By Mike Leno

Jesus’ parable of the vineyard workers in Matthew 20:1-16 presents great difficulties, at least from a normal business perspective. How could Jesus approve of paying all workers the same regardless of the amount of work they did? If it weren’t for the fact that Jesus told the story, some might say it reflects a bleeding-heart liberal attitude that rewards people for mediocrity and laziness. But Jesus did not consult business experts, religious leaders or political pundits before telling his parables. And in this instance at least, he appears to have gone out of his way to offend the fiscal sensibilities of just about everyone; everyone that is except the disenfranchised poor who stood on street corners waiting all day for someone to hire them for an hour or two.

Of course Jesus was not really talking about business. He was illustrating something about his kingdom. Through this and other teachings he described a kingdom radically different from human expectations. I wonder what would happen if Jesus walked into a government office today and applied for a business license. I imagine the conversation would go something like this.