Year A Proper 20 Exodus 16:2-15 Matthew 20: 1-16

Expectations! We all have them; they’re part of daily life, of being human. Sometimes they are bad, often they are good, but whichever they may be they do influence us and our lives and how we treat each other.

A Jewish Holocaust survivor told this story. It was the dead of winter. While the guards wore their winter uniforms, heavy boots, warm hats, gloves, and thick wool coats, her clothing, like that of all the prisoners, was threadbare and not really enough to keep her truly warm. She was imprisoned in one of the concentration camps where, perhaps to entertain themselves, the guards would select a prisoner, douse them with water, and then put them outside to freeze to death. One day it was her turn.

She was soaked with water and dragged outside by a young guard. As he turned to go, she spoke. There were so many things she might have said. She could have begged for her life, or cursed him for what he was doing; surely he would have expected either. But she did none of these. Instead she asked him a question? “What would your Jesus say?”

The guard turned and walked back toward her. She must have expected him to strike her, knock her to the ground, possibly kick her – but he did none of these. He took off his heavy, wool coat, and gave it to her. She says she never saw him again – but that coat saved her life.

The whole congregation of the Israelites complained against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. The Israelites said to them, "If only we had died by the hand of the LORD in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the fleshpots and ate our fill of bread; for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger."

What were the people who followed Moses out of Egypt expecting? We always picture them as all having been slaves, so we assume their goal in leaving Egypt was freedom and a better life. But our mental image of starving people in threadbare clothes, falling constantly under the Egyptian lash, though it may have applied to some who were slaves, did not apply to all. Being a slave in Egypt meant being valuable property. Slave owners, for the most part, wanted to keep their “goods” in fine working order. Thus, in general, slaves were housed, well clothed, and well fed.

Then, too, as modern archeology and theology have developed, we’ve discovered that all the Jews were not slaves. Some had actually set up businesses in Egypt and made a living wage. Their lives were comfortable, though their position in society was lowly. Many of these Jews also followed Moses out of Egypt. What did they expect?

The promise of freedom for the salves, and, for all, of a better life, as independent people, as a nation with power, prestige, and positon on the world stage certainly was part of the draw. Definitely no one expected life to become more difficult. No one expected to be wandering and hungry in the wilderness, and they let Moses and Aaron know about their discontent.

Moses and Aaron have to remind the Israelites, who is in charge. What are we? Your complaining is not against us but against the LORD." And the Lord hears the people and responds to them by sending quail and mana from heaven to fill their bellies.

When the Israelites saw the mana, they said to one another, “What is it?” For they did not know what it was. Moses said to them, “It is the bread that the Lord has given you to eat.

Their expectations have not been met, not as they might have wanted. No new country is suddenly set before them. No end to their wandering arrives on the spot. There is no succulent feast set before them. But in a manner that will keep them alive so that someday their hopes can be fulfilled, they are fed and sustained by God.

"For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard.”

Jesus begins His parable with a setting familiar to his listeners. The image was common for the time, and those gathered to hear what Jesus had to say would have recognized the metaphor of the landowner and vineyard representing God and God’s kingdom. But the scene isn’t quite what they would expect to encounter in their normal daily lives. A landowner himself would never have gone to the marketplace to hire day labourers, his manager would have done that for him, and it’s unlikely there would have been a return trip to hire on more workers later in the day. Jesus’ listeners had to know something unexpected was coming next.

What does come next, at the end of the parable, would astound us even today. The way the landowner reckons up the days wages at the end of the day just isn’t right. The workers who were hired first expect to be paid the wage they agreed to, but they do not expect those who have not worked as hard or as long to get the same amount of money. And we understand this. We have a saying “an honest day’s work for an honest day’s wages.” The worker who has labored the longest and the hardest gets paid more than someone who is taken on for only a few hours a day. We have “hourly wages” and a minimum wage that applies to each hour we work.

The crowd listening to Jesus would expect what we would, that the first hired works in His parable would get paid far more than the come-lately workers. But that isn’t how the parable turns out. Instead, each worked is paid the exact same amount. How can God be so unfair?

Jesus’ parables are always meant to shock – and to make us think. What are our expectations, and on what do we base them? What made those first workers so angry was that they based their expectations on what seem to us to be reasonable, though worldly, standards. They agreed to a certain wage, and they received it. They only became angry when their expectations, that those hired later would receive less pay, were not met. You can just hear them saying, “It isn’t fair!”

Do we expect things to follow worldly standards? It’s the human way, and always has been. Think back to the Israelites. They too were complaining about the unfairness of their situation. Moses was supposed to lead them to better things than they had had in Egypt. They fondly remembered the good food, and now, instead of feasting, they’re starving. They expect better. God hears them and responds, not to what they expect, but to what they need. They are so unprepared to receive what they need, they actually fail to recognize it when it arrives. Could this also be us?

The workers in the field base their reward on the hours worked, but God bases it on the willingness of each person to become a worker in His field, no matter when they actually start. How do we look at the newcomer or the young expert-in-their-field? Do we base inclusion and respect on their willingness to work or on worldly standards?

How different it would have been for that Jewish woman in the concentration camp if everything on that fateful day had gone according to expectations. She would have frozen to death right then and there, and would not have lived to tell her amazing story.

We need to be prepared for God’s response to our needs, even when it is not what we wanted or expected - even when His answer is not what we hoped for, but is instead a lesson to be learned. If we accept His gift with grace it will lead us to peace and joy. God is not about “being fair”, and what we expect is not always, or even often, what God wants and thus provides.

Next time you find yourself thinking something isn’t fair; you might ask yourself what you expected. Than ask the question that Jewish prisoner asked the guard, “What would Jesus say?” Ask Jesus to tell you. Listen for a moment or two in silence, and He will show you the way of peace and truth, the way that leads not to worldly standards but to holiness and life eternal.

Let us pray:

Lord God, Heavenly Father, let Your will be done concerning our lives. Help us to seek Your way and not expect everything to be “fair”. Lord, grant us the grace to obey Your will and to live our lives according to it, that we may find peace and joy knowing that our true calling is to be loving and accepting of all You ordain. In Jesus Name, Amen.