Early in the morning, an employer hires some workers for the day and agrees to pay them $200 for 12 hours work. The workers were very happy with the deal and went to work. At 9 am, the employer again hires more workers and offered to pay them the right amount. The employer does the same thing at noon, at 3 pm and 5 pm.
When evening came, the workers were called to receive their pay. Starting with the workers who started last, he paid each $200. When the first workers who had been hired early in the morning received their $200, they grumbled because they had worked so much longer than the others and they expected to be paid more than the others even though they had agreed to that amount when they started.
Their sense of fairness and equality had been shattered. Had they not known what the workers who arrived later had received, they would have been satisfied that they received what they had agreed was a fair wage. Equal pay for equal work! Thus a union is formed to oppose the employer’s generosity.
All the workers received pay which they would not have received if they had not agreed to work. The first workers agreed to the amount of pay, and whether later workers knew how much the first workers had agreed to or not, they all were willing to work.
The Kingdom of Heaven is like that. God is the employer and He calls people to His service and agrees to grant them eternal life. Whether one has served all his or her life for God, or accepts God’s offer on their death-bed, all receive the same gift of eternal life (Matthew 20:1-16).
The generosity of God is something so foreign to politically correct thinking in this world, but I am so glad He is generous because no one could ever earn their way to heaven.
Good point!