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Lessons from the Vineyard
But he answered one of them and said, “Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius? Take what is yours and go your way. I wish to give to this last man the same as to you. Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with my own things? Or is your eye evil because I am good? So the last will be first, and the first last. For many are called, but few chosen.”
Many of us struggle with Jesus’ story about the vineyard. That’s the one where the owner hires workers throughout the day only to pay everyone the same at the end of the day. Some worked all day, others worked only a couple of hours…everyone got paid the same. Our free enterprise values jump up in our throats and we think “unfair”! We put ourselves in those workers positions and feel our outrage at such a practice. Why, the owner even paid the part time workers first, while those who had “earned” their money watched in disbelief!
I guess when you think about the world we live in; the story is unfair and
somewhat demoralizing for those who pride themselves in “an hour’s work
for an hour’s pay.” The danger
comes when we carry those thoughts into our spiritual lives.
We should thank God everyday our salvation is unfair!
The first thing we need to realize is that none of us have earned the gift of
grace God has given us through Christ, None of us.
Whether we have been Christians all our lives or we are a thief on the
cross who finds Christ in the last seconds of life, we are all the
same…unworthy of God’s love. It
is simply not about us.
Speaking of us, if we harbor ill will towards those who have received God’s
grace without “earning it”, then we have some issues within ourselves that
need resolving. The one statement
in the story nobody remembers is where the landowner says, “Or is your eye
evil because I am good?” If we
resent the goodness of God, then we obviously have not received all we need in
our own spiritual lives.
The main point of this wonderful story of Grace is this:
It’s not about the workers;
it’s about the owner of the vineyard.
We need to get our focus off the workers…the disgruntled ones who
might not be back tomorrow…the overpaid ones who will be the first back
tomorrow. Instead we need to focus
on the owner of the vineyard. We
need to realize how much God loves us and how much He yearns for a
relationship with us. He has a
plan for our lives in His vineyard, yielding spiritual fruit for His glory
through which we are honored to work. Serving
Him is a joy…the rewards are beyond our comprehension.
We don’t earn our wages…we don’t deserve them…they are a
gift…a gift we will never deserve.
We praise God for those who have found Christ early in life… who have worked
in the vineyard for many years. We
praise God for those who have committed their lives to Christ in the last
seconds of life.
It is God’s grace, free to do with what He wishes…and He wished to give it
to anyone who will come to Him. So
the next time you think about this parable, forget the workers…and praise
the Master.
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