Laborer
“For the kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. After agreeing with the laborers for a denarius a day, he sent them into his vineyard. And going out about the third hour he saw others standing idle in the marketplace, and to them he said, ‘You go into the vineyard too, and whatever is right I will give you.’ So they went. Going out again about the sixth hour and the ninth hour, he did the same. And about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing. And he said to them, ‘Why do you stand here idle all day?’ They said to him, ‘Because no one has hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You go into the vineyard too.’ And when evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Call the laborers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last, up to the first.’ And when those hired about the eleventh hour came, each of them received a denarius. Now when those hired first came, they thought they would receive more, but each of them also received a denarius. And on receiving it they grumbled at the master of the house, saying, ‘These last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat.’ But he replied to one of them, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius? Take what belongs to you and go. I choose to give to this last worker as I give to you. Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or do you begrudge my generosity?’ So the last will be first, and the first last.” - Matthew 20:1-16 ESV
This was part of my quiet time reading this morning and it brought up (for me) some uncomfortable memories. For example, when we go out to eat and are waiting for table, frequently, I’m looking at everyone else waiting to see if we get a table before someone who got there after us gets a table. Or, when traffic is merging into my lane, do I drive close to the bumper of the car in front of me?
If you’re generous, you might say I didn’t do anything wrong and from a law perspective you’d be right. But when I stop and think about it from the opposite side…Did the restaurant have a table for 5 available and I’m in a party of 2? Is the person merging, consumed with thoughts and is late to recognizing the merge?
When I think about myself, from a law perspective, I’m screwed. I’m so far from making it on my own that I wouldn’t even ask. One of the elders asked recently if we had ever thought about what our sins might look like when Jesus took them on himself at the cross. I shudder to think.
I don’t know why our triune God picked me before the creation of the universe to awaken my heart enough to accept him as my savior and be redeemed. I praise God that he chose to save me. That’s what I think about when I read hired laborer passage.
“But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.”- Romans 3:21-26
