An hour in the garden

This has always been one of my most favorite parables. Christ tells a story about a landowner who hires men to work in his field. Over the course of the day, he brings in more workers, and even up to an hour left in the day, he brings in workers. At the end of the day, he lines up the workers, starting with the most recent hires first, and he gives the most recent hires a full day's wage.

As the others in the line see this, they get excited, thinking they will get that much more, but when they get their reward, it is the same as those who worked for just an hour. They do not understand, and the explanation from Jesus is that this is how the Kingdom of Heaven is ordered.

This has so many ways to be examined. First, can one attribute relative levels to perfection? In other words, if there is an "ultimate" gift, that of eternal, everlasting life, how can it be parsed into varying levels? If it is "ultimate," then by definition, it is the best that it can get, and there can be no varying level of "superlative." So, in this example, without saying it, Jesus shows the relative gift that is being offered. That there is no parsing of the ultimate gift. That the gift of the Kingdom of Heaven cannot be made into a variety of levels, so that some who work "more" get "more." It just is what it is, and relative to human effort, is perfection that cannot be fractionated.

Second, there is the rejection of the "rational" by the parable. The "rational" man thinks that if he works more, he gets more. But in this example, we see the "irrational" aspects of the Kingdom of Heaven again being preached. From a human point of view, eternity is irrational, and the relative value of the reward of the Kingdom of Heaven is irrational, especially as it meted out so generously in an "irrational" fashion.

Third, and the part that has always spoken to me, is the joy of the man who has worked the least, but gotten just the same. Being a late-in-life Christian, this speaks to me. Not only is the reward a wonderful idea to ponder, but the gift for the limit of what I have done is also amazing to me. I imagine the man, not tired from only having worked an hour, who gets a full wage. It was not his idea to be hired late, it just happened. And he gets a full day's wage. Do you think that will make him incredibly grateful? Do you think that will spur him on to work even harder?

I certainly have. The joy of that gift, in its irrationality and irreducible perfection, has always made me want to give more, to work harder. All this, from just my single hour in the garden. And that seems to speak most to me about the fundamental, underlying logic of this entire creation experience.