29 January

Matthew 20:1-19New International Version (NIV)

The Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard

13 “But he answered one of them, ‘I am not being unfair to you, friend. Didn’t you agree to work for a denarius? 14 Take your pay and go. I want to give the one who was hired last the same as I gave you. 15 Don’t I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?’

16 “So the last will be first, and the first will be last.”

The landowner in this parable overturns all the normal commercial practices. He does this, not to make extra profit for himself, but for the very opposite reason. He wants to be generous and pay more than justice demands. God is like that landowner, and his blessings and forgiveness are always more than we could ever deserve.

We sometimes hear testimonies from people like Shane Taylor who have lived terrible lives. Then, at the ‘eleventh hour’ (v.9), they repent and believe in Jesus. They are totally forgiven and receive all the benefits of Jesus’ death and resurrection (v.19). Some people complain that this is unfair, or that those like Shane are given too high a profile. Yet God uses their testimonies greatly, often seemingly more than those who have borne ‘the heat of the day’ (v.12b).

As we saw yesterday, God’s kingdom is an upside-down kingdom: ‘So the last will be first, and the first will be last’ (v.16). Jesus is saying this is not a reason to be envious. Rather, it is a reason to marvel at the generosity of God. In his great love he is generous to all. It is all grace. It is all undeserved. It is all a result of what Jesus foretold (vv.17–20).

Job 12-14

We need such wisdom when people are suffering, not to speak in glib platitudes but to ensure we demonstrate God’s wonderful love by our actions and are very careful in what we say.

Job has a far healthier attitude than his friends. In his intense suffering he experiences that awful feeling of aloneness and cries out to God, ‘Why do you hide your face?’ (v.24). After C.S. Lewis’ wife died, he wrote a book called A Grief Observed. In the book, he likens this kind of experience to ‘a door slammed in your face’.

Yet, in the midst of all this, Job is able to say to God, ‘Even if he killed me, I’d keep on hoping’ (v.15, MSG). He knows God and trusts him enough, even in the very depth of despair.