{"id":5048,"date":"2014-02-18T00:05:56","date_gmt":"2014-02-18T08:05:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/?p=5048"},"modified":"2014-02-17T11:16:25","modified_gmt":"2014-02-17T19:16:25","slug":"generosity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/2014\/02\/18\/generosity\/","title":{"rendered":"Generosity"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cFor the Kingdom of Heaven is like the landowner who went out early one morning to hire workers for his vineyard. He agreed to pay the normal daily wage and sent them out to work.<\/p>\n

\t\u201cAt nine o\u2019clock in the morning he was passing through the marketplace and saw some people standing around doing nothing. So he hired them, telling them he would pay them whatever was right at the end of the day. So they went to work in the vineyard. At noon and again at three o\u2019clock he did the same thing.<\/p>\n

\t\u201cAt five o\u2019clock that afternoon he was in town again and saw some more people standing around. He asked them, \u2018Why haven\u2019t you been working today?\u2019<\/p>\n

\t\u201cThey replied, \u2018Because no one hired us.\u2019<\/p>\n

\t\u201cThe landowner told them, \u2018Then go out and join the others in my vineyard.\u2019<\/p>\n

\t\u201cThat evening he told the foreman to call the workers in and pay them, beginning with the last workers first. When those hired at five o\u2019clock were paid, each received a full day\u2019s wage. When those hired first came to get their pay, they assumed they would receive more. But they, too, were paid a day\u2019s wage. When they received their pay, they protested to the owner, \u2018Those people worked only one hour, and yet you\u2019ve paid them just as much as you paid us who worked all day in the scorching heat.\u2019<\/p>\n

\t\u201cHe answered one of them, \u2018Friend, I haven\u2019t been unfair! Didn\u2019t you agree to work all day for the usual wage? Take your money and go. I wanted to pay this last worker the same as you. 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?\u2019\u201d (Matthew 20:1-15)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\tDo we want what\u2019s fair, or do we want what\u2019s merciful? In Jesus\u2019 parable, all the workers, no matter how long they worked, received the same pay. In the real world, the first hired were always the first paid. But then the conflict and resolution of the parable wouldn\u2019t have been as clear, so Jesus told it the way he did so his point about the kingdom of God would be obvious. God doesn\u2019t treat people the way a real farmer would treat his workers. In the kingdom of the world, we get paid on the basis of how long and hard we work. In the kingdom of heaven, we get paid based on the generosity of God. Our place in the kingdom is not dependent upon what we do. The kingdom of heaven is not about justice. The kingdom of heaven is not about playing fair. The kingdom of heaven is about being generous, merciful, and receiving undeserved gifts. <\/p>\n

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\u201cFor the Kingdom of Heaven is like the landowner who went out early one morning to hire workers for his vineyard. He agreed to pay the normal daily wage and sent them out to work. \u201cAt nine o\u2019clock in the … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_s2mail":"yes"},"categories":[18,17,16],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5048"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5048"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5048\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5051,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5048\/revisions\/5051"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5048"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5048"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5048"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}