“For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire men to work in his vineyard.
He agreed to pay them a denarius for the day and sent them into his vineyard.
“About the third hour he went out and saw others standing in the marketplace doing nothing.
He told them, ‘You also go and work in my vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.’
So they went. “He went out again about the sixth hour and the ninth hour and did the same thing.
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?’
“ ‘Because no one has hired us,’ they answered. “He said to them, ‘You also go and work in my vineyard.’
“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.’
“The workers who were hired about the eleventh hour came and each received a denarius.
So when those came who were hired first, they expected to receive more. But each one of them also received a denarius.
When they received it, they began to grumble against the landowner.
‘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.’
“But he answered one of them, ‘Friend, I am not being unfair to you. Didn’t you agree to work for a denarius?
Take your pay and go. I want to give the man who was hired last the same as I gave you. Don’t I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?’
“So the last will be first, and the first will be last.”
Matthew 20:1-16.
What did you expect when you started to serve the Lord? Did you expect that after twenty, thirty, forty, sixty years of service to the Lord to get a greater reward than someone who has only worked a year or less?
Here Jesus makes it clear that we will all receive the same for our service to God.
We serve God because we choose to. We should never serve God expecting a reward of anykind.
All Jesus offers us for all our service no matter how long or short is a place in Heaven, eternal life. That’s all.
I am convinced on that day when people stand before God that there will be those as Jesus points out in the above parable that will grumble.
That will feel because they served the Lord for many, many years they deserve more than others who have just received started to work for Christ.
On that day Jesus will point out it is all about my mercy and love for you that you are saved. Not by your works. Paul said it best,
“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.”
Ephesians 2:8,9.
I believe to anyone who grumbles about what they will receive when we meet him, He will say. Your faith has saved you be thankful.
Think about it.
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