The 11th hour

Today marks the 95th anniversary of the armistice (truce) signed between the Allies of World War I and Germany at Compiegne, France which took effect on the "eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month."

My iWitness...
For many of us when we think of the 11th hour we think of something being "decided or accomplished" at the last minute. In fact, the term "11th hour" comes from a parable that Jesus shares with us.

Jesus tells a great parable where a certain number of workers were hired early in the morning around 6:00 am and were told they would receive a hundred dollars for their day's work in the vineyard. And so the day began. Around noon the manager realized he was going to need more workers. More workers were hired for the same wage even though they started at noon. Even later in the day around 5:00 in the afternoon, the "11th hour" of the day's work period, more workers were hired at the same rate.

When the 6:00 pm whistle blew the manager started handing out the $100 bills. The 6 o'clockers received their "Benjamin Franklins". Then the "nooners" received their $100. Last but not least, the 5 o'clock crowd received their "100 dollar an hour" award.

The inevitable took place around 6:05 pm. The outcry of injustice from the early workers was loud and clear. "Wait a minute! How is that they (the 12 o'clock and 5 o'clock workers) get paid just as much a we do? They hardly put in as much time as we did. Where is the justice in that? If you're going to do that then go ahead and pay us more!"

That's been my reaction every time I have read this parable. It just doesn't seem fair.
Is that where your mind goes?

Why is it that our feeble minds immediately move in the direction of fairness, justice and equality?

Why do we not move in the direction Jesus initially desired for us to go? The intended direction is for us to concentrate on the manager (God) not the worker (us).

The point is this:

The generosity of God is so great, so gracious, so overflowing, so "over the top" that we all receive the same reward whether we have been working in the vineyard of life for eight hours or just one.

I am one of the 6 o'clockers. I have been at "work" in the Christian life for a full lifetime just about. Won't you please join me in welcoming and celebrating God's grace and generosity to those "workers" who have just joined the workforce whether it be the 6th hour or even the 11th hour...

And that's my iWitness...
Laugh often and Fear not!
David!

ps - To our Veterans... I raise my right hand to salute you for serving our country! Thank you! Today, at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month I will take one minute of silence to honor you this day. After which I will take one more minute to honor and remember the fallen and those precious families who have been left behind.

“For the kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. ² After agreeing with the laborers for a denarius a day, he sent them into his vineyard. ³ And going out about the third hour he saw others standing idle in the marketplace, ⁴ and to them he said, ‘You go into the vineyard too, and whatever is right I will give you.’ ⁵ So they went. Going out again about the sixth hour and the ninth hour, he did the same. ⁶ And about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing. And he said to them, ‘Why do you stand here idle all day?’ ⁷ They said to him, ‘Because no one has hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You go into the vineyard too.’ ⁸ And when evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Call the laborers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last, up to the first.’ ⁹ And when those hired about the eleventh hour came, each of them received a denarius. ¹⁰ Now when those hired first came, they thought they would receive more, but each of them also received a denarius. ¹¹ And on receiving it they grumbled at the master of the house, ¹² saying, ‘These last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat.’ ¹³ But he replied to one of them, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius? ¹⁴ Take what belongs to you and go. I choose to give to this last worker as I give to you. ¹⁵ Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or do you begrudge my generosity?’ ¹⁶ So the last will be first, and the first last.” (Matthew 20. 1-16)