{"id":275,"date":"2023-09-13T03:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-09-13T09:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/reflectivebiblestudy.com\/gospeladventure\/?p=275&2023"},"modified":"2023-09-11T18:00:22","modified_gmt":"2023-09-12T00:00:22","slug":"over-complicating-gods-fairness-matthew-20-1-16","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/reflectivebiblestudy.com\/gospeladventure\/over-complicating-gods-fairness-matthew-20-1-16\/","title":{"rendered":"Over-Complicating God&#8217;s Fairness: Matthew 20:1-16"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"spoiler spoiler-style-2\"><div class=\"spoiler-title\">Focus Passage: Matthew 20:1-16 (NIV)<\/div><div class=\"spoiler-content\">\r\n<p><sup>1\u00a0<\/sup>\u201cFor the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard. <sup>2\u00a0<\/sup>He agreed to pay them a denarius for the day and sent them into his vineyard.<\/p> <p><sup>3\u00a0<\/sup>\u201cAbout nine in the morning he went out and saw others standing in the marketplace doing nothing. <sup>4\u00a0<\/sup>He told them, \u2018You also go and work in my vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.\u2019 <sup>5\u00a0<\/sup>So they went.<\/p><p>\u201cHe went out again about noon and about three in the afternoon and did the same thing. <sup>6\u00a0<\/sup>About five in the afternoon he went out and found still others standing around. He asked them, \u2018Why have you been standing here all day long doing nothing?\u2019<\/p> <p><sup>7\u00a0<\/sup>\u201c\u2018Because no one has hired us,\u2019 they answered.<\/p><p>\u201cHe said to them, \u2018You also go and work in my vineyard.\u2019<\/p> <p><sup>8\u00a0<\/sup>\u201cWhen evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, \u2018Call the workers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last ones hired and going on to the first.\u2019<\/p> <p><sup>9\u00a0<\/sup>\u201cThe workers who were hired about five in the afternoon came and each received a denarius. <sup>10\u00a0<\/sup>So when those came who were hired first, they expected to receive more. But each one of them also received a denarius. <sup>11\u00a0<\/sup>When they received it, they began to grumble against the landowner. <sup>12\u00a0<\/sup>\u2018These who were hired last worked only one hour,\u2019 they said, \u2018and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day.\u2019<\/p> <p><sup>13\u00a0<\/sup>\u201cBut he answered one of them, \u2018I am not being unfair to you, friend. Didn\u2019t you agree to work for a denarius? <sup>14\u00a0<\/sup>Take your pay and go. I want to give the one who was hired last the same as I gave you. <sup>15\u00a0<\/sup>Don\u2019t I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?\u2019<\/p> <p><sup>16\u00a0<\/sup>\u201cSo the last will be first, and the first will be last.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"passage-read-more\">Read <a href=\"http:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/passage\/?search=Matthew 20:1-16&amp;version=niv\" title=\"Read the passage on BibleGateway.com\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"hyperlink-underlined\">Matthew 20:1-16<\/a> in context and\/or in other translations on BibleGateway.com!<\/p><\/div><\/div>\r\n<p><em>Have you ever heard a joke and missed understanding the punch line?<\/em><\/p>\r\n<p><em>Have you ever listened to an illustration and missed the main point of what was being said?<\/em><\/p>\r\n<p>I have, and I wonder if many of us miss the underlying themes present in some of Jesus\u2019 most famous parables. In our self-centered minds, we turn an illustration about God into being a reflection of ourselves.<\/p>\r\n<p>Our passage in this entry is not exempt from this challenge. In fact, it might be one of the main ones that gets twisted by our thinking. This parable is about the Kingdom of Heaven \u2013 and that means it will show us a part of God\u2019s character and how He acts. All too often though, we can miss the point and focus on the people in the parable who we can relate with \u2013 the jealous ones who thought they would get more, or the late-comers who are happy to even be paid at all.<\/p>\r\n<p>All this time, we are missing the point. We love the clich\u00e9-quotation that \u201cThe last will be first\u201d, but we ignore what this parable is trying to teach us: <strong>God is unbelievably generous with His gifts and blessings.<\/strong><\/p>\r\n<p>We can parallel this passage with our lives, and the reward God gives us at the end of our lives <em>(which I\u2019ve written about in a previous post on this passage)<\/em>, but even that is missing the point: <strong>God is unbelievably generous.<\/strong><\/p>\r\n<p>When we dig into how God is generous, we see a simple concept of \u201cfairness\u201d: You worked, He pays. [Period]<\/p>\r\n<p>Our own human nature wants to complicate the scenario by bringing in other variables such as, \u201cHow long was each person working?\u201d, \u201cHow hard was each person working?\u201d, or even \u201cHow productive was each person being?\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p>This is not God\u2019s character. It\u2019s ours. It would seem that God\u2019s definition of \u201cfair\u201d is way more basic than our complicated, ever-shifting-to-our-own-benefit version of fair. All too often, we will compare ourselves to the others who work alongside us and look at how we are more qualified, how we worked harder, or how we have been more loyal and expect to have a higher pay because of the variables. We like seeing situations where the \u201cnew guy\u201d is paid less because of inexperience, and though we might not like it, we understand the environments where those who have been working the longest, are at the top of the pay scale. <\/p>\r\n<p>But this is not how God works. He has a very simple concept of \u201cfairness\u201d: You worked, He pays. [Period]<\/p>\r\n<p>While this does not appear \u201cfair\u201d to us, remember that this is God. He can do whatever He wants. [also period]<\/p>\r\n<p>Jesus concludes this parable with a simple truth about God in the form of a rhetorical question: <strong>\u201cDon\u2019t I have the right to do what I want with my own money?\u201d<\/strong> (v. 15)<\/p>\r\n<p><strong>God is unbelievably generous. He pays us way more than we ever deserve. Don\u2019t be \u201cenvious\u201d because He is \u201cgenerous\u201d.<\/strong><\/p>\r\n<div id=\"aj-wrap-up--275\" class=\"aj-wrap-up\"><p><em>This thought was inspired by studying the <strong>Walking With Jesus<\/strong> \u201cReflective Bible Study\u201d package. To discover insights like this in your own study time, <a class=\"underline\" href=\"https:\/\/reflectivebiblestudy.com\/\" title=\"Check out Reflective Bible Study!\">click here<\/a> and give Reflective Bible Study a try today!<\/em><\/p><p><em><a class=\"underline\" href=\"javascript:void(0);\" onClick=\"rbs_aj_inline_subscribe(this, '275');\">Subscribe<\/a> to this blog and never miss an insight.<\/em><\/p><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Have you ever heard a joke and missed understanding the punch line? Have you ever listened to an illustration and missed the main point of what was being said? I have, and I wonder if many of us miss the underlying themes present in some of Jesus\u2019 most famous parables. In our self-centered minds, we [&hellip;]","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-275","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-text"],"nelio_content":{"autoShareEndMode":"never","automationSources":{"useCustomSentences":false,"customSentences":[]},"efiAlt":"","efiUrl":"","followers":[2],"highlights":[],"isAutoShareEnabled":false,"networkImageIds":[],"permalinkQueryArgs":[],"series":[],"suggestedReferences":[]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Over-Complicating God&#039;s Fairness: Matthew 20:1-16 - Reflective Bible Study Gospel Adventure<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/reflectivebiblestudy.com\/gospeladventure\/over-complicating-gods-fairness-matthew-20-1-16\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Over-Complicating God&#039;s Fairness: Matthew 20:1-16 - Reflective Bible Study Gospel Adventure\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Have you ever heard a joke and missed understanding the punch line? 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