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Episode 7
Parable of a Landowner (Mt 20:1-16)
Jesus told a parable of a landowner who went out to hire labourers for his vineyard. At nine in the morning, the landowner hired workers at the normal daily wages. At noon he hired a few more workers and agreed to pay them accordingly. At three in the afternoon, he again hired others. At five o’clock that evening he hired some people who were loitering around.
When evening came, he told the foreman to call the workers in and he paid them. He started with the last batch which came to work in the evening and they were paid a full day’s wage. When those who were hired earlier came to receive their pay, they expected to get more since they had worked longer hours. But they were paid the same wages like the rest. The protested saying, ‘Those people worked only one hour, and yet you paid them just as much as you paid us who worked all day in the scorching heat’ (Matt 20:12; NLT). The landowner replied, ‘Friend, I haven’t been unfair! Didn’t you agree to work all day for the usual wage? Take it and go. I wanted to pay the last worker the same as you. Is it against the law for me to do what I want to do with my money? Should you be angry because I am kind?’ (Matt 20:13:15; NLT).
Like the landowner, God has the right to pour out his grace on anyone in whatever measure he chooses. We must not begrudge God when we see him pouring out his grace lavishly on undeserving people. The prophet Isaiah reminds us that the Lord said, ‘My thoughts are completely different from yours. And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine. For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts’ (Isa 55:8-9; NLT).
Adulterous Woman (John 8:1-11)
One morning Jesus went to the temple and began to teach. As he was speaking, the scribes and Pharisees, the religious leaders of the Law, brought a woman caught in the act of adultery. They made her stand in the middle to expose her act and shame her publicly. They said to Jesus, ‘Teacher, this woman was caught in the very act of adultery. In the law, Moses had laid down that such women are to be stoned. What do you say about it?’ (John 8:5). What they were trying to do was to ‘trap Jesus into saying something they could use against him’ (John 8:6; NLT).
Instead of answering them, Jesus ‘stooped down and wrote in the dust with his finger’ (John 8:6). We are told that the scribes and Pharisees kept demanding an answer. Finally Jesus stood up and said ‘Let whichever of you is free from sin throw the first stone at her’ (John 8:7); or as the New Living Translation translates, ‘All right, stone her. But let those who have never sinned throw the first stones!’
After saying that, Jesus again stooped down and wrote on the ground. Perhaps Jesus stooped down to give the accusers the opportunity to slip away quietly without embarrassing them. We are told that when they heard what he had said, one by one, beginning with the eldest, they slipped away.
Finally, only two people were left - Jesus and the woman. Then Jesus stood up again and said to her ‘Where are they? Has no one condemned you?’ (verse 10). She replied, ‘No one’ (verse 11). Then Jesus replied, ‘Neither do I. Go and sin no more’ (verse 11).
Jesus practised grace on the adulterous woman. We need to practise grace on others who sin against us. Instead of judging them, let us all acknowledge we are sinners.
The bottom line is: who among us can say we have no sin? Some believe they have the right to pass sentence on others who have committed major sins like adultery, theft, and murder since they themselves have committed only minor sins like cheating with parking coupons and income tax, ill-treating domestic servants, abusing their spouses and lying. In the sight of God, a sin is a sin regardless of the nature.
Jesus and the Sinful Woman (Luke 7:36-50)
One day Jesus was invited by a Pharisee Simon to his home for a meal. He sat down to eat. A woman who was living an immoral life heard about it and brought a beautiful jar filled with expensive perfume. She knelt behind Jesus and wept. Her tears fell on his feet and she wiped them off with her hair. Then she kept kissing his feet and putting perfume on them. When the host Simon saw what was happening, he said to himself, ‘This proves that Jesus is no real prophet. If God had really sent him, he would know what kind of woman is touching him. She is a sinner!” (Luke 7:39).
Jesus, instead of answering directly, told Simon a story. A man lent money to two people. He lent five hundred pieces of silver to one and fifty pieces of silver to the other. Both could not repay him. So he kindly forgave them and cancelled their debts. ‘Who do you suppose love him more?’ asked Jesus. Simon answered, ‘I suppose the one for whom he cancelled the larger debt’. Jesus then said ‘You are right’.
Then Jesus, turning to the woman, said to Simon the host ‘You see this woman? When I entered your home, you didn’t offer me water to wash the dust from my feet, but she has washed them with her tears and wiped them with her hair. You didn’t give me a kiss of greeting, but she has kissed my feet again and again from the time I first came in. You neglected the courtesy of putting olive oil on my head, but she has anointed my feet with rare perfume. I tell you, her sins - and they are many - have been forgiven, so she has shown me much love. But a person who is forgiven little shows only little love’. Then Jesus said to the woman, ‘Your sins are forgiven’ (Luke 7:44-47). While the men at the table were talking among themselves about Jesus forgiving sins, Jesus said to the woman a second time, ‘Your faith has saved you; go in peace’ (verse 50). What a beautiful story of grace. How did Jesus demonstrate grace?
First, he allowed the woman to wash his feet knowing she was an immoral woman. He did not care what others might think of him.
Second, the most poignant part of the story is that Jesus accepted the perfume she poured on his feet knowing well that the perfume was bought with money from her immoral living. Jesus could have rejected it and told her that he accepted her kind gesture but he could not accept her perfume which was bought with ill- gotten money (the self-righteous stress they can accept the sinner but not the sin).
Third, Jesus forgave her sins without calling her names; neither did he list out her catalogue of sins. When Jesus said, ‘Your sins are forgiven, your faith has saved you and go in peace’, it was an assurance and reassurance to her. She must have left the place changed and charged with joy. Certainly, that was grace in action. (1231 words)
Discussion Questions