Are Justice and Fairness the Same?

Why don’t you stop and read a passage of scripture, Matthew 20: 1-16, and then come back to the blast.

Was the husbandman fair in the way that he dealt with all the workers?
Did the husbandmen fail in being a just man because he paid those that worked one hour the same as the ones that worked 12 hours? The times in which we live often confuse the words fairness and justice. The two words are used interchangeably but in reality, they are very different. A simple Bible definition of justice is that it is concerned with rightness and morality as defined by God. Fairness on the other hand is only concerned with the outcomes being equal. The answer to the above questions yes, he was fair. Did they not all receive the same outcome? The answer to the second question is no. He didn’t fail to be just for paying the same wage to those that worked only one hour as he did to those that began work at 6 A.M. Each of those men agreed on the wage before they began working in the vineyard. Their agreement had nothing to do with anyone’s else’s agreement.

The offering of a job at the market was a very normal way of hiring farm hands, especially during the fall when the grape harvest was coming in fast. The rainy season would be coming in on the heels of the harvest and if the grapes weren’t picked quickly, much would be lost. The farmer/owner gets to the market early, 6 A.M., and finds some pickers. They agree on a price for the day. They would gather the clusters all day for a denarius, a normal day’s wage. This first group was hired early in the morning. It seems the harvest wasn’t being collected fast enough, so back to the market the farmer goes. It is now 9 A.M. and still there are men that haven’t been offered employment for the day. The farmer hires them. The passage doesn’t tell us their wage agreement but they simply trust the farmer that he’ll do right. The harvest is still not coming in fast enough. Back to the market at noon, again at 3 P.M. and finally again at 5 P.M. He has made five trips to the market just to get the grapes in from the vineyard. What is the teaching of this parable? There are many interpretations that have been posited by a good number of Christians through the years. Some look at this parable as those that come to Christ on their deathbeds. Others say it relates to the disciples that began to follow Jesus after the original twelve, while others say it means that the church are the workers that came late and Israel are those hired early. I think we sometimes look for a deeper meaning when the simple understanding of the words is more correct.
1. God is the husbandmen. He has a vineyard and hires workers to gather the grapes (souls of humanity). Jesus said the “field is the world” in the interpretation of the sower and the seeds (See Matthew 13:37-43).
2. You and I have been placed into the vineyard by the Lord. It isn’t the time you spend in the vineyard that matters as much as the faithfulness of working in the vineyard. I know people that have named the Lord Jesus as their Savior for decades and those same people have never been faithful in any meaningful way concerning the kingdom of God.
3. God has given many people opportunity to work. The farmer made five trips to the marketplace looking for more. Jesus desires to save as much today as he did when he walked through the Galilee. How faithful are we in the soul’s vineyard? Every one of us, no exceptions, can do something in the Lord’s work. One of the reasons the husbandman had to make so many trips to the market could have been because the first batch weren’t working faithfully. They may have reasoned if we go slow we can milk this thing for the whole week. They weren’t concerned about the grape harvest, just the payment at the end of each day.
4. Every one of us will receive what is due us? One of the reason’s I don’t believe this parable has to do with salvation is the working in the vineyard. We don’t work to be saved, we work because we are saved. As Christians, we will stand at the Bema Seat (the Judgment Seat) and give an accounting. We will have our works tried by fire. The good works (gold, silver precious stones) will be only purified by the fire, while the bad works we have done will be consumed. The fire will burn the wood, hay and stubble.
5. The Lord Jesus always does right. He is just but he isn’t always fair. All the outcomes at the Judgment Seat will NOT be equal but they will all be just. In our culture we think that the owner wasn’t just. He was! The vineyard was his, and as the owner, he could do with it as he wished. He didn’t force anyone to come work for him, every one of the workers agreed. They contracted with each other. If you do this work, I’ll give you this much money. The money was his to do with what he wished. He didn’t have to hire any of them. If he wanted to be generous with those that worked only one hour, why should that matter to the others? He hadn’t cheated anyone, he’d only lived up to the agreement they both had made. Before we start complaining that God isn’t fair in the ways He deals with us, always remember He’s the owner, He’s given us the privilege to work in His vineyard, it is His wealth that pays us, and He is always, always, just.