The Leaflet Distributors is based on Matthew 20: 1-16
God’s nation is like an employer who put out an urgent ad at 6 am one morning, to get people to come and leaflet for him. The first people who responded, he agreed to pay them £100 for the day, cash-in-hand. Then he sent them out with their boxes of leaflets.
About nine in the morning, he checked and saw there were more responses. People were still asking if there was any leafleting work available. So he told them to come in, and he’d pay them what was right. They did and he sent them out with their boxes of leaflets.
He did this again at 11 am and again after lunch break. Just before 4 pm he checked the responses one last time – still people responding, looking for work, so he hired them and sent them out with some leaflets.
By 5 pm all the leaflets had been distributed and everyone came back to get their cash-in-hand wages. So the employer said to his manager, “Pay all the leaflet distributors their wages: reverse time order, starting with the ones who came in at 4 pm and ending with the ones who came in at 6 am.”
The workers who came in at 4 pm came up to the manager and each of them was given a wages envelope – with £100 in it! So when the people who worked from 6 am came up, they expected a bonus. But when they opened their wages envelopes, they had £100 as well.
When they realised they’d also got £100, they started complaining to their employer. “Look, the ones who came in at 4 pm, they’ve only worked an hour! And you’ve given them the same £100 we’ve got!”
“I’ve worked all day, and it’s boiling!”
“I must have walked for miles! I’ve done about a thousand houses!”
But the employer said to one of them, “Workmate, I’m not being unfair to you. This morning you agreed that you’d work for £100. So now, take the £100 and go home. If I want to pay the woman who came in at four the same £100 I paid you, well – it’s my money. Don’t I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Do you really hate seeing someone be generous?
Previous parable: The Persistent Widow (Luke 18:2-8)
Next parable: Churchwarden and Salesman (Luke 18: 10-14)
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