One of the quirks, if you will, about living in South Africa was the ability to hire labour on the street corner. You had to be careful as to who you obtained. If you were lucky or competent and fair in your negotiations the probability existed that you could come away with a good worker. To me this is very reminiscent of the parable that is told in Matthew's gospel (20:1-16). At the end of the day the process was about ascertaining the needs and wants of those looking for employment. Some may have needed to work and were not that fussed as to what they obtained. These were the first ones often to hop on board the tradies ute for the day knowing that they would obtain some money at the end. Others wanted to find a more permanent arrangement and were content to sit back and wait for opportunity to come their way.
We are often to focused on our needs rather than on those things we think are beyond us but that which we want. Obviously, our needs often or should often come before those things we want. Yet when we look at Maslow's pyramid we can see that the next step is moving towards our wants because in reality what we want or desire is at the top of the hierarchy. This can also be seen working within the Exodus story as the Israelites move further and further into the wilderness. Their daily needs are being met but they yearn for what they had and therefore want more. God has given the fulfilled their basic desire that of being free but because they have been used to a certain level of comfort and fulfilment in Egypt they now complain that they are not getting the food. God overlooks their complaints and through God's grace gifts them with manna and quails, bread and meat (Ex. 16:2-13). These are the basic staples of our initial needs when starting out from bigotry, persecution and slavery: freedom, food and shelter. These are the fundamentals of hospitality as we care for the other. In looking beyond our initial needs we move towards our desires and wants, hopefully with gratitude to those who have provided our initial requirements.
However, our desire to get more than what we thought was adequate is an old part of human nature that sits at the pit of our hearts waiting to come forth. The first laborers were having their needs met with an ironclad contract to work for wages. This is often sufficient for most people as our daily need is being fulfilled. However, when we see others gaining, from our view, benefits that we have also been contracted for we see that as unjust and wish to complain. We then begin to want what the other has for it is the next step beyond our needs. The desire and jealous rage, which arises within our hearts, turns our thoughts away from what we have actually promised to undertake. We grasp for what we initially thought was beyond us but now find is unavailable. Often in the African situation the same thing occurred so that when you went back to pick up the contracted labourer you would find others trying desperately to displace him. It is only when we see that our wants can be catered for that we begin to loose what we have asked for. Yes, there is the sense of generosity from the landowner who hires the labourers in the first place but there is more then generosity here over and above the obvious needs and wants debate.
The landowner has seen something beyond the individual. We constantly see the individual here as the beneficiaries of the generosity of the landowner but what of the community? At the heart of the story is not the compassion and grace of the landowner for the individual but the understanding that these are the needy within the community who are receiving justly according to their needs. We do not see the backstory of each of those who are looking for work, we assume laziness rather than seeking alternative possibilities. In a rural community households who are just holding it together often have additional duties / chores that need to be undertaken that are more important than work for these are needs beyond finance. We forget that often other's needs come first such as the old and infirm, the sick and the desperate, the young and the widow. In our modern world we pack them of to institutions to look after so that we can forget them and cater for our own needs and wants. Who fulfilled these duties in an impoverished community other than the single wage owner or the healthy individual who then comes late looking for resources to care for the other. The landowner sees this and rewards them according to their deeds not just on the farm and in the harvest but in building the relationships of community.
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