Once again, I was in awe of the intelligence of my peers in this bible study! One of the observations that really stuck out was when one gentleman in the room drew our attention to all of the action verbs in the passage! (And there's a ton.) It definitely drove home that Jesus comes to us and meets us where we are at, and living life with Jesus is work!
Two things about Bible Study on Day 2:
1) On one hand, the fact that Jesus keeps coming back to the market place is super encouraging! I love the fact that Jesus doesn't just go for the people who always get picked first because there are lots of times when I don't feel like a "first pick" and it is definitely a comfort that Jesus loves us so much he will keep coming and keep coming to the marketplace to get more workers!
2) On the other hand though, Jesus pays his workers that worked the whole day and his workers that worked one hour the same amount and that's kind of hard to swallow when you're the worker who has been there all day. And for me, that was convicting. I'm someone who definitely strives to be a hard worker, to be organized and manage my time well. If a job needs to get done, I'll try my best to be the one to step up and do it. And that's all well and good to a point. But as this passage shows, a sense of entitlement, of pride can keep you from celebrating God's generosity to others which is amazing. Jesus gave the people so desperate for a job a place to work and an incredible wage! Imagine them triumphantly walking home knowing that they can feed their families tonight. That's a beautiful, happy scene, but the first workers feel jealousy and anger because they expected more money themselves.
This past year or so, I have found myself at times complaining about how much work and service I do for, what feels like to me, disproportionate reward. I have seen others who in my view (which is deceptive!) aren't working as hard have such success (in drawing people closer to Christ) and such recognition, and my thoughts and actions haven't always been celebratory or joyful to say the least.
But I "signed up" for this so to speak. I agreed to the terms and I'm working for Jesus. I shouldn't expect some reward that He hasn't promised me. That's not super rational..., but very human. Plus I want to work for this guy who is constantly looking for more unemployed people to give a job.
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