Generous King

What am I going to get paid?  I’m sure that’s a question that I asked a lot as a kid.  Whether it’s mowing the lawn, cleaning our room, or getting a babysitting job, we want to know the wage we are going to get paid for our labor.   Before we put in time or energy into work, we negotiate what we feel is fair to receive in return.  We may get to a point where we are mature enough not to ask the question out loud, but that does not hide the fact that the question is still going through our mind.  We selfishly want to receive what we deserve for the work that we do!

READ:  Matthew 20:1-16

A denarius in this time was the common amount of one day’s wage.  The typical work day was 6:00am (zero hour) to 6:00pm (twelfth hour).  In this parable, the master hired laborers for his vineyard in 3 hour intervals.  Those hired at 6:00am worked for 12 hours and those hired at 5:00pm worked for 1 hour.  The controversial element in the parable is that each worker received the same wage for the day.  And not unlike any of us, those who worked the longest and the hardest “grumbled” at unfairness of their wage.

What is controversial to those who are comparing themselves to others is good news to those who are simply glad to do the work.  Whether we realize it or not, it is good news that God does not give us what we deserve.  If God gave us what we deserve, none of us would want to receive the wage we have earned!  The wage we receive for laboring in God’s Kingdom is a pure gift of His goodness and grace.  In fact, when we labor for the Kingdom, God gives us much MORE than we could ever earn or deserve.  Those who WORK in the Kingdom without expectation of what they will receive in return will be GENEROUSLY rewarded by God the King!  How does God determine the wages for our labor in His Kingdom?

God generously gives to each and every one of us what is RIGHT (Mt. 20:4) – Being a part of God’s Kingdom involves work.  When we put faith and trust in Jesus Christ for salvation, God “hires” us to labor on behalf of His Kingdom.  We are laboring as fishers’ of men to make disciples.  Our labor for the Kingdom is not just a “side job”, it is to be our life’s work.  We can be confident that the reward we will receive for our work will be sufficient.  We will not be lacking.  We can fully trust God that He will give us what is “right” for any amount time and effort we invest in His Kingdom.  By selfishly demanding what we think we deserve for our time and effort we miss out on the tremendous wage God wants to give.

God CHOOSES to give, not based on what we DESERVE, but on His GENEROSITY (Mt. 20:14-15) – God determines wages for His laborers very differently from anything we could ever understand.  God does not measure our contribution to the kingdom by comparing it with the accomplishments or sacrifices of anyone else.  The wages God gives to His laborers is based solely on His gracious “choice” to be “generous”!  We need to realize how amazing it is that God does not choose to pay us a wage based on what we deserve.  In fact, the good news for us is that God chooses to give us so much MORE than we could ever earn or deserve.  We should be careful not to compare our labor for God’s Kingdom to someone else.  Comparing ourselves to others will cause us to grumble about what we receive, and worse, to falsely believe that God has wronged us somehow.  This selfish labor will earn us last place in God’s Kingdom.  In contrast, we should selflessly labor for God knowing that He will graciously give us above and beyond anything we could ever earn or deserve.

CONCLUSION
Do you call yourself a Christian or are you laboring in God’s Kingdom with any motive of what you will receive in return?  Colossians 3:23-24 says, “whatever you do, work heartily for the Lord and not for men, know that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward.”  Knowing the generous character of God we are free to serve Him with everything we’ve got and without comparison because we know God will  generously give us what is right, which is much more than we deserve!