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| Pan American Unity, at the City College of San Fransisco, Diego Rivera |
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.
The most underrated nation (in terms of its rich, historic contribution to world art history) is Mexico. This country that shares the combined visual legacy of the Mayan, Aztec and Olmec civilizations is at least artistically equal to anything Italy, China or Egypt ever created. And those three mammoths of visual art are just from the Pre-Columbian periods. When the indigenous Native cultures combined with the anthropological exports of Spain (itself a hybrid of European Christendom and Moorish Islamic aesthetic influences) to form a new Mestizo identity, the world would soon be graced with priceless imagery. This imagery would illustrate the next few hundred years of a vibrant and intricate historical narrative. It is a narrative that is often overlooked and under appreciated, yet, it is a narrative that is testified to in detail in the murals of Diego Rivera. Besides his own artwork, Diego Rivera is also known for his associations. Rivera was known as one of the big three” painters of Mexican Muralism along with José Clemente Orozco and David Alfaro Siqueiros. He is also known for being the husband of the artist and feminist icon Frida Kahlo. Diego Rivera was also a prominent Communist and he and Frida were known to be friends with Leon Trotsky. His political leanings lead him to illustrate the story of the laborer. However, his depictions were not like other Socialist Realism, European communist depictions of the struggle between the Bourgeoisie and Proletariat as seen in the plight if the urban factory worker. In his appropriation of a German/Russian exported political philosophy he found ways to apply it to the Mexican people's story. Rivera painted the brotherhood of all laborers, be they urban factory workers or rural field hands. In documenting the seemingly ignoble labors of these workers he weaved in the story of their ancestral nobility. Diego Rivera told the grand narrative of Mexican history and in doing so glorified the humble. Within the veins of the lowly migrant laborer that society looked down upon flowed the blood of kings, astronomers, architects and warriors. The sombrero concealed brows that sweat under the scorching sun in agricultural effort enshroud the ancient mind that calculated complex calendars by that very same sun. The brown hands that burrow out fields of crops are the same that chiseled the Mesoamerican pyramids. This was the forgotten narrative of an undervalued people that the master muralist remembered. Now let me tell you about another story from a master storyteller. When Jesus shared the parable of Matthew 20:1-16 he also telling a story about rural laborers. And like Diego Rivera, Jesus' workers were part of a greater, undervalued narrative. It to is a historic tale involving kings, astronomers, architects and warriors... yet all of these varied professionals were migrants (pilgrims, if you will) that shared one blood. And they all shared the task of agricultural labor. The lowly profession of the vineyard laborers of Jesus' was also the vocation that Adam was called to in the Creation: to keep the Lord's garden. Indeed when Christ, the "new Adam", was first seen by his follower Mary Magdalene after the Resurrection he was mistaken for the gardener. The last chapter of the story begins with the description of a garden where we are reunited to community with God. Since the beginning, the call, to everyone that has been called, has been to work in the Lord's garden. It is a narrative that is often overlooked and under appreciated, yet, it is a narrative that is testified to in detail in the parables of Jesus Christ. God is the landowner that employs us to tend to His creation.
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| Sugarcane, Diego Rivera |
The Covenant
Now when he had agreed with the laborers for a denarius a day, he sent them into his vineyard.
The plot of Jesus' parable is held together by the idea of an agreement. The landowner and the laborers both agree on the terms of employment contract. The idea of the binding agreement between two parties looms big in Scripture. It is usually referred to as a covenant and the Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament) is full of them. All of the Old Testament (and Judaism in general) can be seen as the story of the covenant between God and Israel. It is the story of God and His covenant with Abraham where Israel is a future family. It is also the story of God and His covenant with Moses where Israel is an oppressed nation. It is the story of God and His covenant with King David where Israel is a monarchy. It is the story of a few more covenants (even before these three) that all are parallel to our concept of an employment contract. In effect they say, "Be my workers and I will pay you." The Reformed Covenant theology is based around the task of understanding the structure of God's relationship to mankind. The first covenant described in covenant theology is the "covenant of works." It is described by Wikipedia this way:
"The covenant of works (Latin: foedus operum), also called the covenant of life, was made in the Garden of Eden between God and Adam who represented all mankind as a federal head. (Romans 5:12-21) It promised life for perfect and perpetual obedience and death for disobedience. Adam, and all mankind in Adam, broke the covenant, thus standing condemned.[2] The covenant of works continues to function after the fall as the moral law.
The term foedus operum was first used by Dudley Fenner in 1585, though Zacharias Ursinus had mentioned a covenant of creation in 1562. The covenant of works became common in Reformed theology by 1590, though it was not adopted by all, and some members of the Westminster Assembly in the 1640s opposed it. While John Calvin had spoken of a probationary period for Adam, a promise of life for obedience, and the federal headship of Adam, he does not speak of a covenant of works.[3]
Though it is not explicitly called a covenant in the opening chapters of Genesis, the comparison of the representative headship of Christ and Adam,[4] as well as passages like Hosea 6:7 have been interpreted to support the idea. It has also been noted that Jeremiah 33:20-26 (cf. 31:35-36) compares the covenant with David to God's covenant with the day and the night and the statutes of heaven and earth which God laid down at creation. This has led some to understand all of creation as covenantal: the decree establishing the natural laws governing heaven and earth. The covenant of works might then be seen as the moral law component of the broader creational covenant. Thus the covenant of works has also been called the covenant of creation, indicating that it is not added but constitutive of the human race; the covenant of nature in recognition of its consonance with the natural law in the human heart; and the covenant of life in regard to the promised reward."
Pay of the laborers was based on the federal headship of the workers in the first agreement. The pay was life. Punishment was also agreed to by this same party. The punishment was the termination of employment: being evicted from the garden and the presence of the landowner. In the contract the punishment is often described as death. Now these terms of life and death can become murky at points. It appears that God is describing both in a nuanced and expanded way. Indeed Jesus spends much of his ministry explaining the true meanings of life, death and eternal life. But maybe we should be asking an additional question of this text. One that is also a bit unclear. What is this labor that the landowner has called us to? What is the nature of this vineyard/garden?
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| Coit Tower Mural Detail, Diego Rivera |
The Call to Labor
And he went out about the third hour and saw others standing idle in the marketplace, and said to them, ‘You also go into the vineyard, and whatever is right I will give you.’ So they went. Again he went out about the sixth and the ninth hour, and did likewise. And about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing idle, and said to them, ‘Why have you been standing here idle all day?’ They said to him, ‘Because no one hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You also go into the vineyard, and whatever is right you will receive.’
After the landowner calls the first labor crew, he encounters other groups of the unemployed and hires them. He does this over and over again. You may have noticed God didn't stop calling people after Adam. You may have also noticed that at some point in history the focus of God's call went far beyond the borders of Israel and the bloodline of Abraham. Maybe even you feel God's call on your life. Even Jesus' own disciples learned that he was calling other sheep of a different flock to follow him. God's human resources department is always hiring because the evangelistic call continues. The story of Salvation History starts with the fall of a family (Adam and Eve) but then the eventual salvation of another family (Abraham and Sarah) that becomes a people (Israel), that becomes a nation, that births a Messiah who came to save the nations of the world. The Covenant gets continually extended because God continually calls laborers. So what is the nature of this labor that continually needs new hands? Is it a massive building campaign? Notice how Jesus initially compares the landowner to "the kingdom of heaven" and not specifically to God himself. Now of course the "kingdom of heaven" is God's domain. So in effect it is the extension of God's decisions, but I think that solving this riddle lies in understanding Jesus' choice of words. The kingdom of heaven is God's government. So this ongoing labor is a government project. It is like the old Works Progress Administration from the Great Depression Era. Like the WPA the point of God's building campaign is two fold: it is to build up the kingdom but also to provide employment for the workers. God's kingdom mission has always been to build up, strengthen and perfect his laborers. It is because we are part of His Creation that Adam was called to tend in the garden and we are now God's temple, the place where the Holy Spirit encounters Mankind. So in this ongoing labor recruitment the landowner encounters the spiritually unemployed and asks them, "Why are you idle?" To which the response is "Because no one hired us."-God has called the rejected of this rejected world. Jesus always sought out the lonely, forgotten and needy. Those whom nobody wanted to employ. It is these humble souls who understand their need for God. It is these that he calls to be laborers to recruit and build up laborers... and in doing so they build up His temple and kingdom.
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| The Flower Carrier, Diego Rivera |
Grace & Works
“So when evening had come, the owner of the vineyard said to his steward, ‘Call the laborers and give them their wages, beginning with the last to the first.’ And when those came who were hired about the eleventh hour, they each received a denarius. But when the first came, they supposed that they would receive more; and they likewise received each a denarius. And when they had received it, they complained against the landowner, saying, ‘These last men have worked only one hour, and you made them equal to us who have borne the burden and the heat of the day.’ But he answered one of them and said, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius? Take what is yours and go your way. I wish to give to this last man the same as to you. Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with my own things? Or is your eye evil because I am good?’At the end of the workday when all labor has been accomplished in the vineyard, the landowner assembles his laborers to pay them. Despite the amount of hours worked he pays them the rate that was agreed upon with the first crew of laborers (remember that they had federal headship in the bargaining process). The latter workers that were recruited did not even know the terms of the agreement. They just trusted the landowners promise to pay them "whatever is right." That trust in the landowner is faith. They had no evidence of the landowner would pay them outside of their perceived goodness of his character. You are obviously picking up that I am making a parallel to religious faith. It is that simple. Whenever anyone (before or after Christ) had faith in God, they were trusting in His goodness. They were trusting that He would find a way to save, justify and/or forgive them, even if they were unaware of the means by which he would accomplish their saving. He did it through the sacrifice of His Son Jesus. This is a covenant that God makes that is a little different than the earlier contract. It is not based on "do this and I will pay you life." It is a contract that is purely based on faith in God's goodness. Covenant theology describes it as the covenant of grace. Wikipedia defines it as:
"The covenant of grace promises eternal life for all people who have faith in Christ. He also promises the Holy Spirit to the elect to give them willingness and ability to believe.[5] Christ is the substitutionary covenantal representative fulfilling the covenant of works on their behalf, in both the positive requirements of righteousness and its negative penal consequences (commonly described as his active and passive obedience). It is the historical expression of the eternal covenant of redemption. Genesis 3:15, with the promise of a "seed" of the woman who would crush the serpent's head, is usually identified as the historical inauguration for the covenant of grace.This trust in God's goodness is not based on anything that we do. Rather the latter laborers worked for the landowner just because they had faith in how good he was. They didn't labor for a specific reward because their being chosen by him was reward enough. So the grace that they receive at he end is even more of a grace. It is an unmerited gift that neither they nor the first crew of laborers could ever earn. They did not protest like the first labor crew on payday because they remembered a time (not far off) when they were idle and no one found them fit to hire. Being hired by the landowner gave them an identity and purpose. That is not only their story but our story as well. When God saves us, He saves us from idleness, He saves us to meaningfulness and He saves us to Himself.
The covenant of grace runs through the Old and New Testaments, and is the same in substance under both the law and gospel, though there is some difference in the administration. Under the law, the sacrifices, prophesies, and other types and ordinances of the Jews signified Christ, and men were justified by their faith in him just as they would be under the gospel. These were done away with the coming of Christ, and replaced with the much simpler sacraments of baptism and the Lord's Supper.[6]
Reformed orthodox theologians taught that the covenant was primarily unilateral or monopleuric (Latin: foedus monopleuron) on the part of God, but also entailed conditions on the part of men. The conditions of the covenant of grace were spoken of as assumptive and confirmatory rather than duties required in order to receive the covenant. The covenant was therefore also bilateral or dipleuric (Latin: foedus dipleuron). Scholars have challenged the notion in contemporary scholarship that Genevan Reformers taught a unilateral and unconditional covenant relationship whilst the Rhineland Reformers taught a bilateral contractual relationship. Mark Jones, Richard Muller, J. Mark Beach, and John Von Rohr have argued that Leonard Trinterud’s identification of the apparent polarisation between Calvin, Olevianus on the one hand and Luther, Bullinger, and the Puritans on the other hand is a faulty reading of history.[7]
The covenant of grace became the basis for all future covenants that God made with mankind such as with Noah (Genesis 6, 9), with Abraham (Genesis 12, 15, 17), with Moses (Exodus 19-24), with David (2 Samuel 7), and finally in the New Covenant founded and fulfilled in Christ. These individual covenants are called the biblical covenants because they are explicitly described in the Bible. Under the covenantal overview of the Bible, submission to God's rule and living in accordance with his moral law (expressed concisely in the Ten Commandments) is a response to grace - never something which can earn God's acceptance (legalism). Even in his giving of the Ten Commandments, God introduces his law by reminding the Israelites that he is the one who brought them out of slavery in Egypt (grace)."
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| Still Life and Blossoming Almond Trees, Diego Rivera |
Equality in Grace
So the last will be first, and the first last. For many are called, but few chosen.”I am no Communist but I understand the allure that Communism presented to Diego Rivera. It is the same allure that it held to the poor, people of color and victims of colonialism and the disenfranchised the world over. The allure was the promise of equality. In the United States the renowned African American actor and singer Paul Robeson had also been attracted to the communist promise of a classless, race-less post-nationalistic brotherhood of equals. In both Mexico and the United States, like in Russia, this ideology found converts due to the weaknesses of their current governmental system. Whether it was a Orthodox Church backed monarchical empire (like in Russia) or a democratic republic riddled with the hypocrisy of segregation (like the United States), governments around the globe were lacking in their provision of equality. And just maybe they weren't interested in it at all. Their is an innate need in Mankind that yearns for equality. It is a hunger that was imbued in the creation from the Creator. That need for equality is the theme of the parable of Matthew 20:1-16. The story of the landowner ends with the riddle "So the last will be first, and the first last." The only way for the first and the last to occupy the same space is if they are equal. He also finishes a teaching centered around the complications of entering the kingdom of heaven with great wealth with a similar quote. He says "But many who are first will be last, and the last first." It is as if to say that preferential treatment in this world does not promise preferential treatment in the next. Both stories get to the point that all are equal under Grace. One cannot buy their way into heaven and one cannot work one's way into heaven. On the contrary, it is the kingdom of heaven (the landowner) that calls gifts us with employment in God's labor. Or to put it another way "For many are called, but few chosen.” Adam was called for this labor and so was Abraham, Moses and Jesus' disciples. Along with these great heroes God called Rahab the harlot, Mary Magdalene (another prostitute), the theif who died on the cross and Saul of Tarsus who persecuted Christians (before being converted to the Apostle Paul). Despite their point in history, sinfulness or piety, God saved all of them into the same Grace and the same calling to labor in the overall same covenant. The covenant in which they share in the same blood: that of Jesus the Christ. This is what the kingdom of heaven is like. It is a unity in the call to be what God originally called us to be: workers in His vineyard, farmers in His garden, caretakers of His Creation.
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| El Vendedor de Alcatraces, Diego Rivera |
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