Like those first laborers, you have begrudged God’s generosity; like them, you have found fault with how God decides to dispense His blessings and are never quite content with your allotment. Like those workers, you’ve gotten mad over someone else’s happiness. Like them, your heart is prone to bitterness and resentment because you think that God has, somehow, short-changed you. And even though God has generously piled blessing after blessing upon you, you have the nerve to think of Him as miserly toward you, or worse: to doubt His goodness and His promises. And so, based on all of this, like those first laborers, it would be perfectly right for you to likewise hear those most chilling words, “Take what is yours and go your way.” And yet, that’s not what you hear. Instead, Christ Jesus, illustrated here in the benevolent vineyard owner, points to the Cross and says to you: “Take what is Mine—My Body and My Blood, under bread and wine—for your eternal benefit. Take what is Mine—My kingdom, which shall have no end—and consider it your inheritance forever. Take what is Mine—My word of forgiveness—and receive it with joy, and then impart that same forgiveness to others who, like you, do not deserve it.
Readings:
Old Testament: Exodus 17:1-7
Epistle: 1 Corinthians 9:24–10:5
Holy Gospel: Matthew 20:1-16
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