Fairness

Matthew 20:15 “Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with what is my own?”

As I was reading scripture over a cup of warm coffee, I was surprised at the revelations God gave me. This is not surprising. Nothing shows me how little I've learned, than to learn from scripture. I was reading through Matthew 20, where Jesus is giving the parable of the laborers in the vineyard. In this parable, the master of the vineyard hires laborers to work till the end of the day in exchange for one denarius as payment. Throughout the day the master continues hiring more men to work till the end of the day, at the same agreed amount of one denarius. When payment time comes, those who worked all day long got paid the same as those who had worked but an hour before sundown. These all day workers grumbled asking exactly what I would ask of this employer. If these guys worked for one hour, why are they getting the same as me, who has worked all day long? The master replies in verse fifteen, “Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with what is my own?” It is clear the master in this parable represents God, and we represent the laborers. This passage for me did two things. Firstly it provided the crown jewel of scriptural validation of one of my greatest theological and philosophical questions. Secondly, it illustrated a tragic tendency in today’s society.

Both things this verse did for me were intertwined. Over the past few months I have taken up a battle with the concept of fairness. I have vehemently oppose the thought that fairness has any sort of legitimate basis. I believe the principle flaw in the concept of fairness is that it relies on the concept of equality. The problem with the concept of equality is it doesn't hold true when God is evaluated. Man is not equal with God, just like clay figurines crafted in the likeness of their sculptor are not equal to their sculptor. Because man is not equal to God, most of what God intends to happen cannot be considered fair, and thus if we believe in fairness we will have trouble in accepting God's will. The raw truth is that God is not fair. Yes, I said it, and I'll say it again. “God... is... not... fair...” And yes, you may quote me on that. God has every obligation to us humans as we have to our clay pots. One of my fondest childhood memories was creating battle fields of plastic army men, planting firecrackers under the dirt, and blowing the unfortunate “Tans” into plastic confetti. Was this not fair to the tans? No it wasn't fair, but it wasn't wrong to blow them up. They were plastic figurines, designed to be expended for my entertainment, which in my case required their destruction. Is this sinful to create something to destroy it? Absolutely not if you are God. Paul says in Romans 9:13-15, “As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated. What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid. For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.” Verses 21 and 22 are even more clear on the issue of plastic army men. “Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honor, and another unto dishonor? What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much long-suffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction.” Just as I have the right to make explodable tan and glorious green army men from the same lump of plastic, so God has the right to create and destroy mankind. This is our God. This is the same God that ordered Joshua and his army to march through out the promise land killing every single man, woman, and child – no exceptions. Fortunately for us little clay pots, or in my analogy plastic army men, God loves us with such a deep love that we cannot comprehend, much more than I loved my tan army men. However, he has every right to expend us for His glory and good pleasure. He has no obligation to adhere to any concept of fairness or equality, no matter how dogmatic mankind is that fairness is legitimate.

Fairness is a nearly universal societal misunderstanding. When fairness becomes central to someone's perspective it becomes very hard for them to rationalize how God decides to run planet earth. This perspective has all kinds of negative impacts ranging from bitterness to rebellion. Worse than either of these reactions is when people artificially change their perception of God to fit their concept of fairness. Pastor Rob Bell of Grand Rapids Michigan has redefined God so much that Bell doesn't believe God will condemn people to hell. Don't be shocked, this is a natural conclusion to come to. After all, why not? What right does God have to condemn mankind to eternal punishment? My first question when I heard this was to wonder, how did society come to the conclusion that God doesn't have the right to condemn man to hell? This is the society trend Matthew chapter 20 clarified for me. I saw this trend taking place in the last place I thought I would find it.

I found this trend taking place at a Christian home school debate tournament in the midst of a theological debate. I sat, surrounded by ten to fifteen young men and women, debating whether or not God designed man intending them to go to hell (I'm still drafting my post on what and why I believe on this topic). After forty five minutes of intense debate, and scripture spread as thick as blood on a battle field, I left a group of young people all with the same argument in defense of their theological positions. “It can't be, it just can't...” How did fifteen of the smartest young people our country has to offer, many of whom were involved in apologetic competition, come to the place that their fundamental theological perspective was based on “It just can't be...” The reason is the same reason that the child's game “Telephone” is so entertaining.

In Telephone, children sit in a circle and someone comes up with a phrase. The phrase is whispered into the person who sits to the right of the phrase author, and that person whispers it to the person next to them. The message circulates from child to child, from lisp to stutter, from accent to poorly hearing ear, until it arrives at the last child who says what he or she heard. The message is invariably garbled and the degree to which the message has become garbled makes it all the more hilarious. Now imagine a parent passing their theological perspective to their child, without the scriptural basis for each and every step. If the parent leaves out one step, the child will carry on that theological perspective to their child and likely drop another step of scriptural support. As this horrifying inter-generational game of telephone progresses a generation of children are handed theological perspectives which are incomplete, unsupported, inconsistent, and garbled. To make this worse, our society begins to question these youngsters who are left saying “it just can't be...” because beyond that they have no clue why, and many times what, they believe.

As these students looked at me like I had gone mad since I had said that God isn't fair, I could only say one thing. I told them all to scrap what ever they had been told, if they couldn't find scriptural support for it. A loaded gun is a good bluff until an atheist walks up to you to see if its loaded. I have talked with professors, doctorates in philosophy, atheists, Muslims, Hindus, Catholics, Mormons, and all have shown themselves to be substantially better prepared to defend what they believe than most young Christians I know. When they start shooting at what I believe, I've got a loaded theological perspective and I'm willing to shoot until they drop or run. What kind of load do I have in my theological gun? The only deadly bullets, scripture. Saying “my parents/pastor said” is like shooting blanks at an angry mob, you might scare some off, but the majority will over run you.

This trend has culminated to a point that God is confined to a position where society requires Him to respect human rights, insists He is fair, and where society asks how can He exist when a hurricane wipes out whole people groups? This trend can only be cured when scripture is prescribed three or more times a day. I was over joyed to bring some of my friends full circle in their perspective of God, and to resolve in my heart a long standing battle. God has given me my life to live, and I am to make the most of it. He has not given me riches, but He has given me many talents. I am responsible to use these talents to the best of my ability. I will not question God, nor will I be ungrateful. My purpose on this earth is to glorify Him, and bring Him pleasure. I can only do that by doing as He designed me to do.

Only then will I hear His words of approval when I die, Well done thou good and faithful servant, enter into the happiness of thy master...