The prayer series

Jesus,

The story you teach us is strange –
“the parable of the workers in the vineyard.” (Matthew 20:1-16).

A person working 9 hours and a person working 1 hour are paid the same.
A person bearing the burden of the work and the heat of the day
and a person working only one cool hour about five in the afternoon
are paid the same.

Why?
Why is the kingdom of heaven like that?
Is God fair to everyone?

…

The owner of the vineyard is God.
So the vineyard is the kingdom of heaven.

We all are persons standing in the marketplace and doing nothing.
Then the landowner comes and calls some of us.
He say, “go and work in my vineyard,
and I will pay you whatever is right.”

So we are called by God
not because of how good we are,
but because of the will of God.

Thanks to the call of God,
we can work and have a better life.

A better life in the kingdom of heaven means the peaceful life.
Peace is the thing God gives us when we work for God.

So although we work 9 hours or 1 hour,
although we bear the burden of the work and the heat of the day,
or only working a little at the end of the day,
we all are paid the same –
The peaceful life.

If we know what a reward when working for God is,
perhaps we will seek God earnestly.
We long for God.
And when God calls us,
we will be happy to be the hardest workers in the longest hours.

The story you teach us is good.
Thank you, Jesus.

Amen.

PTH