The Way Things Really Are

We have a mindset, a system, ingrained in us in the Western world and in America in particular, that we have certain rights that we are entitled to receive. This system was founded by the best of intentions of our forefathers who wanted to guarantee a government in which each person was treated equally. Many benefits have stemmed from this established government. One is that most people in capitalist nations believe that education and hard work can get them to where they want to be - where they can have a successful, happy, comfortable life.

I have grown up learning that capitalism is THE best system. That the government and established order in our nation is THE best in the world. We all hear it, and perhaps have said it ourselves, "America is the greatest nation in the world."

But I'm now beginning to second-guess this system. First of all it is flawed because all people have never been treated equally. Even though we have the constitutional statement saying that all are created equal, this has never been fully realized in the way we treat each other. If it were so, slavery would never have existed, the civil rights movement would never have needed to happen, etc. Secondly, though the sense of individual responsibility and competition capitalism instills in us has good, motivational results, it too is flawed. Why? Because the subsequent attitude produced is one that says, I work hard for my money and life, so why should I support that woman over there who doesn't work as hard as I do? It produces an attitude that says They deserve to be poor because they're lazy, uneducated, they waste what money they have, etc etc.

We easily adopt an attitude, whether we realize it or not, that says that there is something in some of us that is better than others. That is why, we believe, some are poor and some are successful. Why some suffer illnesses, addictions, abuse, and continual oppression, while others have material comforts, choice, and status. And this prejudice excuses us from feeling any sense of duty to the poor. If everything is something you earn or deserve, then why would you be accountable to how others live?

So what if this mindset really is flawed? Recently I read the parable of the hired workers in a completely different light. It's the parable Jesus told in Matthew 20 about a man who went out to find workers for his vineyard. He hired some men standing around looking for work. He promised them a certain wage, and they went to work. We know what happens next - the landowner gradually added other workers throughout the day, even up until the last hour of the workday. At the end, when it was time for the workers to receive their pay, the landowner paid them all....not according to the time they had done, but exactly the same! Of course the ones who'd worked all day were furious. Hadn't they done the most work? Hadn't they worked throughout the heat of the day? Even though they had agreed to work for that much, it suddenly didn't seem so great in comparison to the ones who'd only labored an hour or so. They protested, and were met with this response:
"...Don't I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?'" (Matt. 20:15).
And Jesus then concludes the story, with this one statement in verse 16: "So the last will be first, and the first will be last."

What on earth? I always read this story feeling so bad for those men who'd labored all day. How unfair can you get? Here I was reading in my history text books that capitalism was the best system because it motivated people to work harder to gain more, and socialism that treated all people the same was a flawed system...And then I read this story and wondered at the conflict that arose.

Now I'm not about to make a defense for socialism or entirely oppose capitalism. But I do want to encourage you to question the attitudes the systems we have grown up with may have produced in you.
See, the landowner was compassionate. These workers he hired were poor and struggled to provide for their families. The wage he promised them was just enough for one day. They might not find work the next day, and he knew that. So he wanted to pay them all the same to help them. He was generous. But the workers' problem was that they didn't see the wage as the man's generosity, but as their right. Something they'd earned and deserved. This is precisely why they protested when they all got the same amount.

If we change our perspective and see all that we have not as a result of our hard work or our rights, but as a gift from God, then our attitude will be drastically changed. We will no longer feel excused from a duty to help our fellow man. We would return to the belief that all are created equal. We would see that those of us who have more have a greater duty to share and give to those who have less.

If we really read the Bible and think about the common themes throughout, we'd acknowledge that if God is biased, He is biased to those among us who are oppressed, poor, strangers, orphans, widows, immigrants. The last will be first, Jesus proclaimed. Read David's accounts of his struggles in the Psalms. Read Exodus and the other Old Testament stories of the sufferings of the Israelites. Read about the plight of Israel in the days that Jesus lived. Read about the persecution of the early church. God's favored people have always suffered oppression. They have often endured poverty, slavery, mistreatment by the government, alienation. Then think about who the oppressed, poor, enslaved, and mistreated in our world today are.
God has always been on the side of the oppressed. God has always raised up people to intercede for them, God has always favored them and gone to help them.

Then think about the way that we view the poor and oppressed. Think of all the comments people make about how they did that to themselves, they deserve it. Or think of the way the rich, the exploiters, the abusers, the oppressors, and the materially successful are exalted in our world. Think of the First World. Then think....The Last will be First.

There will be a day, when Jesus comes to restore everything, to make everything new.
The Third World will be exalted above the First World.

The orphans and widows will be exalted.

The poor workers, the single moms, the prostitutes, the slaves, the cheated, the oppressed, the sick, the dying, those oppressed because of race or socioeconomic status, will all be lifted up by our God.

They are the favored of God and the face of Christ.

May God forgive us for any sense of entitlement to what He has given us. May He forgive us for viewing others with prejudice instead of valuing and helping them. May He help us see from His viewpoint - where the first are last and the last are first.