The motto of the last London Olympics was Altius, Citius, Fortius
(higher, faster, stronger) where it symbolically gives the message to the world
that the competent will be credited and the successful one will be crowned. Nobody
will care about the loser and one may feel that they don’t deserve any place in
the mainstream of the society. We are living in a society where everyone wants
to be a winner because the winner gets appreciation and the loser is forced to
move out. Even one of the health drink ads says, "If you want to be a
winner, drink our brand." and the parents seem restless to get all necessary
things to make their child a winner. No one has the time to even think about
the mind of a loser. Most of the time they are forced to end their dreams or in
some instances their lives.
The God of the Bible is to a large extent against this predominant
attitude and continually searches for the weak instead of the stronger. The
incarnation of divine logos into flesh reveals God's association with the loser.
In the light of this truth we are going to analyze a well known parable of
Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew. The parable of 'laborers at the vineyard' is a
unique collection in the Matthean narrative. Traditionally this parable has
been understood and interpreted from the perspective of the landlord, who
symbolizes God, and the symbolic representation of Judgment and God’s kingdom.
But when we rethink and re-read the same story from the perspective of the laborers
we probably get lots of inspiration that possibly can give clear answers to the
society which is moving faster from the root values of ancient ideologies. The
re-reading would enhance the process of transformation within itself in order to
inject new blood into the faith of a Christian.
The parable poses an important question as to whether we are going
to take side with the last ones or if we are going to be a part of the
oppressive forces? I would like to draw your attention towards this parable and
urge you to re-read it in our context.
1. Attitude of
pseudo-compassion: utilizing the vulnerability for oppression
If we look into the characters of this parable as abstract
theological realities, we may not derive any meaning out of this. We need to
look into the life realities and social scenario which are given in this
parable in order to understand the truth. In verse 4 the parable gives the
picture of laborers who were standing idle at the market place. They are
jobless and they were waiting for some landowners to hire them. Schottroff
says, “These laborers themselves are most likely the uprooted ones whose hunger
drives them into the countryside at harvest time but who at other seasons look
for occasion work in the cities – and who often do begging as well.” This
parable runs between two distinctive layers of society, one is the landlord and
on the other side the jobless laborers. On the one side the landlords enjoyed
all benefits and subsidies from the Government, who associated themselves with the
Roman Empire. Their loyalty prized them in huge form and benefited them in
Roman citizenship, Tax exemption, etc. The landlord mentioned in this parable
had immeasurable wealth because he was unable to measure the needed work force
due to the heavy harvest and that's why he probably went on hiring cheap
laborers.
Here two types of labor is
possible, firstly harvesting the ripe fruits and secondly planting and
expanding the vineyard which usually happens through encroachment by utilizing
the vulnerability of poor people who are unable to get the profitable yield
from their lands.
According to the Old Testament point of view, the people of Israel
had been provided with sufficient cultivating lands for survival. During the
course of time the land laws were gradually changed by the ruling powers. Ordinary
men and women lost their assets through forceful encroachments and became landless
and jobless. This is the same situation which is portrayed in the parable.
Jesus communicates the kingdom message “the first will be last and the last
will be first” through this parable. Traditionally the act of the owner was
understood as a call of Evangelism, but when we look into the social situation,
we come to know that it was an act of maximum utilization of the vulnerability.
We can see a number of people who were eagerly waiting for survival and the
landlord yielding the opportunity. This is exactly what happens in our present
day society, too, where the traditional jobs and opportunities are shrunk by
the oppressive forces and that makes the ordinary people to be bonded to the neo-oppressive
powers and keep the suppression moving. It is the win–win situation for the
oppressive forces, because they are ready to take any form to hypnotize the
weak and keep them as slaves through drama of providing job opportunities. People
are often exploited in the name of economic growth and infrastructural
developments because both the activities grow only through sucking out ordinary
people like farmers, fisher folk, tribal people, etc… Global industrial giants swallow up every
sphere of local culture and there is no more place for those cultures or values.
Paul Hiebert says, “The borders between the nations are melting down and the
glocal economy coming in.” With the arrival of globalization the
self-sufficient people have been modified into daily laborers in the big manufacturing
units and forms by showing attractive offers. In the name of development,
people have become slaves and helpless watchers in the game between the commercial
giants. When we look normally, the act of the owner may seem highly
compassionate but in reality it is but utilizing the opportunity to the maximum.
Earlier I pointed out that big commercial giants are indulging in it, but we
can see that more or less individuals are also doing the same to their
neighbor. How many times we would have done the same? This parable calls us to
retrospect on our own act of utilizing the vulnerability of others?
2. Empowering the
vulnerable as the champions
The owner of the vineyard fixes the salary as one Dinarious (v2). We
may appreciate the generosity of the landlord. Scott says, “The wage is not
generous… A denarius a day would be sufficient to support a worker and his
family at a subsistence level that is, at the level of a peasant." The
fixation of salary reveals to us two things. This is all about maintenance of
the system and to keep it alive among the so-called poor working class. Maintaining
a particular oppressive system alive is crucial for any oppressive mind.
Even though the laborers accept the fixed wage, at the end of the
parable a rivalry of working class may have emerged against the land owner. The
availability of laborers in the morning, the third hour, the fifth hour, the
ninth hour and the eleventh hour reveals the amount of unemployment. The
traditional understanding of the church says the laborers who were called at
the eleventh hour were fortunate ones. Due to this understanding people have
hope that at any hour they can enter into God’s glory. Here the eleventh hour
employees give the clear-cut message, in verse 6 as they replied to the land
owner that no one hired them because they were least skilled, and no one needs
the least skilled labor in the capitalistic society.
These laborers are pinned down because their own co-workers
opposed them. The owner hired them not because of charity or generosity.
Somehow he wanted to complete the task he had, here the hierarchy within the
oppressive system forces the laborers to quarrel against the discriminative pay
scale.
In this parable the pseudo generosity of the owner and the workers
struggle for discriminate salary is overcome by the vulnerability of the
eleventh hour laborer, who never had any voice against the system (v6) and
against the owner (v7) and against the co-workers who asked for the hike
(v.12).
The promise of Jesus comes for these vulnerable workers of the eleventh
hour where in verse 16 the last will be first, and the first will be last.” The
kingdom of God accepts the poor and last one whom the world considers to be
useless stuff. The message of Christ comes against the worldly system which divides
the poor working class into hierarchal levels and successfully continues the
oppression. No one wants to be in the lower level of the hierarchal system. It
is so because we are living in a world which runs after success, power and
authority. The poor, weak, dull and losers don’t seem to deserve a place in
this world which runs after the winner. Even a successful person is kept under
tremendous pressure to continually achieve. Through this parable Jesus pronounces
a unique kingdom message that the weak, the vulnerable and the loser finds
place in God’s kingdom.
The parable urges the faith community not to blindly follow the
worldly hierarchical system, but rather to follow the kingdom values which
accept the weak. What is our attitude in our own church context? Are we running
after the powerful and authoritative? What is our approach towards the weak? Are
we still elevating the winner according to the majority stand of the world? Are
we rejecting someone who is not capable according to the worldly standards?
Friends, here comes the question as to what we must do. We are
called to follow the kingdom values such as love, compassion and justice, which
is not the worldly standard like faster, stronger, higher, brighter etc. It is
because we have a savior who has shown the model for us through his own life
and ministry to the people who are vulnerable, marginalized and the weak. Let
us follow the savior who accepts the last and even makes them strong ones to
counter the world of discrimination. Amen.
Calvin Sushith Ambler
BD IV
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