We have a distorted view of God when we view God as the talent show judge instead of the equal opportunity employer...

This week, we have been addressing the distorted view of God as the talent show judge. We have been looking at a section of an account of Jesus life that is recorded for us in the Bible called the gospel of Matthew. In this section of the gospel of Matthew, we see Jesus, after an encounter between Jesus and the rich young ruler, have a conversation between Jesus and His disciples about the rank and rewards that followers of Jesus would receive in the kingdom of heaven.

And in the middle of this conversation about rank and rewards in the kingdom of heaven, Jesus tells the disciples a parable. In this parable, Jesus compares the kingdom of heaven to a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard.  Jesus explained that the landowner entered into an agreement with the laborers to pay them a denarius for their wages and then sent them into the vineyard to work. In Jesus day, a denarius was the equivalent of a day’s wages.

Jesus explained that as the landowner looked over his workforce, he saw that he could hire some more men. So the landowner went out about the third hour, which would be around 9 a.m. and saw others standing idle at the marketplace. The landowner approached these men standing at the marketplace and offered them a job, saying “go into the vineyard and whatever is right I will pay you”.

Notice that the landowner did not enter into a prearranged agreement with these laborers; he only stated that he would do what is right. The landowner is simply stating to these laborers that they will not be shortchanged or treated unfairly. Jesus then explained that the landowner went back to the same marketplace at the sixth and the ninth hour and did the same thing.

Then, at the eleventh hour, the landowner went out to the marketplace and found others still waiting to be picked up for work. To these laborers, however, the landowner asked a question: “Why have you been standing here idle all day long”?

You see, no one hired these laborers because they were the least desirable workers. They showed up to work late; they were not as prepared or as motivated as the other workers; they did not have the best resume or work history. The landowner then hired these workers and sent them into the vineyard for the remaining hour that was left.

So at the end of this day the landowner called his foreman and directed him to pay out their wages, beginning with the last group and ending with the first group. Now remember, the only laborers who entered into a prearranged agreement for a denarius for a day’s wages were those who were hired first; all of the rest of the laborers have no idea of exactly what they are going to get paid. All the landowner said was that he would pay them what was right.

Jesus explained that when the laborers came forward to receive their pay, they each received a denarius which, as we saw earlier, was the generally accepted pay for a fair days work. The reason that a denarius was considered a fair days pay for a fair days work was because a denarius was what was needed financially in order to provide for one’s family. So the landowner did not pay them what they deserved; the landowner paid them what they needed.

Now a natural reaction at this point could be “But hold on there, just wait a minute. These are the least desirable workers; these are the slackers, the Johnny come latelies. They did not earn a full day’s wages; that’s not fair”.  Well, if you think that is not fair, look what happens next in Matthew 20:10-12:

"When those hired first came, they thought that they would receive more; but each of them also received a denarius. "When they received it, they grumbled at the landowner, saying, 'These last men have worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden and the scorching heat of the day.'

Here we see Jesus explain that when those who were hired first came to receive their wages, they expected to receive more. I mean that would only be fair, right? However, to their surprise, the landowner responded to their day of hard work by paying them the exact same amount that he had paid the laborers who worked one hour. Now, if you were one of the laborers who worked all day to only get paid the same amount as someone who worked only one hour of a day, how would you respond?

You would respond the exact way that the laborers responded, which was that the laborers grumbled; in other words, the laborers responded by whining. “These last men have worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden and the scorching heat of the day. That’s not fair”.

Isn’t this the exact same thing that we tend to do when it comes to fairness? “God it’s not fair that she is better looking than me. God it’s not fair that he makes more money than me. God it’s not fair that she is married and I am single. It’s not fair that he always has a girlfriend and I can’t get a date”.

And when we become concerned and even consumed with comparison and the issue of fairness, we tend to focus on the wrong things, don’t we? We see the landowner’s response to the whining and grumbling of the laborers in Matthew 20:13-15. Let’s look at it together: 

"But he answered and said to one of them, 'Friend, I am doing you no wrong; did you not agree with me for a denarius? 'Take what is yours and go, but I wish to give to this last man the same as to you. 'Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with what is my own? Or is your eye envious because I am generous?'

Notice the landowner’s response here. “Friend, I am doing you no wrong; did you not agree with me for a denarius”. The landowner responds to the whining and complaining about his lack of fairness by reminding the laborers that he simply gave them what they had agreed upon in advance. You see, the landowner did the right thing, not the fair thing, or the even thing.

The landowner followed through by keeping the agreement that was made in the beginning. And to bolster his point the landowner reminds that laborers in verse 15 that as the landowner, he has the right and the freedom to distribute his resources as he desires because they are his. The landowner then exposes the motivation behind the laborers whining and complaining with a simple question: “Or is your eye envious because I am generous?”

The phrase “Is your eye envious” literally means to give someone the evil eye as a result of being jealous of what someone else has or has been given. The laborers whining and complaining had nothing to do with whether the landowner was just; the laborers whining and complaining had everything to do with the landowner’s generosity. The laborers whining and complaining had nothing to do with whether the landowner was just; the laborers whining and complaining had everything to do with the landowner giving equal opportunity to people in spite of their resume or their performance.

And it is here, in this event from history involving a parable involving day laborers, that we discover a timeless truth that can enable us to rid ourselves of the distorted view of God as the cosmic slot machine. And that timeless truth is this: We have a distorted view of God when we view God as the talent show judge instead of the equal opportunity employer. 

The timeless reality is that we have a distorted view of God when we view God as the talent show judge. We have a distorted view of God when we view God as the talent show judge that leads us to live a life that endlessly attempts to please a distant and difficult to please God. We have a distorted view of God when we view God as the talent show judge that leads us to live a life of perpetual performance and experience feelings of regular rejection when we fail to perform well.

We have a distorted view of God when we view God as the talent show judge that leads us to live a life that continually hears the whisper “more, you need to do more” in our ears. We have a distorted view of God when we view God as the talent show judge that leads us to live a life that substitutes activity for God for intimacy with God. We have a distorted view of God when we view God as a nameless, faceless, unpleased being that is constantly evaluating our performance.

However, unlike the talent show judge, a more accurate view of God is that of the equal opportunity employer. A more accurate view of God is that of the equal opportunity employer who is not fair, at least in the way we define fair. A more accurate view of God is that of the equal opportunity employer who rewards all He chooses to with a disproportionate measure of grace. A more accurate view of God is that of the equal opportunity employer who will take anyone at any time who comes to Him.

You see, where we can tend to struggle when it comes to viewing God as the equal opportunity employer is due to the tendency that we have to want to accept the concept of grace as it applies to our lives, but we struggle to accept the concept of grace when it is applied to others lives. So often, we act like the rich young rulers of the world who were picked up at 6:00 am, and have followed Jesus their whole lives and want to be rewarded for our performance over others who came to Jesus later in life. So often, we demand and expect ourselves to live up to, to impress, and to earn what God had already offered us long before we began to perform.

So here is a question to consider: Which of these two views describe how you view God? Do you view God as the talent show judge? Do you view God as the talent show judge who is a nameless, faceless, unpleased being that is constantly evaluating our performance?

Or do you view God as the equal opportunity employer?  Do you view God as the equal opportunity employer who will take anyone at any time who comes to Him? 

Because the timeless reality is that we have a distorted view of God when we view God as the talent show judge instead of the equal opportunity employer…