Take your money and go. I wanted to pay this last worker the same as you. Is it against the law for me to do what I want with my money? Should you be jealous because I am kind to others? Matthew 20:14-15
At the core of envy is selfishness. You see, envy is entirely self-focused. Envy makes us focus on our own wants and needs, forgetting that others around us have real desires and needs, too. As much as we might think we are the center of the universe, we certainly are not. We are surrounded every day by people with needs and desires whom God also cares for, and because He is good, He is good to them, just as He is good to us. This news is not something to lament. It is something to celebrate!
We are studying a parable that Jesus told in Matthew 20 this week. As we learned yesterday in our Bible study time, this parable is about a landowner who hired workers throughout the day who needed work to tend his vineyard. When it came time to pay the workers, the landowner paid all of the workers the same amount: a day’s wage. In this story, when those who worked at the beginning of the day realized that those who had worked fewer hours than them were paid the same amount as they were paid, “they protested to the owner” (verse 11). They were not happy that even the people who had worked for just one hour were paid the same amount as them. To them, this was unfair. The landowner responded, “Friend, I haven’t been unfair! Didn’t you agree to work all day for the same wage? Take your money and go…Should you be jealous because I am kind to others?” (verses 13-15). The obvious answer to the last question, “Should you be jealous because I am kind to others?” was “No.” Indeed, the workers should not have begrudged the landowner’s kindness. Instead, they should have celebrated that they had found such a kind landowner to work for, who showed kindness and wanted to give everyone an opportunity to work. They should have been happy for the men who were hired at nine o’clock, noon, three o’clock, and even five o’clock. They all needed work to support themselves and their families, too.
On a much grander scale, God is exceedingly kind to all people, taking care of them and providing for them. When we are envious, we are actually begrudging His kindness to them rather than sharing in their happiness over how God has taken care of and provided for them. We serve a God who is good to all people, and as a result, we can have joy when we see Him taking care of and providing for the people around us.
Who is someone you know whom you have felt envious toward because God provided for them in a way that you are waiting for Him to provide for you, whether that is relationally, financially, professionally, or something else? For the next few minutes, pray for them. As you pray for them, thank God for how He has, in His goodness, richly provided for them. Pray for any other needs that you know they may have. This prayer will help you let go of selfishness as you remember God’s goodness to the people around you.
“God, as I search my heart for envy, I confess…”
Going Deeper
Matthew 20:1-16
20 “For the Kingdom of Heaven is like the landowner who went out early one morning to hire workers for his vineyard. 2 He agreed to pay the normal daily wage and sent them out to work.
3 “At nine o’clock in the morning he was passing through the marketplace and saw some people standing around doing nothing. 4 So he hired them, telling them he would pay them whatever was right at the end of the day. 5 So they went to work in the vineyard. At noon and again at three o’clock he did the same thing.
6 “At five o’clock that afternoon he was in town again and saw some more people standing around. He asked them, ‘Why haven’t you been working today?’
7 “They replied, ‘Because no one hired us.’
“The landowner told them, ‘Then go out and join the others in my vineyard.’
8 “That evening he told the foreman to call the workers in and pay them, beginning with the last workers first. 9 When those hired at five o’clock were paid, each received a full day’s wage. 10 When those hired first came to get their pay, they assumed they would receive more. But they, too, were paid a day’s wage. 11 When they received their pay, they protested to the owner, 12 ‘Those people worked only one hour, and yet you’ve paid them just as much as you paid us who worked all day in the scorching heat.’
13 “He answered one of them, ‘Friend, I haven’t been unfair! Didn’t you agree to work all day for the usual wage? 14 Take your money and go. I wanted to pay this last worker the same as you. 15 Is it against the law for me to do what I want with my money? Should you be jealous because I am kind to others?’
16 “So those who are last now will be first then, and those who are first will be last.”
©2026 Sagebrush Church
