That’s Not Fair!
The Rev. Conley A. Zomermaand, PhD
Sunday—October 5, 2014
Westminster Presbyterian Church, Akron
Text: Matthew 20:1-16
They grumbled against the landowner, saying,
“These last worked only one hour, and you
have made them equal to us who have borne
the burden of the day and the scorching heat.”
“That’s not fair!!” Ever heard that phrase before?
I’ve got four really good kids, three girls within five
years of each other who spent their teenage years
sharing a bathroom; and a tail-ender son who
managed to weasel more out of his aging parents
than the girls ever did. I’ve heard those words a
time or two. Still do, though now usually in jest.
And I’ve uttered them more than once myself. The
whole concept is so beyond debate. Fairness is
common sensical, reasonable …fair! What’s to
argue about!?!
Fairness defines for us, not just a concept, but a
way of life. You could affirm that the ideal finds its
home at the center of this still-young American
political experiment: Equality, liberty, opportunity,
justice…fairness. They all fit together like a foot in
a favorite shoe. So I might surprise you when I say
that fairness is not the most essential biblical
concept. Truth is, you really don’t want it to be so.
Here’s why: in a fair world, you get what you
deserve—absolutely…and only. A fair world is
predictable, common, maybe even bland. It can
also be threatening, in that sooner or later we will
need to pay for those things that we do wrong or
unjustly, whether by ignorance or intent. No
moments in my life have become more negatively
memorable than waiting for the other shoe to fall
after I have made a mistake. Fairness does not
save those days for me; grace does.
In our reading today, Jesus tells a tale, not of
fairness, but of grace. This story seems so not fair.
The hardest of the workers point that out. “We
worked all day in the hot sun and all we got was
the same wage as the loafers who hung out by the
water cooler all day, and only showed up after the
sun went down!” Not fair! That landowner will be
challenged to find workers the next day. But look
again. The story highlights in some ways an
absolutely fair world. All the workers got what the
landowner promised. Nothing more, nothing less.
At the end of the day, they all received the same—
the usual daily wage. Enough. Fair. Generous!
Think Jesus, when he teaches us to pray, “Give us
today our daily bread.” The problem is not fairness,
but rather that some of the workers (for obvious
reasons) took issue with the landowners
generosity; or grace, to use a more theological
term. You see, even humans bristle in an
absolutely fair world; and fairness isn’t always as
easy to define as it seems.
Don’t get me wrong. Fairness remains a good
thing, and a goal for which to strive. Sometimes we
treat it as the end-all and be-all of our social
endeavoring, however. When I stop to examine my
life, I find how incredibly unfair so much of it has
been. If God’s grace and mercy did not rain down
generously on me, I would be grievously troubled;
and in a lot of trouble! In a fair world, I get exactly
what I deserve!! In a grace-filled world, I
get…surprises…second chances…rebuilt
relationships…forgiveness…and a chance to be
gracious to others as God and others have been
gracious to me. I only ever deserved at most an
agreed-upon day’s pay. O, I’ve had to feast a time
or two along the way on a diet of fairness, and its
side dish, unfairness; and I’ve served up quite a lot
of the same. Fairness does not keep me waking up
in the morning and greeting each new day with
energy and hope; grace does.
When you look at that central concept of our
theological system, you see a reality that is
actually quite opposed to fairness. Grace by
definition means receiving that which we don’t
deserve, and happily so! Just like the workers in
the vineyard. No one in the story got less than
what they had coming to them on a contractual
level. Even the all-day workers received grace, in
that they were paid well and according to their
expectations —which doesn’t always happen, does
it? The others, though they received the same in
absolute terms, received more in terms of
expectations. One might call that grace if one were
so inclined. And I am so inclined.
We live in a society that focuses on fairness…
even though, I contend, we really don’t like the
idea. We spout about it when the ideas serves our
interests; but we prefer grace when it doesn’t.
Think about this: are you more inclined to tell the
cashier that he’s given you too little change? Or
too much? Shouldn’t matter, should it? We like
fairness for the other person; grace for ourselves.
Here’s the good news: we, like the workers in
the vineyard, are all recipients of grace! As we
specifically remember sisters and brothers in
Christ around this beautiful and broken world
today, I ask, was it fair that you were born when
and where you were? From conception, then, we
are recipients of grace. As such, we are called and
empowered to be bearers of grace: to recognize,
as we look around at people and places both near
and far, that, but for the grace of God, go we.
Standing up for fairness tempts us readily to utter,
“That’s not fair!” And well we should. Still, as fair as
we endeavor to be, what resides in our theological
genes is grace.
God the Landowner has been generous beyond
belief with us; more generous with other folks in
some cases, less generous in many others.
Celebrate with them as appropriate; but take a
close look at yourself. A good bit of life remains
unfair. That should makes us unhappy! Grace,
however, abounds. Thanks be to God!