Matthew 20: 1-16: “For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. After agreeing with the laborers for the usual daily wage, he sent them into his vineyard. When he went out about nine o’clock, he saw others standing idle in the marketplace; and he said to them, ‘You also go into the vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.’ So they went. When he went out again about noon and about three o’clock, he did the same. And about five o’clock he went out and found others standing around; and he said to them, ‘Why are you standing here idle all day?’ They said to him, ‘Because no one has hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You also go into the vineyard.’ When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his manager, ‘Call the laborers and give them their pay, beginning with the last and then going to the first.’ When those hired about five o’clock came, each of them received the usual daily wage. Now when the first came, they thought they would receive more; but each of them also received the usual daily wage. And when they received it, they grumbled against the landowner, 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.’ But he replied to one of them, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong; did you not agree with me for the usual daily wage? Take what belongs to you and go; I choose to give to this last the same as I give to you. Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or are you envious because I am generous?’ So the last will be first, and the first will be last.
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We like numbers, measurements, things we can “count on,” ac-count-ability. Jesus’ story in Matthew 20:1-16 (like many of his parables) messes with us. Things don’t add up.
We tend to think of infinity as a really, really big number. Jesus (and the Buddha) are in the “infinity business” – but they don’t appear interested in the big number ideal. John O’Donohue writes about our ceaseless greed as a grasping for infinity. We have traded in the infinities that Buddha and Jesus hint at for a really, really big number. Our cultures mock and belittle the unknowable and ineffable, but our souls thirst for the infinite – so we acquire and acquire, filling our houses and minds to the brim, yet our souls are not sated. O’Donohue writes, “It is our nature to seek the infinite. Consequently, the functionalist mind constructs its own infinite out of things, possessions, achievements, stimulants, and distractions. It is fixed on the treadmill of multiplication.” (Eternal Echoes, p. 80). Fixed and unsatiated.
Dudjom Rinpoche writes, “The pure awareness of nowness is the real Buddha” (The Tibetan Book of Living & Dying, p. 45). The Eastern Orthodox monk Father Maximos says, “Whenever you meet someone on your way, in reality you meet God. And as you honor God you must honor the other because you have in front of you the presence of God. You don’t turn the other way to avoid someone you don’t like” (The Mountain of Silence, p. 64). The infinite is immeasurable. Dudjom Rinpoche is writing of “the real”; Fr. Maximos speaks of “in reality.” These religious leaders dwell in “the real,” in reality that is soaked with the Infinite. Here, there is no thirst.
Jesus’ parable of the landowner in Matthew 20 teases us about our obsession with numbers. The last is first? The first is last? What?! Wait, this doesn’t add up. It doesn’t make sense. But the problem is not with the kingdom of heaven which is like a landowner, the problem is with our worldly sense of measurement – our focus on the empirical, our measuring tools that simply can’t do the job. The Infinite is not a really big number.
The Infinite is, instead, available – you don’t need an abacus, a calculator, the most powerful super high-speed computer, or even a “good math brain” – the Infinite is right here, right now, right in front of us, if we have but eyes to see.
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What does the word “infinity” mean to you?
An invitation: Rather than thinking of “the infinite” in terms of time or space, why not play with the word “infinite” in other ways? This flower holds infinite beauty. In this moment, my gratitude is infinite. Infinity lives in his smile.
How might you play with the words “infinite” and “infinity” through your own experiences, in your own way? Like Dudjom Rinpoche and Fr. Maximos, like the Buddha and Jesus, invite the immeasurable infinite into your daily awareness.
(Music: Courtesy of Adrian Von Ziegler, “Circle of Life.” )