8 And when evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘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 those hired 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 master of the house, 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 worker 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?’

Matthew 20:8-15 (ESV)

Everywhere one turns, the words “income disparity” and “social injustice” are linked together. And the voices are both “sacred”1 and “secular.”2 They unite in the claim that a wide gap in income is wrong per se and that a leveling of income is a high moral goal. To be sure, there are contrary voices,3 but it seems that most people count greater income equality a matter of social justice.

Such was certainly the conviction of the vineyard workers in Matthew 20, particularly the ones who began their work early in the day. They began their labors first thing in the morning, having agreed to the wage of a denarius, standard pay for a day’s work. Throughout the day, the master hired other workers – at 9:00 a.m, noon, 3:00 p.m., and 5:00 p.m. – promising each a denarius for their labor (20:1-7). So the wage rates varied widely, from one to twelve denarii a day.

The ones who put in more hours were upset with the master’s largesse toward the latecomers, and their indignation would strike a chord in most hearts. But Jesus would not accommodate their cause. He reminded them that they got what they readily agreed to, a living wage, and it was none of their concern if others made more. Stew as they might, He had done them no wrong. There was no “social injustice.”

Of course, the parable concerns eternal life, and salvation is by grace not works. By trusting in Jesus, one inherits the kingdom whether he is 12 or 92, whether he belongs to the ancient Jewish nation or to some “upstart” group of Gentiles. But the Lord would not have used a gross injustice to illustrate His spiritual economy, and He took pains to explain the very justice of His policy.

The Bible repeatedly addresses the problem of destitution, particularly when the destitute are victims of circumstance. Their debilitating poverty is, indeed, unjust. But it does not reel in horror when some are rich and some are not, when some get more for what they do than others.

Scripture is not naive. It perfectly understands the resentments of those with modest incomes and even addresses the problem in the Tenth Commandment, given at Sinai. Covetousness is natural in the sense that it occurs automatically to fallen man, but it is unnatural in the sense that it corrupts the soul.

The Church, then, must resist the knee-jerk identification of income disparity with social injustice, just as it does a host of other deliverances from the cultural consensus. Indeed, to hijack the biblical principle of “social justice” in the interest of covetousness is itself a grave injustice.
 
Footnotes:
 
1  As with the “progressive” Catholic lobby, NETWORK. See R. W. Dellinger, “‘Disparity,’ Today’s Real Poverty Issue,” Tidings Online, http://www.the-tidings.com/2009/022009/poverty.htm (accessed March 2, 2010).
 
2  As with the philosophy of John Rawls. See Janice F. Madden, Changes in Income Equality within U.S. Metropolitan Areas (Upjohn Institute for Employment Research, 2000), 6-7. Available at Upjohn Institute Website, http://www.upjohninst.org/publications/ch1/maddench1.pdf (accessed March 2, 2010).
 
3  Thomas Sowell, “A Dangerous Obsession,” National Review Online, December 26, 2006, http://article.nationalreview.com/301711/a-dangerous-obsession/thomas-sowell (accessed March 2, 2010).
 
   Related Articles
 
TOPIC OVERVIEW: “Mapping the Terrain—Poverty & Wealth”
(Leviticus 25:10-11) — “The Year of Jubilee”
(Deuteronomy 8:17-18) — “Count Your Blessings”
(Deuteronomy 15:7-11) — “Ideal Care of the Poor”
(Proverbs 10:15) — “The Perils of Poverty”
(Proverbs 22:7) — “Neither a Borrower nor a Borrower Be”
(Proverbs 28:6, 11) — “Putting Riches in Their Place”
(Proverbs 30:8b-9) — “Neither Poverty nor Riches”
(Ecclesiastes 5:10-12) — “Why More Is Never Enough”
(Ecclesiastes 5:18-19) — “Where Does Wealth Come From?”
(Matthew 20:8-15) — “Income Disparity and Social Justice” public
(Acts 4:32, 34-35) — “Does the Jerusalem Church Teach Socialism?”
(2 Corinthians 8:1-5) — “Feeding Other Churches”
(James 1:9-11) — “Who Are the Unfortunate?”
(James 2:1-4) — “The Perils of Partiality”
(James 5:1-6) — “How to Avoid the Coming Judgment for Those Who Oppress the Poor”
 
article from Kairos Journal

First Baptist Church is located in Perryville, one and a half miles east of Route. 222