“It’s Not Fair!” . . . The Anthem of Self

How often have you heard someone say “It’s not fair”?  Chances are you’ve heard these words uttered or even loudly exclaimed more than once.

The Vineyard Workers’ Cries of “Not Fair!”

I will never forget the first time I read one of my favorite Parables, The Vineyard Workers (Mt 20: 1-16). This is the one where the landowner hires different groups of workers at different points in the day, 6 a.m., 9.a.m., Noon, 3 p.m., and 5 p.m. to work the field . . . and pays them all the same wage!

I emphasize this last part because I, like probably nearly everybody who reads that parable, cannot believe how unfair the landowner seemed.  After all, how can it be fair, by any rational earthly measure, to pay the same wage to folks who work for 12 hours to folks who work only one hour?

To make matters worse, the landowner paid the last workers first, right in front of the earlier groups of worker!  He was seemingly oblivious or unconcerned to the almost certain reaction that would ensue from those earlier workers.

One can almost envision this parable as Lesson One in the manual of ‘what not to do if you are a boss with people to pay.’

So if God is silence and peace, and if He is all knowing and wise, how can God be present in the landowner’s decision?  Surely, isn’t the evil one, who is all about turmoil, distress, and tumult, the one behind all of this?  The answer would be yes to both questions!

Ingratitude

God is surely present in the landowner’s decision. God is just like the landowner, generous to everyone and giving freely to alleviate their respective suffering.

In my haste to side with the angry, earliest workers, I had clearly forgotten the suffering that the last group must have gone through. After all, they stood there all day, growing in desperation, frustration, hopelessness, fear, shame, and who knows what other toxic feelings.  Imagine passing 11 hours thinking that you will come home empty-handed, unable to feed your hungry family who depends on you.

Consider the feelings of guilt, failure, and even bitterness that gnawed at them as they stood there. Ponder the disintegrating self-esteem of knowing that you are incapable of taking care of your family.  That last group experienced this suffering for 11 hours that day.  Each passing hour only increased the expectation of a bitter end to a bitter day.  I am sure that each of the earlier groups experienced those same feelings.

The earliest group’s distress that day was short.  They got a job quickly and spent their day working hard.  Like anyone else, they expected to get paid what they were promised for their labor.  And they received the wage they were promised.

Their feelings of dissatisfaction and cries of unfairness only erupted when they compared themselves to the later groups, especially the latest group.  Therein lies their anger.  It was caused by their own ingratitude to what was promised and given them. They wrapped their self-perception of being superior (working more) around their own expectations of pay.  Instead of being happy and grateful for their lot, those earlier workers were only thinking of themselves, and grabbing as much benefit as they could to the exclusion of others.

Greed and Selfishness

If we focused only on God and what He has given us, we would be far better off.  By keeping our attention only on loving and serving God and fulfilling His purpose and mission for each of us, we could more efficiently come to fulfill that mission.   If we stopped basing human worth in quantity produced and paid, we could value each person’s unique traits and contributions, and love them more easily apart from such quantities.

Perhaps, we should work harder on having more consideration and compassion for the suffering of others, and their need to be lovingly served.  If we did we might stop looking in our mirrors long enough to make a difference in this world.  We might even make a bigger difference in our eternal destiny.

The truth is those earlier workers were not the victims in this story.  They were only the victims of their own greed, selfishness, presumption, and insolence. Too wrapped up in themselves, they were blind to the suffering of others.  Too obsessed with serving their own agenda, they had no time or concern for the agenda and needs of others less fortunate.

Their cries of unfairness only arose when they felt their self-interest was wronged somehow.  I am sure that the Noon and 3 p.m. workers were not too happy that the 5 p.m. workers were paid equally to them, but those same later workers had no issue with being paid equally to the 6 a.m. workers.

The landowner represents God.   He is motivated by compassion and love and not by earthly measures of justice and worth.  We are represented by the workers, especially the earliest ones, who are far more concerned with grabbing their piece of the pie and, perhaps even a bit more, than with serving pie to others.

The Good Son’s Cries of “Not Fair!”

Speaking of Parables, consider too, the famous Parable of the Prodigal Son (Lk 15:11-32).  Many focus on the ungrateful, prodigal son who wipes out his inheritance after demanding it from a kind, loving father.  Others focus on the loving father who forgives so easily.

Truth be told, we are often that prodigal son but we are just as often the so-called good son.  Recall that the good son’s reaction to his father’s loving welcome of the wayward son is not so good. We consider that son “good” because apparently he obeyed his father.  The ‘good’ son fulfilled his responsibilities, and ostensibly respected the father and his household.

However, we saw that so-called goodness dissolve once ‘the good son’ sniffed unfairness.  He changes when he sees that the father is overjoyed at the return of the traitorous son. The father even offers the wayward son gifts that were never offered to him.

Rather than being overjoyed with the return of his brother, the ‘good’ son is so wrapped in himself and his agenda that he cannot appreciate what his father has given him. Rather than joining in the festivities of his brother’s return, this so-called good son stews outside in bitterness and resentment.  He doesn’t even soften after his father’s explanation and request.

Lenten Lesson

How often do each of us focus only on what we want, how we are treated, and how things affect us.  And how regularly do we measure things on our terms to the exclusion of the terms, agenda, and needs of others.  How many times do we assess right and wrong, fair and unfair, according to earthly measures so often steeped in self?

As we approach yet another Lenten season, let us consider how the pure and innocent Christ silently suffered the greatest injustice and unfairness of all out of love for us.  Maybe, this year, we can offer both our blessings and our struggles, our fortune and misfortune, and what we believe fair and unfair, to God, as an offering of thanks and prayer for those who are not so fortunate.

Maybe, just maybe, we can begin to cultivate the kind of silence, and peace, that comes from God and knowing that earthly measures of fairness are dripping with self and the only goal that matters is God.  He alone is the only destiny that should matter to us.  Perhaps, the next time you want to say “It’s not fair,” you can replace those words with “It’s all love.”