Life’s Not Fair - Praise God!

Last week, I started a two-part series about how Jesus used stories to communicate sometimes difficult-to-understand spiritual truth clearly to everyday people. Thus, the title of last week’s article, “Two Stories from the Storyteller.” This article is about the second of the two stories. Remember, Jesus’ goal was for all people to understand who God is and what God is like.

I want to bring the second parable or story to your attention. The story is in Matthew 20:1-16. It's called A Story About Workers. Warning: As they say in Australia, “It’s a shocker, mate.” Thus, the title of this article. A Story About Workers was a shocker to the religious and commerce elite of that time, and it still is for many today. Here’s Jesus’ story about what the Kingdom of God is like.    

“God’s kingdom is like an estate manager who goes out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard. They agreed on a wage of one dollar a day and went to work. Later, about nine o'clock, the manager saw some other men hanging around the town square unemployed. He told them to work in his vineyard and would pay them a fair wage. They went.

He did the same thing at noon and again at three o'clock. At five o'clock, he went back and found others still standing around. He said, “Why are you standing around all day doing nothing?” They said, “Because no one hired us.” He told them to go to work in his vineyard.

When the day ended, the vineyard owner instructed his foreman, “Call the workers in and pay them their wages. Start with the last hired and go on to the first.” Those hired at five o'clock came up and were each given a dollar. When those hired first saw that, they assumed they would get far more. But they got the same, each of them one dollar. Taking the dollar, they groused angrily to the manager, “These last workers put in only one easy hour, and you just made them equal to us, who worked hard all day under a scorching sun.”

He replied to the one speaking for the rest, “Friend, I haven’t been unfair. We agreed on the wage of a dollar, didn’t we? So, take it and go. I decided to give it to the one who came last, the same as you. Can’t I do what I want with my own money? Are you going to get stingy because I am generous?”

Then Jesus, the Storyteller, concludes with the lesson or moral of the story.: “Here it is again, the Great Reversal: many of the first ending up last, and the last first.”

Let’s address two issues in this story: first, the dilemma of God’s grace in a ‘fairness’ or wage-based world, and second, the opportunity that God’s outrageous grace offers to everyone in the world for a heaven-based life.

We can relate to those first-hour people, can’t we? I can hear our current culture shouting, “It’s not fair that I worked for many hours, and they worked for one hour. We are going to have a protest!” Author Michael Marsh says, “We know people who, in our not-so-humble opinion, neither earned nor deserved what they got: a job, a promotion, a raise, recognition, happiness, and success. That we worked longer and tried harder seemed to make no difference. Often, we view the world, ourselves, and others through the lens of fairness rather than grace, the exact opposite of how God views the world and our lives. 

What happens, though, when divine goodness trumps human fairness? You get today’s parable. Today’s parable suggests wages and grace stand in opposition to each other. They are two opposing world views. The degree to which this parable strikes us as unfair is the degree to which our life and worldview are based. A wage-based worldview allows little room for grace in our own lives or the lives of others.”

Grace is dangerous. God is saying here that, unlike earthly life, the way to heaven and eternal life is not based on our performance but on our willingness to take the offer and opportunity to work in God’s vineyard, even at the last moment. The vineyard in this story represents life as God has life in the Kingdom of God. 

God loves those who have served him for many years, but there is still room at the cross for one more. Grace looks beyond our productivity, our appearance, our dress, our race or ethnicity, our accomplishments, and our failures. Grace recognizes there is more to you and who you are than what you have done or left undone. Let’s face it. If we all got what we deserved, we all would be toast. Besides, what appears to some as unfair on earth is made up for in heaven. The first shall be last and the last first. Remember? 

As Lord of the Vineyard, God is the owner of the vineyard. God has the right to His vineyard, not the first-hour or last-hour groups. The Bible says God paid each group “whatever is just.” Just think: the first-hour group was chosen for service in the vineyard, and the last-hour group was chosen to reveal God's grace and goodness. Both groups were given divine justice, sovereignty, and grace. 

So, if you are standing around doing nothing about God, it's never too late to come to your senses, coming to God through believing in Jesus Christ. So, if you are breathing, it’s not too late.