Living Out of Gratitude
When Grace Leaves No Room for Comparison Matthew 20:1–16 One of Jesus' most thought-provoking parables is the story of the workers in the vineyard. A landowner went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard and agreed to pay them one denarius for the day's work. Throughout the day he continued to hire more workers—some at mid-morning, others at noon, some later in the afternoon, and even others just an hour before the working day ended. When evening came, something unexpected happened. The landowner paid every worker the same wage. Those who had worked from sunrise expected to receive more. After all, they had carried the burden of the day's labour and endured the heat. Yet they received exactly what had been promised. They became upset—not because they had been treated unfairly, but because others had received the same gift. A matter of the heart This parable reveals something deeper than a disagreement about wages. It exposes the condition...