Fair's Fair

In Matthew 19, A rich man came to Jesus. He said “Good master, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” “Why do you call me good?” Jesus said. “There is none good but God.” Jesus told him to obey the commandments. The man responded by saying “which ones?” We break commandments all the time. Can we say that any commandment is less important than another? Jesus goes on to tell the rich man he should be perfect. If he wanted to be perfect, he had one more thing to do—sell everything and follow Him. It was a price too big for him to play. He went away. He couldn’t let go of his possessions. But his story isn’t about the rich man. It’s about Peter and the other who watched this go down. Peter was a working class boy. He’d seen the kind of person this rich kid was—pampered and spoiled. Who could blame him if he felt satisfaction at seeing this boy put down? He wondered. Is it really fair, if at this late date, this rich boy gave it all up and followed Jesus, he would get the same reward as him? So he said in verse 27. "We have left everything to follow you! What then will there be for us?" What if this rich kid had repented and he had received eternal life? Is it fair for this kid to get what he got? Is it fair for him to receive the kingdom just like Peter and the others, who had followed Jesus for three years? How could this boy have what they had. I’ve heard this same sentiment in the church. Old families think they should be treated more favorably than young families. New believers have been told they should take a back seat to old ones? There is no limitation in the Kingdom. If you get a piece, that doesn’t make my piece any smaller. But Jesus assures Peter in 28 and 29: "I tell you the truth, at the renewal of all things, when the Son of Man sits on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life.” Jesus adds “Many who are first will be last, and many who are last will be first.” He repeats this in verse 20:16. Between these two, He tells this parable. Matthew 20:1-16 "For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire men to work in his vineyard. He agreed to pay them a denarius for the day and sent them into his vineyard. About the third hour he went out and saw others standing in the marketplace doing nothing. He told them, 'You also go and work in my vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.' So they went. He went out again about the sixth hour and the ninth hour and did the same thing. About the eleventh hour he went out and found still others standing around. He asked them, 'Why have you been standing here all day long doing nothing?' "'Because no one has hired us,' they answered. "He said to them, 'You also go and work in my vineyard.' "When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, 'Call the workers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last ones hired and going on to the first.' "The workers who were hired about the eleventh hour came and each received a denarius. So when those came who were hired first, they expected to receive more. But each one of them also received a denarius. When they received it, they began to grumble against the landowner. 'These men who were hired last worked only one hour,' they said, 'and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day.' "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?' "So the last will be first, and the first will be last." The workers have a point. If you hire one man and he works for twelve hours and you give him one denarius, then hire a man to work for one hour and you give him one denarius too, the second man makes twelve times as much per houcr as the first. When they complain, the boss says it’s none of their business if he wants to be generous. Jesus lets this stand as a rebuke to those who insist on fairness. What does it mean to be fair? The online dictionary lists more than sixteen meanings of fair. Among them are: o Free from bias, dishonesty, or injustice, ex. a fair decision. o Proper under the rules: a fair fight. o Moderately large or ample: a fair amount. o Moderately or tolerably good: a fair health o without irregularity or unevenness: a fair surface. o pleasing in appearance; attractive: a fair young maiden. o Having stable and normal vital signs: fair condition. What these definitions have in common is evenness. Fair is even, smooth, and balanced. Fairness is everyone getting the proper amount. In a fair world, everyone would have the same. Those who worked a full work day would be paid the same for the same hourly work. Lawyers would bet ten dollars an hour instead of two hundred. Or else laborers would be paid fifty, like auto mechanics. But who decides the amount everyone should be paid? Should we all get ten dollars or fifty for the same work? Who determines the equivalency of work, anyway? No one can agree with what’s fair. But that doesn’t stop us from arguing about it. We don’t know what’s fair in our families. Husbands and wives can never agree on what’s fair. Should the man take out the garbage? Should the woman cook and be expected to cut the grass? Anyone who has ever raised children has been told that they are “no fair.” We question whether God is fair. We say to God that it isn’t fair a loved one died. It isn’t fair that we get sick, or get a cold, or lose the lottery. We go through the same problems the rest of the world does, but somehow we think that God is particularly picking on us. Wars have been fought over fairness. The Germans resented the way they were treated after World War I, and this led to World War II. Criminals often have the greatest since of fairness. They justify their crimes it by claiming life wasn’t fair to them so they have the right to cheat and get what’s coming to them. It isn’t always fair to be fair. Mercy is greater. If we all got what we deserved, none of us would have anything. Besides, who decides what’s coming to us? Jesus said “Judge not, lest ye be judged.” Jesus did not mean that we should judge unless absolutely necessary, not even judge whether or not life if fair. Our sense of fairness and judgment is so flawed by sin that it is largely unusable. No matter how wise we think we are, we are not wise enough to judge other people, or God. “The last shall be first and the first last,” Jesus said. Those who have the most to be forgiven will get the most forgiveness. That doesn’t mean that the rest of us can’t be forgiven, too. It just means that God is in charge of settling accounts. This isn’t easy. The itch to judge is so deep in us that we just have to scratch it God put it in us for a reason—one day we’ll judge the earth. Until then, we must refrain. The desire to judge is much like the desire for sex. God put the capacity to judge in us for a particular time and place. When we need to decide what’s fair, that capacity is in us. Until then, we learn and grow more from not using it than from using it. We refrain from judging what’s fair for the same reason a teenager ought to refrain from sex, because or judgment is not fully formed. We are too immature to use it. But how? The desire to judge is strong in us. If we don’t watch it, it will be all we think about. There are people in this world who are as obsessed with judging as others are obsessed with sex. They have to justify or condemn ever situation. They have an opinion on everything, no matter how ill-informed they are on the subject. They divide people into two categories. . Everyone is either good or bad to them. Everything that happens is either fair or unfair. They think that the whole world is their business. First, recognize our own limitations. We can’t judge because we never know all the facts. Our judgment is based on our knowledge, what we see and hear. It cannot be based on what we do not know. To judge people now is not to have all the facts at hand. Second, recognize our own sinfulness. Even if we had all the facts, our selfishness and sinfulness gets in the way. We have all been hurt, too. Even if we were absolutely sinless, we could not avoid bringing our own prejudices and pain into any decision we make. Third, recognize God’s completeness. The real reason we do not judge is because to judge is to usurp the place of God. He is the judge, jury, and the executioner of the wicked. He doesn’t need our help. “God isn’t fair.” Think for a moment about the absurdity of that remark. How could the one who invented what’ fair be unfair? If he did it, by definition it becomes fair. Besides, if God weren’t fair, how would we know? Are we in a position to judge Him, when we can’t possibly know what He knows? If God is unfair, we should be grateful. If God treated us fairly, we would all be judged. It is only our arrogance which makes us think that we deserve better treatment than we get. Letting go of fairness is a liberating experience. Once we give up being the world’s regulators, we can get on with enjoying ourselves. We can celebrate the magnificent generosity of God, without worrying about what other had. Think for a moment about those day laborers in Jesus’ parable. In the first batch of laborers, there was more than one hired. Let’s suppose at the end of the day, one complained of mistreatment, because others got what he got. Now let’s suppose there was one who didn’t complain. While one complains, the other goes home. He is out living life, while the other is grumbling and stewing. There are two ways we can live this life. One is to be God’s policemen, judging others, trying to regulate the fairness of the world, and failing at every turn to be really fair. The other way is to let God be His own policeman, and live instead in the enjoyment of His blessing. As we said last week, he Kingdom of Heaven is a party. It is much better to be a guest, than to be the bouncer.