Hired

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW

HIRED

Matt 19:30-20:16

30 But many who are first will be last, and many who are last will be first.

Matthew 20

20:1 "For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire men to work in his vineyard. 2 He agreed to pay them a denarius for the day and sent them into his vineyard. 3 "About the third hour he went out and saw others standing in the marketplace doing nothing. 4 He told them, 'You also go and work in my vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.' 5 So they went. "He went out again about the sixth hour and the ninth hour and did the same thing. 6 About the eleventh hour he went out and found still others standing around. He asked them, 'Why have you been standing here all day long doing nothing?' 7 "'Because no one has hired us,' they answered. "He said to them, 'You also go and work in my vineyard.' 8 "When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, 'Call the workers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last ones hired and going on to the first.' 9 "The workers who were hired about the eleventh hour came and each received a denarius. 10 So when those came who were hired first, they expected to receive more. But each one of them also received a denarius. 11 When they received it, they began to grumble against the landowner. 12'These men who were hired last worked only one hour,' they said, 'and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day.' 13 "But he answered one of them, 'Friend, I am not being unfair to you. Didn't you agree to work for a denarius? 14 Take your pay and go. I want to give the man who was hired last the same as I gave you. 15 Don't I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?' 6 "So the last will be first, and the first will be last." 

NIV

We have to note that the last verse of chapter 19 really is the introduction to this parable on how the kingdom of heaven is like, as he also concludes with the same thought as he begins, “ So first will be last and the last will be first.” The whole idea of this parable is in the larger scheme of things, in the kingdom of heaven, God has the final say about everything. What business it is of ours if he decides to call one person to be a famous preacher, such as Billy Graham, and he calls us to clean the toilets at church? If course that is not really suggested in this parable. The seems to deal more with the idea that no matter how many years we have been saved our reward will be the same as someone who gets saved the day of their death. But the idea is the same. The fact remains it is all about our personal relationship with the Lord. We are not to concern ourselves with the relationship of someone else with the Lord. Well, that is not exactly true either in the sense we are admonished to love each other, go to a brother who is has sinned against us, winning him back, as well as to encourage, or exhort one another and a host of other interactions. But the fact is each of us is accountable to our Lord for our own thoughts and deeds. Each one of us has that one on one personal relationship with our Lord. He has called each of us, first of all to himself, then to a particular place in his body. We are each one a living stone being built into the temple of our God. We cannot be the stone or the part of the body he has called another to be. Yet in light of the main thrust of this parable we should note that God can and will indeed give the same reward to each one of us no matter how long we have been a believer. Those who worked in the field all day expected to be paid more than those he hired later. This serves to show us it is not about our works or the amount of works we do or for how many years we are engaged in those works. We might serve the Lord diligently for thirty or forty years, but the person who gets saved in their last day of their life will receive just the same amount of reward we will. God does not show favoritism. We might get a little bent out of shape about this, thinking there are crowns and some having more jewels then others when we get to heaven based on how many good deeds we did. But that is so wrong on so many levels and this parable is one of the proofs. As far as we can tell there simply is no mention of jewels in crowns in the bible. There are several times the scriptures talk about a crown, such as the crown of life, or the crown of righteousness. But nowhere is there a mention that someone will receive a crown that has more jewels in it then someone else based on the number of years or amount of works, good deeds that we do here in this life. There is also a lot of misguided theology about being judged and rewarded for the good and the bad deeds we did in this life. That would be like the Albert Brooks movie, 'Defending your Life', having to watch a video of everything we ever did, good and bad. Then getting the appropriate reward based on how we conduced ourselves. This is so wrong on so many levels. If Jesus died on the cross for our sins, past, present and future then he took them all into account on that cross and we will not be judged for our sin, bad deeds. If we are, then the cross meant nothing. The good and bad deeds mentioned in scripture is accepting Jesus is the good deed, and rejecting Jesus is the bad deed. Those who make that agreement to be workers in his field, accepting Jesus, will receive their reward, eternal life, whether they have been working in the field for years, or days. We will all receive the same reward. The fact is no jealously exists in heaven. We should therefore not be jealous of anyone in his life. It matters not who does what in service to the Lord, we all are called to do something. The Lord hired workers in his field. We are all called to do something, which also means we cannot simply get saved and sit and soak in church all our life. The master of the field hired workers to harvest the field, not to sit around and discuss how to do it. So we are to labor for the Lord, each according to what each is called to do. The Spirit is our guide, he will show each of us what we are to do in service to our Lord. We do all this because we love him. The reward is based on being hired to be one of his workers. The reward is based on being hired in the first place.