Indonesia Journal; Wednesday

21 September, Wednesday; 5 PM

Thank you, thank you, thank you for your prayers! Today I didn’t sweat through my clothes! I got just as excited but I just didn’t sweat near as much as I have been sweating. Thank you for praying. I asked the pastors if it was not as hot today, but they said no, it stays this hot all the time. I just didn’t sweat as much. It made the day much easier.

We began at 8 AM with our song and began looking at the parables of grace from the time of the feeding of the 5,000 to Palm Sunday and the entry of Jesus into Jerusalem. Most of these parables come from Luke’s gospel. He emphasizes in his gospel the teaching of the grace of God. But Matthew has a few of these grace parables too. The hour before lunch we were looking at Matthew 20:1-16, the parable of the laborers and how the last shall be first and the first shall be last. Jesus said that the owner of a vineyard hired laborers at the beginning of the day and agreed with them for 1 denarius for the day’s wage. Then he hired more at 9, then more at noon, others at 3, and finally with one hour left in the day, hired more. Then he started paying the last first and paid them a full day’s wage, as he did the others; 1 denarius for each of the laborers. The last ones, who were the first ones hired protested, expecting to receive more since they worked all day while the last ones hired received the same amount for only one hour of work. The owner scolded the first ones hired reminding them that he paid them what they had agreed upon and asked why they were upset with his generosity.  Then the startling statement, “Take what belongs to you and go.”

We talked about why this was right in God’s eyes and did not seem right in man’s eyes and how grace does not seem to be fair and yet it is more fair and right than we can imagine. We discussed how this can get applied in a business. Jesus is not rewarding laziness nor is He condemning hard work. But there will always be some that are paid more than others and some who will work harder than others. But the point of the parables of grace focus upon the King and His graciousness.

We retold the story for it to have a different ending with the same message, the message of grace. We acted it out with the first ones hired being at the end of the paying line and wondering what the owner way up to by paying in that order, last first, first last. The last in line were amazed at the generosity of the owner and were happy that the last ones hired were blessed with a full day’s wage. Then the last ones received their payment, but said with joy, “Master, you are amazing. All day long we have been with you, watching you work with us, going out to hire others to come and help us, going after others as the day went on to ease our burdens as we grew weary. We knew you to be a kind and generous man and now you have blessed us by allowing us to see your graciousness in giving those hired last so much. But they missed out on something we have enjoyed…being with you for a whole day. Being with you all this time has been our bonus, something they missed out on.”

We all agreed that this was the way the story could have ended. Then something amazing and very funny happened. On Monday I handed out 20 copies of my discipleship materials, Book One, a seven week Bible study guide. Those of you who are in the Pastor’s Class on Sunday morning remember Book One. There were not enough copies so I gave the master copy to the dean and told him to make some more copies at a store. These pastors have been sitting under my teaching Monday, Tuesday, and half a day today, a total of 16 hours so far. During the break at 11 AM several new pastors arrived. At noon when we were ready to break for lunch the dean came in with the new copies of Book One. We called the students up who had not received one on Monday, and still had several copies and started handing them out to the students who just arrived. One of the pastors who had been in class from the beginning said something, which the others quickly responded to, then the whole place burst into laughter. You probably already know what was said, but they could hardly wait to interpret for me. They said that the one pastor asked, “Is he going to give those new guys a book? They just got here.” To which the others responded, “Have you been asleep for the past hour? We just learned about the danger of begrudging generosity.” Then the first pastor said with laughing embarrassment, “I repent of my sin, don’t take my book away!” We all agreed that this is why the crowds grew with parables of the Kingdom and then started dwindling when Jesus told the parables of grace; some don’t like God’s grace; it doesn’t seem right, but God is always right.

We (the pastors and I) are having a good time together, learning together from the parables of Jesus. Tomorrow, the parables of judgment from the last week of Jesus’ life before His resurrection. See if you can identify them. These parables did more than thin out the crowds, it drove them away and led to the most horrendous act of all; betrayal, false accusations, and crucifixion. I pray you will have a good Wednesday; I sure have.