Work

Work was as much part of self-identity in the First Century as in the Twenty-first Century. Throughout the gospels we are introduced to vivid characters primarily in terms of the role they play in the community: householder, tax collector, teacher, herdsman, fisherman, centurion, scribe, and more. We often do not know the character’s name, but we are told their economic and social role.

Jesus fully embraced the world of work. When he wanted to clearly explain some difficult teaching he often chose a work-related analogy.

In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus tells spiritually purposeful stories about farmers, merchants, shepherds, kings, servants, day-laborers, tenant farmers, capitalists, lawyers, scribes, and investment managers. He refers to a wide range of other occupations. Jesus saw the world of work as a common reference point and a rich resource for spiritual wisdom.

Jesus viewed the world of work as ripe with spiritual potential. He also recognized that it could be easily be spoiled by spiritual neglect.

The world of modern corporations – huge enterprises serving mass-markets with thousands of employees scattered around the globe – was not a feature of the First Century economy. But even here a careful reading of the gospels can find relevant counsel.

In the twenty-third chapter of Matthew, beginning with verse 33, we read of an early capitalist who “planted a vineyard, and set a hedge about it, and dug a wine press in it, and built a tower, and let it out to tenants, and went into another country.”


The Red Vineyard, Vincent Van Gogh (1888)

But when the absentee landlord sent business agents to collect the rent, the tenants refused to pay. The tenants even “beat one, killed another, and stoned another.”

Finally the landlord sends his own son, who the tenants also kill. Asked by Jesus to finish the outcome of the story, the disciples predicted the landlord would put the original tenants to death and find new tenants “who will give him the fruits in their seasons.”

The parable clearly endorses the worth of what we would now call “value-added” work. Most interpreters of the passage perceive that the work of the early capitalist is analogous to the work of God in creating the underlying potential for future productivity. The early investment justifies a long-term return.

Some contemporary interpreters also see in the parable an early inkling of the “alienation of labor.” The tenants were not around to see the work of the landlord. The landlord is not, evidently, in any sort of direct relationship with the tenants. The tenants have had to work hard to nurture and harvest the vineyard. Some would argue that a sense of antagonism regarding the demands of the landlord is human nature.

But Jesus makes it clear that a rental fee is entirely justified – in fact it is profoundly just.