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By Danny Sanders, Pastor of
Littlefield’s First United Methodist Church
“Take your pay and go. I want to give the one 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? Matthew 20:14-15 I find that we as people tend to lean more to the ideas of being treated unfairly if things aren’t the same across the board. For example, let’s say that I bought a ticket to an event for $75, and then two months later because the event planner didn’t get it filled, they lowered the price to $50 for the same seat. For me, I would probably feel that I got a bad deal and was being treated unfairly. Of course, if I had waited and bought the ticket at $50 I would think that I was very knowledgeable and shrewd in my business dealings. But what if it weren’t a purchase? What if it were a gift? I can tell you that many a parent works very hard to make sure that when they give their kids a gift, they are equal in value, or the same number of boxes of gifts. Without that thought put in, invariably there is a cry of unfairness!
Right now, in the media is this outcry of unfairness when it comes to the government giving those who hold student loans a break on what they owe. Only those with loans now, are getting this gift. And, of course there is the outcry of unfairness. Which leads me to a point. “It is hard to be fair and equal to everyone.” To me, about the only way that you could do it, is by giving the same gift to everyone. The scripture above is about a man who found people not working and offered them a job for a certain amount of pay for that day. He later found others and offered the same thing. Then three more times during the day he did the same thing. When the day was over, he paid them all the same amount that he had told them he would give them. The ones who worked the longest were mad and thought that they had been treated unfairly because others had not worked as hard for the same gift. But the giver basically said, I chose to give you all the same thing, isn’t that my right? And really isn’t that fair? He gave everyone the same thing. The same blessing!
It is really hard to give the same thing to everyone, but God did just that by giving the world the gift of His grace in and through Jesus Christ! The gift is there for all who believe in and confess the name of Jesus. The only way that you can be left out is if you choose not to receive the gift. There is no question in my mind that this is the greatest gift ever given to the world, and it is a gift that keeps on giving. First it puts you in right relationship with God the Father. Your sins are forgiven and then you are no longer a slave to your sinful life due to God living in you. Then, the gift begins to transform your life here making it possible to live a life of abundance, and it keeps giving past death as we are promised resurrection. What a gift, and we don’t even have to work for it! It is truly a gift!
At the end of the day, or at the end of our lives, there is no way that we can say to God that His gift was unfair, and that we were left out and it was only given to some because He gave the gift for everyone! For you and me, and for people everywhere and for all time!
(Editor’s Note: This column is written by a different Littlefield pastor for the Leader-News each week. The columns are published on this page on Wednesdays.)