Doug Van Pelt

Jealous Brothers

Matthew 20 tells a story that I reference in a recent conversation. Jesus tells a parable of "workers in a vineyard," where a landowner hires some men to work in his vineyard. At about the "third hour" (I think that means 9 am), he saw some guys out in the market standing around, doing nothing. He hired them as well. He did the same at the sixth and ninth hours. He did this once again at the 11th hour (I guess that's 5 pm). Then he paid them all a denarius. When those hired at 6 am arrived, they figured they'd get more. Instead of being happy with what they agreed to work for, they grumbled and comoplained. Their rebuke was strong and put them in their place:

"'Friend, I am not being unfair to you. Didn't you agree to work for a denarius? Take your pay and go. I w ant to give the man 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?'"

Wow. Shut down. Put in their place. Those idiots. But the thing is, it's easy to sit on this side of the story and say that, "Oh yeah, those guys had the wrong perspective." But until we are in their shoes, working 11 hours through the heat of the day and then see some guys (who we probably know got up late and lazed around most of the day) get the same wage, it might make us resentful, too. While it's easy to judge these men from our perspective, if we place ourselves in their shoes, we can see that it's not too far-fetched to think that we'd behave in the same manner.

This is like another example of how the Word of God becomes the great equalizer. We are all idiots before the Lord. We all fail. We are all stupid, resentful, jealous little brothers -- at least from time to time and to some degree. The key, I believe, to rising above this pettiness, is to come to grips with forgiveness. We need to realize that we completely stink. We deserve to be slapped around for our thoughts, speech, and behavior. But we are given mercy. God forgives us if we ask Him. He has already decided to forgive us, so the only thing we have to do is ask. He is that loving towards us. Then, when we truly see how unworthy we are and drink in the love and forgiveness that is showered upon us, and we let that imprint our hearts and minds, then we're probably a lot more likely to cut other people slack and be quick to forgive them, too.

This chapter has another zinger that I love, too. Jesus tells us that, "If we want to be great, then we need to be a servant."

I hope to remember that and put it into practice. Not just today, but this weekend as I travel to Sacramento to attend the Youth Specialties convention (we'll have a booth for HM Magazine). And not only this weekend, but every day after that, too.

Posted by Doug Van Pelt at September 28, 2005 10:27 AM