St Matthew, Chapter 20, verse: 10a, The thoughts of those who came first.

Our paragraph topic is:  (Parable of the laborers in the vineyard) Part 13.

We continue the story of the laborers working in the vineyard of the house-holder.  The time has come to receive payment for the work.  The time has come for assessment.  The time has come for us to understand what how we think of ourselves and how we value who we are.  As in the parable those who were first had worked all day.  They had labored in the heat and sun of the day.  They worked more than anyone else. 

They saw the vineyard as they began to work early in the morning.  They saw the harvest.  They knew that the crop was ready to be picked and knew the amount of work that was needed to complete the task.  As they began their work they saw others come into the vineyard.  As each hour went by they continued to see other workers enter the vineyard to work.  They may have wondered what those who came after them would be paid.  They knew that they had agreed to work for a denarius.  But what were the others to be paid?  Would they receive less?  Would they get paid based on the time that they worked?  And then came those who were last to enter the vineyard.  What would they get paid?  "And when the first in their turn came, they thought that they would receive more."

What would you think?  Should they get more?  Should they be compensated because they worked longer, because they worked more, because they came first?  They saw the others that came into the vineyard.  They thought that they were privileged because they came first.  They believed that they deserved more.  They knew within themselves that they would be compensated more.  They worked with pride.  They worked with jealousy because they had persuaded themselves that they were better, they were more, they were the first to come.

Are these the traits that we portray today in our work?  Do we think the same way?  We came first.  We worked harder.  We deserve more than they do.  We make comparisons to our brothers and sisters and determine that we are not the same.  We make comparisons with others and determine that we are better, we are smarter, we are prettier, we are greater, we are better than anyone else.  And we evaluate our own self worth based on these thoughts.  We boost ourselves up and pump up our chests thinking with pride that we are the best.  And when someone else comes along that seems to have more than we do we are deflated.  We get depressed because that person has more than what we have, that person is better, prettier, smarter, more clever, funnier, etc. than we are.  All this we do to ourselves because we make comparisons.

Within each of us lives a spirit.  Within each of us lives a life given to us by God our Father.  And it is that spirit, that life that makes us precious to him.  We are loved no less nor no more than any other of our brothers or sisters.  We receive his love equally with the same amount.  There is no one who he loves less nor no one that he loves more.  He demonstrated his love for us by allowing his son to become human, take on flesh, come and live with us, come and walk with us to teach us of the Father.  His only son whom he loves greatly, he allowed to become man.  And the love that he has for his son is the same love that he has for each and every one of us.

In this world we are given to comparisons.  In the heavenly realm there is no comparison.  There is only love for all.  Despite all the tricks and traps of Satan, in the heavenly realm we are all the same, children of our Father.  And in that realm he loves us equally, whole, and without comparison.  We are his children and he is our Father.  Think not of comparing yourselves.  Think not of who you are with others.  Think not of the physical that you see with the physical eye, but think with the spiritual eye and see the light of life that is in all God's creations and you will know who you are in his love.

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: 8b, The Call of the Laborers: payment from first to last.

Our paragraph topic is:(Parable of the laborers in the vineyard) Part 11. 

We all can relate to this parable because it speaks of working and labor.  We live in a society where we work to provide for ourselves.  Long past has the time gone where we were farmers.  Long past has the time gone where we lived on the land and grew our own food.  We were simple people then.  We are complex people now.  We have choices.  We have chances.  We can be who we want to be.  

This was the same opportunity that the parable speaks of in ancient times.  They came to the market place to work.  They came to the market place to find work.  They came to the market place to earn wages so that they could provide for themselves.  They came to the market place because the market place provided a better opportunity than work on the farm.  They came to the market place because they wanted to get paid.  And as Christ spoke of the owner who told his steward to pay them all:  "Beginning from the last even to the first." 

So we can conclude that all were paid.  The agreement was to work for a denarius and the payment is for a denarius.  All will receive their payment, from the very first who agreed to work to the very last who agreed to work in the vineyard.  And this is the results that Christ wants his disciples to understand about the parable, you work for the kingdom and you will be compensated by the owner of the kingdom.  He will pay.  He will abide by his agreement.  He is reliable, honest, trustworthy, and true to his promise.  He is unlike others who may cheat you.  He is unlike others who may not be reliable.  He is unlike others who may steal from you or run out on you and not pay.  The owner of the vineyard is true to his agreement.

For the agreement is the contract.  The agreement is the bond.  The agreement is the glue that makes it all work.  If there was no agreement then it would all not work.  But it is that agreement that brings the two parties together and provides some form of exchange that satisfies both.  The question is are we satisfied?  Are we in harmony with what we want from the agreement?  Are we certain that the other party in the agreement is trustworthy?  Will the other party provide all that is agreed to?  Will the other party truthfully complete the agreement?  Will the other party lie to complete the agreement?

We live in a world of untruths.  We live in a world that is filled with many shades of grey.  We live in a world where it is acceptable to change the agreement after it has been made or to offer an agreement that is untrue.  We are children.  We are sheep.  We are innocent people seeking to know the truth of who we are.  We seek to be all that we are, to see all that we can see, to know all that there is to know, to experience all that is given us to perceive.  And we do and accept all that is given us that we may reach those goals.  The world is untrue.  The world is a lie.  The world is a deceit.  How can we see through the tainted lenses?

Christ, our lord and savior, came that we would know the truth.  He came that we would have an example.  He came that we would have an open door to see through.  Yet many would only believe that there is no door, that there is no savior, that there is only what we can see, feel, taste, touch and know through our physical senses.  And that puts us at the crossroads of life.  Which direction do we take?  Do we seek the physical or do we believe in the spiritual?  Some would say that there is no evidence to demonstrate the spiritual.  And yet here we are in the flesh, spiritual beings in a physical body. 

Flesh cannot perceive what is meant to be believed.  Flesh cannot see what is meant to be known from within.  Flesh cannot know what is only open to those who will open the door to their heart and receive the gift of life given us by Christ.  Knowledge will not bring it.  Works will not pay for it.  Gifts cannot buy it.  Only desire to open the door to the heart will bring forth the love that Christ has for those who seek to know him.  Come!  Receive your pay, even from the last to the first.  Christ will rejoice in you and you will have peace in him.

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.