The gift of participation

 This week's verses are Matthew 20:1-16:

“For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard. And after agreeing with the workers for the standard wage, he sent them into his vineyard. When it was about nine o’clock in the morning, he went out again and saw others standing around in the marketplace without work. He said to them, ‘You go into the vineyard too, and I will give you whatever is right.’ So they went. When he went out again about noon and three o’clock that afternoon, he did the same thing. And about five o’clock that afternoon he went out and found others standing around, and said to them, ‘Why are you standing here all day without work?’ They said to him, ‘Because no one hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You go and work in the vineyard too.’ When it was evening the owner of the vineyard said to his manager, ‘Call the workers and pay them their wages starting with the last hired until the first.’ When those hired about five o’clock came, each received a full day’s pay. And when those hired first came, they thought they would receive more. But each one also received the standard wage. When they received it, they began to complain against the landowner, saying, ‘These last fellows worked one hour, and you have made them equal to us who bore the hardship and burning heat of the day.’ And the landowner replied to one of them, ‘Friend, I am not treating you unfairly. Didn’t you agree with me to work for the standard wage? Take what is yours and go. I want to give to this last man the same as I gave to you. Am I not permitted to do what I want with what belongs to me? Or are you envious because I am generous?’ So the last will be first, and the first last.”

These verses seem unjust to us. A bunch of people show up to work, and the guys who worked twelve hour days got the same pay as the guys who showed up for an hour. What happened to social justice? Why should someone put in a full day's work for what another man makes in less than an hour? Why should one man slave away in the hot sun while another shows up at dusk for the same paycheck? Communists and capitalists would both agree that this is not fair at all by modern labor standards.

And yet Jesus tells us that this is what the kingdom of heaven is like! We look at it sometimes like wage-earning, but grace doesn't work like that. We think that maybe new Christians have not "earned" as much as us, or that our time spent in devotion will somehow give us a better reward in the end. But grace isn't earned. The reward God gives us is a token of his love for us, not a compensation package for our hours and years. It is more like an extremely expensive participation trophy than a retirement pension.

We are not earning a better place with God by being religious. Our good deeds do not translate into a better position before God. No Christian is "more saved" than another Christian. No matter when we answered the call to discipleship, if we ever answered that call, we are all loved and invited to celebrate with him in the end. We do not labor to earn a place or a reward. Instead, it is given to us and we labor.

Our devotion must be its own reward. If you study the Bible or you don't, or if you spend a lot of time in prayer, or don't, you still gain entry into the kingdom of God. It makes no difference in the outcome. Our devotion should instead be an expression of love and gratitude for what is already given to us, as well as an act of obedience to the one who calls us to his service.

The act of participation in his eternal plan is a great reward in itself. We sometimes look at our charitable work as if we are somehow helping God do something he couldn't have done without us. But if we were so useful, such sought-after experts, why were we standing around in the market when he comes to us? God's plan will happen even without us. When he calls us, it is the gift of participation that he is offering, not an expression of his unmet need.

God has promised us salvation if we come to him. No matter when we were called, or how much we have suffered to come, we will all be given what we were promised. It is not a competition but an expression that God so loved the world. So, when he calls you into a deeper Christian life, and you come to him, do it in love, as an act of worship, as an act of service to one who is greater, to one who has already saved your life. Be happy that he called you at all, regardless of when or how long it's been.