1 John 4:8
God is Love
8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.
John 3:16-17
God LOVES the World
16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
Luke 10:38-42
Martha Works While Mary Listens
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 only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her."
Luke 15:11-32
The Parable of the Lost 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 men 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 men.' 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 property with 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.' "
Matthew 20:1-16
The Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard
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.”
When I first read the stories and parables about Mary and Martha, the Prodigal Son, and the Workers in the Vineyard -I thought there was much unfairness to certain people (in these stories)...I thought Martha was being treated unfairly, and I felt sympathy for her as she went and talked to Jesus about her non-working sister...After all she needed some help...I also thought the older working son in the story of the Prodigal Son was being treated unfairly...And I felt an unfairness to the workers in the vineyard, who had worked all day and were very hot and tired from their long day's work, while the workers who worked only a very short time received the same day's pay...And not only did I see unfairness in these stories, a mystery surrounds the Parables of Jesus for me, because He leave them open to each of His readers...Aren't this lessons and stories we are to live on and like...It seems all the while, He alone knows what the exact point and points are in His stories -yet He does not always reveal the stories answer to us...And Jesus told these stories to different groups, and many would have been looking at how do I get to heaven, and is He being fair...Shouldn't He explain Himself in detail if we are to live out these lessons in His Parables...Yet, these stories are told so divinely that they are full of grace and many meanings...
Love is unconditional and allows the beloved to be free and make their own decisions...
After thinking about these particular stories, they are all worker based stories...Martha was working hard at getting all the preparations done, while Mary was listening to Jesus...The older son, in the Prodigal Son story, had worked and done his duty and now the young Prodigal had come home and was receiving accolades from the Father...The vineyard workers who had worked all day in the heat were tired from their grinding day...And yet, Jesus makes the point (to us and Martha) that what the listening Mary was doing was better -by not working...The young Prodigal Son, who had wasted one-half of his Father's estate on wild living was graciously and very, very much welcomed back, and was given a feast for what he had he done...And what had he done, but wild living...We are told only his Father's money was gone, did he "come to his senses."...And because he came to his senses, Jesus and His Father are rewarding him...The older son had been working hard at his Father's side, doing the right thing and now his young brother was getting all the praise...How can that be?...And in the vineyard, the hardest workers get the same amount of pay as they worked hard and in the hot sun all day, while there were some workers who had only worked one hour and got the same wage...All the hard workers and hardest workers got the short straw and the bulk of the work in these stories...
God is LOVE, and isn't LOVE supposed to treat us all equal and fair?...Maybe, if we look at these stories from a work viewpoint, and this different point of view -maybe LOVE is fair, but work and things at work are not always fair...
But these are stories about Jesus, God, and heaven and are much more than stories about people working...They are life's lessons...Jesus teaches Martha that it is better to listen to Him than to be working hard, at this time...After all, He was going to be leaving them in a short while, and she and her sister would never see Him again in the flesh...And to add to that, so much can be learned from listening to the One, from which all things were made -so Mary was doing the better thing...In the Prodigal Son, it often takes a significant event to get us to think about the Father in the proper perspective...It takes some of us longer than others to come to our senses...And when we do the Father LOVEs us equally...God seems to hold a special LOVE for the outcast and those who get lost (and then find Him again)...If we work hard for a small wage for many years, what fairness is there to the that worker who has worked all his life, while someone invents something very quickly and earns a lifetime of good wages...Heaven is not based on how much money, we had or have...Heaven, is also not based on the hours we have worked before we get to go there...Heaven is our reward for believing in the Son and the One Who sent Him...That is our reward for eternal life...The hardest worker, the one who has worked the longest, the smartest worker, and the worker with the most money are not the first into heaven...The first will be last and the last will be first...Getting in heaven is the main point...Personally, I will not care if I am last in line at the Pearly Gates of heaven...And if I must wait, I will wait as long as I must...I just want to let in by Jesus and be with Him...