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Sunday, May 7, 2017

A Fair Wage

Matthew 20:1-16 

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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