The Last-called Gentiles became First
Compare with the Jews the case of the Gentiles. They were not even permitted to enter into the vineyard until the seventy weeks of special covenant favor which God had made with the Jews had expired. They stood idle in the market-place. If any should ask them why they remained unemployed so long they might truthfully reply:
"Because no man hath hired us”, we were there in the market-place, at least a good many of us were, blindly groping after God, if haply we might find Him. Christ Jesus, He whom Israel rejected, was our desire, although we did not then know even His Name. But how could we find Him, till He revealed Himself to us? Or enter His service until He taught us what His service was, and bade us enter it?
We may plead for them, as the Apostle Paul does plead: "How should they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how should they believe on Him of whom they have not heard? And how should they hear without a preacher? And how should the preachers preach, effectively, until their minds were illuminated by the Holy Spirit of truth, and they were divinely commissioned, or sent?" - Rom. 10:14, 15.
Here, then, in the Gentiles, we have last who became first, just as in the Jews we have first who became last.
Was there any injustice in calling the Gentiles from the market-place in which they waited with longing hearts, into the vineyard in which they rejoiced to work?
If now that they are in the vineyard they serve as sons and not as servants, from love and not for hire (reward); if they love their fellow-laborers and grudge them no good that befalls them; if they love even the Jews who have left the vineyard and try to win them back, is it not meet and right that though the last called, they should be ranked among the first in God's service, and before those who were first, but have become last?
In this application of the parable does not much of its difficulty disappear?
Can we not see the Divine equity which animates it, and rejoice that even unto these last God grants the same grace as unto those who were earlier called?
By Love Serve
"Yes" it may be said, "in the light of the foregoing explanation the meaning of the parable is plain; we see that God is just in putting first last and last first." But we have yet one more application of this parable to suggest, brethren, an application that we trust will be of even more value to us than either of the two already considered. And in this we shall no more seek to make every little detail fit than we have in the first two applications. That would be to waste your time and ours. But is there not one special lesson in this parable which we may apply to ourselves, a lesson which each of us may remember long after every other word in this study has faded from our minds? We think you will agree with us that there is, and that it has been very aptly stated by the Apostle Paul in three short words found in Gal. 5:13, "By love serve."
Yes, it is not the amount of service we accomplish in our Lord's vineyard that matters in His sight, but the spirit in which that service is performed, the motive that underlies our activities in His cause.
Here, then, we come on a thought which solves many of the difficulties of the parable. To 'be called into the vineyard is to be called into the service of God. What is the main purpose of that service? It is that we learn to trust in the love of God, to respond to it, and from love to God to show love to man. Now we may have given ourselves early in life to the religious duties and tasks in which this love for God and man is commonly expressed. We may have been diligent, steadfast, and faithful, in discharging them. Moreover when the light of "Present Truth" came our way we may have eagerly embraced it, and, rejoicing in the special message of the "Harvest Time," been very active in its various ministries. Not only so, but when our dear Brother Russell was taken from us, and another apostasy began to set in (the JW movement), we, like the Church in Ephesus of old, may have tried those who called themselves Apostles, and were not, and have found them false, and we may have been amongst the very earliest to do so, and our voices raised the loudest in protest. But while giving good heed to our tasks and duties we may have failed to cultivate the spirit of loving dependence on God, and of fervent love towards our brethren (even our lost brethren). Like Peter, we may have thought too much of our contract, and have discharged our duty mainly with an eye to reward. And like him, besides being very ready to ask "What shall we have therefore?" we may be both hasty and harsh in our judgment of others who perhaps have had more difficulties to encounter than we, had to meet, and perhaps a great deal more to sacrifice.
Like the first-called laborers of the parable we may agree with the Master for so much for the day; and when pay-time comes, we may be very forward to complain, although the contract on which we used to lay such stress has been very faithfully kept, that some of our brethren have received a great deal more than we think they have earned. And if we are of this spirit, mark what it is that we have done. We have discharged, perhaps, every duty that we know; we may not have shirked our tasks even in the heat of the day; nevertheless, we have failed in our main work. For all these tasks and duties were appointed to us mainly that we might grow in love to God and man; and we love God so little that we complain of His dealings with us; we love men so little that we grudge them what God gives them.
As a matter of fact our very best labors in God's vineyard must appear but child's play to His abler servants, and these, in their turn, having done their all, confess themselves with true humility to be but unprofitable servants. Instead of receiving a wage for working in His vineyard, we ought, like the apprentices of old, to be paying a substantial premium to the Master who has so graciously taken us into His employ. Ah! Dear reader, if, as we trust, our hearts are really in tune with Him, if we have entered sympathetically into His plans and purposes, it will not be difficult for us to make the truest and best application of this parable.
Continued with next post.
