When Life Isn't Fair - Matthew 20:1-16a

There are a number of angles from which we could look at today’s Gospel, but I will chose to approach it by asking this question: Do you believe that life has been fair to you? This is probably a question that’s been raised in the minds of many of us over these last 6 months or so.
          
There was an interesting article in Christianity Today, written by a pastor in British Columbia named Mark Buchanan entitled, “Life’s unfair, and that is ok.” The sub head read, “Even when life disturbs, disfigures, or destroys, God whispers, “If you do what is right, it will go well with you.”

We’ve all faced unfairness and inequity in our lives. With all that has happened in the past year, misfortune may have nipped at many of us.  We may look out the window at certain neighbors and see that, while we have been knocked around from all sides, their lives may seem to have been unphased, unfettered and maybe even thriving. And sadly, sometimes, we may get into the dangerous territory of comparing.

Mr. Buchanan says in the article, “Life isn’t fair. There is a lopsidedness and randomness to its distribution of windfalls and pitfalls and pratfalls.  Who will get sick? Who will get rich? Who will be beautiful? Who will be healthy? Who will be made lame? Is there any logic to any of this?”

We may know of someone, maybe even ourselves, who has lived a good, Christian life, who soaks themselves in God’s Word, who in their workplace has a wide range of professional expertise and experience, who, like the first round of laborers in the vineyard in today’s Gospel, were first in line to carry the burden of work, who does everything right, but end up getting passed over for a promotion, is befallen with health issues, or maybe, has been laid off. To some, it may almost seem like God and the devil made a bad wager, to see if a good man (or woman) could be broken, or to see if all if this good man (or woman) would curse God. 

Psalm 73 discusses this frustration of the just people as they covet what God seems to have freely given to the unjust. It reads, “I envied the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. They have no struggles. Their bodies are healthy and strong. They are free of the burdens common to man. They are not plagued by human ills (as I have).  Surely in vain have I kept my heart pure! In vain have I washed my hands in innocence!  All day long I have been plagued, I have been punished.”
 
In the midst of what seems like life’s unending unfairness, our options narrow down to something so simple that it seems cliqued. God essentially says, “Do the right thing. Have the right attitude.” As Christian commentator, Bill Pearce put it, “This is God’s brusque (rather blunt) way of saying live by faith.” Don’t worry. Life may seem unfair, and even nonsensical, but we must remember, as the first reading tells us, God’s thoughts are not our thoughts, nor our ways His ways.

God is God and we are not, and we find ourselves in the uncomfortable position of not being able to negotiate with God. We can’t really reason with Him. We see this in the Gospel, where the early arriving laborer attempts to reason with the landowner. We see it also in the story of Cain and Abel, where Cain felt that he was being treated unfairly.

Cain kept claiming that God liked his brother Abel more than himself. So, God responds to Cain, simply giving him a choice, saying ‘Why are you so resentful and crestfallen? If you do well (what is right), you will be accepted. But if you do not do what is right, sin is a demon lurking at the door. It desires to have you, but you must master it.”

God’s words held their meaning. God did love Abel and showed favor to him. Cain, choose to do what was not right, and killed Abel out of envy.  This may have us thinking, why would God allow Abel, the just one, and who appeared to be favored by God, to be killed by Cain, the unjust (the envious) one? Well, it brings us back to our premise, life isn’t fair. In the end, the difference between Cain and Abel can be distilled to one factor- faith. Evidently Abel had faith but Cain did not. So we can conclude, the last became first and the first became last.
                                                                                   
If we think of it, God had a propensity for this, to favor one family member over another or one group over another throughout scripture. Jacob over Esau, Joseph over his brothers, David over his brothers, the prodigal son over the frugal son. And in each situation, it was an embittering thing for those who felt they received the short straw.

Why the inequity? Why does one lose out and feel like a cast away or worse, and the other is perceived to be elevated or exulted?

If there is one word that will help us to, maybe not understand, but accept this inequity it would be sovereignty, God’s sovereignty. If we look it up in the dictionary, we basically find that sovereignty means that God is in charge, and he knows all the reasons, and he is allowing things into our lives that we may conclude are unfair. But we’re not able to see the bigger picture. The end of the story has not yet been written, and we may go to our grave not knowing the ‘why’. We must have faith.

God’s ways are so far beyond our ways. We’re promised that the last will eventually become the first and the first will eventually become the last. Our faith must show through in these four things: Trust and belief and acceptance and surrender to God’s will. In what I think may be the most illustrative line in this Gospel, the landowner asks the laborer, “Am I not free to do as I wish with my own money?” We must honor God’s sovereignty.

So much depends on how we interpret the phrase that God delivered to Cain “If you what is right, you will be accepted.” Is God promising that if Cain or any of us does the right thing when we are at the crossroads that we’ll prosper in health, finances and relationships? Most likely, not.

God promises us that he will carry us through our challenges, but do it through his own prescription.  We will ultimately be “accepted”, or as another translation of that line reads, “Go well”, but not necessarily through the idyllic, undisturbed life that we might have wished for or prayed for. God’s definition about wellness is not about health, finances or job security. It’s not about protection from a broken world. It’s not about life being fair. It’s about acceptance, loving, and trusting a God who loves us so much we would never be able to define it. It’s about God accepting us as his own. It’s not about being spared from difficulty or even death. It’s about being spared from the second death. The death that separates us from him eternally.

God has given us the power of choice. We can choose to elect the negatives or we can apply the positive. It’s a choice we get to make. In this world of unfairness, God loves us, and as we trust in him, and have faith in him, we’re going to make it. But we’ll make it in his way.

Those who exercise faith in Jesus Christ are looking forward to a better day, where there will be no unfairness. But in the meantime, we walk by faith and not by sight. If we do, we will (as Mark Buchanan says) find that our God, who walks with us through the valley of the shadow of death, is infinitely better than a dull, safe god who lulls us on the borderlands, seducing us with false comforts, spinning a cocoon around us that does not protect. It only entraps.  And from which, we emerge wingless.”

And so, we thank you Lord for being our shelter and our strength.  Our view is so often very narrow and obstructed. Help us steer away from comparing ourselves to our brothers and sisters. And help us steer our lives toward greater faith, trust, obedience, surrender and your will. You are loving God who loves us more than we can imagine. Help us live our lives as if we truly believe it! We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen!