Week 36 Matthew
The Lord’s parable in Matthew 20 begins: the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers.
I’ve read it before, and I totally understand the laborers’ complaint about pay inequity: if we work ten hours in the hot sun and get paid 1 denarius, then a guy who works only 1 hour should only get 1/10th of a denarius.
The complainers – who I think make good sense – are the exact people that the Lord says don’t.
The landowner offers the unhappies a couple of common sense explanations: I haven’t done anything wrong; I gave you what we agreed to; if I decide to give someone a more generous contract I can do that; etc. But then he adds a final not-so-common sense reason. In the kingdom: the last shall be first and the first last.
The normal outside-the-kingdom rule is that the first shall be first and the last shall be last. But inside the kingdom the first shall be last.
Values inside the kingdom shift by 180-degrees.
Outside the kingdom doesn’t mix very well with inside the kingdom; the rules that worked outside lack authority once you get inside.
Outside the kingdom you earn what you get; inside you get what you didn’t really earn.
Note: quotes from Matthew 20:1 & 16 (NASB)