Incomprehensible Generosity

Two weeks ago, we explored Matthew 19 and how there’s no way we can ever meet the standards God has set for us by our own efforts. However, we’re not meant to spend the rest of our Christian lives wallowing in failure. We keep coming back to the good news of Jesus who saves us through his work cross - not because of anything we can do to earn his favour - but because of his grace and love for us. But Peter still wants to know how Jesus will reward his disciples who have given up everything to follow him. Jesus responds that the disciples will be given great authority and ‘everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life’ (19:29). Jesus doesn’t mean for us to walk out on our spouses or children, but he does mean that our faithfulness to him must take priority over family pressures and expectations.

Jesus expresses God's amazing generosity but this is not his last word on this subject. Lest anyone think that they can earn more of God’s favour through the amount they work or sacrifice, he continues with the parable of the Workers in the Vineyard in Matthew 20. A landowner agrees to pay a denarius - a standard day’s wage - to men who would work in his vineyard. He calls some to work about 9am, and then more at noon, 3pm, and 5pm.

'The workers who were hired about five in the afternoon came and each received a denarius. So when those came who were hired first, they expected to receive more. But each one of them also received a denarius. When they received it, they began to grumble against the landowner. “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.” But he answered one of them, “I am not being unfair to you, friend. Didn’t you agree to work for a denarius? Take your pay and go. I want to give the one who was hired last the same as I gave you. Don’t I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?”’ (Matthew 20:9-15)

Jesus says nothing about the amount of effort, the quality of work, or the willingness to work of those who began at 9am compared to those who began at 5pm. Instead, this parable is about God’s generosity and those who have a problem with it. The expectation is not that God will give us less than we think fair (the workers at 9am agreed to a denarius), but God will often give more to those who don’t seem to deserve it.

We who have made sacrifices for his sake will receive a wonderful reward, but we should stop measuring our current circumstances according to what we think we deserve, and we should stop comparing what we think we deserve to what we think others deserve. We surrender ourselves to Jesus and his work on the cross because we know we can never earn his favour, and we also surrender ourselves to God’s magnificent generosity because it is incomprehensible. God’s generosity to us and to others is so more than any of us deserves.