On The Generosity of God

Matthew 20:1-16 Phillips ^1-7 “For the kingdom of Heaven is like a farmer going out early in the morning to hire labourers for his vineyard. He agreed with them on a wage of a silver coin a day and sent them to work. About nine o’clock he went and saw some others standing about in the marketplace with nothing to do. ‘You go to the vineyard too,” he said to them, ‘and I will pay you a fair wage.’ And off they went. At about mid-day and again at about three o’clock in the afternoon he went and did the same thing. Then about five o’clock he went out and found some others standing about. ‘Why are you standing about here all day doing nothing?’ he asked them. ‘Because no one has employed us,’ they replied. ‘You go off into the vineyard as well, then,’ he said.

^8-12 “When evening came the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Call the labourers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last and ending with the first.’ So those who were engaged at five o’clock came up and each man received a silver coin. But when the first to be employed came they reckoned they would get more, but they also received a silver coin a man. As they took their money they grumbled at the farmer and said, ‘These last fellows have only put in one hour’s work and you’ve treated them exactly the same as us who have gone through all the hard work and heat of the day!’

^13-15 “But he replied to one of them, ‘My friend, I’m not being unjust to you. Wasn’t our agreement for a silver coin a day? Take your money and go home. It is my wish to give the latecomers as much as I give you. May I not do what I like with what belongs to me? Must you be jealous because I am generous?’  ¹⁶ “So, many who are the last now will be the first then and the first last.”

Luke 23:39-43 MSG  ³⁹ One of the criminals hanging alongside cursed him: “Some Messiah you are! Save yourself! Save us!”

^40-41 But the other one made him shut up: “Have you no fear of God? You’re getting the same as him. We deserve this, but not him—he did nothing to deserve this.”

⁴² Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you enter your kingdom.”

⁴³ He said, “Don’t worry, I will. Today you will join me in paradise.”

Observation

“So, many who are the last now will be the first then and the first last.”  This is a difficult concept for those of us raised in a competitive and performance-based culture.   Our culture teaches that the best at something deserve greater rewards and praise and the hardworking and diligent should earn more than those who labor less.   However, the two passages above say this is not necessarily God’s viewpoint.  Men who worked only an hour received the same pay as those who worked all day.  A criminal receiving his rightly deserved punishment reaches out in his last moments to Jesus and all is forgiven.   How is this fair?  It is not, but do we really want God to be strictly fair and give us what we deserve?

Both of these stories are about the nature of grace and the generosity of God Who freely dispenses that undeserved favor, stretching out His hand to rescue, and, when we sincerely repent, washing away sin through the sacrifice of Himself for us – regardless of our past, our sins, the hidden motives of our hearts, the length of our service.  Whether any of us wholly and faithfully submit to and serve the Lord for seventy years or 7 minutes, the one silver coin we are given for our repentance – and not anything else – is eternity with Him in Heaven.   What more could we want? 

Impact On Me

It is so easy when we serve the Lord for many years to drift into self-righteousness as in the stories of the indignant workers above, the older son in the Prodigal Son, the Pharisee and the Publican of Luke 18, and so many others.  Do I ever want to accuse God of being too generous with another after He has been so generous with me?  Our performance-based culture says our length and quality of service should be taken into account when rewards are handed out. 

If I am serving God, isn’t He the judge of what I receive for that service?  After all, it is only the generosity of God that allows any of us into His presence in the highest Heaven.  If God chooses to give all who repent and embrace salvation the same wages, isn’t Heaven His to give?  I will leave in His hands the determination of what I or anyone else receives on our investment in His service.

Ephesians 2:4-10 MSG  It’s a wonder God didn’t lose his temper and do away with the whole lot of us. Instead, immense in mercy and with an incredible love, he embraced us. He took our sin-dead lives and made us alive in Christ. He did all this on his own, with no help from us! Then he picked us up and set us down in highest heaven in company with Jesus, our Messiah.

^7-10 Now God has us where he wants us, with all the time in this world and the next to shower grace and kindness upon us in Christ Jesus. Saving is all his idea, and all his work. All we do is trust him enough to let him do it. It’s God’s gift from start to finish! We don’t play the major role. If we did, we’d probably go around bragging that we’d done the whole thing! No, we neither make nor save ourselves. God does both the making and saving. He creates each of us by Christ Jesus to join him in the work he does, the good work he has gotten ready for us to do, work we had better be doing.

Prayer

Father of Grace and Mercy, Messiah, the only just Judge, Heaven is enough for me.  I leave any reward for my service in Your hands. Let everything I do in Your name be the outflow of the love and grace I have received.  Give me Your eyes to see past behavior, forgetting the past, to the anguished soul so I, too, can rejoice when they embrace salvation. Seek and destroy those places in me where pride or cultural expectations may rise up to challenge the pure motives of my heart, the desires You have seeded in me to please You.  May I never look down on another and forget that You, Lord, are the only faithful and just judge, the only Savior, and that Heaven is enough whether I labor seventy years or 7 minutes.  In Jesus’ name, I pray.