“Life Ain’t Fair”: A MonologueThe Allegory of the Field Hands |
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Snyder
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Author Unknown Edited by Jackson Snyder
May 15, 2003 Matthew 20:1-16 |
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Matthew 20 1. "FOR THE kingdom of heaven is like a householder who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. 2. After agreeing with the laborers for a denarius a day, he sent them into his vineyard. 3. And going out about the third hour he saw others standing idle in the market place; 4. and to them he said, 'You go into the vineyard too, and whatever is right I will give you.' So they went. 5. Going out again about the sixth hour and the ninth hour, he did the same. 6. And about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing; and he said to them, 'Why do you stand here idle all day?' 7. They said to him, 'Because no one has hired us.' He said to them, 'You go into the vineyard too.' Best Devotional Resources Here! 8. And when evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his steward, 'Call the laborers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last, up to the first.' 9. And when those hired about the eleventh hour came, each of them received a denarius. 10. Now when the first came, they thought they would receive more; but each of them also received a denarius. 11. And on receiving it they grumbled at the householder, 12. saying, 'These last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat.' 13. But he replied to one of them, 'Friend, I am doing you no wrong; did you not agree with me for a denarius? 14. Take what belongs to you, and go; I choose to give to this last as I give to you. 15. Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or do you begrudge my generosity?' 16. So the last will be first, and the first last." You know, life ain’t fair. No it ain’t.
The rooster crowed three times. The sun was comin’ up, so I got outta bed
and climbed ta the roof. It was cool there,
and my brotha-in-law was up there sleepin’.
I tried ta wake ‘im up, but he just kep’ on snorin’. The first sunbeams fell both on his face and
mine. I thought about how different
him an’ me was. I couldn't remember a
day in my whole life -- except for sabbaths -- when I slept past first
light. I doubt my brotha-in-law’d ever
seen the sun comin’ up unless it was through the bleary eyes of a guy just
goin’ ta bed after drinkin’ all night.
I told him last night that the harvest
would be ready this mornin’ and I expected ‘im ta get up wif me. Maybe we could both get hired ta work out in
the fields. Yep. This was the one day outta the year when
there was more work than men ta do it, and even my brotha-in-law could get a
job. He started right off, complainin’
‘bout his back, but I gave him the evil eye and he shut up. I gotta give his sister, my wife, some
credit. She backed me up for a change. She told that good-for-nothin’ brotha of
hers ta do what I told ‘im. But here he
was, still half dead, and he wouldn’t get up.
I didn't have time ta wait ‘round for ‘im ta get dressed and come
on. I'd let my wife sort that out
later.
I climbed down the ladder and walked down
the street ta the middle a’ town. I was really mad ta see that a couple a’
other guys beat me ta the pick-up spot.
I liked ta be the first guy there every day; I always was. I’s the hardest worker in town; ev’ry body
knew it, too. I cussed my brotha-in-law
for makin’ me the third in this mornin’.
Nahh, it didn't really matter none anyway ‘cause the boss hadn’t got
there yet, but here he come just as a couple other guys got there too. I pushed ‘em out a’ the way and got ta the
front of the bunch, but I didn't need to.
He asked us all if we wanted ta work. Lot ta be done, he said, He needed everybody. I told ‘im we’d work if he paid every one of
us fifty bucks, the usual day’s pay for this kinda work. The boss said that’d be ok so we got on the
wagin wif ‘im.
The wet dew burned away as we bent over the
stalks of wheat, swingin’ our knives an’ bindin’ up our sheaves. We weren’t feelin’ too bad a couple hours
later when the boss left and brought back some more rough guys to help
out. I noticed that my brotha-in-law
wasn’t wif this new gang.
The sun rose as high as it’d go and we quit
for lunch. More workers joined us and we went on real slow through the
day. It was real hot and sweaty too,
but the field wadn’t near done.
The sun now is low down in the sky and we
see that the boss is worried. He goes
away in that wagon for awhile and brings back more men. Now hear comes my brotha -in-law. Ha!
I wonder where the boss found this bunch a’ slackers. They’re the boys who never done an honest
day's work in their whole lives. I
keep workin’ but I watch out of the corner of my eye when the boss gives ‘em
their harvest knives. These guys don’t
know what to do wif ‘em but look at ‘em.
I see um trudgiin out to the field now. They’re lookin’ at each other and lookin’ around, tryin’ to
figure out what they supposed ta do. My
brotha-in-law looks at me for a still minute as I swing my knife and cut a
perfec’ line a’ grain – all the stalks fall smooth-like, in one direction. Now that’s pretty.
He tries to swing his knife like me. He aint’ got the angle, though. The knife catches and twists right
out of his sof’ hand. He picks up the
knife and tries again. This time he
hits too high up. Knocks the wheat right off’n the stalk and on the ground,
sompin’ for the widders and orphinks to get tonight when we all gone. It ain’t hardly no use to it, but my
brotha-in-law starts a’choppin’ at the bottom a’ the stalks of like a woodsman
cuttin’ down a tree wif a axe. While I
haul my bundle of wheat up ma arm and tie it into a pretty sheaf, his stalks
and grain fall every which way all over the ground, like pick-up-sticks. It’ll take ‘im the rest a’ the day ta pick
up that mess and tie it, and all for jus’ a little handful. How pathetic.
I move down a row, shakin’ my head. How do such as him survive, I wonder?
Course, I know how my brotha-in-law survives. When we were kids, we went ta school tagether. He always tried to copy my letters. Whenever he was called on to read he told
the teacher he had a sore throat. I
knew the teacher didn't believe ‘im, but the boy was so dang dumb that it gave
the teacher a pain in the ear to listen to ‘im. Anyway, I always heard the teacher tell his mom just what a great
job he’s doin’. I think the teacher
just felt awful sorry for her to have a boy so stupid as him. See, her husband drank too much and her life
was hard. I wasn’t no scholar either,
but at least I tried. I did as good as
I could. I got what I deserved -- no
more, no less.
For most of his life, my
brotha-in-law survived because his mother fed ‘im and provided ‘im wif a roof
over his fool head. Then when his
mother passed on, god rest ‘er soul, his sister -- my wife -- took ‘im in. I’s ashamed of my brotha-in-law, but my wife
has borne me so many sons, I say nothin’. I jus’ think how lucky I was to learn
the hard lessons a’ life early. No one
took care a’ me when I’s old enough to work.
I had ta earn my way before I’s even grown. The toughness of life made me a man who asks for nothin’ ‘ceptin
a fair day's pay for a fair day's work.
Finally, the fields were cleared. The sheaves were all set up on the threshin’
flo’. There’d be work tomorrow for
those willing to beat the grain off the stalks and throw the straws up into the
wind. I’d be there, that’s for
sure. I was always there. But I doubt
the boss’d hire my brotha-in-law no matter how shorthanded he was. I saw the
boss eyein’ that onelittle ol’ sheaf my brotha-in-law managed to tie
together.
The landowner told the foreman ta line us
up in the order we’d been hired. This
was the usu’l routine so I went up ta the front where I always did. The little boss knew me and said, "Not today, Abe. The big boss wants the last here to be the
first in line.” Prob’bly wants to cuss
‘em out good and send them on home wif nothin’, I thought. So I shrugged and went to the end of the
line. I hated this lil’ game. I’d been on my feet all day and I wanted ma
pay and ta go’on home.
The big boss called for the paymaster, who
was carryin’ a big bag a’ money. The
paymaster told those up front to step forward one-by-one, and ‘e mashed a
greenback in each man’s hand. I figured
it might be a five or ten dolla’ bill, that’s all. I didn't pay much attention until my brotha-in-law stepped
forward, received his pay and then let big ol’ whoop before he ran ta the back
of the line ta see me. He said, "Lookie here, Abe, this money’s got a
general’s picture on it. It’s a fifty-dollar
bill!”
I think this was the first time anyone’d
ever paid him a day's wage in his life.
Too bad he hadn't earned it. I
assumed the big boss was desperate and the last bunch he hired had driven a
hard bargain, but my brotha-in-law said they hadn't haggled at all. The big boss hadn't promised to pay ‘em
anything. He just aked ‘em to come toa
work in the fields. "Nobody ever
hired me afore, Abe!" he said.
His gratitude was real genu-ine. The big boss sure hadn't gotten much bang
for his buck, so to speak. But seein’
that money of his made me happy, too. I
figured the boss was in a good mood. He
was inclined to be generous and, if he was fair, I ought to make ‘bout 10 times
much as my brotha-in-law. So, when the
paymaster called for me, the last man in line, I didn’t hold out one hand, but
I held ‘em both out, spectin’ the paymaster was gonna pour the rest a that
bagga money into my hands. But no! That paymaster took out just one lil’ ol’ U.
S. Grant and mashed it in my fist.
"What’s this?" I asked the paymaster.
"It’s your pay," he said.
"But I worked all day!" I said that really loud.
The big boss heard me an’ came over, askin’
me what was wrong. I told ‘im that me
an’ these other fine men had worked since early day and were bein’ paid only
fifty dollars.
"Ain’t that what we ‘greed to
do?" asked the big boss.
I said I though it was, but I also said it
ain’t the least bit fair that men who worked all day in the sun should be paid
the same as those who only dawdled aroun’ for an hour or so in the cool of the
evening.
The big boss asked me whose land I’s
workin’ on. I told him, it was
his. He pointed to his bag of money and
asked me whose money that was. I had to
say that it belonged to him.
"If I want ta be gen’rous,” he said,
“I’ll be gen’rous. Now take your pay
and go on home."
Yeah.
That’s what I did. I was afire
as I walked down the road listenin’ to my brotha-in-law laughin’ and thankin’
God for having got the same pay as me.
I cooled off a little because now it was rainin’. My brotha-in-law raised up his arms inta the
air an’ thanked God for the rain, talkin’ ‘bout how refreshin’ it was, how cool
it felt after all that work.
"All that work!" He’d hardly broken a sweat. The rain only made me steam up like a hot
rock.
Finally, my brotha-in-law noticed I wasn’t
too happy at all an’ he quieted down some.
He asked me why I was so angry.
I said, "Because I have to put up wif
a fool like you; ‘cause I have a wife and five sons and I not only have ta feed
them but I gotta put food in your useless mouth just as well – ‘cause I
got up before dawn this morning and worked all day for the same pay that you
got – ‘cause I’m a gonna work hard all my life and you gonna play all your life
and when we get done, our bodies will be all rolled up into the same black hole
in the ground out back."
While I was talkin’, it really started
rainin’ cats and dogs. It was runnin’
in our eyes and rollin’ off our ears. Our hairs and clothes were soppin’ wet. Suddenly, I saw myself and heard myself as
if I was another person. I saw my face
covered wif rain as if I’d been cryin’ all my life. I heard my mournful voice talking about my body being rolled up
in a hole in the ground. I began to
laugh. Ha. Ha. Ha.
My brotha-in-law looked at me like I was
crazy. "Abe," he said, "I never heard you laugh before."
I thought about this for a minute. You know, he was right for a change. Oh, I’d laughed wif a "ho-ho-ho"
when one of my chillun done sompin pleasin’.
I almost laughed on my weddin’ day, but I didn't want to be even a
bigger jok than I already was, so I didn’t laugh then. I laughed inside myself when I saw my
brotha-in-law tryin’ to cut wheat (now that was real funny); but I’d never
laughed like I was free ta laugh. No, I
hadn’t hardly laughed atoll. I
understood my brotha-in-law's concern.
Here I was, the most serious, uncompromisin’, rigid, angry man he knew,
laughin’ my head off while standin’ asoakin’ wet in the rain.
"What's so funny?" he asked me.
"You is," I said. "Me
is. Look at you ‘n me. Didja ever see such different
people?" My brotha-in-law looked
at me like a stranger.
"No," he said. "No two men
could be more different from each other than you and me, Abe. You’s always up at the crack of dawn. I sleep all mornin’. You work hard all day. I don't even know how ta work. My sister loves you. People look at me wif contemp. You got five strong sons. I got no one."
"Not true," I said. "That's not entirely true, anyway,
brotha. My family is your family jus’
as well."
"Abe," my brotha-in-law asked,
"have you los’ your mine?"
"Well maybe I done lost my mine,"
I laughed, "but I think I’ve found my soul. Look at us, brotha. Two
men so different, yet look up at the same ol’ col’ rain falling on us
both. And didn't the same ol’ sun warm
our backs today? Mine bent over in the
field and yours curled up in a blanket on the roof?"
He said. "What does the sun and the
rain have to do wif it?" ... By
this time the rain was lettin’ up and the sky was clearin’ up.
"Tell me, again, brotha," I
asked. "What did the big boss tell
ya he was gonna to give ya if ya’d come and work for ‘im for that last
hour?"
"He didn't promise us anythin’,"
my brotha-in-law said. "He just
asked us if we would come and work.
That’s all."
"And you didn't haggle wif him
none?" I asked. "None of your
friends said to the boss, 'what's it worth to ya' or 'what do we get out of
it?' "
He shook his head, "I guess we were so
surprised ta be asked to work, we didn't even think that we’d get paid."
Then
I told him, "That's jut the way you’ve lived your sorry life," I
said. "And this morning I
bargained to work for the whole scorchin’ day for fifty dollars, because that’s
the way I have lived my whole life.
My whole life is a bargain.
Everythin is supposed to be a fair exchange. Your sister bore me five sons, so I put up wif you. I work harder than any other man in town and
I should get paid first. I’m honest,
I’m a sabbath-keepin’ man and I always honored my father and mother -- so God
should bless me and I should go up ta heaven when I die and not down in some
hole wit’ you."
"Yes, Abe," said my
brotha-in-law, "me and my friends, we all goin’ down to the pit of
torment."
"Really?" I said like I was int’rested. "Tell me about hell."
My brotha-in-law didn't understand that I
was jokin’ because he answered real serious-like: "It’s a awful place, Abe
-- like the garbage dump, where the fire burns forever and people like me get
eat by maggots. Some preachers say that
heaven is a wonderful city and hell is a lake of fire outside the city gates,
just like the dump."
"So, if I go on up ta heaven some
time," I said, "I can watch you burnin’ up in this lake of
fire?"
My brotha-in-law said seriously, "The
preacher said that people in heaven get mighty happy when they watch their old
enemies from that high city a way down there in the hot char pit sufferin’ and
burnin’ and screamin’ for water.”
I said, "So, brotha, there wouldn't be
any fun in going to heaven if nobody went to hell."
My brotha-in-law gave me that crazy look
again. "What are you sayin’,
Abe?"
"I'm sayin’, where is this God? Where is this God who sorts out everyone so
fairly and rewards some and punishes others? Do you see a God like that
anywhere in this world, brotha? Do you
see life as bein’ fair and everybody ‘roun’ here getting a good deal on things
because God is workin’ things out so good?
Does that ol’ sun only shine on the good folk and the bad folk walk in
the dark? Is the rain fair? Does it just water the Christian’s garden
and stop at the fence of the heathen man?
Is death fair? Do only bad folks
die?"
My brotha-in-law only blinked at me. I think even he could get the ansers to
these easy questions.
"Who sends the sunshine and rain,
brotha?" I asked. "Who decides when we live and when we
die?"
Again, my brotha-in-law winked at me,
‘cause the answer was obvious.
"God is like the big boss," I
told ‘im.
By this time the sun was goin’ down through
the clouds and there in the east we saw biggest, brightest rainbows ever.
"But, Abe," my brotha-in-law
protested, "the boss wasn't fair.
He wasn't just. God is a God a’
justice."
"How’d yau feel," I asked,
"when the boss gave you all that money for your work?"
My brotha-in-law thought for a moment. "I felt like I didn't deserve it, but I
was very grateful. It was more than I
dreamed of gettin’. I . . . I felt
happy," he said.
"That's how I feel about this rainbow,
see!" I said. " I never
felt this way ‘bout no rainbow before.
I'm not sure I ever even looked at one before. Can you see it, brotha?"
I asked him.
"Shooa, Abe," he said.
"Well, I'm mighty ‘stonished and
mighty angry," I said wif a laugh.
"A lazy good-for-nothing like you shouldn't be able to see that
beautiful rainbow. That should only be
for us good folk. Why should you get ta see it? You didn't earn it."
"You didn't earn it either,
Abe," he got mad fast. He didn't get the joke.
"Course, I didn't earn it,
brotha," I said. "Nobody
earns the right ta see a rainbow. No
one earns the right ta be loved. No one
earns the right ta have a child. No one
earns the sunshine and the rain. I'm
not even sure I earned this fifty-dollar bill," I said, stuffin’ it back
into my pocket just in case I might lose it.
"I only know that havin” it means that we’ll be eatin’
tomorrow. After that, I'll have ta
trust God ta take care a’ me, the way you trust me ta take care ‘a you."
"But, Abe," he said, "Now I think I know what you mean. If folks don't think they could earn
anythin’, why would they work?"
"Because they like to," I
said. "Only heaven knows, brotha; I must like to, I do enough of
it."
"I liked it, too, Abe. It felt good to be in the fields wif the
others. I've always been jealous a’ you
havin’ some place to go, you know, havin’ a purpose in life."
"Sometimes it's too much of a
purpose," I said. "Other
things are important, too."
"Abe," my brotha-in-law said,
"if I went wif you to work tomorrow, would you show me how ta do them
things you know how ta do?"
"Sure," I said.
"Great!" he said, all perked
up. "I be up before the sun in the
mornin’."
"Well," I said, "Tomorrow
mornin’ you may have to wait. I’m a
gonna sleep in for a change."
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