I will be the first to admit that math and I do not have a very good relationship. It was not always like this. For instance, I thought that geometry was so nice that I took it twice. OK, I lied, math and I never got along.
You know what has never happened in a meeting of any organization of which I have been a part? No one has ever said, “I nominate Pastor Jira for treasurer, I think that he would be great.” But, even with my sketchy past with mathematics, there is some math that is so intrinsic to life that even I get it.
For example: Hard work equals getting by in life. My rural, German influenced farm upbringing taught me that one. If you work hard, you will make it by. Now, this math does not promise you will thrive; but you will get by. Who learned that math?
I also learned this bit of math: If you take dollar, you owe a dollar. This is the basic eye for an eye math that most of us inherently understand. If a toddler bites you, you bite them back. If someone steals a car, they owe you a car or something of equal value. If you take a life, you lose your life. Our criminal laws function this way, with lady liberty holding the scales of justice, balancing everything out fairly; not too much, not too little.
There is also noble math like: the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few. This is where a soldier lays on a live grenade in order to save the rest of his friends. It is a noble math indeed.
All of this is to say, that there is this basic math…these basic equations and laws of life…that allow us to get along and thrive. As basic as this math seems, you might be shocked to learn that God’s math does not always match up with our own?
Remember the story that Jesus told of the shepherd who leaves 99 sheep in peril while he goes to find one sheep. I guess, in God’s kingdom, the needs of the one can, shockingly, outweigh the needs of the many.
And, what about the person who is forgiven seventy times seven times for the same offense, over and over again? It does not seem to make any sense, but in God’s kingdom the scales of justice sometimes lean dramatically to one side. This is not the way the world functions, Jesus!
And, to top it all off, Jesus upsets the math of hard work!
In today’s gospel story there is a vineyard owner who needs some day laborers to go trim his vines. So, he goes to the end of the Wal-Mart parking lot and hires a bunch of guys at $12 an hour to work for an 8 hour shift. Seeing that he could use a few more men, the owner goes back a few hours later to the Wal-Mart parking lot and hires more. He does this again and again, until the end of the day when he hires some guys who still had not been hired by someone else, so that they might gain at least one hour of work.
Now, the first guys that worked all day got paid $96 in cash for their 8 hours of work.
Did I factor that right? Remember, I am not good at math.
But, here’s the kicker; the vineyard worker also gave the guys who worked just one hour $96.
Alright, I realize that I took a lot of liberties with this ancient story. We all know that Wal-Mart had not yet established its dominance in the world, but what was not exaggerated was the vineyard owner’s total disregard for the math of hard work. The guys who worked the day away in the hot sun earned $96. Those who worked only one hour in the cool weather of the early evening also earned the full $96.
What? This story of unfair wages is what the kingdom of heaven looks like according to Jesus? God’s kingdom is a place where the hard workers are given the same as late comers?
This is bad math, God. This type of math only encourages laziness on the part of the late comers and gives no incentive to those who would normally work hard to continue to do so. In the real world, you disserve what you earn. Fair wage for fair time is the bedrock of a thriving economy. Hard work and an eye for an eye…do you not remember those values, God?
Jesus’ answers our objections using the voice of the vineyard owner who tells those who worked hard the entire day, “Friend, I am doing you no wrong; did you not agree with me for the usual daily wage? Take what belongs to you and go; I choose to give to this last the same as I give to you. Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or are you envious because I am generous?”
“Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or are you envious because I am generous?” We have heard this sentiment in the Bible before. God basically said the same thing to the prophet Jonah who did not want any mercy shown to the evil and corrupt Ninevites, “Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or are you envious because I am generous?”
God says the same thing to us when favor and attention is given to people who we think, quite frankly, don’t deserve it, “Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or are you envious because I am generous?”
You see, the kingdom ruled by Jesus Christ, works with a whole different system of math. It is a math that desires “mercy, not sacrifice.” It is a math that will go and save the one, even though there are many. It is a math where all are created equal and given equal worth; there is no need for you to first earn your worth. It is a math that can save a wretch like me. It is a math that can look at the sinner…the lost cause…and see a future. It is a math that looks nothing like our own because, in this math, one person’s death on a cross balances the scales and pays for the sins of the entire world.
There was once a man who stole a church’s Sunday collection. It was a substantial amount of money. In retaliation for the theft, the church decided to pay the man’s bills for the month. The man and his financially struggling family were overcome by the mercy that the church showed. And, when I say overcome, I do not just mean tears were shed; I mean that the mercy of Jesus Christ literally took control of the man’s life, and his life was changed, forever.
When asked why they did such a thing by a befuddled news reporter, a member of the church simply answered, “Are we not allowed to be generous? We believe that the mercy of Jesus Christ can save the world.”
How is that for faith? How is that for backwards math?
Never forget, you have been saved, not by the math of the world but by the crazy, but merciful math of Jesus Christ our Lord.
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