Matthew 20:9-11

“The workers who were hired about five in the afternoon came and each received a denarius. So  when those came who were hired first, they expected to receive more. But each one of them also received a denarius.  When they received it, they began to grumble against the landowner.

From Background Notes [BN] for August 17^th & 18^th written by Pastor Bob Brown:

Jesus has in mind the late-comers to his Kingdom message, those the first-comers can’t stand to be around and refuse to treat as their equals.  They are the outcasts, yet they come to Jesus by invitation, which is “the way of the Kingdom.”

  Those who demand justice are made to see that the Kingdom is also about mercy.  And so when the time comes to “settle accounts,” and the first-comers refuse to relate to the master except through justice, he accepts their terms, but concludes his conversation with sobering words: “Take what is yours, and go.”  This is what happens when people insist on justice and thereby miss the invitation.  Until that moment, the first-comers had been part of the Kingdom, and now they have negotiated it away, ironically, in justice!  [BN,9]

Join us this week in Study, Worship, Praise and Celebration at Chicago First Church of the Nazarene:

* Saturday 6:00pm
* Sunday 8:30am & 11:00am, 5:30pm