That’s Not Fair!
If you’re a parent, you’ve heard it and as a kid, you’ve said it.
“That’s not fair!”
It’s human nature. We don’t have to be taught to look out for #1. We don’t like it when bad things happen to good people and if we’re honest, we don’t like it when good things happen to bad people either.
Why not?
Because it doesn’t seem fair. This was the cry of Jonah’s heart when God asked him to preach repentance to the people of Ninevah. He didn’t want God to show mercy to them because they didn’t deserve it. We love grace for ourselves and would never want to be judged by our works. And we can accept that God deals this way with most people. It doesn’t bother us to think of others like ourselves, who are “mostly good”, having their sins and shortcomings overlooked. But there are others who don’t deserve this mercy… the serial killer who converts in jail; deathbed confessions of evil people; and for Jonah, the people of Ninevah.
Jesus understood this tendency of man and in response, gave us the parable of the Workers in the Field. Read Matthew 20:1-16. What this story depicts is a vineyard owner who hires laborers at various points in the day to work in his field; early in the morning and at the 3rd, 6th, 9th, and 11th hours. At the end of the day, the workers were each paid a denarius, which was the agreed upon wage. But though the 1st shift workers had agreed to work for this amount, it did not seem fair that they receive the same wage as those who had worked far less.
“These men who were hired last worked only one hour and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day”, they complained. On it’s face, this does not seem an outrageous perspective. The late-comers did not deserve to be rewarded in the same way. To Jonah’s mind, the Ninevites, even if they repented, did not deserve to enjoy the same grace that he and his people did. After all, the Israelites kept the law and their list of national sins was not nearly as repulsive. Grace for me but not for thee.
The response of the vineyard owner echoes the heart of God. “Friend, I am not being unkind to you. Didn’t you agree to work for a denarius? Take your pay and go. I want to give the man I hired last the same as I gave you. Don’t I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?” Recall that Jonah expressed something similar when he told the Lord that he fled to Tarshish because “I knew that you are a compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity”. In other words, a God who isn’t fair.
Jeremiah asked “Why do the wicked prosper?” David asked, “How long, O Lord, will the wicked prevail?” And don’t we often look at the injustice in our world and say, “Lord, why don’t you punish???” We hope that others get what they deserve. Because that would be fair. How easy it is to see the “speck” in our brother’s eye but not the “plank” in our own.
There is no chance that in heaven we will be disgruntled by anyone we see. We won’t be frustrated by God’s mercy and will finally understand that there really was no one righteous. That we were all equally guilty. That there were no “bad” people and “good” people. We were always just a bunch of hopeless sinners; a bunch of Ninevites in need of an opportunity to repent. We will be thankful that none of us got what we deserved.
~ Melissa Gibbs has been a member of LIFE Fellowship for over 10 years, is the mother to four boys and widow of the late JD Gibbs.