The Kingdom of Heaven is Like...

“The kingdom of Heaven is like…” So many of Jesus’ parables begin this way. The kingdom of Heaven is a very foreign concept to us. It is unlike any kingdom humanity has ever created or studied on this earth. In God’s kingdom, everything is backward and counterintuitive for us. Jesus knows this, and being the great teacher He is, uses stories-parables-to explain to us how His kingdom works in terms of situations we already understand.

The parable of the vineyard workers (Matt. 20:1-16) is a great example of this. The story opens with a scene out in front of a Home Depot where day laborers are hoping to be hired for a day’s work. A general contractor shows up, negotiates a wage with some workers, and takes them to a job site for the day. He goes back to the Home Depot a couple more times throughout the day and picks up more workers, offering to pay them “what’s right.”  The last group of guys he hires only works for an hour or so, but they end up being the guys he pays first...for the same wage he negotiated with the first guys from the beginning of the day.

Alright, in the Bible, it’s not actually a Home Depot and contractor, but I can’t be the only one who pictures that when they read this story. The landowner/vineyard worker illustration is something we can grasp. It makes sense to us. That understanding is critical as Jesus moves into the part of the story that makes zero sense to us.

The contractor/landowner pays all the guys the same amount, whether they worked 12 hours, 8 hours, or 1 hour. They all get a full day’s pay. That’s the part that doesn’t make sense to us. Our instinct says that’s not fair, right, or just. They should all get paid only for the time they worked, right?

But the kingdom of Heaven is not what we reason it should be. If it were up to us, the kingdom of Heaven would be based on performance, actions & consequences, punishment & reward.

Anyone else glad that the kingdom of Heaven is not up to us?

What I see woven through most of Jesus’ parables is that “the kingdom of Heaven is like”... grace. The prodigal son: grace. The lost sheep: grace. The servant forgiven of debt: grace. The unwanted people on the street invited to an extravagant wedding feast: grace. The guys who worked 1 hour but were paid for 12: grace.

God doesn’t think like we do. He doesn’t require that we earn anything, prove anything, or perform anything. His economy is not our economy. He gives based on His character, not ours.

My prayer for all of us today is that we are able to accept His grace, even without fully understanding the enormity of it. Our flesh and our enemy will try to convince us not to accept it, because we are not worthy of it. But that is not the point. Jesus chose us, died and lives for us, and holds out to us new grace and mercies every morning. We can claim it because He is who He says He is, and it’s His Kingdom, His grace to offer. Take it, it’s yours.

- Connie Hartman