October 22 - Matthew 20:1-16, Mark 10:32-34, Matthew 20:17-19, Luke 18:31-34, Mark 10:35-45, Matthew 20:20-34, Mark 10:46-52, Luke 18:35-19:27

Good morning everyone,

Today we began our reading with the parable of the workers in the vineyard. Here we have a landowner who goes out several times during the course of the day to recruit more and more employees to work his vineyard. He starts early in the morning, promising those who went with him a denarius for the day of work. About nine in the morning, while at the marketplace, he sees others doing nothing and told them if they wanted to work, he would pay them what is right. They agreed and went with him. The landowner went back at noon and at five and did the same thing. 

At the end of the work day, when it came time to pay the day laborers ,the landowner paid everyone the same amount of money. As you can imagine, this did not bode well with the workers who had been there since early morning. Their reasoning being they had done a lot more work then those who had just been there since five. 

But the owner answered them, (verse 13-15) ‘I am not being unfair to you, friend. Didn’t you agree to work for a denarius? Take your pay and go. I want to give the one who was 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?’ 

I like this parable. As you all know, a parable is a heavenly story set in an earthly context. Everyone and everything is symbolic. And while I would not presume to tell you what this parable exactly means, as Jesus did not explain it, I will say, I do not think it has anything to do with the way employers treat employees in today’s world. What I actually hear it saying is, and please feel free to come to your own conclusions, some of us will accept the Lord into our hearts at a very young age and will spend a life time walking the straight and narrow path. Reading our Bibles, honoring others, doing what is right in the eyes of God and when our lives are over we will go to heaven. Some will get to their thirties or forties before they begin their walk with the Lord, accepting him into their hearts, securing their forever in heaven. Others will spend all of their lives playing hardball, doing anything but living a Christ centered life. Mocking the Christians, perhaps even murdering someone, then one day while sitting in a cell on death row a pastor gives this hardened heart the gospel and the blinders are dropped, he breaks down, cries and accepts Jesus to be his Lord and Savior. Now he too will be spending eternity in heaven.

Some would argue, “How is it fair that the deathbed convert gets the same eternity place as the one who devoted their life to the Lord?” To this I would say, it's the motive of our heart while serving God that matters, not how long we serve Him or the outcome of our effort. Jesus said, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways," Simply put, our Abba looks at things differently than we do. His love for us is derived from who we are, not what we've done. And who are we? Children of the Christ the King. Don’t ever forget that. We have an inheritance waiting for us in heaven that we don't have to work to earn, we just have to accept the gracious offer He makes to us. But friends, hear this …. you can not determine in advance when your last chance to accept His offer will come, so you better make sure you've got it now. Make sense?

In Hebrews 4:7 it says, "Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.” Commit or recommit your thoughts and your ways to that of Christ Jesus. Right now, this very moment is the perfect time to do just that. Amen?

Have a great day and to God be the glory,

God bless you all ….