Most of Jesus’ parables began with a comparison identified like “the Kingdom of God is like…” 

Most of the time, Jesus uses such parables because the Kingdom of heaven or the Kingdom of God is different than the powers of this world. Many of Jesus’ parables touch upon things that would be quite controversial in his own time (as they were) and in our times as well.

A number of Jesus’ parables and teachings leave us challenged when we try to balance the material with the spiritual. For example, His saying that the poor widow put much more in the treasury than those who put in larger sums of money. (Mark 12:41-44)

When Jesus gave the parable about the prodigal son, the person who was calculating the value of the two sons’ inheritance with a calculator would have been disturbed, like the older son, when his younger brother was received back with celebration after he had already wasted his half of the inheritance. In contemporary times, we often judge equality by numbers and cash. God’s economy is much more concerned with the value of a soul.

Every New Testament teaching has an introduction from the Old Testament. Such is the case when Jesus teaches economics (as it is in heaven.) In the Lord’s prayer, we pray that God’s will is to be accomplished here on earth, as it is in heaven.

Isaiah 55 is a beautiful passage that begins as an invitation, points out the contrast between our ways and God’s ways, and then goes on to show the way of God’s generosity open to us, and one that can become a model for us as well.

Verses 1 & 2 invite us to come, to receive rich food and drink without money or cost. We are also invited to receive of God’s abundant mercy and pardon.

Beginning in verse 8 and 9 we see that God’s thoughts and ways are greater than ours. Afterwards we hear God’s word compared to the rain and snow that bring us abundance, not just material abundance, but more importantly, spiritual abundance.

Matthew 20 begins with a parable in which Jesus illustrates how much God’s ways are above our own, and challenges again our material notions of equality.

A landowner goes out at sunrise and hires laborers for his vineyard. He agrees on a fair daily wage. He returns at 9:00am. He goes out again in the mid-morning, noontime, mid-afternoon, and sunset, still looking for laborers. When the workers are paid at the end of day, all of them receive the fair amount for a day’s work, putting the ones who worked only an hour on a par with

those who worked all day. There is an equality of fairness and generosity, but it is not a material equality. It is one that measures the inner value of the soul, rather than just material amounts or what we might call “output.” In the end, the practical statement, “Time is money,” measures equality only in a numerical and material way. God has a different scale.

God’s equality is found in the opening chapter of Genesis “God made man in his own image, in the image of God he created him, male and female he created them, and God blessed them, and said to them, be fruitful, multiply and fill the earth”

When we read the opening foundation of the Declaration of Independence, we find that the writers had a notion of God’s economics. Both human history and salvation history demonstrate that a purely materialistic mind will quickly reject it. 

Pastor Fr. William Hodgson is the priest at St. Edward Catholic Church in Cassville. He may be reached at 417-847-4948 or [email protected].