Pretty Unfair
The Mk7 Volkswagen GTI debuted with 210 horsepower from its turbocharged EA888 2.0-liter engine. A Performance Package added another 10 horsepower and a mechanical limited-slip differential. Then, in 2019, power climbed to 228 horsepower for all models.
So, a 2019 base GTI had more performance than a Performance Package GTI from the previous year.
If you bought a base model in 2019, you probably feel pretty good. Nice, healthy, 228 horsepower, right off of the dealer’s lot, without checking any boxes. This is the joy of Hannah in the Bible. The Lord had “closed her womb,” (1 Samuel 1:5), while her husband’s other wife (polygamy was one of the most common sins in the Old Testament) bore children. Finally, the Lord gave her a son, Samuel.
While Hannah was still childless, she probably felt that she wasn’t good enough. Like a childless woman attending dozens of baby showers or a base GTI in a sea of Performance Package GTIs, sometimes it seems like other people are just better than us. Maybe they just have it all together. But then God answers prayer and we remember his provision.
But what if you bought a GTI Performance Package in 2018? You put in the work and paid extra, and then Volkswagen just goes and levels the playing field?
First of all, welcome to the automotive world. Countless sports cars and special editions over the years have debuted technology that trickles down to lower models just a year or two later. Automakers love doing this, and car folks love resenting them for it.
Second, welcome to Jesus’ explanation of God’s grace.
God offers the same grace to all people. To both the life-long church-goer, and the thief on the cross who made a deathbed confession, God offers grace. Don’t believe it? Read The Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard (Matthew 20:1-16). Jesus describes “the kingdom of heaven” in terms of a labor shortage; some people were hired in the morning and promised a day’s wage, yet there’s room for more people, so more and more people are sought out throughout the day (and promised a day’s wage too). Figuring an eight-hour day at $15/hour, that’s $120 for the day. The people hired last got their $120, even after working only an hour. So the people hired first assumed they would get not just $120, but $120 for each hour they worked. It would be unfair not to.
Well, they got just $120. If it doesn’t seem fair, that’s because God is unfair. It isn’t fair that we’re all evil-doers in some capacity, and worthy of the same punishment as any other sinner, but God deeply loves us and gives us grace instead. Remember, these parables are from the same mouth that commanded the dead to receive life. Because of our sin, we’re all dead until Jesus commands us to receive the life God offers.
God doesn’t pay us for the amount of work we do. He promises us grace that he knows we didn’t and couldn’t earn. God’s grace to all people is the same because our sin is the same.
We are all Hannah in Chapter 1, with no life inside of us. God gives us life, and we become Hannah in Chapter 2, full of life, proclaiming “He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap; he seats them with princes and has them inherit a throne of honor.” (1 Samuel 2:8) That doesn’t sound fair either, but it sure sounds like God.
When it’s tempting to imagine yourself as a 2018 GTI Performance Package buyer who has put in more work, earned more distinction, sat through more church services, run your business in a more Christian-like manner, and passed more tests of temptation than some newcomer, take a moment and feel good about your accomplishments. Faithfulness is a good thing. And then remember that God’s grace is unfair. Even now he’s speaking to you and saying, “Despite your sinful pride, I’m leveling the playing field and giving you – and all your fellow sinners – the gifts of forgiveness and grace that you don’t deserve.”
