The harvest is great, the labourers few

As the workers, united and soon-to-be-defeated, mass under my windows, it seems opportune to recall a sermon I heard preached a few weeks ago. The text was that wonderful parable of the labourers in the vineyard (Matthew 20:1-16). As you will recall, the owner of a vineyard goes to the marketplace early in the morning to hire some workers, at an agreed wage of one denarius for the day. As the day wears on, and it becomes plain that he needs more workers, he returns to the marketplace periodically. At day's end, he pays up, giving one denarius to each worker, whether they had worked the whole day, or just a few hours. The first hired men protest, but the owner replies: "We made a deal, and you were happy with it. This is my money, and I can spend it how I please".

Now, this is fairly clearly one of those parables which Jesus preaches to answer the complaints of those among his followers who protested that they, as Jews who had waited so long for the Messiah and the Kingdom of Heaven, should not have to share it with Gentiles who had put in no effort of waiting at all.

Not much of a surprise that the priest made no mention of this, and preached instead as though Jesus had specifically had John Howard's IR legislation in mind. Apparently it's a parable of the minimum wage - workers should get a certain minimum, no matter how much or how little they do. Unfortunately for this interpretation, Jesus said nothing about those men still at the marketplace, who hadn't been hired at all. And come to think of it, Jesus is troublingly silent on the matter of global warming.