We find the message in so many parables of Jesus to be shocking. As Donald Kraybill writes in The Upside Down Kingdom:

“Again and again in his parables, his sermons, and his actions, Jesus startles us. Things are not like they are supposed to be. The stories don’t end as we expected. 

“The Good Guys turn out to be the Bad Guys. The ones we expected to receive a reward get chastised . . . The least are the greatest. The immoral people receive forgiveness and a blessing. Adults become like children. The religious miss out on the heavenly banquet… The kingdom surprises us again and again by turning our world upside down.”

There is a parable in which those who labor only one hour receive the same pay as those who toil in the hot sun all day long. This confounds our usual ways of thinking. Philip Yancey asserts that there is an “atrocious mathematics” at the heart of this gospel (Matthew 20:1-16).  Yancey writes, “Jesus’ story makes no economic sense, and that was his intention. He was giving us a parable about grace, which cannot be calculated like a day’s wages. 

Grace is not about finishing last or first, grace is about not counting.”

JUST WHEN THE CATERPILLAR THOUGHT ITS LIFE WAS OVER, IT BEGAN TO FLY!

When did God’s grace help you to fly?

I DESERVE NOTHING, BUT GOD GIVES ME EVERYTHING!

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