stewardship

300 South Main Street
Greensburg, PA 15601-3112
(724) 832-0150

Worship: 10:00 am

Summer Sunday School: 10:00 am

Kingdom Views

Now when those hired first came, they thought they would receive more, but each of them also received a denarius. And on receiving it they grumbled at the master of the house, saying, 'These last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat.' But he replied to one of them, 'Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius? Take what belongs to you and go. I choose to give to this last worker as I give to you. Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or do you begrudge my generosity?' So the last will be first, and the first last."

The above are the final lines to a great parable that Jesus told his disciples and anyone who would listen. The entirety of the story can be found in Matthew 20:1-16.

In a nutshell, the story is about what happens when an owner of a vineyard decides to pay his workers the same, whether they have worked throughout the day or only in the last hour of the work day. The owner does not pay the minimum amount, but rather what one might call the maximum amount: he pays them all indiscriminately as if they had all worked the entire day. He pays all for the whole day.

Joachim Jeremias wrote: “This, says Jesus, is how God deals with men. This is what God is like, merciful.” The implication for us is found actually in the words that Jesus places in the mouth of the owner, who says, more or less: “Is your eye evil because I am good?” Should not we be as generous with others as God has been with us? There are true stewardship implications in such considerations.

What would you do if you were the owner?

-mra