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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
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4 comments:
You know, asking the question about Jesus on the cross...If you remember, the night He was betrayed, Jesus was in the Garden praying to His Father, "If possible, let this cup pass from me. But, not My will, but Thy will be done..." Sounds like a "not fair" moment to me! How about: "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?" sounds like "not fair" there, too. That whole night Jesus was in the Garden of Gethsemane, He was praying to His Father about what He knew was coming. The three guys He wanted to keep Him company, slept through the whole thing! Here was the Savior of the world, up all night praying, while His three friends were sleeping. Talk about not being fair! HE was about to give His very life for them and they couldn't stay awake and watch with Him for even a short time.
Now, to make it personal. How often do I fall asleep on my "watch"? Times when the Lord would really like me to pay attention and "hang out" with Him, but I fall asleep, or find other things to do? That's when I am so glad that the grace of God means I'll get a "full day's wage" when all is said-and-done as long as my harvesting was done for the Lord's benefit!
I'm back. I realized this morning that I was too flippant in my earlier posting. While we, as fully human, might have been screaming "not fair" to the things Jesus endured, He did not.
My devotional reading this AM, pressed that point home to me and I knew I had to apologize to you-all. I will quote, "Jesus was God, but He was also fully man. He experienced the physical agony of the crucifixion. On top of that, He also felt emotional and spiritual anguish because the nation rejected Him and His disciples denied Him. Worst of all, when He took our sin upon Himself, the Father turned away (Matt. 27:46, 2 Cor. 5:21). Yet Jesus didn't see Himself as a victim, He willingly offered His blood on our behalf (Jn. 10:18) and considered it a joy (Heb 12:2). No greater love exists."
So, I owe an apology for being disrespectful of the love HE expressed on my behalf---while I was yet a sinner!
I agree with you, and you have challenged me this time to think about this. Jesus did ask "why have You forsaken me". And like you said, He was fully man. But I have to wonder if Jesus was thinking about Abraham and Isaac. Just as Abraham was about to sacrifice his son, God brought him a substitute. And I need your help here Mary, because I wonder at what age did Jesus realize that He was the Lamb of God. That He was God's Isaac? I am confused on that. I guess that I picture Him as being the baby, dirty diapers and all. Then being a toddler and eating dirt in the sandbox. And then going to temple at the age of 12 and just soaking in all of the OT teachings. Was it when He was baptized and the Spirit of the Lord came into Him when He realized what He what His destiny was? That night in the Garden when His disciples were snoozing, could He have been praying and thinking, "Ok God, I am your Son, where is my substitute"?
Isn't it weird, but during the Ash Wednesday service, I was praying and asking Him to show me my sins. And He showed me that this "not fair" attitude is a stumbling block for me. My attention to those things that I view as being not fair is keeping me from praising Him. I know that I will stumble from time to time, but during this Lenten season of reflection and repentence, this attitude is what I will be working on.
I'm thinking Jesus knew from the very beginning Who He was, but He was an infant like any other, a toddler who perhaps didn't go through the "terrible twos". But He still had to learn to walk, to talk, like any other child. He had to live life like us in order to understand and truly be the sacrifice for our sins. Right now I can't for the life of me remember where it's written that in all things He was like a son of man, but sinned not--something to that effect....
When Jesus was in temple at the age of 12, His deep, probing questions of the rabbis and teachers were what astounded them. According to the notes in my study Bible, His questions were meant to stimulate the teachers of the day to recognize the Messiah when He began to move among them about 18 years later. Jesus went back home with Joseph and Mary and lived for those 18 years, just as everyone else. His own siblings didn't realize just Who Jesus was, so His childhood had to be pretty unremarkable.
John the Baptist knew who Jesus was even while they were both in-utero. If you remember, when Mary greeted Elizabeth, it says that the baby in Elizabeth's womb leaped at the sound of Mary's voice. So, Jesus certainly had to have known who He was. He left His place in Heaven to come down as that tiny baby and live just like us.
The descending of the Spirit of God when Jesus was baptized was for the benefit of those who witnessed it, not for John and certainly not for Jesus.
John's gospel starts by telling us that Jesus was God and was there at the creation of the world. The study notes for John 1:14 read in part "When Jesus was born, God became a man. He was not part man and part God; He was completely human and completely divine (Colossians 2:9)." I think He understood that there was not going to be an Isaac-substitution at the last minute--HE was the sinless Lamb to be sacrificed for the sins of all. In order for that to happen, His Holy Father had to load all of our sins on Jesus and turn His face away from Him. The perfect Son of God felt the weight of all mankind's sins through the ages and had to suffer the agony of His Father turning away from Him and our sins. That was what caused Jesus to cry, "Why have You forsaken ME?" He had never before been separated from God.
Does this make any sense? I know it jumps around some, but that's the way my mind kind of works-sorry.
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