The Daily Wage

Gospel: Matthew 20: 1-16

"You too go into my vineyard, and I will give you what is just."

There are two ideas of what is just in the world.  The first is given by the laborers in the story who have worked all day.  They argue that they should be paid more because they worked more.  This understanding is the standard one at work in our world.  It is the one argued by the chaplains to capitalism that dominate most churches, who would argue that this story and many like it that Jesus tells about justice are only to be taken in a spiritual sense and not in an economic or ethical sense.  

The second view of justice is the one offered by Jesus and the landowner in the story.  It is to provide for the daily needs of people so that they might have their daily bread to live.  It recognizes that the economic systems of our world are unjust and favor the rich.  The day laborer system common in this story and many parts of the world creates many vulnerable people on the margins.  Wage theft is common in this system.  This story and lesson Jesus offers is not merely a spiritual one.  It is also ethical and economic.  

The justice of God is one that promotes a living wage and meets the needs of people in all aspects of their life - economic and spiritual.  It is a teaching found throughout the early teachings of Christianity, in the medieval teachers like Aquinas, and in the constant and consistent teachings of papal documents since the late 1800s.  May we today follow in this tradition and be like the landowner of the story, who is among his workers, knowing, understanding, and meeting their needs.