What is that to you? You follow Me. . .

Sometimes the work God is doing puzzles me. He might use an uneducated, simple person as a soul-winner, but not a person trained in evangelism. He might bring thousands to Himself through a missionary in one country and yet another disciple working just as hard in a different country has little or no converts.

I suppose there are people who reject the kingdom of God because they don’t want to share it with others who seem less worthy. They put people in a status system and think God should have the same scale. Why should a thief on the cross occupy the same eternal home as a person who was saved in childhood and walked with Him all their life? Why should a repentant murderer go to the same glory as a ‘good’ person?

Today’s reading responds to some of those ideas. It is from Matthew 20. Jesus is telling a parable about a land owner who hires some workers early in the morning, and others later in the day, but they are all paid the same amount.

“So when evening had come, the owner of the vineyard said to his steward, ‘Call the laborers and give them their wages, beginning with the last to the first.’ And when those came who were hired about the eleventh hour, they each received a denarius. But when the first came, they supposed that they would receive more; and they likewise received each a denarius. And when they had received it, they complained against the landowner, saying, ‘These last men have worked only one hour, and you made them equal to us who have borne the burden and the heat of the day.’ But he answered one of them and said, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius? Take what is yours and go your way. I wish to give to this last man the same as to you. Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with my own things?”

In other words, God is God, and He can do whatever He wants with His people. It’s really none of my business to even ask why or what He is doing with others who follow Him.

Peter did. Before Jesus ascended, He told this impetuous disciple that he would die a martyr’s death. At that, Peter turned and asked Jesus about John. Jesus replied, “If I desire that he remain till I come, what is that to you? You follow Me.”

Again, God reminds me that my business is to pay attention to my own spiritual life. While He might ask me to teach and encourage others, what He does with them, and what He does in His kingdom, even in His entire creation, is up to Him.