—
a crumb instead of bread.
You offer something bigger:
You offer us yourself.

Of heaven's feast you tell us:
You sowed, and we shall reap
beyond all we can reckon,
beyond the count we keep.
Your mercy keeps no record,
though what you paid was steep.
Instead, you make us welcome
and bid us take and eat.

Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard: Workers on the field (down) and pay time (up), Byzantine Gospel of 11th century, BnF, Cod. gr. 74 By Unknown author – Byzantine gospel. Paris, National Library., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=9472307