November 1, 2020

The Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard. This Is Capitalism In A Nutshell. We Have Work Options In America. If You Don't Like A Wage, You Can Find Another Employer Who Pays What You Want.

I would like to add that we have work options in America. If you don't like your employer or you don't like your pay, you have the freedom to look for employment elsewhere with an employer who can pay you what you want. In America, you can also be self-employed and pay yourself the wage you want. Unlike Third World Nations where work is very limited or hardly available. That's mainly due to Socialist governance and Socialist oppressive economic policies that stifles employers and chases employers out of area or out of business. The only jobs available in a Socialist ruled nation are government jobs and companies linked to the government. But it is very hard to get those jobs. You need to know someone already working inside to get in. So like 75% of the Socialist country are unemployed barely struggling to survive. (emphasis mine)

The Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard
Matthew 20 NIV
[source: Biblegateway]

1 Jesus said, “For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard. 2 He agreed to pay them a denarius for the day and sent them into his vineyard.

3 “About nine in the morning he went out and saw others standing in the marketplace doing nothing. 4 He told them, ‘You also go and work in my vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.’ 5 So they went.

“He went out again about noon and about three in the afternoon and did the same thing. 6 About five in the afternoon he went out and found still others standing around. He asked them, ‘Why have you been standing here all day long doing nothing?’

7 “‘Because no one has hired us,’ they answered.

“He said to them, ‘You also go and work in my vineyard.’

8 “When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Call the workers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last ones hired and going on to the first.’

9 “The workers who were hired about five in the afternoon came and each received a denarius. 10 So when those came who were hired first, they expected to receive more. But each one of them also received a denarius. 11 When they received it, they began to grumble against the landowner. 12 ‘These who were hired last worked only one hour,’ they said, ‘and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day.’

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.”

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Workers in the Vineyard
Matthew 20:1-16
[source: Swap Meet Dave]

How can focusing on God’s grace in our lives keep us from becoming jealous of others? In what way can you thank God every day for his grace in your life?

Observe that nobody was cheated! Not a single worker was underpaid. While it may be argued (based on human, subjective, economic comparisons) that some were overpaid, nobody was cheated. The complaint of the early workers offered no evidence of wrongdoing. It was a complaint born in hearts of jealousy, not objective reality. Some of them received less than they expected and many received more. We should rejoice in the good others receive.

The landowner had the right to “overpay” the late workers. He said “whatever is right you will receive.” He determined what was right, not based on ordinary human accounting, but grace. His over-payment of the late workers was his choice and nobody could argue he didn't have that right.

Jesus’ story makes no economic sense, and that was his intent. He was giving us a parable about grace, which cannot be calculated like a day’s wages. No one was cheated; all the workers got what they were promised. [each worker was PAID WHAT THEY AGREED TO. (emphasis mine)] But discontent arouse from the scandalous mathematics of grace.

Significantly, many Christians who study this parable identify with the employees who put in a full day’s work, rather than the add-on's at the end of the day. We like to think of ourselves as responsible workers, and the employer's strange behavior baffles us as it did the original hearers. We risk missing the point of the parable: that God dispenses gifts, not wages. None of us gets paid according to merit, for none of us comes close to satisfying God’s requirements for a perfect life. If paid on the basis of fairness, we would all end up in hell. [source: Philip Yancey, What’s So Amazing About Grace].

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