Equal Pay for Unequal Work

One of the mantras of the recent election campaign was "equal pay for equal work."   Hillary Clinton used her feminine gender to imply she was one such underpaid woman, and she promised she would champion the rest of the female workforce, by ensuring all women would receive the same pay as their male counterparts for the same work. Being a woman myself, I couldn't agree more (although being in the military, my pay was always based on gender neutral criteria such as time in service and time in grade...so I made the same as a male of the same rank, same time in service....but I digress).  

Segue to my reading and study yesterday...Matthew 20:20-28. The mother of the sons of Zebedee goes up to Jesus and boldly (arrogantly?) demands for her two sons to sit at Jesus' right and left in His kingdom. Of course Jesus goes on to speak about the last being first, and how He came to  serve, not be served. And of course, the disciples, as usual, just were way off base--they kept thinking Jesus was referring to some sort of earthly kingdom or takeover of Rome when he'd speak about His Father's Kingdom...so of course, they wanted to share in some of the spoils of that kingdom. There was much jockeying about for who's first, who's the favorite, teacher's pet, and all that. Fantastic lessons there--the first will be last, and the last will be first. Jesus rebukes them by telling James and John (and the rest of the disciples) that none of them  know what they are asking!  Can they drink His cup (bear His suffering?)  Yes, Lord!  Fine, He says...you will, but only the Father can grant who receives what reward in His kingdom. Powerful lessons.  But I needed more than this. So, as I often do,  I read the verses leading up to this, verses 1-16: the laborers in the vineyard. And this is where my study yesterday dovetails with the equal pay for equal work platform.  

Jesus likens the kingdom of heaven to a master of a house who goes out at various times of the day to hire laborers for his vineyard. The first time he finds laborers eagerly looking for work, and agrees to pay them a denarius for a day's work.  Then, every couple of hours after that, he goes to the marketplace and just sees people idly standing around, so he offers them work too, even though no one else would hire them. All day long, all the way up to an hour before sunset, the master goes out and hires folks to work in his vineyard. Well, when it came time to pay them, each laborer received the same pay....regardless of how long he worked. And when that caused some grumbling among the ones who worked all day, the master told them "you agreed to work for that amount, so take what belongs to you and don't worry what I do with my money. It is mine and I will do with as I please.  

Well, the older I get, the more I realize I wasted years not working in my Lord's vineyard. I idled my time away doing foolish things, and got sidetracked a lot, and often worried too much about earthly pay and earthly rewards.   And while I admit I have at times been jealous of someone who worked fewer hours and received better pay or more recognition, I am ever so grateful and thankful that I will receive the same pay, the same salvation, and the same reward despite doing nothing to earn it. Jesus paid the entire price, He took all the pain, and we get to share in the glory.  As for the laborers in God's kingdom?  Whether we are called early or late, praise God we receive equal pay for unequal work.