Work = Worth? By Alison Orland

For those of us with chronic illness, it can be a challenge to know our worth. Identity often includes achievements, a job or a role. When we have to give up everything we used to do, it can be a painful grieving process. It can also open us up to judgement from society, which values productivity over being, and also over well-being. Society equates productivity, success, achievement and independence with worth. People with no visible productivity are often seen as useless and worthless, and these judgments fill the press and social media. This has got much worse recently, with disabled people actively hated for not being able to work. This bombardment, and the inner judgements we may have against ourselves can leave us feeling low and useless. We may even feel we are failing God.

I am reminded of the story Jesus told about the labourers in the vineyard. A farmer takes on men to work. Some work all day, and some turn up at the last hour. When the time comes to be paid, he calls the late-comers first, and pays them a denarius, the living wage of the time for a day’s work. Then he calls those who worked all day, and pays them the same. Not surprisingly, there is resentment and complaints of unfairness. The farmer says it’s fair,because they were paid the agreed amount and have enough to live on. He also says it’s up to him what he does with his own money. Jesus just says this one line of words… ‘The first shall be last and the last shall be first’.

This story is usually used to tell us salvation cannot be earned, and we do not get Brownie points in the Kingdom of God for how hard we strive, or how long we have been a Christian. But as a disabled person, I notice other things. I notice society’s rules about working and achieving are different in the Kingdom of God. I notice people are not measured by how much they can manage. I notice everyone is given enough to live on, no matter how much they could contribute. And I notice God, through the voice of the farmer, protecting from shame those who can only do a little- choosing to pay them first, giving them respect and first place in the queue. He tells them they are just as important and worthy of their wages. I notice him making sure they have enough to live on. And I notice him defending them from the backlash and judgments from their fellow-workers, telling them firmly their social norms have no place in his kingdom. In front of all the people, he draws a big red line through society’s toxic equation, saying ‘Work ≠ Worth’.

I am grateful to God for this story, speaking so strongly of the innate value of all people, separating value from achievement, and protecting them from deprivation, from shame and from condemnation. I hear him say, ‘Whatever you can do, it is enough. You are enough. Your disabled self is enough. And you will always be valuable to me’.

The parable of the Labourers in the Vineyard can be found in Matthew 20:1-16.