Wednesday, March 23, 2011

TICKED

If it had happened to me, I would have been ticked for sure. I wouldn't care if I had agreed earlier to work all day for forty bucks. When quitting time came, if I had stood there and watched the boss give the very same forty to one of my co-workers who had only come for the last half hour's work, I'd have been ticked off. Ticked off, I tell you.

But that has never been my experience. If I did two hours work, I got two hours pay. If the guy next to me did five hours work, he got five hours pay. If the guy on the other side only worked 30 minutes, that's what he got paid for. I certainly didn't expect him to get what I got and I didn't expect to get what the five hour laborer got. Fair is fair.

It is exactly that expectation that makes Jesus' parable of the vineyard such a powerful tool. In His story, the landowner goes to the marketplace five different times during the day to pick up more workers for his fields. We could speculate why he does this, but we're not told. Whatever the reason, each time he finds willing workers to help, even right up to the last hour of the day.

At the end of it all he instructs his foreman to do something very curious: pay the workers in reverse order, beginning with the last hired and proceeding to the first hired. What must the workers hired first have thought when they saw the latecomers receiving what they had been promised initially? I'd have been a little concerned at first, but would have been hopeful that maybe I was going to receive even more than I'd been told I was going to get.

What a shock when the first-hired workers received just what they had been promised - and it was the very same as those who had arrived an hour before. I understand how they felt, which is why this parable hasn't ever been one of my favorites. This one hits us hard where it hurts.

The landowner's actions weren't unfair to those who were first out in the field - they got what they were promised - but it represents generosity and compassion to those who came later. And that's the point, is it not? We don't bring our reasonable expectations to God and demand He satisfy them. Doesn't God have the right to do whatever He pleases in His own field? Can't He be generous without inciting envy? He owns the field. If we are not ready to trust Him to that degree, there will be no joy in His vineyard.

God gives more to the latecomers out of compassion for their need, not because they hold a greater place in His heart. But their gratefulness, coupled with the complaints of the first workers, reverses those tables and Jesus draws the saddening conclusion as a result: "The last will be first, and the first will be last."

This parable goes far beyond the way God rewards people. It has to do with the way we view Him in our lives. Is He ours to control, or are we His to serve? God is over all. He is not to be challenged, but followed. We won't always understand what He does, but we must learn to trust Him enough to endorse His plan in our lives instead of trying to get Him to fulfill ours.

And be blessed.

5 comments:

Don Smith said...

When Donna and I moved into our current home, we hired men from our old church. The Payment was all the pizza and drink, with a surprise gift card to Culvers. One young man came in the 11th hour as it were. When We paid him the same to include the gift card, he protested that he had not worked as hard as the others. Donna “Hit” him with this parable, to which he said “Thank you and you shouldn’t have” and “You can’t argue with scripture, because you’ll always be wrong”. It was a great lesson, especially when the first one there was happy to get the gift card, never mind the pizza. We had had a sermon on that very parable just a couple weeks before.

I think in truth, I’d be glad to get what I got, so that I could feed my family.

Love, Mercy, and Blessing
Don Smith

Bill Tait said...

The wages paid were the same, but the benefits obtained by the first workers were held for a greater length of time. The benefits of being a child of the most high God hold great value. Much like the parable of The Prodigal Son.

Anonymous said...

I understand the parable, but, for some reason, matters of money seems to be a touchy subject for many people. However, most Christians are thrilled when someone comes to faith...at any time. Reminds me of the thief on the cross that Jesus saved. Somehow, I don't think the disciples were upset, but in awe.

PK's BLOG said...

Yes - and this is really not even a parable about money. It is about placing our trust in a generous God.

Anonymous said...

I know, PK. I understand it. :)