It Just Isn’t Fair, Papa!
And thankfully it is not!
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It just isn’t fair Papa! I did my homework and folded all the socks and my sister only read her book and she got to play Minecraft longer than I did! It just isn’t fair! She didn’t do as much work as I did and got a better reward! It just isn’t fair!
Have you heard that story or one like it today? Not Yet! I suspect is your answer.
And. . .
How often do you catch yourself saying “It just isn’t fair!” I show up early and make coffee and no one notices.
Or,
I stay late and clean up the mess after everyone else has left and no one is left to say thanks.
Or
Ok. You fill in the blank.________________.
It just isn’t fair!
That is the circumstances we find “Master of the Vineyard” in today. When we study Matthew chapter 20 verse 1–16.
He went out early in the morning to find day laborers to work in his vineyard. He was offering the normal wage for a day’s work in the first century. A denarius. The workers and manager agreed and everyone went to work.
Then he goes back out about coffee break time and finds workers still standing around. — And if his vineyard harvest is like our soybean or corn harvest, if there is someone standing around looking for work, you hire them. — And they agreed on a wage and went to work.
The manager does this same thing around lunch time and afternoon coffee and even at the last hour there are still people standing around seeking work. So he hires them and sends them out to work.
At the end of the day the manager tells the foreman, call in the help and pay them their wages. Starting with the last hired up to those hired first in the day.
And he instructs the foreman to pay everyone a denarius.
So everyone receives the same reward? Those that picked grapes for an hour or two received a denarius.
Now the first hired thought that the master may be more generous with them. But no. They received the same pay as those that only worked part of the day.
