Title: The Subversiveness of the Kingdom of God
the subversiveness of the kingdom of God
Go to the vineyard and work!!
What a beautiful story. Rather than saying it is beautiful, it is a heartwarming story that is difficult to read without tears. The owner of the vineyard asked the man who was playing until 5 pm why he was playing all day. This worker is a daily worker who earns and eats every day. That must have been a bad day for him. It was a day with nothing to work on all day. The owner of the vineyard was interested in the man no one was interested in and asked: Why are you playing, why are you babbling at the market, and after a long day, you have to go home early and spend time with your family. What is this? For what reason had this person been wandering around in the marketplace until that hour? Did you not want to hear the nagging of your wife that there is no food today, or was it embarrassing to see your sick wife and your parents lying in old age? The owner of the vineyard was happy to hire this man as his vineyard worker. This is something no one expected. He could only work an hour at most, but the owner gave him a job.
“You also go to my vineyard and work.” Can we not accept these words in a soteriology sense? Doesn't that mean that God has opened up the possibility of salvation even to those who did not believe in Jesus to the point of almost dying? Of course, the Bible also teaches the opposite. After the gates of heaven are already closed, no matter how much we cry and cry, no one can enter the gates. However, it means the absoluteness of the kingdom of God, and does not mean that the kingdom of heaven will be cut according to our own standards or our timetable. Judging from today's text, the owner granted the grace to enter the vineyard even to those who played until 5 pm.
Calculation of the Kingdom of God
Act 2 of the parable of the vineyard owner begins in the office at the end of a day in the vineyard. The owner ordered the steward to pay the workers who arrived at 5 pm on a daily basis. Since they had only worked an hour, these laborers, who thought they would be lucky if they could get a penny, were to their surprise and received a denarius. It is hard to imagine what their joy must have been. They must have felt like getting an extra day of life.
An unexpectedly enjoyable story has changed since then. The beginning was that those who came at 3pm, noon, 9am, and 7am received the same denarii as those who came in at 5pm. They grumbled to the owner like this. “Do you treat those people who came at the last minute and worked for only an hour the same as us who worked hard all day in the sun?” The owner, who heard their complaints, replied: “What have I done to you? Haven't you set me and my wages at one denarius? Take your wages with you. I have decided to pay this last man as much as I did for you. Are you saying it's wrong to handle mine my way? Are you saying that my generosity is offensive to you?” (Matthew 20: 13-15)
These people's complaints against the owners of the vineyards are not outrageous. It is unjust for anyone to treat a person who works one hour and a person who works ten hours the same. Had we been there, we might have poured out so many complaints. No, isn't that the way we live now? I can't stand being treated the same as someone less capable than me. We want to be treated better than others possible. I think that treating a person as much as he or she can is the standard of justice.
I'm not familiar with social science or economic issues, but isn't the neoliberalism that dominates our lives responding to our needs today? Isn't FTA supposed to go to a system in which the government and the state can no longer intervene between individuals and between companies and between companies and they can compete indefinitely? Reality Today's world, which has been driven by a single capitalist system since the collapse of socialism, is operating only for such competitiveness and productivity.
Again, their claim that growing the pie in this way can eventually raise everyone's economic status is not as absurd as those complaining in our text today. If rumors spread about what happened in this vineyard, few people will ever work hard in the vineyard, and the operation of the other vineyards may be fundamentally challenged.
The reality we live in applies equally to the church. Often, problems among churchgoers stem from dissatisfaction with not being treated fairly, rather than being theological or of the essence of the faith. It is perhaps the most decisive factor that breaks the peace of the church. Occasionally, we hear stories about not attending the church because of losing the elder vote, or creating a faction to confuse the church. Even though he belongs to the upper class, he commits such bizarre things. These incidents are not only in the case of that one person, but are not revealed on the surface, and they are common in every church, except that the aftermath is different. Why?
It is because all humans have the same complaints that can be seen in the parable of the vineyard. This must be human destiny. Christian theology speaks of such a human destiny as sin. It is sin, that is, man's self-centeredness, that breaks the inner peace of the Christian individual, the peace of the church, and the peace of society. I am not going to delve into the relationship between murmuring and sin today. Instead, we try to follow the parable of the owner of the vineyard a little more. Let's listen to what the Bible tells us.
Last and first overthrow
In the parable of the owner of the vineyard, Jesus concludes: “In this way, the last will be first, and the first will be last.” (20:16) The laborers who entered the vineyard later became the last and the first, and the workers who worked in the sun all day were the first and last. But this conclusion has already been presented just before this parable. Matthew 19:30 reads: “There will be many who will be first and then last, and last and then first.” These two aphorisms only differ in the order of first and last, but the content is the same.
The “first and last” stories we often hear are not just about coming to church first, but fundamentally about the subversiveness of the kingdom of God. It is a teaching that any order that we thought to be reasonable and just is overthrown by God's order. Christianity does not believe that the kingdom of God will come through the gradual development or improvement of this history. That country is completely different from what it is today. The kingdom approaches us in a way that is completely transcendent. So the Bible explains that Jesus is coming in the clouds. It means that beyond this history, His second coming will happen through this history.
The background of the aphorism in Matthew 19:30 is the story of a rich young man who came to Jesus and asked, “What good things must I do to receive eternal life?” The young man, confident that he had perfectly obeyed all the commandments from a young age, receives demands from Jesus that he cannot afford. “If you want to be perfect, go and sell all your possessions and give it to the poor. Then you will find treasure in heaven. Therefore, do as I tell you, and then come with me.” (Matthew 19:21) According to Matthew, this young man was very wealthy, so he went away grieved when he heard these words. After this incident, Jesus talked about the rich man and the camel, and said to his disciples, who were amazed that no one would be saved, he said, “It is something that no man can do. But God can do anything.” (Mt 19:26) After that, at the end of a conversation with the disciples, he spoke first and last. And in chapter 20 we find the parable of the owner of the vineyard.
This rich young man was a very good man. This young man sold all his possessions and gave it to the poor and went home disappointed at the command to follow Jesus, but it was inevitable. Francis of Assisi, Fr. Roger of Taiz , Mother Teresa, and other monks and such, who would completely renounce their possessions and follow Jesus? Did Jesus really ask for it? Then none of us can become followers of Jesus. Because we still have relatively large possessions. The story of the rich young man is not focused on the fact that he did not give up his possessions, but rather on the idea that he would gain eternal life, or salvation, by keeping the commandments. To break its recklessness, Jesus made a claim that this young man could not keep. As we read earlier in verse 26, it means that salvation is not the power of man, but only the purpose of God. The work of the kingdom of God seems to us that the first is the last, and the last is the first.
The will of the vineyard owner
There is a passage in the parable of the owner of the vineyard that we should not miss. The logic of these people who complained to their masters is ostensibly reasonable and just, but in reality it is not at all. There is nothing wrong with the fact that they received a denarius because they signed a contract with the owner for one denarius. One denarius earned by a person who worked an hour distorted their judgement. “You mean it's wrong to handle mine my way? Are you saying that my generosity is offensive to you?” The owner is right.
Human society today has abrogated the grace of God. God's grace is acting as a cause of dissatisfaction. Human rationality cannot exceed the grace of God. In this situation, our lives are filled with complaints and dissatisfaction. He forgets that he has been given one denarius, and only resents the fact that another, whom he does not consider worthy, has received the same. Intellectuals, social leaders, and even developed countries are unable to escape from such thinking. They do not tolerate North Korea's missile tests while possessing and testing more severe weapons. That's not to say that North Korea's missile tests are okay. It's just pointing out the inner pride of people who think they're good only by inflating small differences.
We must restore the order of grace. We must look forward to the thorough subversiveness of the kingdom of God. This is not easy in reality. But Christians are not satisfied with that reality. Those who are waiting for the second coming of the Lord must be able to dream of a completely different order.