Fighting Fair

Learning the higher fairness of Jesus

08/18/2021

Mt 20:1-16 Jesus told his disciples this parable: “The Kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out at dawn to hire laborers for his vineyard. After agreeing with them for the usual daily wage, he sent them into his vineyard. Going out about nine o’clock, he saw others standing idle in the marketplace, and he said to them, ‘You too go into my vineyard, and I will give you what is just.’ So they went off. And he went out again around noon, and around three o’clock, and did likewise. Going out about five o’clock, he found others standing around, and said to them, ‘Why do you stand here idle all day?’ They answered, ‘Because no one has hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You too go into my vineyard.’ When it was evening the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Summon the laborers and give them their pay, beginning with the last and ending with the first.’ When those who had started about five o’clock came, each received the usual daily wage. So when the first came, they thought that they would receive more, but each of them also got the usual wage. And on receiving it they grumbled against the landowner, saying, ‘These last ones worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us, who bore the day’s burden and the heat.’ 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? Are you envious because I am generous?’ Thus, the last will be first, and the first will be last.”

One of the great things about growing up with siblings (I have an older brother and a younger sister) is we always had someone to fight with. Boys and girls, do you ever fight with your brothers and sisters? Of course, I never fought: I always walked around with my hands folded in prayer. Just kidding. I was probably the worst and now I am doing penance as a priest! But what did we fight about: we fought about fairness.

We would say things like: “He got too much dessert and more than me! She got to play the video game longer than me. He gets to drive the car and I don’t. She got to spend the night at her friend’s house more than I do.” Have you ever fought about fairness? I really think that is what all fights are about, even after we become adults. Your parents fight about what’s fair, too.

In the gospel today, Jesus teaches his disciples a higher kind of fairness and helps them to stop fighting. He teaches them his own form of fairness, which will be on full display on the Cross. In the parable the people complain about not being treated fairly. Those who work the longest should get paid more. That sounds like just what my brother, sister and I would complain about to mom and dad.

The workers in the parable had a very strict sense of fairness and justice, summed up in the saying: “An eye for an eye; a tooth for a tooth.” That was the fairness of the Old Testament. But Jesus wants to teach the fairness of the New Testament called “generosity,” where thing will not be exactly equal, but not because they are less than fair, but rather because they are more than fair. They are Jesus’ kind of fairness.

Jesus taught this in the Sermon on the Mount in Mt 5:38-39, saying: “You have heard it said, ‘An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.’ But I say to you offer no resistance to one who is evil. When someone strikes you on your right cheek, turn and offer the other one to him as well.” And isn’t that exactly what Jesus did when the Roman soldiers beat him brutally and crucified him? That is how Jesus would “fight fair,” that is, he would not fight back. Jesus desires generosity, much more than mere justice.

St. Mother Teresa put this higher form of fairness into a perfect prayer, saying: “People are often unreasonable, irrational and self-centered. Forgive them anyway. If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives. Be kind anyway. If you are successful, you will win some unfaithful friends and some genuine enemies. Succeed anyway. If you are honest and sincere people may deceive you. Be honest and sincere anyway. What you spend years creating, others could destroy overnight.

“Create anyway. If you find security and happiness, some may be jealous. Be happy anyway. The good you do today will often be forgotten. Do good anyway. Give the best you have, and it will never be enough. Give your best anyway. In the final analysis, it is between you and God. It was never between you and them anyway.” I hope that prayer helped Mother Teresa’s sisters, the Missionaries of Charity, to not fight so much because they learned Jesus’ kind of fairness. She was trying to teach them generosity more than mere justice.

Boys and girls, you will learn a lot of new things this coming year here at Trinity Middle School. But I hope you also learn there are two kinds of fairness. One is “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth” fairness, or strict justice. But the other is Jesus’ fairness, where we turn the other cheek, don’t fight back, and are generous and kind. Next time you hear someone scream: “That’s not fair!” like me and my siblings used to, remember Jesus’ fairness and seek generosity rather than justice. That’s the only way the fighting will stop.

Praised be Jesus Christ!