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Friday
Reading: Matthew 20 v 1 – 16
Yesterday, we contemplated the first characteristic of mercy i.e. mercy is sensitive.
Today I would like to add to that sentiment to suggest that Mercy is sensitive, but
sensitive,
SENSIBLE.
not always SENSIBLE
In Matthew 20 Jesus told a parable that unless you understood what he was trying
to say, would not make much sense at all. He spoke of the land owner wanting to
hire men to work in his fields, he went back five times over the course of the day and
brought these men to work and at the end of the day those who had worked for one
hour were paid the same as those who had worked all day. This was certainly not
sensible business practice, but Jesus was not talking about business practice, he was
talking about mercy. In the parable, the people who were chosen last are people like
us, if we had anything to offer God He would have chosen us first, it did not make
sense for Him to show mercy with the idea of getting very little reward in return,
but thank God that He made a merciful choice. Just trace back this principle
through Scripture and you will see how God has a way of choosing the weak in order
to fulfil His purpose. He chose Moses in the midst of the wilderness, depressed,
demotivated and in a demoralised state. He chose Gideon who himself acknowledged
that he was a “nobody”. Even in Jesus Himself it is spoken of in Isaiah 53 v 2 that
“He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that

we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men. A man of sorrows and
familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hid their faces, he was despised
and we esteemed him not.”
I am sure that for many of you, you will be able to look back on your childhood
experience and remember the cruel way that we used to choose teams. Two captains
would be appointed and all the “wishful” would stand in front and be called out one
by one. The strong ones were always chosen first. I can remember so clearly the
sadness of being the last to be chosen, but in the context of the above parable, there
is incredible joy that even though you may be the last chosen, at least you were
chosen. The whole thing makes no common sense or has any business sense. It
certainly was sensitive that God chose us, but it wasn’t sensible. I am so glad that
when God chose me, He didn’t make a sensible choice, but that He made a merciful
one.
As this whole thing relates not just between God and us, so too it relates between us
and others. You will meet people in the course of your life I am sure who have as a
result of poor decisions and bad habits made a mess of their lives. This parable
challenges us hugely and teaches us well how to handle these situations.