Unfair Grace

 

“It’s not fair!!”

Having had five children, this is something that I have heard many times when they were younger. If anything does not go the way a two-year old wants it, then it’s NOT fair! You would think at some point we would outgrow this childish mentality. But, I am not sure that we do.

Have you ever known someone that just never seemed to pull their own weight?

Have you ever been asked to work together with co-workers at your job on some assignment, and there’s that one co-worker who never really contributes? Then you have to do more work so you don’t get chewed out by your boss. That’s not fair!

Have you ever been on a sports team and there’s that one player who never gives it 100%? You know, when every player is walking off the field dripping with sweat with every muscle aching and that one player looks like he hasn’t even broken a sweat. That’s not fair!

Have you ever been part of a project at your church and it seems like hardly anyone else showed up to help? That’s not fair!

Have you ever known that one person who is always late for everything? When everybody else has been working and working…and then waiting and waiting on that one person to show, the one person that’s always late. That’s not fair!

Have you ever been lied to? Mistreated? Been misunderstood? Been stood up? Taken advantage of? None of those things are fair!

Jesus told a parable that talked, in a roundabout way, about fairness (Matthew 20:1-16).

A landowner needed some work done on his property, so he went to town about 6:00AM and picked some workers. Probably the bigger and stronger looking guys that could put in a good 12-hour day in the fields under the hot sun. Then he went back at 9:00AM, then he went back at noon, then he went back at 3:00. Each time he hired more workers. Then, just about an hour before quitting time, he went back and hired some more workers.

At the end of the workday, when it was time to settle up, the landowner paid all the workers the same pay, a “denarius” according to most translations. This simply means a days wage for an average worker. To get it in perspective in our culture, minimum wage is $7.25 per hour, so a 12-hour day for an average worker is about $

So the guys who worked 12 hours made $   , but the guys who only worked an hour also made $

Crazy, huh? That’s not fair. And the punchline of the story is that the workers who had worked all day felt like they should get more. Surely the one who does more should receive more, right? That would be fair. The 12 hour workers were not happy. They were grumbling. They were even a little ticked off at the landowner (yep, they are mad at the one guy who gave them a job and payed them a fair wage for an honest days work).

I guess it’s not fair..unless you’re the guy who was chosen at 5:00. If you’re the 5:00 worker you’re probably not too concerned about what’s “fair”, you just appreciate this gesture and gift of “grace”.

Maybe you’ve been standing all day waiting to be chosen, only to be passed up time and time again. Maybe you were feeling unworthy, unwanted, unloved. Rejected time and time again. Watching all those other people get chosen, while you continued to wait. Maybe you were about to just give up and go home, alone and broke, again.

Don’t miss this point: we are the 5:00 workers! We’ve been chosen, picked, and called to work. And by none other than the Lord, Himself. The creator of heaven and earth has called you. And He has called me! Not because we are the biggest or strongest, or the smartest or most determined, or the best looking or the most educated. It’s because He loves us and He created us. We were His anyway, so He called us.

Not because we deserve it, but because we don’t. And that’s not fair, but that is Grace.