​Jesus  speaks  to  the  heart  of  the  disciple  and  to  the  community  of  disciples  He  has chosen.  To them He has given an amazing gift - the gift of working with Him to bring to birth a new humanity and a new community.  They sit at His feet, and He clearly hopes that they will grow to be like Him.  They think they want the same until a Parable pulls the carpet  out from  under their feet. It only  does this because there is a  question, like the elephant in the room, that is waiting to be answered.  'What's in it for me?' 
 
In extravagant prose, Jesus assures His disciples that if they choose to do God's work it will  bring  them  to  the  pinnacle  of  human  fulfilment.   Every  sacrifice  they  make  will  be restored to them a hundred times over and eternal life will flow into them.  If they are worried about a poor pay-off, Jesus overwhelms them with a vision of abundance.  But first they have to listen to and try to understand the Parable.   
 
Kingdom  workers  are  like  people  on  a  zero  hours contract.  They  are  vulnerable.   They  have  no  claim  on their employer.  The only agreement on the table is that when they awaken each day, they do not waste the gift of a new day in idleness.  God will give them all that they need for the day.  It will be enough for those who want to continue  to  rely  on  Gods'  goodness.   Enthroned  in  the Lord's Prayer is the certainty that God will not give more or less than is needed for the day. "Give us this day our daily bread ....". It is assumed that they are friends of the Landowner and  have  grasped  the  truth  about  God  that Jesus is trying to teach them.  That when we 'seek first the Kingdom' (Matthew 6,33) and pray to follow God's will (Matthew 6,10) there is no need to ask for what we need.  Our Father already knows, and gives what is needed, (Matthew 6,8;32-33) to those who work in the vineyard.  But the gift of daily bread bears no relation to the amount of work done.  It flows out of the generous heart of God, who is now vulnerable to an accusation of being unfair. 
 
This feeling of unfairness is rooted in a social construct everyone takes for granted.  More work=More pay.   In this version of reality, I am the centre of the universe and my job is to promote myself and my own well-being.  If I am denied this possibility I am entitled to have a good old moan.  But the Parable puts God at the centre of the Universe and we are invited to stretch high enough to see the sacred point of view.  Only here can we begin to relish  the  work  that  is  being  done.   We  are,  to  paraphrase  Gerard  Manley  Hopkins, "burnished in  use".   We  no  longer live  in the  envious  world  of  comparisons,  but  in  the 
overflowing world of Gods Generosity.  In this world, God gives us good eyes to better see.  These eyes connect us to our soul and to the expansive works of the Spirit.  Seduced, the labourers flow like liquid light, releasing Grace everywhere they go

It  looks  like  the  suffering  and  death  of  Jesus  will  be  the  work  of  the  religious  leaders  in Jerusalem.  Still, Jesus must go, must suffer, must be killed and must be raised from death.  All Peter can hear is the first bit, so he takes Jesus aside to talk some sense into him.  He wants God to forbid the suffering and death of Jesus.  The Lord turns.  The rock on which the New Humanity is to be built now looks like a stumbling block.  Jesus speaks to Peter, taking back the role of leader that Peter has just stolen. Peter must submit.  He must set aside ordinary thinking and reach for higher ground.  To do this, Peter will have to deny himself and his desire to avoid suffering and loss  at  any  cost.   He  must  make  space  in  his  panic  for  what  he  cannot  hear  - Resurrection.   Disciples  are  to  take  up  the  cross  gladly.   If  they  do  this,  it  will  be  a  path  of transformation for others and the doorway to resurrection for themselves. 
 
Jesus  hopes  they  will  have  the  wisdom  to  see  that when they are following Him, what looks like loss is really gain.  Nothing the world has to offer can come close  to  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven.   They  cannot  be traded.  And, at the end of time, the Son of God will come  and  repay  everyone  in  accordance  with  how they  have  responded  to  His  offer  of  a  new humanity.  The whole scene - the Father's Glory, the Son of Man, the Angels, the gathering of all time and space  -  is  an  invitation  to  see  how  our  small contribution  has  been  well  received.   The  end  of history  judges  all  history  and  the  end  of history  belongs  only  to the  Son  of  Man and  the  new humanity who follow Him. 
 
It is a sad fact of life that those who stand up get knocked down.  A police officer reports corruption in  his  team  and  is  shunned  for  the  rest  of  his  working  life.  A  woman  reports  accounting 'inaccuracies' in her office.  She is thanked and made redundant a few weeks later.  Criticism and cover up go hand in hand.  And Jesus was a fierce critic of the hypocrisy of many so called religious leaders.  They were taken up with their own importance, loving the trappings of their status rather than its substance.  They loved money, elaborate robes, seats at the top table, ego massages in the town centre and being called teachers. They polished the outside of the cup.  They kept people from the knowledge that would help them.  They laid burdens on others and enjoyed watching them stumble and fall.  Jesus saw the organisational abuse and he named it.  When He did this he was not naive.  He knows that those who have power over others, destroy those who question them.   
 
Anyone who takes a stand knows that there will be reprisals.  So why do people continue to criticise this kind of wrong doing?  Some say, 'I just couldn't let it go on.' Others say, 'I couldn't live with myself if I kept quiet any longer.'  But whatever the reason for the critique, it is because the right thing means so much for them.  And in the Gospel, the deeper life of God depends on the voice of prophets.  Every time the 'Cross' is taken up, a double revelation unfolds.  God's Love is easier to see, as is the resistance of those who stand against it.  The Cross is the symbol of the stand-off between divine Love and Human sin. 
 
And Jesus must take you and me aside to explain to us why this is necessary.  Given who God is and who we are, it cannot be any other way.  And as Jesus talks to us about the need to take up our cross and follow Him, He must keep saying the word we cannot hear - the word that was lost in the sound of our hearts pounding and our feet running from suffering and death.  The sacred word.  The most sacred word of all.  Resurrection