Last Minute

This is such a well-known parable told by Jesus about the workers in the vineyard (Matthew 20:1-16). And as we see, each worker is paid the same amount at the end of the day – whether he has been slogging through the heat since sunrise or simply swanned in for the last hour of work.

And yet Jesus says that this is a picture of the Kingdom of Heaven! Jesus’ hearers were outraged by this apparent gross unfairness. And I, also, have remained baffled – all my life, I think.

Until now! I have been reading Ezekiel. Ezekiel clearly lays out how this works: the past righteousness of the righteous person won’t save him if, in the end, he turns to evil; but nor will the wickedness of the wicked man be held against him when he turns away from his wickedness (see Ezekiel 33:12). And then I suddenly found myself thinking of the thief on the cross with Jesus.

That thief knew he had done stuff for which he deserved the death penalty. We don’t know when he was arrested or imprisoned, but he and Jesus were together on that night when Jesus was betrayed. He watched as Jesus was tortured: as He was lashed on His back until His skin was in ribbons. He watched as Jesus was mocked with the thorn ‘crown’ and as He was abused and hit and spat upon.  It was the reward of the guards to torture prisoners. This was their depraved moment of power. They all joined in. And Jesus submitted to it all.

The thief watched. And when they hammered huge nails into His hands and hung Jesus on the cross, the thief was overwhelmed by the silent grace of Jesus to His torturers – even as He spoke His total forgiveness for what they were doing to Him.

At that moment of his own punishment by crucifixion, the thief recognised Jesus as King and entered the kingdom of Heaven as he died. Like the last-minute workers in the vineyard of Jesus’ story, he received something he had no way deserved. He experienced forgiveness and God’s overwhelming undeserved grace.