In the early 1980s, I was driving near a nursing home several miles from our house. I thought of a man I knew who lived there, but I believed he was in a coma. I decided not to stop and went home.
That same day, a man with a ministry to nursing homes asked the front desk who was closest to death. It was the man I had driven past. This faithful servant of the Lord went down the hall, and the man came out of his coma. He asked Jesus to be his Savior and promptly returned to his comatose state.
Not many days later, I preached at his funeral. I was so thankful that someone visited him and helped him wake up to meet Jesus and go to heaven when he died. I was also grateful that his family was present to witness what happened.
This man’s story perfectly illustrates a parable Jesus told about how God is unapologetically good.
“For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. After agreeing with the laborers for a denarius for the day, he sent them into his vineyard.”
— Matthew 20:1-2
A denarius was the daily pay for a laborer, so it made sense that the first workers agreed to work for one denarius a day. At nine o’clock, he needed more workers. He went to the marketplace, found some, and sent them to work, saying, “I will pay you what is fair.”
He went back again at noon and at three o’clock and did the same thing. Finally, around five o’clock, near the end of the day, he found more people and sent them to work in the field.
End of the Day Payments
When it was time to pay the workers, he began with those who had started at the end of the day. Each received a denarius. The workers who had started early that morning thought, “This is good. If they received a denarius, I will surely get more.”
But they also received only a denarius, and they complained. They argued that those who worked just one hour earned the same as those who had worked all day in the scorching heat.
Now we come to the part of Jesus’s parable that is especially important for the man who prayed at the last minute to accept Jesus as his Savior. Notice how the landowner responded to the workers who complained, and apply that response to God’s love for every person.
“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 the same as I give to you. Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or are you envious because I am generous?’ So the last will be first, and the first will be last.”
— Matthew 20:13-16
I often say that no one wrote a rule book for God. God makes his own rules, and one of his wonderful rules is that he loves people generously. We may be stingy with God’s grace, but he is not.
When the landowner says, “Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me?” we can apply that to God. He can do what he wants. We do not need to be jealous because he is generous. Instead, we can praise God that sometimes the last are first.
Taking Issue With The Five O’Clock Crowd
A union steward in the auto industry asked me to visit his home and help him find Jesus. He had cancer and thought he might die soon. He wanted to know he was going to heaven.
We sat in his kitchen, and I explained how he could ask Jesus to be his Savior. He did so right away. He lived for several more years after that prayer. Once, he told me, “I wish I had come sooner.”
Some people come to the Lord as children, others as teenagers, and others as adults. Those who come to the Lord early are not cheated by last-minute conversions. They have the chance to live abundantly with God throughout their lives, and then go to heaven when they die.
Irrespective of our personal conversion story, we all can praise God for His abundant grace.
YouTube Discussion
Rudy Ross, Bruce Kirby, and I discussed Matthew 20:1-16 on YouTube today.
Real Voices 