Since our readership has rapidly expanded over the past few years, and especially during the past few months, we want to take some time this summer to draw attention to earlier articles for those who may have missed them. Today's article was among our first articles published on Recovering Grace in
August of 2011.
Jesus must have enjoyed short stories. He used parables frequently. One of those stories appears in Matthew 20:1-16. It arrested my attention recent
ly and I wondered how someone would tell the story in today’s world. Perhaps something like this:
The strangest bonus Jim ever received was for a large project he worked on for six months. Jim is a software developer. Sometimes customers require a large-scale project in a short time-frame. Jim’s company asked his team to begin working 30 hours of overtime per week, resulting in a 70-hour work-week. They were on salary which meant they did not receive extra pay for overtime. However, this customer was important to the CEO and he promised Jim’s team a bonus upon completion of the project. For six months the team worked hard, trusting the bonus would be fair. After three months, another developer was added to the team to help out. The final developer came on the project with only one week left in the project.
The project was completed with one day to spare. The developers breathed a sigh of relief as it passed testing and qualified for earning the bonus. One by one, their manager called the developers into his office and closed the door. He began with the one who had only worked one week. That guy came out of the office all smiles and when he mentioned the amount of his bonus, the other developers were all smiles, too! For his one week of work, he had been given a generous bonus indeed. It was a little surprising when he gave the guy who had worked for three months the exact same bonus amount as the guy who had only worked a week – no more, no less. That did seem unusual.
Finally it was Jim’s turn –
Frankly, Jim was disappointed and surprised when the manager revealed that it would be the SAME BONUS as he had given everyone else, from the guy who had worked only one week on up to the team who had worked for six months. Not wanting to be rude, Jim swallowed and quietly commented on his surprise that the team who had worked so much more would not receive extra. Unfazed, the manager pointed out that everyone on the final team had worked under the same contract and been rewarded exactly what had been agreed upon. The manager was not doing anyone wrong if he happened to be extra-generous to the guys who had worked less.
Usually you would assume that a bonus would be based on how much you worked or how much you delivered. The manager looked at it differently: he took the amount he was able to pay out in bonus and divided it up equally. This was a sweet deal for those guys who were not expecting it but in all honesty it could feel a little sour for those who worked the hardest.
In Jesus’ day, the people who worked the hardest at obeying God were the Pharisees and other expert law-keepers. People naturally assumed that this extra effort would earn something extra with God, including extra safety, blessing and success.
Today, some people still feel this way. They try to be extra disciplined for God, or to discern and obey hidden principles, hoping that he will give them something extra in return. Some expect that their children will have extra safety and protection from harm. Some expect blessing in business, that their business will prosper. Some hope for extra closeness to God. Some desire the result of a happy marriage and family. Some teachers cash in on this desire and offer books or seminars in what people should do in order to realize these blessings.
But in the end, it is like running on a broken treadmill. The harder people try to earn something extra, the more they realize the results are not connected to this effort. Their children experience a surprise attack, or their business flounders while their relationship to God and their spouse seems to experience the same ups and downs as other people, even those who do not try nearly as hard.
I am one who fell off that treadmill, completely frustrated and even bitter with God. How could he watch me run harder and harder, and sweat more and more, and refuse to reward my effort? Not only this, but there were times others mistreated me and took advantage of the fact that my efforts on the treadmill actually made me an easier target for them. God still did not respond based on my efforts.
However, God was not being unkind. In fact, there is a huge relief that comes when a person realizes that their connection with God does not depend on their effort in keeping principles or being disciplined. Our connection with God is based on an unfair bonus: God simply decided to be good to us. Somewhat like the generous manager, the less we deserve it, the more God enjoys pouring out his favor on us.
Wow. How true! Great article and a great reminder not to tit for tat God when he is being generous.
I hadn't read this before. Great job, Matthew!
The most awesome, frightening, and unfair aspect of this great goodness and favor is that is would apply even to Bill Gothard, should he in this last decade of his life turn to the Generous Manager, God our Father!
Yes, and that would be the ideal outcome for sure. I'm not holding my breath but where there's life there's hope.
Great article Matthew. That is so true the way that God's blessings work. There is nothing that we can do through our own efforts to merit any additional "bonus" from God. I'm glad RG reposted this because it was published before I found the site.
I love your retelling of this parable. I had always thought of it in terms of it doesn't matter at what age or stage you come to salvation you are still saved. This is true. But I like the reminder that it is also true that my extra work, my striving, my attempts to do it myself are also not earning an extra bonus. This is to be a relationship based on love. Thanks for the good article and for reposting it.
Excellent article! We all have a tendency to think like Jim does. “Shouldn’t I deserve more? I worked harder and longer than all the rest.”
Little wonder so many of us bought in to the lies propagated by many of the Institute’s teachings. This article does a good job exposing the lie found in the performance based spirituality and the truth of God’s grace. No matter how much we “work harder”, we can’t earn more of God’s blessing and favor.
Thank you Recovering Grace for republishing this! Very needed indeed! I had missed seeing this in my previous reading of past articles exposing Gothard’s false teachings.
Hmmm, something about this doesn't seem quite right. I agree with your message...the bible certainly supports we can do nothing to earn God's Grace or favor, just not sure that is the major intent of this particular passage. I do not claim to even begin to be a Biblical scholar. I had only heard this passage taught as applying to Salvation. Just have an interal caution. Maybe it's something I ate last night! One interruption , many applications?
Libby, unless you are a mom of young kids, in which case there are many interruptions ;-) (I know you meant interpretation, just teasing you)
For what its worth, I tend to be fairly cautious of casual uses of the "one interpretation, many applications" idea. For example, in this case, I think you are inquiring into the intent of the passage, which goes to the heart of interpretation. We first need to ask what it meant to the original speaker and the original audience (interpretation) before we can meaningfully find solid application for today.
I find it to be a great way to study the Bible, when I have a question in my mind that is bugging me about the meaning of a passage to research it. This research often includes looking into what others have found. If there is a nearby library with some good commentaries, that's a great resource. One set of Bible study notes that can be a helpful free reference online is Constable's notes, available at net.bible.org or directly at his own site, http://www.soniclight.com/constable/notes/pdf/matthew.pdf
Using Constable as a point of reference, a snippet from his notes:
The focus of that paragraph is on rewards in heaven, and perhaps that was Jesus' focus as well. But the underlying attitude of God's grace and generosity versus our earnings being dependent upon our hard work is on the same page as the particular application being made in the article here.
I encourage you to look into it and search for the interpretation that most seems to you to line up to what the passage is saying. I'd be curious to know what you find. Thanks for the comment!
No longer have small children at home. In fact, it has been over 20 yrs. Just did not proof/ catch my error. Your correction is accepted with gratitude !
I appreciate your suggestion and will let you know what I discover.
Acts 17:24 “The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. 25 And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. 26 From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. 27 God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us. 28 ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’
History is an amazing concept. As fallen people we measure it and analyse it from the vantage point (moment) of our present. Everything is clouded by our finite existence. We cannot fathom history from God's eternal/infinite perspective. We cannot understand the size He desires for His Kingdom. I came into His Kingdom 47 years ago. Another might have come into His Kingdom a second ago. Our wages were both paid for by our Savior. The true bonus isn't the material reward. The true bonus is the blessing of knowing Him and being allowed to join in His Kingdom building for the majority of a lifetime. Is it unfair that I have been able to enjoy His Kingdom for so long while another has only been able to enjoy it for a second? Only if we are focused on the linear perspective of history. The Eternal says 47 years ago was the perfect time for my eyes to be opened, just as one second ago the the perfect time for another.
Never forget having the previlige of walking and working with our Heavenly Father is our reward (bonus). (Same as when the father of the Prodigal Son told his older son that he had been with him the whole time. The father knew memories of loving one another and working together had far greater value than the party give for the returning son.)
A Dennis the Menace cartoon from years ago shows Mrs. Wilson serving Dennis and Joey milk and cookies. When the boys leave, Joey asks Dennis, "What did we do good to get cookies?" Dennis replies, "We didn't get cookies because we are good. We got cookies because Mrs. Wilson is good."
Oh wow, I love that!
ha, love it! Thanks for the smile :-)
Really good article. From a former Institute staffer (pre 1980) have been driven to exhaustion trying to do the extra for God. From everything BG taught me, He was obligated, or so I thought. Just now learning to live in grace.
So needed this article and appreciated it. Love reading any comments you make Matthew, as they are very well thought out.
Blessings to you and keep on posting. :)
Someone partly nailed the point of this story. Of course, if we take it literally, then Jesus (or the manager, above) is being completely idiotic and highly incentivizing the workforce to search only for last-second one-hit jobs in order to maximize their utility. I.e., this *IS* a stupid way to manage and of course would never happen in real life. A good, normal person would be 100% correct in being outraged, and would never work a normal 6-month project again.
The point of the story is that now that entire system is broken up and remade into something much better. The point of the story is that now it's no longer about you working. It's no longer about you, and THAT is the freeing part.