“Take what is yours, and go your way: I will give unto the last even as unto you. 15. Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with my own? Is your eye evil, because I am good? 16. So the last shall be first, and the first last: for many will be called but few chosen.”
In the parable of the “Workers in the Vineyard,” Jesus proved a point to His disciples, and to us, about who is most important in God’s kingdom. In the parable, the vineyard owner goes into town and begins to hire workers for the day. The first workers hired agreed to a denarius as their pay. (A denarius was the day’s wage for that time.) He went out three other times and hired workers. The last hired probably worked only an hour. When the time for the workers to be paid came, the owner paid all of them a denarius. Those who had worked all day were irate, because they thought they should be paid more. The owner reminded them that they agreed on a denarius for that day’s work, besides; the owner reminded them that He could pay what he wanted to pay since he was the owner. We have to admit that we cringe a little when we read this. It does seem a bit unfair. But Jesus is making points here that we need to know about working in the kingdom and the rewards for it. First, since all of Jesus’ disciples were Jews, he was reminding them, and future generations. that Gentiles would be rewarded the same as Jews, though the Gentiles were late coming into the kingdom. If God wanted to include Gentiles in His kingdom, that was His business, and He could reward Gentiles as well as Jews. Second, the parable is a reminder to us that we do not serve in God’s kingdom for what we can get from Him. There is always a danger that we will think that God owes us more than He does others. We might think that we have been Christians from an early age, and God certainly owes us more than He owes those who came into kingdom late. Let’s use “deathbed repentance” as an example. There are people who do not believe that one can be saved just before his or her last breath. But if God wants to save someone in their last hour, why would we be upset that He wanted to do so? Who can be saved is God’s prerogative, not ours. I’m not pushing hard line Calvinism here. What I mean is that no matter when one repents and asks to be saved, it is God’s prerogative to save him or her. It is not our task to decide who can come into the kingdom; rather, it is our task to witness to others in order for them to be included in the kingdom. Third, the parable is a reminder that there are no “big I’s” and “little you’s” in the kingdom of God. After all, we were not saved to get what we can from God, either here or in eternity. We are saved to serve Him and not to lord it over other people. We are supposed to serve Jesus out of love for Him and thankfulness to Him for being our Savior. The rewards for this service are up to God. Service for our Savior is its own reward. I have gotten to the point in my life that I just thank God that He allows me to preach His word. He doesn’t owe me anything for it, and I owe Him my whole being for allowing me to do it. It should be the same for all of us, whether we are choir members, song leaders, Sunday School teachers, deacons, missionaries, or whatever. We should have the same attitude toward our witness for Him to the world. He has empowered us to do it, and allows us to do it, in spite of our own sins. Let us not quibble over who will be “first” and who will be “last.” It’s all up to God. Bro. Joe
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AuthorDr. Joe Beauchamp is the author of this blog and website. Categories
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