THE REFORM OF THE IDLER
‘Why stand ye here all the day idle? They say unto him, Because no man hath hired us.’
Matthew 20 part Matthew 20:6-7
This parable is one of the most difficult in the New Testament, because, at first sight, there seems to have been a serious miscarriage of justice. But the householder represents God, and such an imputation is therefore impossible. Two considerations diminish the difficulty.
I. Motive of sacrifice.—Our Lord taught that God estimates sacrifice by (a) the motive which prompts it, (b) the spirit that graces it, (c) the ‘character’ that is evolved from it. The first labourers who came forward had to be bargained with; a definite agreement was struck—and adhered to—a penny a day. Those who came at the eleventh hour seem to have been of different character; less mercenary, more trustful; and they are treated generously in return.
II. Lack of opportunity.—Listen to their reason for being idle—‘because no man hath hired us.’ Here, then, is a conspicuous instance, not of injustice, but the great and infinite justice of God, Who will not treat a lack of opportunity as a lack of service. If you have had no chance, but have longed, and sought, and hoped to serve Him, but failed to find opportunity, when the hour comes, God will accept your good intentions and sincere desires; there is only one thing He will not accept, but punish, that is lack of willingness to do anything.
III. ‘Go, work.’—If there is one aspect of the Gospel more than another put before us in this parable, it is the aspect of work. It is not ‘Come and save your souls,’ but ‘Go ye and work!’ The world is full of unflagging energy; the one anomaly is the man who is idle. A man may not have to work for his living, and yet he may ‘work in God’s vineyard,’ by devoting his money, talents, time, and himself to the service of his country, the Church, and God. Idleness, in the Bible sense of the word, is the non-realisation that life is a service. All have not the same, some not many, some very few, gifts; but the honest doing of the smallest service for God, if according to our power, will hallow all the life.
IV. The hire given.—‘Call the labourers and give them their hire.’ When the quick and dead shall answer to that call, God grant that we may appear before Him, not as idlers, but as labourers, even though we be the last amongst the last.
Prebendary J. Storrs.
Illustration
‘ “Why stand ye here all the day idle?” Very few of us can say, “Because no man hath hired us.” We are living in the midst of a thousand necessities. The cry, calling for us to work for God, comes from all sides, from undermanned parishes, from the underfed masses, and indeed the overfed classes; from many of our own clergy, crushed by penury, to the breaking of the spirit and the clouding of the brain; from the countless thousands of the lost and tempted, the sick and the suffering. It is for us to keep ears and eyes open, and hearts in touch with our fellows, and then the opportunity will arise, the call, in some form, will come.’
(SECOND OUTLINE)
A PARABLE WITHIN A PARABLE
This fragment of the parable is itself a parable. Let us separate from the rest of the parable these five words: ‘No man hath hired us.’
I. God’s care.—The text shows us that there is a God Who concerns Himself about us, Who comes in, as it were, day by day to notice and to question—nay, who rather does not need to come in, for He is here—here in necessity of a Divine omnipresence.
II. God’s call.—God has a work going on everywhere. The work for which He employs men is the work of man’s moral culture. He has to form in man a God-like character. All His redeemed are the workmen. The work which God permits to every man is a twofold work.
(a) Each individual soul is a vineyard, and he has charge of it—the weeding and tending of that heart out of which issues the life.
(b) Life itself is a vineyard—the life of a man as it is lived amongst his fellows. The life of the family in which each one of us is a son, a brother, a daughter, a sister—here is a sheltered spot of the vineyard in which God bids us work, and in which many stand in God’s sight all the day idle.
III. What answer are we making?—We are here some of us in the early morning of life, and some have reached the eleventh hour. Still the same call, patient and long-suffering, is in all our ears. Honestly, are we really at work in God’s vineyard, or are we in God’s sight still standing idle? The selfish life is an idle life.
The Rev. A. Clark.
Illustration
‘There must of necessity be great variety in the work to be done by each in the vineyard of life, but amidst all this variety there is unity. Go where you may, you cannot escape the call to be God’s workman. God bids clergyman to go into the vineyard, but call to him is not substantially different from the call to any other man. God calls the soldier, the lawyer, the business man to work in His vineyard. Neither is sex any restriction. God calls the woman in her many duties to work in His vineyard. God bids us set before ourselves in youth as in age this one object—so to live as to make others better, so to live as to make God known.’