Many liberals and socialist proclaim they are followers of Jesus yet ignore his teachings. Below is passage on which someone had a different interpretation than I.
Take the Lilly Ledbetter law which is to resolve unequal pay. Lilly agreed to certain wage, and after learning others were paid more, wanted more. This is in contradiction of this parable. The socialist or liberal would require equal wages, forcing the owner to either pay more than he could afford to the first worker or being less generous to the last.
Scripture: Matthew 20:1-16
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.' 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."
Thursday, August 20, 2009
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5 comments:
I think the parable was more about the kingdom of heaven being open to all--those that believed and practiced for a very long time and those that came to believe in Jesus for a short time maybe even after living a sinful life. I think Jesus was saying that God is generous and we should not begrudge a late coming believer a place in heaven even if they "didn't work as long and hard" as we did.
As relating to heaven, you are IMHO correct. But as to relating to the living, I believe my comments still apply, in that it doesn't support Jesus as a socialist.
I think this parable clearly shows that Jesus is a socialist, for the socialist creed is to whom more is given more is expected, avd "from each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs", Karl Marx
In the parable we see that those who went and looked for work in the beginning got the job security they were looking for and had the self confidence to go look for work in the first place, knowing they would probably get some i.e., they had more ability...
those idle were probably less self confident in their abilities to get hired, get work, so they stood around idle waiting to die in shame,... but Jesus said "No you can work too! You are not losers!"
Though they worked less than the others and got paid the same, which on the surface seems unfair, and is unfair all things being equal,... yet Jesus was "teaching" two things; one, all things are never equal... and two, the ones who came first i.e., whom had more ability were being taught "humility" since they were born with, and/or raised to have, more ability,...thus more was expected of them i.e., they were being taught to overcome "weakness" of humans to be jealous or covetous of others ,...this is in a sense "spiritual pay" worth more than monetary pay of one denarius, in the Kingdom of Heaven, which makes the action "fair" since the Universe is not equal it is in fact constantly changing.
Common Sense tell us Jesus would be against war, torture, violence, poverty, pollution, etc...all socialist values.
If Jesus was a capitalist he would have paid the the workers who came later less, a lot less, to make more profit, ...if Jesus was a fascist he would have paid the idle workers nothing at all saying "work will set you free" then torturing them for false confessions for propaganda purposes and gassing them later, to satisfy "the workers and soldiers" that the "idle ones" were not getting more than they were.
No I think we can safely say Jesus would identify himself more as a socialist than anything else in today's world. Pretty obvious really!
It is amazing what people put in what isn't there.
"those idle were probably less self confident in their abilities to get hired, get work, so they stood around idle waiting to die in shame"
Maybe, or maybe they had early morning jobs, or maybe they spend the night partying and just go to market place late. Jesus doesn't say why they weren't hired early in the morning, maybe because the reasons did not matter to the story.
I still contend that Jesus is a socialist not a capitalist because if he were a capitalist he would have paid the idle workers far less, that is for sure, since capitalists are only concerned about maximizing profit.
This is not to say that Jesus would not approve of capitalists that would reinvest their profits into creating more ventures and more good jobs instead of on luxury private jets and gold plated dinnerware, capitalists like Soros Jesus would approve of, Wallstreet, oil and coal execs Jesus would not approve of, IMHO.
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