“For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. 2 When he had agreed with the laborers for a denarius for the day, he sent them into his vineyard.
3 And he went out about the third hour and saw others standing idle in the market place; 4 and to those he said, ‘You also go into the vineyard, and whatever is right I will give you.’ And so they went.
5 Again he went out about the sixth and the ninth hour, and did the same thing. 6 And about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing around; and he said to them, ‘Why have you been standing here idle all day long?’
7 They said to him, ‘Because no one hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You go into the vineyard too.’
8 “When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Call the laborers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last group to the first.’ 9 When those hired about the eleventh hour came, each one received a denarius. 10 When those hired first came, they thought that they would receive more; but each of them also received a denarius.
11 When they received it, they grumbled at the landowner, 12 saying, ‘These last men have worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden and the scorching heat of the day.’
13 But he answered and said to one of them, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong; did you not agree with me for a denarius? 14 Take what is yours and go, but I wish to give to this last man the same as to you. 15 Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with what is my own? Or is your eye envious because I am generous?’
16 So the last shall be first, and the first last."
During this chapter Jesus is aiming to prepare the disciples for his coming death. How are they going to continue after He is no longer around to set them straight? Is their belief going to be another power-grabbing, top-heavy religious hierarchy full of self-service and nepotism that the world has already seen again and again, or is it going to be something new?
Those who work an hour or a day receive the same wages - just as those who place their trust in Jesus to save them receive the same gift of eternal life. Same pay, different amount of work done. Not as a result of the recipient's merit, but a result of the generosity of the employer. We all get it. Post-reformation, we all get that salvation is by faith alone.
Not really. So few get this. James and John didn't get this after the parable was told, and the others were ticked at them because they all wanted preferential treatment. The whole still recognizes religious systems that are based on the same old merit treadmill.
Or is your eye envious because I am generous...?
I'm struck by this line. This is the microscope.
Shouldn't we be envious when there isn't enough to go around? Scramble and squabble when there's need on one hand and over-abundance on the other. But that's not the case. Everyone who comes to the waters will drink and never thirst again. Why get miffed if you needed to take a long drink to fill yourself and another only needed a sip? Why mope when others get more than they seem to deserve from a God who is a giver? Why not cheer? It all seems so petty and small and weerd.
But Christians do - I do - not maybe over the abstraction of salvation, but over the tiny concrete things in life. God has blessed someone with more money than you have. Does that make your eye envious? They have better looks, or capability, or status, or inheritance, or things, things, things. When a co-worker gets a raise. Do you celebrate? Does it bother you?
Why can't we just work a day and enter into our rest without looking around at the others? Do your day's work and take your day's pay - gladly - without worrying about who's working harder, or doing more, or getting theirs for doing less.
I get heaven for free. Are you kidding me? Nothing anyone else gets or doesn't get should eclipse this on my radar.
The chapter ends with a simple anecdote. Blind men ask and receive sight, then follow Jesus. Isn't that my life in a nutshell? I was blind but now I see. Amazing grace that saved a wretch like me. I have new sight, no room in my eye now for envy.
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