Finally I Get It

Whenever I hear the Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard (Matthew 20) it upsets me. Paraphrasing the parable:  A landowner hires workers in the morning for an agreed amount. While they are working, the landowner hires other workers at nine, then more workers at noon, some at three and the last workers at four. When it is time to pay them  he tells the steward to pay them all the same, the amount agreed upon by the first hired. When the first workers, who worked all day complain that they have worked all day under the hot sun and why should those that worked one hour be paid the same? The landowner asks why are they complaining. He paid them what they agreed upon and if he chooses to be generous with his money it should not matter to them. "Can I not do with my money what I want?" he asks.

I suppose it upsets me because it just does not seem fair that all the workers got paid the same. For years I have heard the parable and have felt that the actions of the landowner were unfair. On Sunday, September 21, 2014, our pastor finally explained the parable in such a way that I got it! He said, and again I am paraphrasing: Now let us look at the parable in another way. You have died and you are in a line to see whether or not you will enter heaven. Mother Theresa is in front of you and she has a large box with lots of documents stating all she did while she was on earth. God is impressed and asks her to enter heaven. You are next and you have a tiny box with one small sheet of paper but God so loves you, he lets you enter also. Behind you is a criminal, a bad person, evil in all he did but as he was dying he made a sincere act of contrition and God lets him in also.

"But many who are

first will be last and

the last first."

Matthew

I do not believe that anyone would be questioning who did more or who did less so the parable of the Workers in the Vineyard finally made sense to me!
 

"We may be surprised at the

people we find in heaven.

God has a soft spot for sinners."

Desmond Tutu