Perception 2: The Backwards Parables?

Perception and the Backwards Parables

(Revisiting the Talents and the Vineyard)

     It is still January 24, 2022 and another lesson on perception emerges. We revisit the writings Unequal Responsibilities, Edge of the Blade, and Happy Birthday for this adventure. The primary point of this writing is the following two parables: The Talents and The Vineyard. Here we go…………..

     “I love Paul’s gentle sarcasm when he wrote: “We do not dare to classify or compare ourselves with someone who commend themselves. When they measure themselves by themselves and compare themselves with themselves, they are not wise” (2 Corinthians 10:12 NIV). (Jesus’ Final Warning, p.26, Jeremiah, 1999.) 

     So, here we go… One slave received 5 talents, another 2 talents and the last received only one talent.

     The master assigned talents. Now knowing that a talent in those days was a form mammon (money), it is interesting also to replace the meaning with the modern day version of talents or abilities.

     It could read something like this demonstrated by these words Holy Spirit puts in my heart today.

     “One slave was given the ability to sing, play instruments, fly an airplane and travel, preach, and lead people to the Kingdom, the second was given the ability to fly an airplane and travel, preach, and lead people to the Kingdom, and yet another was given the ability to lead people to the Kingdom.” “

     “Folks….the holder of the single talent was not chastised just because of inaction on his part, but because the holder of the single talent did not see that the talent he was given was the only one that mattered in the Kingdom. Oh my...”

     Now let’s visit the Parable of the Vineyard. I thought I have this in a writing already, but a search of my documents says not. So...we’ll take it from scratch here.

     The Owner of the Vineyard was looking for help in the Vineyard for a day. One worker hired on for the whole day at an agreed on wage. During the day the Owner hired several more workers at the same wage. Finally it wraps up with a worker hired to work the last hour or so of the day for the stated wage.

     All was good until it was pay out time. The Owner paid each worker the same amount the first worker agreed to. So the first worker worked say 8-10 hours for a wage and the very last worker worked only 1-2 hours for the very same wage. The wage was for that day not per hour.

     How do we perceive this parable? Well… first let’s look at the worker’s “perceptions”. The first worker was totally upset and feeling cheated because his day was much longer than the last worker and all workers in between for that matter. He thought the Owner was a very corrupt and unfair man. The Owner response was simply everybody agreed to the wage for the day. There was no stipulation of how many hours a worker had to work for the wage – it was for that day!

     As surmised from the Edge of the Blade: “So...the second edge of the blade speaks to the parable of the vineyard where some worked all day and others on an hour or so, but they all were paid the same. It’s about the agreement made not the pay. Everybody is in and working on the Vineyard, some have more invested because they were given a full day instead of an hour or two. But the fact is, they all worked toward the same goal with a different ability (amount of time).”

     H’mmm… “A day is a thousand years and a thousand years is a day”. So if we visit a writing I was given August 24, 2021 which I have not typed up yet called Happy Birthday and which is subtitled “your day is numbered”, we learn something very important about a day and how our perception is different from Holy Father’s perception. Without giving away the entire writing, nobody in the genealogies lived beyond a thousand years. I believe it was Methusala lived longest at something like 968 years. Anyway… a day is a very special time frame and no day should ever be wasted.

     Can we look at this as the first worker was given the longest life and the importance is to be focused on what was done during the time allotted rather than equal pay for an un-equal day?

Howz Your Day going?

PS: I fully expect more on perception and more on backwards parables to come. For now I am asking Holy Father to shine his light on the parable of the Ten Virgins – cannot wait!