The Vineyard Workers Parable — A Triple Decker Salvation Sandwich

The Parable of The Workers in the Vineyard (Matthew 20:1-16) is one of my favorite parables.  I love it because it is a fascinating, triple-decker salvation sandwich!

Yes, you read that right. I am comparing this beautiful and powerful parable to a sandwich!  But before you rip your shirt screaming blasphemy or something of the sort, let me explain.

What is a Sandwich?

A sandwich is two slices of bread with something in between them. Meat and/or cheese, vegetables, or other items are common in-between items.  It is a convenient, concise, and very filling multi-layer food item.

All of Our Lord’s parables are precisely that as well.  They are multi-layered, with the Bread of Life (our Lord) wrapping spiritual nutrition in convenient, concise, and very spiritually filling messages inside.

So, what, precisely, are those inside fillings within The Parable of The Workers in The Vineyard?  They are pride, comparison, and ingratitude.

God’s Ways and Measures are Not Ours

A core lesson, and a reminder duly noted in scripture, is that God’s ways and measures are definitely not ours  (Isaiah 55:8-9).  In our ignorant arrogance (and we all are, to a greater or lesser degree, exactly those two adjectives) we pretend that our way of thinking is what matters.  How funny that is, isn’t it?

We, the very imperfect, sinful creatures of a perfect God, have the gall to pretend that our way of thinking is what matters!  Basically, we think we have some innate, divine sense of what is fair and proper.  To cure or, at least, lessen that twisted mentality, ask yourself, “If I am clearly sinful and imperfect and God is perfect, then what makes me think that my way of thinking, judging, discerning, or evaluating is anywhere near proper, much less perfect?”

Scripture tells us that our hearts should never be our judge of anything but, rather, we must filter all through the Word of God (Jeremiah 17:5-9).  It then follows that using the measure of what is or is not fair by how we feel and what we think is fair is folly.  By necessity and common sense, if we are at our core selfish creatures then it follows that we will most often tend to judge what is fair by what favors our agenda or preference.  Objective truth or fairness is not a place we will ever be familiar with this side of salvation.

Flying by Instrumentation

Many years ago, a past classmate of mine, JFK Jr., was killed along with his wife and sister-in-law when the small plane he was piloting crashed. Much was said about how he was not yet instrument trained.  This meant that he was not yet skilled with using and trusting fully in his instruments when using his senses would be of little help.

Pilots must rely and trust solely on their instruments to survive when faced with poor or no visibility.  Faced with total disorientation in total darkness, JFK Jr. literally trusted his senses and instincts to his doom.

Spiritually, we are like a pilot with no instrument training.  We rely solely and exclusively on our warped and biased sense of truth and fairness.  We will never find sanctity and spiritual growth until we learn to let go of our twisted measures and rely solely on God to orient us toward sanctification and salvation.

We Must Keep Our Eyes and Focus on God

God should be our only instrument of measure and discernment.  In order to not become disoriented and lost spiritually, we must solely focus on God and God’s Word. Our determinations and evaluations mean little given our imperfect and biased nature.  It is sheer arrogance and pride to pretend that we have a clue what is truthful or fair.

Peter was able to walk on water when he focused solely on Christ but sank when he began to look around at his surroundings.  This takes us to the next crucial lesson.

We Must Never Measure or Define Ourselves by Our Circumstances

We are by nature creatures of  peripheral evaluation.  By this I mean that we tend to look around us to determine how well we are doing or what our progress is.  This is fool’s gold for two reasons.

First, our surroundings can often be just as or more distorted than we are. Therefore, if we define ourselves or our progress by what surround us, we may be merely be swimming in confusion and distortion.

If I am a thief surrounded by murderers, I may see myself as the most virtuous of the lot. This is because, by comparison, I am less evil than they are.  This false sense of virtue, of course, is not reality and I will likely be sinking in sin even as I measure myself for saintly garb.

A second reason that we should never measure or define ourselves by our surroundings or circumstances is that such a habit plays right into Satan’s hands.  The evil one is happy when we are obsessed with the past and the future and distracted by present superficialities.

In case you have not noticed, we are living in a twisted world, and we will never find inner peace unless and until we disconnect our personal peace from this mess we call our world.  By disconnect I do not mean hide under a bed or wallow in apathy.  What I do mean is that we must learn to define and measure ourselves by what is inside us and how we measure to God and nothing else.  Imagine a person falling to hell screaming “This cannot be happening, I have thousands of likes on YouTube and Facebook!”

Sanctity grows to the extent that we measure or define ourselves by how we are growing toward God, not according to our circumstances.

Filth, poverty, disease, and hardship surrounded Mother Teresa.  Yet she grew, despite this and, more accurately, because of this, in sanctity every day.  Her life show us that we can practice the greatest charity and compassion while surrounded by hatred, rejection, and ingratitude.

Conversely, we can live in the greatest splendor and luxury and yet be mired in sin and on the way to perdition.  Obviously, our salvation is not dependent on how much we have or how many people are like us, much less how popular we are.

Embrace your circumstances, whatever they are, as sent or allowed by God for your sanctification.  Consider Our Lord on the cross  and shut up.  That is what John of the Cross advised us to do.

Comparison is Fertile Soil for Sin

When we define or measure ourselves by our circumstances, we invite comparison to be that measure. The older brother in the Parable of The Prodigal Son did that, and all it brought him was misery and resentment. News flash; life can sometimes seem unfair to us.

Remember that our measure of fairness is by definition defective.  We must trust in God.  There will always be people better and worse off than we are, and comparing ourselves to them in any way is a waste of time.  This plays right into the hands of Satan.  Remember that it was Satan who pushed Adam and Eve into sin by fooling them into comparing themselves to God.

We will never be able to forgive, show compassion, be humble, share and sacrifice, or become the saints we are called to be if we continually compare ourselves to others.

Human Comparison is by Definition Blind

Since we are biased and imperfect sinners, our own comparisons are, by nature, biased and imperfect. We compare ourselves to others based on what we know or think that we know.

In the Parable of The Workers in The Vineyard, the workers who began working early thought that they deserved more than those who came later.  They did not consider the suffering and anxiety that the latter group went through thinking that they were not going to earn anything for their family.  By definition, we evaluate things based on our incomplete and imperfect awareness of all the issues involved in a situation or circumstance.

We wish we owned that big house or the car that family next door has without knowing that said family has a mother with cancer or a drug addicted son.  We gripe about not getting that promotion without knowing that the person who received it needs it more than we do.  Or perhaps that promotion would actually cause us great family turmoil.

Since we do not see the road ahead and God does, it might just be a good idea to leave all to God and trust in His providence.

Gratitude is The Attitude

I know that it is corny, but the above phrase is true.   Humility and gratitude will greatly enhance our journey toward the sanctity that God wants for us.

The vineyard workers parable reminds us that pride, comparison, and ingratitude – the filling in the triple-decker sandwich – go hand in hand with misery and a lack of peace.  The next time you want to compare yourself to someone, instead say a prayer for that person and thank God for what you have.  In the long run, you will be a better person for it.