OUR FATHER WHO IS IMPOSSIBLE TO PLEASE WITHOUT FAITH

The Lord Jesus, in Matthew chapter 20 verses 1 - 16, gave His disciples a view into the administration, hiring practices and compensation policies of the kingdom of heaven by using a parable.

A landowner, needing work to be done in His vineyard, went out first thing in the morning to the labor pool and made an agreement with a batch of the workers that they would work for the whole day in the vineyard in exchange for a denarius which if converted to todayˋs currency, would about 60 USD.

1 “For the kingdom of heavens like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. 2 Now when he had agreed with the laborers for a denarius a day, he sent them into his vineyard.

So far, we see a number of workers on standby and from this pool, at the crack of dawn, the administrator selects those he would use for the day. He formally agrees to the wage for the day and then sends them into his fields.

3 And he went out about the third hour and saw others standing idle in the marketplace, 4 and said to them, ‘You also go into the vineyard, and whatever is right I will give you.’ So they went. 5 Again he went out about the sixth and the ninth hour, and did likewise. 6 And about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing idle, and said to them, ‘Why have you been standing here idle all day?’ 7 They said to him, ‘Because no one hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You also go into the vineyard, and whatever is right you will receive.’

After a few hours, the adminstrator, having seen the work progressing satisfactorily in his field, goes back to the labor pool at 9:00 AM and sees workers lingering around so he instructed them to go into his fields in exchange for a wage that was right. 

Seeing that the additions to his labor force were doing well, he left them and brought additional unemployed workers at noon and then again at 3:00 PM. He then made one more trip to the labor pool at 5:00 PM and found some stragglers and he hired them for the final hour of the work day.

At quitting time, some of the workers had done 12 hours of work, other had done 9, others 6, others 3 and the final group had done 1 hour of work.

8 “So when evening had come, the owner of the vineyard said to his steward, ‘Call the laborers and give them their wages, beginning with the last to the first.’ 9 And when those came who were hired about the eleventh hour, they each received a denarius. 10 But when the first came, they supposed that they would receive more; and they likewise received each a denarius. 11 And when they had received it, they complained against the landowner, 12 saying, ‘These last men have worked only one hour, and you made them equal to us who have borne the burden and the heat of the day.’

When the time came to give everyone their dayˋs wages, the administrator got his assistant to summon everyone and starting with the ones who came last, pay them what was owed.

The workers who had worked for the last hour of the day got a denarius for their wage which was 60 USD for the hour of work they did. 

The men who worked all day thought that their own wages would be bumped up because they had sweated through the tough part of the day but when they got paid, they recieved the wage of a denarius to which they had agreed in the morning.

The men felt it was unfair and complained to the landowner that they had been short-changed  having worked for so long only to recieve the same wage as the ones who showed up in the last hour.

The landowner pointed out to the complainants that he was paying them exactly what they had agreed to that morning and so they were not being short-changed. He told them that being the landowner, he had the right to do with his own property what he wanted and in this case, he wanted to give the last worker a denarius.

13 But he answered one of them and said, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius? 14 Take what is yours and go your way. I wish to give to this last man the same as to you. 15 Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with my own things? Or is your eye evil because I am good?’ 

The amplified version translates verse 15 in a way that is a easier to understand because the word ˋenviousˋ is more specific than the word ˋevilˋ ;  

15 Am I not lawfully permitted to do what I choose with what is mine? Or is your eye envious because I am generous?’

The landowner asked the complainants to judge between them to conclude who was contravening the law. On his part, the money was his and there was no law that prevented him from giving it to whomever he chose. On the other hand, those who complained were being motivated by envy which was definitely a contravention of the 10th commandment found in the book of Exodus chapter 20 verse 17;

 “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male or female servant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.”

There are two conclusions to the parable listed by the Lord in verse 16;

16 So the last will be first, and the first last. For many are called, but few chosen.”

The first is that in the kingdom of heaven, everything is inverted from the systems of this world. Those who would lead must be the lowest servants. Those who would be at the table of honor must go to the childrenˋs table. Those who would be at the front of the line must go to the end of the line. Those who are last, will be first.

The second is that in the kingdom of heaven, a large number of people are called to be in the pool of workers but few are chosen out of that pool to be actual workers in the fields of the Lord. Those who donˋt give up and stay in the pool even when most of the day is done are rewarded with a full days wage. The ability to be tenatious and wait in the face of being passed up over and over again is the ticket that is being looked for in the kingdom of heaven. 

Faith (which the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen), is what the waiting workers are operating on. They hope for wages on which to live and they are waiting at dawn with the rest of the workers but they are passed up. They remain waiting through the 3rd, 6th, and 9th hour and they are assured of things that are not visible from the perspective of the natural realm and so they linger on till the 11th hour when they are finally hired.

This faith is the valuable commodity that the Lord is seeking and compensates those who lived by it and developed it to highest degree.

Just as the landowner used his own discretionary authority to pay the people who clung on to the end of the day a full days wage because he was pleased by their tenacity, the Lord, pleased by the faith of those who are on the sidelines but remain in the hope of being hired, will reward them out of His own goodness.

The Lord mentions this faith that He is seeking in Luke chapter 18 verse 8 Amp;

8 I tell you that He will defend and avenge them quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will He find [this kind of persistent] faith on the earth?”

Have mercy on us O God.

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