With my white, middle class upbringing, a lot of my worldview is rooted in the Protestant work ethic. If you work hard, you will be rewarded. If you save and tithe and watch for sales, you can make your money go further. And if you really get lucky, and God blesses your hard work and determination, you may get rich.
That is the mindset I usually bring to Jesus' parable of the workers. Matthew 20 says that the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire men to work in his vineyard. He agreed to pay them a day's wage and sent them into his vineyard. A coupe-three hours later, he went out again, and saw other men hanging out on the town square. He told them to go into his vineyard and he would pay them. The same thing happens six hours after the first men went to work, and again nine hours after. Finally, at the eleventh hour, just one hour before quitting time, the landowner finds some more unemployed guys, and asks them to also work in his vineyard.
The evening came, and the landowner sets up a booth to pay his laborers. The ones he hired last, who just worked one hour, get to the table first. He pays them a day's wage. The ones who worked 3 hours come next, and he pays them a day's wage. On and on until the guys who have been there all day long. Now, they have stood in line and have seen what the other guys got. They have had time to talk, and let their minds wander. So they get the idea that, because they have been working the longest, they would get the most pay. It's only fair, right? I mean, this is a really cool landowner--if he pays an entire day's wage to those guys who worked less than four hours, imagine what he'll give us, right? But when their time came, they received the same as all the rest--a day's wage. Now these guys get really steamed up about this. "These other men have only worked one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day?" But the landowner answers, "Friend, I am not being unfair to you. Didn't you agree to work for a day's wage? Take your pay and go. I want to give the men who were hired last the same as I gave you. Don't I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?"
This passage has always come to mind when I see people slacking on the job, or hear them complain about their pay. Sometimes I even think about this parable when the subject of labor unions comes up. Again, my Protestant work ethic and middle class upbringing comes to bear. But I realized again today that Jesus was not talking about any of that. He wasn't talking about contracts, or laborers, or money or anything. The key to the passage is what Jesus said at the beginning: The Kingdom of Heaven is like this.
That means there is a spiritual dimension, one that a literal reading does not come close to interpreting. Look in Ephesians 3, starting in verse 4. "In reading this, then, you will be able to understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, which was not made known to men in other generations as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to God's holy apostles and prophets. This mystery is that through the gospel the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together with one body, and sharers together in the promise of Christ Jesus."
If I was a Jew, I would have been taught from birth that my people are the chosen ones of God. I would believe with all my heart that God would work through my people to His glory, and that His power would be revealed through us. And in the end, God would reward His people, the Jews, and elevate them above all others. I would remember the hardships Jews endured, the persecutions and the plagues, and I would expect a great reward in Heaven.
Then Jesus came. He preached a different gospel, a gospel of inclusion. The Gentiles, who might have thought that if the Jews were God's chosen people, then we might be spiritual outcasts, would love this new gospel. The Jews, not so much. Paul says in Ephesians 3. 8-12 says, "Although I am less than the least of all God's people, this grace was given me: to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to make plain to everyone the administration of this mystery, which for ages past was kept hidden in God, who created all things. His intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms, according to His eternal purpose which He accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord. In Him and through faith in Him we may approach God with freedom and confidence."
So God, like the landowner in Jesus' parable, could do anything He wanted with His heaven. But by His grace, he has made Heaven accessible to all people, not just the ones He chose at first. That says a lot about grace. That says a lot about God.
Paul ends the discussion of this mystery with a prayer. Beginning in verse 14, he says, "For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom His whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of His glorious riches He may strengthen you with power through His Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge--that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us, to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen."
Nobody says it like Paul. He prayed for you and for me. He prayed that we would come to know Christ, through faith. And once we accepted Christ in our hearts, he prayed we would realize that God, His Son and His Holy Spirit are bigger than we can know, but that we would be filled with this bigness, this godliness. And with this realization, we can ask Him for anything we can imagine, and more! Glory to God! Not that He is our "genie in a bottle", able to give us whatever we want. No! Rather that we are His, and through us He can accomplish things greater than we ourselves can even ask or think. The glory is His, not ours.
God can discriminate, because He sees the heart. We can be discriminating, preferring right over wrong, preferring love over hate. If we know the heart of God, we will be discriminating like He is. But in our finite knowledge, we cannot damn someone to hell. We often want to, but we only see the outward stuff--the color of someone's skin, or the way they dress; what they say or the choices they make. God alone has the right to condemn someone, because He sees the heart. But He reserves the right to forgive. So you might see some people in heaven that you never saw in church. You might see some people there that would surprise you. But you have to remember His grace, and that those other people there might also be surprised that you made it to heaven, too.
No comments:
Post a Comment