St Matthew, Chapter 20, verse: 14a, Take what is thine and go.

Our paragraph topic is:  (Parable of the laborers in the vineyard)
Part 20.

We come to this part of the parable where the house-holder speaks to the laborers directly concerning their anger and their frustration about their pay.  They have come to believe that they were cheated.  Their minds were influenced by a belief that they deserved more than they agreed to from the beginning.  They saw others come in and work.  They believed that they would receive less.  But when the time came for payment they received the same as those who came before them and worked less.

They saw themselves deserving more.  They saw themselves as being cheated.  They saw themselves as being underpaid even though they agreed to do the labor for a denarius.  Who was at fault?  Who committed a wrong?  Did they deserve more?  Was that the issue or did they compare themselves to others to determine that they deserved more?  The house-holder spoke to them and told them:  "Take what is thine and go." 

What was theirs?  What belonged to them?  What did they own?  They agreed to a denarius when they were hired in the market place and that was what was theirs.  They believed that it was a fair wage for a days work.  So the contract for labor was agreed upon and signed when they went to work.  It was only after they were in the fields, saw others come in after them, and watched as they were paid the same amount that they became dissatisfied and disgruntled.  What would you do?  If you agreed to do a specific task for a fixed amount, would you be disgruntled if you saw others come and do less work and get paid the same amount?  Most would say yes!

Christ tells this parable to his disciples to warn them of the dangers of making comparisons.  He wanted them to know that they would be challenged to compare what they were being offered to what they would receive.  He wanted them to be aware of how evil would challenge them, to weaken them, and to open them up to being influenced.  Knowledge of oneself in the eyes of Christ defends against the outside influence.  Knowing the life that Christ has given to us and the value of that life cannot compare to anything that this world has to offer. 

Evil tempted Christ in the desert and offered him the kingdoms of this world if he would only bow down in worship.  Evil will do the same to us if we do not know who we are in Christ.  It will come and influence.  It will come and tempt.  It will come in and bring anger, and mistrust and disbelief and finally open the door to being controlled.  And when that control takes over one will do what is suggested to get what is being offered by it.

Christ came and opened the door to the kingdom that all could enter.  He gave us a path.  He showed us the way.  He left a message, a book, a light, so that we could find our way home.  And when we come to realize and understand who we are and the path to our destiny, nothing can stand in our way to receive our peace and happiness.  The Advocate will lead the way.  The Advocate will be our guide.  The Advocate will be our council everyday to help us make good decisions as we walk by faith along the path to the kingdom.  Your path is before you.  You can find the way.  Look within and see the light of life given you by Christ.  Seek to know him and you will see.  His love will come and touch you to let you know that he is there waiting for you.  Open your heart and let him in.  Come!  See the true you that is within and let no one or nothing separate you from the love that the Father has for you.

Read the sign of the times! Read the Highlighted New Testament Bible and lift the scales from your eyes that you may see, that you may know, that you may find the truth of who you are in Christ. Read it as though you would read a good book, from cover to cover, and see for yourself. Do not study it in parts reading one passage and then skipping to another, but read it for understanding. Read it for knowledge. Read it for faith. Read it that your eyes may be opened, that your ears may hear, that your heart may be filled with the light of Christ. The Holy Spirit awaits you. Christ seeks to know you.  Open the door and let him in.   

St Matthew, Chapter 20, verse: 12a, The Complaint.

Our paragraph topic is:  (Parable of the laborers in the vineyard)
Part 16. 

The last of the laborers came to the steward to receive their pay.  They are paid a denarius, as agreed, but they murmur against the householder.  They believed that they were deceived.  They believed that they were mistreated.  They believed that the pay that they received was unfair because they worked all day. 

They were the first to come to the vineyard and the last to leave.  They sought work in the market place and agreed to work for a denarius.  They did not know that others would be hired.  They did not know that others would be paid the same amount.  The only knew that they agreed to work for a denarius and believed that they were receiving a fair amount for their labor.  But when it came time for payment, they saw that others who came after them received the same amount.  They were dissatisfied:  saying, "These last have worked a single hour." 

Such is the way of comparison.  We compare ourselves to others and loose the sense of our own self, the sense of our own self worth, the sense of who we are.  What makes us happy?  What makes us satisfied?  What will fulfill our needs?  What will make us content within ourselves?  Who are we that we do not know who we are?  For it is the nature of discovery that allows us to understand.  And it is in that understanding that we come to know who we are.

Are you satisfied with who you are or are you continuously in search of the things that others have to satisfy yourself?  The laborers were not satisfied when they compared their labor to the labors of others.  They worked the day long.  They agreed to a fair amount but when compared with others who worked less for the same amount, they were dissatisfied.  It was in the comparison that they decided they were unhappy.  It was in the comparison that they saw others who were paid the same.  It was in the comparison that they felt hurt and pained that they did not get more.  What does it take to make us happy?  What does it take to give us satisfaction?  Are we continuously reviewing and revising what will make us happy so that we never know what will give us joy? 

Just like the laborers in the parable, we grumble and murmur against the house-holder.  We want what we see others having and believe what we see that others have, will make us happy.  Yet there are always others.  There is always dissatisfaction with what we have in comparison to what others have.  There is always that which we see in others that we want for ourselves.  Our happiness, our joy, our completeness is in others.  And yet there is nothing on this earth that we see that will fill us with the joy and happiness that comes from the knowledge of who we are in Christ.  For it is in the knowledge of being the children of God our Father and his love for us, that we can come to know who we are.  And it is in that knowledge that we are fulfilled. 

No gift or thing or object can substitute for the complete and fulfilling love that comes from God our Father.  Nothing else can compare.  And when you know his love nothing else is needed.  In this life, nothing else can compare, nothing else will satisfy.  If you yearn, if you seek, if you desire, with your whole heart, to know who you are, seek him and he will come.  Know him and he will provide.  Embrace him and you will be filled with his love.  And in that moment you will know that there is nothing else that can compare to the love that the Father has for you, thanks to the passion of Christ Jesus.

Read the sign of the times! Read the Highlighted New Testament Bible and lift the scales from your eyes that you may see, that you may know, that you may find the truth of who you are in Christ. Read it as though you would read a good book, from cover to cover, and see for yourself. Do not study it in parts reading one passage and then skipping to another, but read it for understanding. Read it for knowledge. Read it for faith. Read it that your eyes may be opened, that your ears may hear, that your heart may be filled with the light of Christ. The Holy Spirit awaits you. Christ seeks to know you.  Open the door and let him in.  

St Matthew, Chapter 20, verse: 9, The Call of the Laborers: payment to last.

Our paragraph topic is:  (Parable of the laborers in the vineyard)
Part 12.  

The time has now come for reward.  All the laborers are called to receive their payment for their labors.  Some have worked from the beginning of the day through the heat and blaring sun.  Some have only worked an hour.  And the last that were called have hardly worked at all.  And now comes the time for reward, the time for payment, the time for the end of the contract.

Christ is telling this parable to his disciples and to those today who are reading his words.  There is a message.  There is a lesson.  There is enlightenment that comes with an inner understanding of the living word.  Who will understand?  Who will receive the message?  Who will be enlightened by the words that are given to us today, passed down through the centuries of written text.  The spirit will open the hearts of the chosen that they may see and understand.  "Now when they of the eleventh hour came, they received each a denarius."

The eleventh hour has come.  The time for reckoning has come.  The time when all work ends.  The time for judgment comes.  What will you receive?  What will I receive?  Only the judge knows.  Only the house-holder knows.  We can imagine that we have done good deeds in our lives.  We have tried to follow the commandments.  We have done all that was given of us to do.  What will we receive? 

We do not know of that which has not been given us.  We only know that which has been promised to us by Christ's words.  He has promised that he will be with us even to the ends of the world.  He has promised that he has gone to make a place for us in his father's house that has many mansions.  He has promised that he will not leave us orphaned that we will have the advocate that will come to us, to help us, to guide us, to protect us along the way.  He has told us not to be anxious, for the Father know of our needs.  And he has told us that if we love him and keep his commandments that we will be in him just as he is in the Father.

A denarius is what they received, those who were last.  A denarius is what they received, those who started to work at the eleventh hour.  A denarius is what they received, those who found work after waiting so long in the market place without giving up hope that they would find work.  Are we still hopeful?  Are we still faithful that we too will be found?  Do we still desire to find our work at the eleventh hour or have we given up in our search?

The eleventh hour comes soon for some.  The eleventh hour comes without warning for others.  The eleventh hour seems like it will never come and some would take time into their own hands and make the eleventh hour appear for their own purposes.  What will you do when the eleventh hour comes?  Will you be prepared?  Will you be ready? 

Remain hopeful and you will find your way.  Continue searching and you will find that which is yours.  Seek that which is real and meaningful and not that which is temporary, meaningless, and unfulfilling.  If your search is real and genuine, you will discover the truth that is waiting for you.  It knocks waiting for you to answer.  The voice from within calls you to know him.  Your heart knows the truth.  Open the door and receive your reward.

Read the sign of the times! Read the Highlighted New Testament Bible and lift the scales from your eyes that you may see, that you may know, that you may find the truth of who you are in Christ. Read it as though you would read a good book, from cover to cover, and see for yourself. Do not study it in parts reading one passage and then skipping to another, but read it for understanding. Read it for knowledge. Read it for faith. Read it that your eyes may be opened, that your ears may hear, that your heart may be filled with the light of Christ. The Holy Spirit awaits you. Christ seeks to know you.  Open the door and let him in. 

St Matthew, Chapter 20, verse: 2, The Laborer's agreement.

Our paragraph topic is:  (Parable of the laborers in the vineyard) Part 2. 

Christ continues to educate his disciples on the kingdom of heaven by using a parable.  He tells them that the kingdom of heaven is like a house-holder who needs laborers to work in his vineyard.  The owner goes out to the market place and hires laborers to do the work.  He makes an agreement with them to do the work and he agrees to pay them for the work that they will do.  The agreement is for one denarius to work in the vineyard all day.  The laborers agree and go to work in the vineyard.

The disciples understand this concept because they themselves have hired laborers to work with them and have made agreements before the work has begun.  The process is simple.  The procedure is standard and used by most laborers and those seeking to hire laborers.  So Christ told his disciples:  "And having agreed with the laborers for a denarius a day, he sent them into his vineyard."

We are given this example because most can relate to being hired for work.  In today's world we make application and have an interview and the personnel representative makes the decision to hire based on the needs of the position and the company.  We seek to work and they seek to hire.  We agree to work for a price and they agree to pay the price that we agree.  In most cases the pay is already set in writing.  So Christ is giving his disciples and us, today, a living example that we can use to compare to the kingdom of heaven. 

Why does he want us to think of the kingdom of heaven as a work-laborer relationship?  Why does he want us to understand the parallel between the two?  What are the similarities?  What are the differences?  Are we being called to work in the kingdom?  Are we being offered a work-laborer relationship?  What is our pay?  What is our compensation?  What work are we required to do?

Christ came that we would have life and have it more abundantly.  He came that we would know the truth of who we are in him.  He came to pay the price for our transgressions.  And having paid that price, he came that we would be released from the bondage of our past sins and given a new opportunity to enter into the kingdom of heaven.  We are cleansed.  We are justified.  And we are newly born again.  He has offered the invitation to work in his vineyard.  He has agreed to pay the wages for the work.  The decision is ours to make if we want to work in his vineyard.  Or the decision is ours if we want to work in the vineyard of death. 

Christ calls us.  Christ wants us.  Christ has given us the opportunity.  But it is ours to accept or to reject.  Each one and everyone has the decision to make.  What will yours be?  Who will you work for?  What will be your reward?  Come!  Let us go and work for the Lord that he may provide for us.  The harvest is great but the laborers are few.  Are you one?

Read the sign of the times! Read the Highlighted New Testament Bible and lift the scales from your eyes that you may see, that you may know, that you may find the truth of who you are in Christ. Read it as though you would read a good book, from cover to cover, and see for yourself. Do not study it in parts reading one passage and then skipping to another, but read it for understanding. Read it for knowledge. Read it for faith. Read it that your eyes may be opened, that your ears may hear, that your heart may be filled with the light of Christ. The Holy Spirit awaits you. Christ seeks to know you.  Open the door and let him in.