It's Not Fair!!

If I were to guess, everyone of us has said "It's not fair!" more than we can count. I know I have said those very words so much that you would think I was two years old. And if I'm not saying it, I am thinking it.


Recently one of our sermons was on Matthew 20:1-16, the parable about the landlord who goes out and hires workers to work in his vineyards. Grab your bibles and read through it. The farmer goes out in the street at 8am and hires a few men and promises them a certain wage. At noon, he see more men that were looking for work and he gives them a job. Later he goes into the village and spots a bunch of men just standing around and asks why they are not working, and they tell him it is because they don't have a job. So the farmer says that he could use them in his vineyards and tells them he will pay them well. When the day is over, all of the laborers stand in line to get paid. The men who began working at five pm were the first to be paid, then the men who started at noon, and finally the men who had worked all day. Well the men who started working early in the morning was paid the same wage as the men who only worked a couple of hours, and they were not happy. They protested loudly that it wasn't fair they didn't get more. The way they saw it was that they were out in the hot sun for ten hours, so their paycheck should be a lot more than those dudes who just worked a couple of hours. Makes sense to me. I think we would all be questioning the farmers fairness here.

I could go deeper than you or myself would want to go with this parable. Truthfully Jesus told this parable for us to see that the workers he had contracted at the beginning of the day represent Israel and the workers who didn't have a contract represent the Gentiles. And that man looks at the quantity of the service where as Jesus looks at the quality of the service. He is saying that salvation becomes available to all through faith in Jesus Christ; Israelite or Gentile; and not how much we try and work our way into heaven.

But back to the "not fair" issue here. The way our pastor put it was "yeah, so what." There are things in life that just isn't fair. I know people who have a bigger houses and fancier cars. I know people who are able to jump on planes and fly off on vacation every year. I even know people who can walk without pain medicine or crutches miles at a time. And I admit that I have at least thought it wasn't fair that I my neighbor buys the best and nicest cars every two years. I admit that I have thought it isn't fair my sister is flying to Florida next week and the last place we went on vacation was to the 1000 Islands four years ago. And I also admit (ashamedly) that I will see people jog past my house and have even said that it isn't fair that I don't have two good legs.

Well God wasn't going to let me get away with that big pity party! He reminded me that yes, there are bigger homes than mine and smaller ones. That people fly here and there and others who are confined to nursing homes unable to even go outside. More importantly that there will always be people who will run faster than a speeding bullet, but I need to stop whining and start praising Him for being able to walk as much as I can.

He doesn't promise us a rose garden, but He does promise to be right there to lift us up when life sends us those moments when we say "it's not fair". Truthfully, I wonder if He was nailed on that cross saying, "this isn't fair"? Talk about something not being fair...look what He did for you and me so that we would be saved.

In His Love,
Becky