“What’s in your hand?”

Even though my youngest daughters are identical twins and look very much alike, they have very different personalities. But one thing that’s very similar is how they react when I give them something. It could be a toy, a book, or a snack. Whatever it is, every time, before they focus on enjoying what they have in their own hand, they will glance across at their sister’s hand and check to make sure that their sister hasn’t been given more than them.

They don’t want to contemplate the idea that what I’ve given them is of lesser quality or less an amount than what I’ve given their twin sister. Their initial focus is on what is in their sister’s hands rather than what is in their own.

I thought of this as I read today’s Old Testament and New Testament passages.

In the Gospel passage, Jesus uses a parable to describe God’s Kingdom to his disciples. His parable depicts God as a landowner who goes out to hire people to work in his vineyard. He recruits workers throughout the day. Some start working in the early hours of the morning while some are recruited just one hour before the working day ends. At the end of the day, the labourers gather expectantly waiting for their wages.

The landowner starts with the workers who only put in an hours work. He gives them a full days wage. I can imagine what the other workers thought when they saw this. They must have gotten excited. If the people who did little work are being paid so extravagantly, I wonder how much more he will pay the ones who started in the early hours of the morning!

Everyone is shocked when the landowner gives them all the same amount. The ones who worked the longest are outraged. Just like my twin daughters, they can’t enjoy what’s in their hands (the good days wage that they had agreed to work for) because they are so focused on what is in the hands of their co-workers and whether they have earned it.

The workers end up grumbling against the landowner. “These people don’t deserve the same amount as us. They are not equal to us.”

So the landowner asks them: “Are you envious because I am generous?”

Can you relate to these workers? I can. It’s human nature.

We can often divide people into the categories of deserving and undeserving. We want things to be fair. The “deserving” to get more than the “undeserving”.

In our Old Testament reading we see that Jonah has the same attitude towards the people of Nineveh. He didn’t think they deserved God’s generosity. The people of Nineveh did evil things, they were a dangerous and violent nation. They deserved to receive God’s judgement for their horrific crimes against humanity.

When God doesn’t destroy them but instead forgives the people of Nineveh when they repent and ask for mercy, Jonah is furious.

“Why didn’t you destroy these undeserving people? This is exactly why I didn’t want to come in the first place. I knew you are gracious, merciful and ready to relent from punishing.” And that’s all well and good, that’s why I love you God, but these Ninevites deserve punishing.”

God’s response to Jonah mirrors the response of the landowner to the labourers:

"Should I not be concerned about Nineveh, with a population of 120,000 people and many animals?”

“Are you envious because I am generous?”

When we are envious of someone else it’s usually because they have something that we do not have. When we envy we focus our attention on what is in their hands and not what is in ours.

And Jonah, like the labourers in the parable and my twin daughters, envied. He was so focused on God’s generosity to those “undeserving” Ninevites that he didn’t look in his own hand. He didn’t see that he had already received the same generosity from God as the people of Nineveh had.

Jonah didn’t see that he was just as undeserving of God’s rescue as they were. He had rebelled against God, run away from what He was supposed to do, and had put other people’s lives at risk in his efforts to escape the call of God on His life. He was judgemental and arrogant. He thought he was better than the Ninevites.

Yet, despite his rebellion, God was just as concerned for Jonah as He was for the 120,000 people of Nineveh. God didn’t allow Jonah to drown, even though Jonah’s own actions had got him into the mess in the first place. When Jonah called out from the sea, God rescued him, gave him time and space to reflect and repent. Then forgave him and gave him a second chance to do the right thing, to follow God’s will and preach to the people of Nineveh.

Jonah didn’t see how generous God had been to Him because he was so focused on the merciful hand that the Ninevites had been given. God had given them forgiveness instead of destruction and it didn't seem fair.

Can we see a bit of Jonah in us? Can you see any part of you that shares the attitude of the labourers in Jesus’ parable?

We can so often want generosity, understanding and grace for our shortcomings and not for others that we feel are less deserving or for people that we just don’t like.

This horrible part of human nature is ever-present. And the politics of envy is something that politicians and media play on to create division and hatred by labelling people as “deserving” and “undeserving”.

Different groups are set against each other. The unemployed versus employed. Asylum seekers versus citizens. The older generation against the young generation.

We are encouraged to focus with suspicion on what is in everyone else’s hands and to become angry and hateful towards others. Are they getting more than me? Do they deserve it? Have they earned it?

This is human nature and we can easily get sucked into this way of thinking but we must look into our own hands and remember that God has made us new creations through Christ Jesus. He calls us, as Christians, to live our lives in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ.

The Good News of Jesus Christ is that all peoples are God’s creation. Even if we humans designate a group as “undeserving Ninevites”, God cares about all people, animals and the environment He created. And He loves His creation so much that He entered into the world in the form of a man, Jesus Christ, to die for all of us, the undeserving.

God calls those who have been granted the privilege of believing in Christ, to be part of His mission to the world. To share the news of His generosity with the people in our lives, especially those we might unconsciously label “Ninevites” or “undeserving”.

Do we truly want to join in God’s mission?

If so, God asks us to look in our own hands honestly. He wants us to truly acknowledge those parts of us that are judgemental and unwilling to submit to God’s Will: To be honest about the prejudices and resentments we hold towards other people. He wants us to remember that we are the “undeserving”, we are the Ninevites who escaped judgement through repentance, we are the last hour labourers who have done nothing to earn our salvation.

Because, when we see ourselves clearly, we also see how generous God has been to us by sending Christ Jesus to us.

When we see ourselves clearly we see God and his character more clearly.

When we look in our own hands and realise what God has placed there, we can’t help but join the Psalmist in praising God’s name every day. Because God tells us that His name is his character.

When God came down to Moses in the cloud on Mount Sinai he proclaimed His name as the following: “The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin.”

That is who He is. That is the God that Jonah knew. He is the God who is ready to relent from punishing. He is the God who is ready to forgive our sins. He is the God who suffered himself to spare all of us "Ninevites" from judgement.

And since, we, the undeserving, have been granted the privilege of believing in Christ, we are also called to labour in His Kingdom. Our work in God’s vineyard is to join God in His mission of sharing the Good News of God’s generosity with everyone: those we like and those we don’t like.

We are called to go out of our comfort zone like Jonah, and show love to people that we may not like or feel deserve it. We are called to offer grace and forgiveness to all, to be full of compassion in a world that has compassion fatigue. To be slow to anger in a media and political landscape that provokes and magnifies anger and hatred.

We are called to be kind and generous when the temptation in these current tough times is to withhold generosity and to hoard our resources.

Living in this way, in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ, will be uncomfortable at times. But Paul tells the Philippians that it is a privilege to suffer for the gospel of Christ.

When we grasp how generous God has been to us we will want the same for everyone. Instead of judging people or writing off those who have hurt us, we will genuinely want them to grasp God’s generosity and forgiveness in their hands too.

Because everyone is equal in God’s eyes and He wants all peoples to receive the graciousness, kindness and compassion found in Christ Jesus.