All I want is what’s fair…..and what’s fair is up to me!!
Today’s parable is very
simple: a vineyard owner offers day
laborers a fair wage for a day’s work. Other
workers come later in the day, and he pays them the same wage as those who
worked the entire day.
The ‘day-long’ workers received
what the vineyard owner had promised them.
But they complained: not
fair! How can you give those ‘short-term’
workers the same pay as you gave us? We
should get more! We don’t like this
set-up one bit.
The vineyard owner disagrees, and
he doesn’t mince words: ‘I am not being
unfair to you, friend. Didn’t you agree
to work for a denarius? Take your pay
and go. I want to give the one who was
hired last the same as I gave you. Don’t
I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am
generous? So the last will be first, and
the first will be last.’ (vs. 13-16).
We think we want ‘fairness,’ but
Jesus, the vineyard owner, gives us so much more: he offers us mercy. In the human system, there will always be winners
and losers. Not so in the Kingdom of
Heaven. Mercy will trump fairness every
time.
Can we start to live a kingdom life
here on earth? Can we give up our need
for ‘fairness’ and live a life of mercy?
It’s what Jesus wants. And we can
start, a day at a time – today.
Lord, forgive me when I focus on ‘fairness’
and I try to take the wheel and run my life.
Help me to live a life that focuses on your love and your mercy….a day
at a time. Amen.
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