Matthew 20:13-16

"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?
So the last shall be first, and the first last: for many be called, but few chosen."
Matthew 20:13-16


This is interesting.  We complain a lot about "fairness" in life... this person works less and gets paid more... this person breaks commandments but gets blessed more... whatever it is.  And, it's true that life isn't fair.  I think it is also true that we don't want fairness.  We want to look at someone else and see ourselves as better... to have some external proof of how cool we are.  It's also true I think that if we really got fairness, we wouldn't like it.  In the end, Christ was the only one who could really make it through this life without sin, and the only one who could win the prize "fairly."  ... What we really need is a boatload of mercy... of someone making up for our faults and our mistakes.
These verses are from the parable of the laborers in the field, and it is at the end where the people who worked all day get paid the same as the people who worked an hour.  And maybe if we look at it from the perspective of the people who were first hired, it seems unfair.  But I submit to you that none of us are in that group.  I surmise that we're all desperately in need of salvation for only working part of the day... and with this story, as with life, if we look at it in a humble way, and assume that we're the ones in need, it is a story of great mercy and love.  Today, let's be grateful for the incredible mercy that God offers us by granting us salvation through Christ's atonement.  And let's try to be kind to the people around us who are also in need of mercy, from us as well as from God.  In Zion, does it really matter whether we have worked a little more than one another?  Let's be grateful to have the opportunity to be together.