Matthew 20:11-15 -- On Evil Eyes

"And when they had received it, they murmured against the goodman of the house,
Saying, These last have wrought but one hour, and thou hast made them equal unto us, which have borne the burden and heat of the day.
But he answered one of them, and said, Friend, I do thee no wrong: didst not thou agree with me for a penny?
Take that thine is, and go thy way: I will give unto this last, even as unto thee.
Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine own? Is thine eye evil, because I am good?"
Matthew 20:11-15


This is the ending to the parable of the laborers in the vineyard, and I think what is interesting to me is the statement "thou hast made them equal unto us," as though that were a bad thing, and then the correction from the householder, calling out the evil eye, or in other words, the perspective that wants things to be unbalanced as long as they are in our favor, but then turns around and asks for fairness/equality when we are "losing" in comparison with others.  To this type of thinking God says "ye say, The way of the Lord is not equal.  Hear now, O house of Israel; Is not my way equal? are not your ways unequal?" (Ezekiel 18:25, 29).

It's a really tough lesson to learn because we really honestly believe that some people are better than others... and we live in a social system that reinforces the idea that some people have more stuff because they have more "merit" than others, for various reasons.  And although this system seems perfectly valid to us (unless we are in the middle of a medical disaster or limited by our opportunities, etc.), since we were raised in it, there are some stark differences between the world's system and God's ideal of a Zion society.  Not saying that our system doesn't have a lot of good things about it, but there are a lot of poor things about it as well, which result in a lot of inequality.  And God tells us that we "are to be equal" (D&C 82:17), or at least "in your temporal things you shall be equal, and this not grudgingly" (D&C 70:14).

Today, let's learn to love more perfectly, and avoid having an evil eye and seeing other people's blessings as somehow diminishing us... or other people's tragedy as just repayment for character flaws, when we are all similarly flawed, albeit in different areas.  Let's be grateful that God is willing to save us, and save others, even though we're all different and all so very imperfect.