We often equate justice with fairness, but they are two separate, if related, concepts.  So if you had to choose between justice and fairness, what would you be considering?  We’ll explore the parable of the vineyard workers from Matthew, chapter 20, and contemplate a third way. 

 3^rd in the Parables Series

Justice...or Fairness?

Readings:

The World Stands on Truth, Justice and Peace

During the past few months of pre- and post-election and hype we have been bombarded with party-political rhetoric. But the rash of rhetoric is not just a party-political malaise. Diverse religious systems and institutions across the globe proclaim themselves as the guardians of 'Truth', 'Justice' and 'Peace', despite their patent failure to put these noble ideals into practice - and Judaism is no exception. And so, it's not surprising that so many people in so many places have been infected with apathy and cynicism - about both 'politics' and 'religion'. Contrary to what some political and religious leaders may think, the strategy for countering the problem of apathy and cynicism is not to look for yet more subtle and sophisticated methods of delivering 'the message'. The only message that has any hope of getting across to people is the actual manifestation of Truth, Justice and Peace in the world. Is this a pipe-dream?

FromThe Sayings of the Sages, … we learn the following: "Rabban Simon ben Gamliel said, 'The world stands upon three things: upon Truth and upon Justice, and upon Peace'" (Avot, 1:18). In other words, without these three elements the world cannot be sustained - and further, like the pillars holding up the ceiling of a house, all three are essential - together: There can be no Truth in the absence of Justice and Peace; no Justice in the absence of Truth and Peace; no Peace in the absence of Truth and Justice. The word used for Justice in this passage is critical: HaDin implies, not simply, just action on the part of righteous individuals - but a system of justice.

Only where the social order is regulated by a system of justice can Justice prevail. And the Hebrew word, Shalom, tells us that Peace is not just about the absence of conflict: Based on the root-letters… Shalom is connected with shalem, [which means] 'wholeness'. Only when Truth, Justice and Peace are realized together can the world be whole - which is what Truth is about: Not correct doctrine, but the complete meaning of Life. From a Jewish perspective, Truth, Justice and Peace are not lofty ideas; they are the pillars we must put in place to sustain the world God created. Not a pipe-dream: a task shared by each person, each people, each society, each religion, by humanity as a whole - each and every day.

© Rabbi Elizabeth Tikvah Sarah
July 2001 

Matthew 20:1-16              

 3 “At nine o’clock in the morning he was passing through the marketplace and saw some people standing around doing nothing. 4 So he hired them, telling them he would pay them whatever was right at the end of the day. 5 So they went to work in the vineyard. At noon and again at three o’clock he did the same thing.

 6 “At five o’clock that afternoon he was in town again and saw some more people standing around. He asked them, ‘Why haven’t you been working today?’

 7 “They replied, ‘Because no one hired us.’

   “The landowner told them, ‘Then go out and join the others in my vineyard.’

 8 “That evening he told the foreman to call the workers in and pay them. 9 When those hired at five o’clock were paid, each received a full day’s wage. 10 When those hired first came to get their pay, they assumed they would receive more. But they, too, were paid a day’s wage. 11 When they received their pay, they protested to the owner, 12 ‘Those people worked only one hour and yet you’ve paid them just as much as you paid us who worked all day in the scorching heat.’

 13 “He answered one of them, ‘Friend, I haven’t been unfair! Didn’t you agree to work all day for the usual wage? 14 Take your money and go. I wanted to pay this last worker the same as you. 15 Is it against the law for me to do what I want with my money? Should you be jealous because I am kind to others?’

 16 “So those who are last now will be first then, and those who are first will be last.

Between Justice and Fairness 

This guy Jesus was something else wasn’t he!  Every time people turned around, he was telling people something that challenged their assumptions about the world and made them think outside the box.  We know from considering other parables that this story is hardly intended to be a treatise on vineyard management.  Some have said that it is ‘obviously’—and simply—an illustration of God’s extravagance: that no matter when you turn toward divine love, all its benefits are poured into your life—or are unlocked and released from within you—as though you had always been in that ‘zone’.  Which I believe is true, but that is not the thread in this story I want to weave this morning  No doubt every worker in this story went home confused, some happily, some unhappily.  What happened didn’t seem fair, even though the vineyard owner never misrepresented his intentions.  However it is a common sense assumption, then as now, that our compensation will be proportionate to our efforts, that workers who work all day will be paid more than those who work for an hour.  This is only fair.  I imagine some of the first listeners would have laughed at Jesus and warned that the next time that vintner went looking for workers he wouldn’t be able to find any until, say, oh—about 5 o’clock!  

When the employer went past the market at 5 and saw that there were still people standing there, he asked, ‘Why haven’t you been working today?’  ‘Because no one hired us.’ they replied ‘Then go out and join the others in my vineyard.’  Imagine their amazement at getting work so late in the day—let alone being paid for a whole day’s work.  They would not go home to their families defeated that day!

We don’t know where these workers were when the vineyard owner came through earlier or why any of those who were hired later weren’t in the market at 6 in the morning the first time the employer went out.  Or maybe some of them—or all of them—were and he didn’t realize how many workers he would need.  There is often an undercurrent or subtext projected into this story that the early workers were more deserving of receiving more money on the basis of even more than the hours they had worked.  After all, they had gotten themselves to the marketplace bright and early.  Clearly they are more industrious and intentional than the other workers and therefore more deserving.  But the story doesn’t say anything about why the others were found later still without employment.  Perhaps they had presented themselves for work elsewhere first and had not found any and so travelled to another place in town or even another town in the hopes of at least getting something for part of the day.  Perhaps some of them were too discouraged from past failures to be all eager beaver.  And maybe some were garden variety slackers.  No doubt they all had their stories and their reasons.  And they would each have had a story after this vignette, stories we can only imagine. 

It was Aristotle, more than two thousand years ago, who said that the basis for justice is that "equals should be treated equally and unequals unequally."  In its contemporary form, this principle goes some thing like this: "Individuals should be treated the same, unless they differ in ways that are relevant to the situation in which they are involved." For example, if Jack and Jill both do the same work, and there are no relevant differences between them or the work they are doing, then in justice they should be paid the same wages. And if Jack is paid more than Jill simply because he is a man, or because he is white, then we have an injustice—a form of discrimination—because race and sex are not relevant to normal work situations.

 But what if Jack uses a wheelchair?  Is it fair for the company they work for to spend more to accommodate Jack than they do Jill, installing ramps or buying special office furniture for him while Jill gets standard issue?  When Jill has a baby, is it fair that she gets paid time off that Jack doesn’t—or that when Jack’s wife has a baby that Jack gets the tie and Jill picks us the slack at no extra compensation?  These might not meet the standard of fairness that says everyone should receive the same treatment regardless of personal circumstance, but we have come to see them as just—as well as ultimately fair and beneficial to society as a whole. From childhood we carry the idea that fairness means that everyone is treated the same.  And yet it would not be just to expect Jack in his wheelchair to be treated just like Jill who doesn’t.  And at the very same time we also carry from childhood the idea that anything that impinges on our individual comfort isn’t fair.  Thus the child who loses a game cries, 'It’s not fair!’  And the citizen who never had children, or whose children are now grown, protests that it’s not fair to tax him enlarge the high school as he has no children to educate there.   

There is an element of truth missing from these shortsighted objections.  In a child, it’s a developmental issue, but in an adult, well maybe it’s a missed developmental window, an ego-centric orientation to life that our overly individualistic culture has fed beyond reason.  But the truth of the matter is that everyone in a society benefits from the education of the others and therefore it is just—and fair—that we share in the cost of providing it.  Anyone in society also has a more or less equal chance of ending up in a wheelchair, so it might also be considered fair we make accommodations for public accessibility. So justice, in its legal and social forms, requires truth and truth fosters justice.  And when people perceive that they live in a truthful and just society, they are more likely to live in peace with one another. 

Rabban Shimon Ben Gamliel said, "The world is sustained by three things, by justice, by truth and by peace.”  And Rav Muna added, “These three things are actually one. When justice is done, truth is served and peace is achieved.” 

So if the three are really one, we can consider each one a gate into the same garden.  Justice, Truth and Peace. 

When I consider the values of this church and what motivates our priorities and actions, I find this trinity of justice, truth and peace resonating in every chamber, threads woven into every part of the beautiful ‘crazy quilt’ we create together. 

And yet perhaps one is first among equals.  At the last Congregational Growth and Vitality workshop we attended, we were given an exercise to do.  We were to list the activities of the church that related to our mission and our outreach into the community.  We were struggling to find the right box in which to fit our congregation’s commitment to peace.  Finally Denis Wikel said “ Peace is the umbrella over it all.”  And I realized how true that is. 

Peace is the gate we have chosen to enter through and peace is the hedge around the entire garden.  Peace is the sky above and the earth beneath.  It is for the sake of peace—in the world, in our communities, in our church, in our homes and in our hearts—that we feed people, that we support interfaith harmony through singing, dialogue, celebration and challenge, and that we educate our children about the wideness and diversity of the world.  It is for peace that we sit up all night so that homeless people can find a few hours of rest and respite in the INNs program and for peace that we have been dogged and steadfast in our active support for the permanent transitional homeless shelter.  It is for peace that are members of Congregations United to Serve Humanity (CUSH), always seeking to be partners with those who struggle for justice and fairness in our community.  It is for peace that we strive to tell the truth to one another in love and to uncover the truths with our selves.  It is for peace that we sometimes sublimate our own immediate preferences for the good of the whole.  It is for peace that we support our one another when we struggle or grieve or when we go out into the world to make all the peace we can in our daily work and by building houses in Mississippi or clinics in Uganda or bridges of understanding and education in Niger, because we have confronted and been blessed by the truth of our total interconnectedness, that we are truly one people.  It is for the peace of our own spirits that come to this church and this living tradition to search freely and responsibly for truth and meaning in our lives and that we share that search with people who may understand or express all these things a little differently than we ourselves do.  it is for peace that come here this morning to be comforted and challenged and stirred.  It is for peace that we come together.

"The world is sustained by three things, by justice, by truth and by peace.”  They are parts of one whole, but for this congregation, I think Denis is right: Peace is the gate, the garden we tend and the world in which the garden grows.  As we continue to take a fresh look at our congregation's mission and purposes and how we might better manifest them, let us become master gardeners of Peace.

Amen.  Ashé. And blessed be.