Jesus once told a parable about a landowner who hired labourers to work in his vineyard (See Matt 20:1-16). Some started work in the early morning, some at midday and some in the early evening. In his generosity the landowner paid exactly the same wage to all who worked for him during the course of the day. The actions of the landowner do appear to be unfair, even unjust. Those who worked all day in the blazing hot sun received the same wage as those who worked one hour in the cool of the evening.
Today’s employers would certainly not get away with this approach to remuneration. Ours is a culture of trade unions and worker’s rights and hourly rates of pay. It is a culture of entitlement. But Jesus’ parable is not about human rights and entitlements. It is not about human justice. It is about God. It is about God’s abundant goodness and generosity. God isn’t generous towards us on the basis of what is right and fair and just. God is generous towards us because we are his children, his sons and daughters whom he loves equally.
What Jesus is teaching us in this parable is this: we cannot buy or earn God’s love. God’s love is free. It is a gift, a pure gift offered to all without exception. This is what we mean when we say that God loves us unconditionally. There are no conditions attached to the way God loves. The little word ‘if’ is not in God’s dictionary! In practice this means that the Christian life is not about winning God’s approval and God’s favour. It is not about making ourselves acceptable to God by our good deeds and our efforts to please him. When we love we do so in response to God’s love for us; not in order to make God love us.
The renowned Lutheran theologian, Paul Tillich, has described the experience of being saved as our acceptance of the fact that we are accepted unconditionally by God. God’s salvation is free and we must accept it freely. The Father’s love is gift, not achievement. In the parable, those who came at the twelfth hour got the same wage as those who came at the first hour because God does not love those who came at the twelfth hour any less than those who came at the first hour. This is what we mean by radical grace.