Unemployed

"For the kingdom of heaven is like unto a certain man, a householder, which went out early in the morning to hire laborers into his vineyard. And when he had agreed with the laborers for a denarius a day, he sent them into his vineyard. And when he came out about the third hour, he saw others standing idle in the marketplace; and he said to them, "You also go into my vineyard, and I will give you whatever is right. And they went. And he went out again about the sixth and ninth hour, and did likewise. And he went out about the eleventh hour..." (Matthew 20:1-6).

The eleventh hour is the penultimate hour of the day, because the Hebrews divided the day into twelve hours from sunrise to sunset. So here there was one hour left before the end of the workday, and at that hour, the owner of the vineyard "found others standing idle; and he said to them: Why do you stand here all day idle?". In the story, the word unemployed appears three times. What does this mean, spiritually speaking?

The vineyard represents the work of God. Now, if we are outside the vineyard, we are unemployed. How does God regard our life outside the vineyard? It doesn't matter how many things we do for ourselves, how many plans we develop, how much wealth we accumulate. For God, this is an idle time, without profit, without fruit. It is a time that does not count, it does not exist.

The Lord's vineyard is the field of our work. It is there where we can invest our time and be found useful, busy, bearing fruit. This does not mean that we have to leave all our earthly occupations to dedicate ourselves to the Lord's work full time. No. It simply means to be in the place where God wants us to be, really doing what he wants us to do.

Are you, brother, in the right place, or are you out of the vineyard? Perhaps you consider that you are doing a lot of work for God, but even so, you could be outside. Remember that it is His vineyard, not ours; it is His labors, not ours.

In the life of all God's servants, when we are too busy or too worn out serving the Lord, there comes a time when we become overwhelmed. And then we ask ourselves, "Am I really doing God's work?". And that question can bring a great upheaval and even a breakdown in our life. Everything we do outside the vineyard will be wasted time, it will be useless labor, it will be work without value for God.

In this parable, that twelve-hour day from morning to evening represents for us our whole life. Perhaps we are in the eleventh hour, and there is only one hour left before the door closes. Are we outside, idle, doing many things for ourselves? Are we really serving in the Lord's vineyard? How are we occupying our days?

It behooves us to pray as Moses prayed: "So teach us to number our days that we may bring wisdom into our hearts" (Psalm 90:12).

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