From the borderlands of Cambodia and Laos—fresh perspective on an old parable:
Krala Village, Ratanakiri, Cambodia
August 5, 2015
Christians of the Krung and Brao tribes have organized their own Bible school, which gathers twice a year in various villages, this time in Krala. The leader of the school is a Krung pastor named Naay. He was one of the early believers among the Krung. That was almost twenty years ago, and since that time he has become not only a faithful pastor but also a Bible teacher and a mentor of men. In recent years, since the creation of a Krung alphabet, he has assisted with Bible translation work and promoted literacy among his people. Naay is a five-talent servant, always laboring to increase the fame of his Master.
Pastor Naay
The first Bible school was started by JD and the other missionaries here. It was taught in the national language of Khmer so that different tribal groups could participate. Students were charged to attend the school, and tuition was a sack of rice—their food share. They also had to find their own way to get there—usually by foot or by bicycle. Some Jarai Christians in outlying areas made a sixteen-hour journey by bike—each carrying their sack of rice. Some criticized this approach saying it was wrong to treat poor people this way, but JD and the others started out by planting well—not by sprinkling the “Miracle-Gro” of money but by preparing good soil and letting the Seed of the Word do its work. This made the Christians here strong to take root, grow, and branch out. Consequently, after a few years the different tribes were able to start their own “mother tongue” Bible schools. As JD and his colleagues told them, “This will be your school, your language, your teachers, your money.”
Today Naay taught from Matthew 20: 1-16:
For the kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. After agreeing with the laborers for a denarius a day, he sent them into his vineyard. And going out about the third hour he saw others standing idle in the marketplace, and to them he said, “You go into the vineyard too, and whatever is right I will give you.” So they went. Going out again about the sixth hour and the ninth hour, he did the same. And about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing. And he said to them, “Why do you stand here idle all day?” They said to him, “Because no one has hired us.” He said to them, “You go into the vineyard too.” And when evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, “Call the laborers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last, up to the first.” And when those hired about the eleventh hour came, each of them received a denarius. Now when those hired first came, they thought they would receive more, but each of them also received a denarius. And on receiving it they grumbled at the master of the house, saying, “These last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat.” But he replied to one of them, “Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius? Take what belongs to you and go. I choose to give to this last worker as I give to you. Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or do you begrudge my generosity?” So the last will be first, and the first last.
Naay did not call this parable by its usual name—“The Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard.” Rather he called it “The Parable of the Merciful Boss.” Naay pointed out that most of us are not comfortable with this story. We look at ourselves as those who worked hard all day and the master as unfair, but that’s because we think too much of ourselves and too little of the Master. We are all eleventh-hour people—those who have been shown unearned, unexpected generosity!
As Naay was laying out these truths from the passage, I could hear JD whispering in the conversational prayer that is his habit, “He’s preaching grace now. Lord, help them to get this. Give them understanding.”
The Lord did indeed answer JD’s prayer, for I received fresh insight into this parable—a needed rebuke and overwhelming joy in the lavish grace of my Merciful Boss.
NOTE: You can read the complete chapter (and other stories) in A Company of Heroes, which can be ordered from Frontline’s store, Crossway, or Amazon.