God's Service is Its Own Reward
Is not the service of God its own reward that we should be unduly concerned about how we are to be paid for it? or that we should spend any time comparing our wage with our brother's, or grudge that he should have as much as or more than we?
If we recall the greatest happiness we have ever known, the purest and deepest, do we not find that it came in connection with our very labors for God? (Most assuredly) That it sprang from denying ourselves that we might do His will and minister to the wants of others?
What is the main purpose of God in permitting us to labor in His vineyard at all? Surely not for any gain He may derive from our labors. From His standpoint our labors, could be readily dispensed with. Who that has spent any time at all in the service of the Master but does not realize this? We look back today upon our earlier labors, and blush to recall their futility, and awkwardness. Indeed we have a strong suspicion that He found it necessary to send some of His expert gardeners after us to repair the damage we did in our childish attempts at service. And while, we trust, our present efforts are not quite so immature as formerly, we doubt not but that, if we are privileged to continue our labors, a few more years, we shall look back on those of today, and wonder that so much imperfection still characterized them. It is possible that by some miraculous working of His power others may profit from our labors, just as we ourselves have had our own faith strengthened, our hope renewed, our love made deeper and broader, through the ministry of others; indeed we are all conscious of the mutual advantages which have been ours as the result of each other's labor of love; but it is nevertheless a solemn truth that the one who derives the chief gain from any service rendered is the one who labors, the one who performs the service. The laborer in the vineyard loses some of his awkwardness in handling his spade and other gardening tools; his puny muscles grow strong; he fills his lungs with the fresh, invigorating, sweet, wholesome, air of the vineyard; and thus, as a result of his labor, he promotes, retains, and enjoys good (spiritual) health.
But if the work be itself a reward, if it be our highest good and blessedness, if it would still be the best thing we could have even though there were no payment coming-would it not be both absurd and mean of us if we were to lay much stress on our wage? Ah! The parable should not puzzle us. It could not puzzle us if our minds were habitually illuminated by the truths we most surely believe.
The first-called laborers had the longest spell of work; that was their true dignity, and blessedness, and reward, HAD THEY BUT KNOWN IT; and that they should complain because those worked less work got an equal wage only proves that they were selfish, and greedy, and cardinally minded.
And if we are not cardinally minded, we shall be able to say, when the problem of the parable is put before us: "Why, the work, of course, was a wage in itself; and it was but fair that those who had least of the work should have most of the pay."
We shall be able to say: "Instead of grumbling that the late-called were put on equal terms with them, those who had spent the whole day of life in the Divine service, if they had known their true blessedness, would have made request on behalf of their fellow-laborers who came in later, 'Lord, as these have had less of Thy service (less of the joy in serving you), let them have more of Thy favor, and a larger reward than we who have already enjoyed so much of thy favor and fellowship. For ourselves WE DESIRE NO OTHER REWARD SAVE TO SERVE Thee still and better.'"
Love never fails
If, then, the main teaching of the parable is clear; and if, while recognizing that it has many applications, we realize that its best and most practical application is to our own present-day labors for our Lord, let us beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, of the spirit which inspired Peter’s demand: "We have followed Thee, what shall we have therefore?" of the selfishness and envy which moved the laborers in the vineyard to complain of the "the householders" grace to those who had waited so long for work in vain.
Whether we be early called or late called, so soon as we begin to boast of our superior privileges or our superior fidelity, even though the boasting be not aloud, but merely in our thoughts, so long as we are not content with rendering any service to God or man unless it be seen and approved both of men and of God; so long as our service is mainly animated by the hope of reward, or we grudge any reward or distinction vouchsafed to our brethren, we are like the Jews who objected to favor being extended to the Gentiles, we are like Peter in his worst mood instead of his best; we are in danger of being among the very last in the household and ministry of faith.
So soon as we begin to look with suspicion on and to depreciate, to criticize and condemn our fellow-servants; so soon as we fail in the love that thinks no evil, but which hopes all things, and especially the very best things, of them, although we may be among the servants of Christ, we lack the Spirit of Christ; and although among the first in the Church on earth, we are putting ourselves last in the Kingdom of heaven.
The true lesson of the parable is not a new one; it is the lesson which we have met many times before in the school of Christ; the old lesson of faith and hope and love. By love, therefore, let us serve both God and man. Instead of being conscious of any service we have rendered, instead of boasting how much we have done, and dwelling in our thoughts on the recognition and reward we ought to receive for it, let us trust that, whatever man may do, God will do "whatsoever is right" by us, and rejoice that whatever our wage may be hereafter, here and now we have had the honor and reward of being called into His service. Let us love all men, especially the household of faith, and by sympathy in their joy become partakers of their reward.”
