Dear Faith Family,
"Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me?"
This is the crucial question the lord of the vineyard asks in Jesus' parable of the Compassionate Householder (Matt. 20:1-16). Having lessened his position through the lowly work of hiring and exposed himself to ridicule for paying more for the labor than supply would demand, the master of the house now responds to the accusation of injustice by the very ones for whom he compassionately supplied daily provision and dignity. How could those who started the day unemployed with only the uncertain hope of bread and purpose, now, having plenty of both, be so ungrateful and entitled?
It is easy to judge others, to question their hearts and perverted vision (v. 15) if we never recognize ourselves in them. Supposing we think ourselves somehow immune to their deficiency, somehow incapable of their shortcomings. The truth is; however, we all find ourselves sometime or another in the shoes of the full-day laborers. Having put in a hard day's work, we wonder why we don't have more than what was promised, and so we voice our displeasure to the One we followed into the fields of faith.
When we do see ourselves in the ones we judge, and at some point we all do, it's natural to feel a bit foolish for the audacity of our confronting the master who graciously provides more than enough. But, and hear this faith family, the emphasis of the householder's question is NOT to put us in our place before our sovereign. We should NOT hear Jesus' words internalized as: 'Who are you to grumble? Who are you to question me? Be content with what you have and be gone!"
No, no, no! Rather than emphasizing our "proper place," the question focuses on His choice. Jesus puts the question before those listening so that we might consider precisely what He chooses to do with what is His.
As we mentioned on Sunday, these stories are only secondarily about us and primarily about Him!
And what does He choose to do? Freely, choose to do with what is his? He provides for each wholly what is needed and what dignifies, and does so with humiliating compassion and foolish generosity.
Certainly, a grumbling spirit cannot be a soul content, but that is not the point of Jesus' story. This Kingdom Epiphany enlightens us to what we can expect from the One under whose charge we find our daily living: compassion and dignity. Whatever our circumstances, we can trust that His nature is to act towards us with sacrificial compassion and provide us with all that we need to live whole at His expense.
The LORD of the vineyard in which we daily labor is neither stingy nor snobby, and that is truly good news worth sharing!
Love you, faith family! God bless.