Generosity Beyond the Pale of Sanity

I've been thinking about God's generosity in the way He has mercy. And I've been thinking about the story Jesus told about the Business Owner who paid all of his workers the same, whether they worked 8 hours or 1 hour. Being the practical person that I am, I feel like tearing my hair out whenever I read that story. I mutter things to the Owner like, "Just wait until tomorrow and see how many workers show up at 8 and how many workers show up at 4, etc." In other words, I am offended by what I consider the Owner's stupidity, His insanity. His response to those who muttered like I muttered was, "Are you offended because I am generous?"

But what I call insane, God calls generous. God told a story about money (knowing the power of money and the emotion connected to that power) in order to highlight how we are offended by His generosity in showing mercy. We are offended that he likes Nazis as well as Jews; that He likes Democrats as well as Republicans; that he likes liberals as well as conservatives; that he likes sinners as well as saints; that He likes prisoners as well as law-abiders; that he likes adulterers as well as the faithful, etc. As I said before, we tend to be offended by the generousness of His mercy.