I am reading Matthew 20 in my Holy Set Apart Time with The Lord this morning and I see something that I haven’t seen before.
Jesus is sharing a story about a vineyard owner, he goes out in the morning and hires people to work, he promises them a wage, they agree, and they go to work.
Later in the day he goes out, sees more people wanting to work and he hires them to do the same job for the same wage. Again he goes out hours later and hires even more workers and they go to work.
Then it is quitting time and he tells his foreman to pay all the workers, starting with the ones who were put to work last and on down to those who have worked the longest. The ODD thing, he pays them all the same. Of course the people who worked all day are outraged. Of course they begin to complain, that is what we do as humans, complain.
Jesus isn’t going to apologize to them, he tells them, “it is my money, can’t I do what I want to with my money?
He also makes it clear that he is not being unfair because he gave them all what he promised them.
He asks then, “are you envious that I am generous?”
He makes the point that the last will be first and the first will be last in the kingdom.
End of that story.
The next passage Jesus tells them when they get to Jerusalem, the son of man, Jesus will be condemned to death, beaten, hung on a cross, then raised to life again.
End of story.
In the next passage, a mother of two of the disciples comes and asks Jesus if her two sons can sit on his right and left in the Kingdom. Needless to say, the other disciples get ANGRY, I would to and so would you, that’s what we do as humans. This is an injustice, it’s unfair, it’s not how the world works.
Jesus then says, if you want to be first you have to become a slave, if you want to sit in the seat of honor, you have to be a servant the lowest of the low as far as the world is concerned.
I see it clearly, Jesus is saying His world doesn’t operate like our world. Jesus is saying we have it upside down. We fight and scratch to be first and Jesus says we need to serve others because it is about people finding Him, it’s not about us being comfortable on a sinking ship. Jesus says, you are blind, the ship is taking on more water all the time, it won’t be repaired, it’s going down.
The world is going to end as we know it, Jesus says it again and again in the bible. We are to be about leading others to him, yet we get sidetracked into building our own kingdoms.
Oh we serve him, yes we do. We make time on Sunday to give him one hour. Well most of the time, as long as there isn’t something that we want to do more and when that happens what the heck, God understands.
We tithe 10% and we feel good about that. That means I can buy more with the 90% because God promised to bless the 90%.
We spend 90% of our time and money on US. We spend 90% of our time and money acquiring THINGS that will not live past this world and we store it on a sinking ship. The ship is going down, the stuff will never be remembered but we are giving our lives for it. And by the way, we worry about those that God gives eternal life like the workers who worked the longest, we don’t want God to be unfair.
Ronnie
