The Extravagant Generosity of God

July 23, 2015

The Extravagant Generosity of God

“Is it against the law for me to do what I want with my money? Should you be jealous because I am kind to others?’  “So those who are last now will be first then, and those who are first will be last” (Matthew 20:15-16).

Parable of the Vineyard Workers - Matthew 20:1-16

In the parable of the vineyard, Jesus illustrates the extravagant generosity of God. Did you notice that the Landowner never justified his seemingly crazy hiring practices? Was it because he had such an abundant harvest, and thus needed more workers? We really don’t know anything about the harvest and the Landowner’s needs because in the parable the landowner’s focus is always on the workers and their needs. The parable reveals an aspect of our fallen human nature. People want to control their environment and enhance their sense of entitlement. The workers said they ‘deserved more’ even though they were given exactly what they bargained for. Never is there a mention that those workers did more work than they had agreed.

Many people do not like this parable because they feel the land owner was not fair when it came time to pay his workers. However, these people miss the point of this parable. This is not a parable about hiring practices and how rich landowners are supposed to treat their employees; this parable is about the extravagant generosity of God. This parable follows Jesus teaching his disciples that “many who are the greatest now will be least important then, and those who seem least important now will be the greatest then” (Matthew 19:30). Jesus wasn’t talking about the Pharisees or religious leaders. He was talking to his disciples. This parable is a reminder that the person who accepted Jesus Christ as their savior thirty seconds ago, is just as saved, just as loved, just as much the beloved child of God as those who have been fully devoted followers of Jesus for decades. God, our Abba, is as head-over-heels in love with the sixteen year old who accepted Christ at camp this summer as He is with Mother Teresa, or you, or me!

This may be one of the hardest aspects of the Christian faith for the followers of Jesus to grasp. We are not in an employee, wage-earner relationship with God. We are in a covenant relationship with God. In this covenant relationship everything that is true of Jesus is true for us. God keeps His covenant with us even when we fail to fulfill our covenant responsibilities. We enter into this covenant relationship by giving God all that we are: spiritually dead, guilty sinners. In return God gives us all that Christ is: resurrected life, forgiveness, righteousness and acceptance. In this new relationship, Christ becomes our life. Our new relationship with God is a gift, and it is not based on our behavior. We are not His righteousness or new creation because of what we did, or we are doing, or what we have refrained from doing. Rather, it is because of what He has done in uniting us to Christ in death, burial, resurrection, and enthronement.

This amazing new relationship is true even for the last ones invited to the Lord’s vineyard. Hallelujah!

Sē’lah

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(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life.  The meditations are published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/ and they are also distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com. The BLOG is also available on Amazon Kindle, by subscription.

Publications by Alex M. Knight:

·        Seeking the Life in Christ, Meditations on the New Testament and Psalms has been published and is now available at Amazon.com in paperback and Kindle.

·        The second edition of  First Think – Then Pray is available on Amazon Kindle.

·        Meditations on The Story of My Life as told by Jesus Christ has been released as an e-book on Amazon Kindle.

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2007. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188.