Matthew 20:1-16
Parable of the Vineyard Workers
1 “For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard. 2 He agreed to pay them a denarius for the day and sent them into his vineyard.
3 “About nine in the morning he went out and saw others standing in the marketplace doing nothing. 4 He told them, ‘You also go and work in my vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.’ 5 So they went.
“He went out again about noon and about three in the afternoon and did the same thing. 6 About five in the afternoon he went out and found still others standing around. He asked them, ‘Why have you been standing here all day long doing nothing?’
7 “‘Because no one has hired us,’ they answered.
“He said to them, ‘You also go and work in my vineyard.’
8 “When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Call the workers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last ones hired and going on to the first.’
9 “The workers who were hired about five in the afternoon came and each received a denarius. 10 So when those came who were hired first, they expected to receive more. But each one of them also received a denarius. 11 When they received it, they began to grumble against the landowner. 12 ‘These who were hired last worked only one hour,’ they said, ‘and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day.’
13 “But he answered one of them, ‘I am not being unfair to you, friend. Didn’t you agree to work for a denarius? 14 Take your pay and go. I want to give the one who was hired last the same as I gave you. 15 Don’t I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?’
16 “So the last will be first, and the first will be last.”
Luke 15:11-32
The Parable of the Prodigal Son
11 Jesus continued: “There was a man who had two sons. 12 The younger one said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of the estate.’ So he divided his property between them.
13 “Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living.14 After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. 15 So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. 16 He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything.
17 “When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! 18 I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. 19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired servants.’ 20 So he got up and went to his father.
“But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.
21 “The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’
22 “But the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. 23 Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. 24 For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ So they began to celebrate.
25 “Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. 26 So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on. 27 ‘Your brother has come,’ he replied, ‘and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.’
28 “The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. 29 But he answered his father, ‘Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. 30 But when this son of yours who has squandered your propertywith prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!’
31 “‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. 32 But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’”
Luke 10:38-42
At the Home of Mary and Martha
38 As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. 39 She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said. 40 But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!”
41 “Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, 42 but few things are needed—or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”
Job 1:8
Job is Blameless and Upright
8 Then the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil.”
Job 42:1-6
Job Responds to God
1 Then Job replied to the Lord:
2 “I know that you can do all things;
no purpose of yours can be thwarted.
3 You asked, ‘Who is this that obscures my plans without knowledge?’
Surely I spoke of things I did not understand,
things too wonderful for me to know.
4 “You said, ‘Listen now, and I will speak;
I will question you,
and you shall answer me.’
5 My ears had heard of you
but now my eyes have seen you.
6 Therefore I despise myself
and repent in dust and ashes.”
God is fair, how can He not be fair?...He knows all things and has Complete and Eternal Knowledge...He knows what has happened, what is happening, and what is going to happen...
When I first read the Parable of the Vineyard workers and the Parable of the Prodigal Son, I had questions about fairness and what was fair...Jesus to me has redefined fairness in these parables...If one working all day in the heat of the desert sun, while one only works one hour and both are paid the same, is that fair?...And if one son works hard all his life and is at his father's side each and everyday, while another son squanders and aimlessly wastes away while traveling about, a portion of his father’s resources that he boldly asked for, is that fair?...
According to Jesus there is some fairness in these Parables...God is good and has to be fair...One has to believe that God is fair...Yet, fairness which is what I am looking for the most (and I do not really know why) as I read these verses and parables is tough to find...There is something beyond the act of fairness in these parables...God is in these parables...I thought Job was treated unfairly...Job was a good man...God even says Job is blameless and upright...Then God allows the evil one to come into Job's life...And Job looks at things differently...Then Job meets God and feels His Presence and sees things now even more differently than he ever has...
There are attributes of God that are just as important as fairness and maybe more important attributes that are beyond fairness...Or as we read these Parables and think about Job, is God above fairness in a Spiritual Way...The attributes of love and mercy and forgiveness and the Great attribute of Grace seems to trump fairness in these parables...God looks at the entire life's pictures and we see this grace, an Amazing Grace...Does God's Presence play a role in how we look at fairness?...Look what Job says, after He meets God...
When I read about Mary and Martha working and waiting for the guests to arrive and while Martha worked hard while her sister listens, is that fair...Mary was listening to Jesus we learn and know what is important, really important in life...His Name is Jesus and what He has to say is of the utmost importance...We must listen to what He says...
God's fairness is not the same as what man thinks of fairness...Read the above parables...And His attribute of fairness in shown in the Light of His Son...God is perfect, and good, and is full of Grace...God is LOVE...God is and has Complete Understanding and how He looks at fairness is different than how I understand fairness, and this shows in the parables and Jesus' teachings to Martha...
God is timeless...God is Eternal...God is more than words...God's Presence is not only mysterious, but unexplainable...But in His Great Mystery God is Fair...