This weekend, the Sunday School lesson focuses on the Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard. Matthew 20:16 says, “So the last will be first and the first will be last.” Grace is when you get what you don’t deserve, and in this parable we see the workers who were there the longest reacting because people were getting the same payment for working less.
We have a problem with grace. Some of us don’t know how to accept grace, while some of us like to drown ourselves in it and think it gives us protection to keep on sinning. Some of us can accept it for ourselves, but we don’t like when it is given to others. Some of us cannot show grace to others. Some of us try to earn our own way.
For the lesson, I searched for different song titles including the word “grace.” This collection provides some different words that some associate with grace. What does grace mean to you? With regard to this parable, place yourself in the position of the workers who were there all day. How do you feel when those who barely worked received the same payment? Consider this in your own situation, at your own workplace—how do YOU feel when your co-workers are getting what you think they don’t deserve?
This is a hard lesson for anyone. We so often can find ourselves thinking someone doesn’t deserve something. Someone doesn’t deserve the promotion. Someone doesn’t deserve the help. Someone doesn’t deserve the forgiveness. Someone doesn’t deserve—GRACE. That’s grace! We don’t deserve it. But we are given it anyway. Stop pointing out what isn’t deserved. Accept grace. Give grace. And remember, no one deserves it, but God has given it anyway out of love, because of who He is. That’s the beauty of grace.
“For grace proclaims the awesome truth that all is a gift. All that is good is ours not by right but by the sheer bounty of a gracious God.”
– Brennan Manning
“Grace is the free, undeserved goodness and favor of God to mankind.”
– Matthew Henry
Tania Gutekunst 