God Is Just, But His Favor Is Not Fair - Matthew 20:1-16

Matthew 20:1-16

¹ “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^[a] 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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In The Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard we often miss the first line in the first verse "For the Kingdom Of Heaven Is Like A Landowner "  In other words this is a parable and all about the Lord our God and the Kingdom of Heaven and less about an individual.

This parable demonstrates and provides a vivid picture of how God's favor is performed in our lives.  If we take the time to reflect and think back, we will clearly see that God has shown us the same favor the that workers received which came in the last hour but still received the same amount as the workers that came in the first hour. 

God has shown us favor and provided many of us with unearned or undeserved blessing.  Whether it be a job position that we were not qualified for, being allow to enter into the store a minute after closing, a late charge or penalty being waved on a past due bill, getting approved for a bank loan without the credit history to support such, having the least seniority and being overlooked or passed over in a company wide layoff, not drowning or being swallowed up by the lake or sea when we did not even know how to swim.

For God sits high and looks down low and favors the least, the lost, and the last.  While many times we may not understand how it could be that we were not granted favor in particular situations; we just have to remember that knows and he is always working all things together for the good of those who love him and are called according to his purposes.

I acknowledge God and give him praises right now as I reflect on sitting in the emergency room with my wife whom was in tremendous pain from a broken bone in her leg.  It seem in human as the clock ticked by hour by hour and she had not been seen.  Eventually, after much patience and frustration she was allowed back to see an exhausted doctor full of sorrow as he explained that the ER had lost three patients to death that morning.

You see it would have been fair to say that the patients in the waiting room arrived first and therefore should be treated first, but instead it was the patients which came in via ambulance fighting for their lives that were given the first opportunities available to be treat by the ER staff.  What will you stand for FAIR or JUST.  What if it were your son or daughter in that ambulance?

Father GOD in the name of Jesus we thank you for your mercy, favor, and grace as you are all knowing, in your omnipresence, being all places at all times.  We thank you right now for perfecting all things that concern us.  We accept that while we are trying to figure it out you have already worked it out and we just release and turn over all burdens to you and we will give you all the glory and praise.  In the name of Jesus we pray Amen, Amen, and Hallelujah!