Frustrated by God's Goodness

“But he answered one of them, ‘Friend, I am not being unfair to you. Didn’t you agree to work for a denarius? Take your pay and go. I want to give the man who was hired last the same as I gave you. Don’t I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?”
Matthew 20:13-15

Have you ever gotten frustrated by God’s goodness? In the parable of the “Workers in the Vineyard” a landowner goes out early in the morning to hire men to work in his vineyard. He finds some men in the marketplace and agrees to pay them a denarius for the day and sent them to his vineyard. A few hours later he went back out to the marketplace and found some more men standing around doing nothing. He offered to pay them “whatever is right” to work in his vineyard. So they went. This happened again around noon and again around three o’clock. Finally, around five o’clock, the land owner went out to the marketplace and found a few more men, who had not been hired, and he sent them as well to work in his vineyard.

When evening came, the owner of the vineyard called in the workers to pay them their wages. Beginning with those he hired last he began to distribute the pay. Those hired around five o’clock were each given one denarius. When the men who were hired first saw this, they expected that they would receive more. But each one of them also received one denarius:

“When they received it , they began to grumble against the landowner. These men who were hired last only worked one hour,’ they said, ‘and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the work and heat of the day.”
Matthew 20:11-12

Although they had received what was right and fair, not to mention what they agreed upon, they protested against the landowners generosity! Have you ever caught yourself grumbling and complaining when God has chosen to demonstrate His goodness towards someone you believed had not earned it? I am reminded of the story of Jonah. God asked the prophet Jonah to go to Nineveh and preach the gospel to them. Nineveh was an enemy of Israel. Instead of obeying God, Jonah ran. Later, after spending three days and three nights in the belly of a fish, Jonah relented and went to Nineveh. He did precisely what God had asked him to do and the people of Nineveh repented. So God did not bring upon them the destruction He had planned. This, however, made Jonah furious:

“He prayed to the Lord, ‘O Lord, is this not what I said when I was still at home? That is why I was so quick to flee to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity.”
Jonah 4:2
Why is it so hard for us to rejoice with those who are on “the receiving end” of God’s goodness? I believe, it is because, we have adopted an unhealthy attitude of entitlement rather than an attitude of “gratefulness.” We have become sorely selfish, in that we often do not recognize the goodness of God unless it is happening to us. Take the time to rejoice with someone today that God is showing His goodness towards and let’s learn to rejoice over God’s goodness with one another!



Pastor Scott Burr
http://faithandworshipseries.blogspot.com