Wednesday of the Twentieth Week in Ordinary Time

Lectionary: 421

He said to one of them in reply,
‘My friend, I am not cheating you.
Did you not agree with me for the usual daily wage? Take what is yours and go.
What if I wish to give this last one the same as you? Or am I not free to do as I wish with my own money?

 

I’ve had a hard time wrapping my head around this parable and its teaching. I’ve had  to be reminded that God is Justice; and God is Mercy; and God is the law.

Recently, we have seen elected officials pardon felons not because the judicial system failed, or because the felons repented, but for the official's political advantage. The convicts are admired like Robin Hoods for their racist, homophobic, or misogynist behavior and the base wants them free regardless. These political gambits highlight what African- and Native Americans have been telling us all along, that American justice serves political concerns. The executive might not be above the law but politics is. The Bible knew that all along, as today's first reading reminds us.

I remember a devout Catholic judge many years ago who chortled over Jesus’s parable of the wicked judge and the importunate widow. My friend knew our system doesn’t act like a machine; it’s very human and always subject to human vagaries. No legal system works automatically, not even the infamous "three strikes and you're out." 

With those sobering thoughts in mind, we approach today’s parable. First, we should notice that the landowner spoke to only one of them in reply. He didn’t owe anyone even that explanation; his rebuke of one fellow is simply Saint Luke’s literary device to explain what happened.

And then the landowner challenges the man, “Am I not free to do as I wish with my own money?” Who could argue with that? Unless I am ready to subject my finances to another’s scrutiny, I will not doubt this rich man’s prerogative. Of course he can do with his money as he pleases!

But is that fair? And who decides fairness? The rich man or the laborer? Or both? Or neither? In Jesus's parable, this landowner clearly stands in for God, and God is subject to no higher authority.

Romanticism imagines impersonal ideals as superior to our personal God. But what are they really? Have they power or authority? Are they absolute values or relative? Do they do anything?

Jesus, from his Jewish tradition, knew no higher authority than God; and those who pit their opinions, ideas, and ideals against God are called fools.

I learned to wrap my head around this parable when I realized the personhood of God. Because I am a person, I am sure God is Personal.  Atheists suppose a mechanical principle or ideal created the universe. “It’s made of numbers!” they say. But there is neither love, mercy, or justice in their universe. And besides, who created the numbers? 

I believe in the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit whose love I cannot fathom; whose supreme authority to forgive and heal I worship.