He did so because he knew that they felt unable to turn back to God since they did not believe that he would forgive their sins. They had to learn that God is merciful to those who repent and is rich in granting forgiveness. They needed to abandon their wrong way of thinking about God and adopt a new way of thinking; ‘For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, says the Lord.’
The first workers hired by the landowner to work in his vineyard were resentful when he did not pay them more than the workers who had worked fewer hours. They failed to comprehend that out of generosity the landowner had both hired them and paid all of them a full days’ wages in order that they could return home with sufficient money to feed their families. Had he not hired them, they and their families would have been left without food. They wrongly judged the landowner to be unjust and were completely blind to his generosity. Jesus’ parables show that they needed to abandon their wrong way of thinking and to see the landowner with new eyes.
We too need to be renewed in our thinking: ‘Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewal of your mind. The light of God’s Word must dispel our misconceptions and wrong ways of thinking about God: that he will never hear my prayers; that my sins are too great to be forgiven; that God does not find me acceptable; or that he does not really care about me. These ways of thinking can go very deep in us, preventing us from experiencing God’s mercy and love.
As we read God’s Word, it exposes misconceptions and wrong ways of thinking. It instructs us in the truth about God and ourselves. Ask God to renew your thinking and to give you ‘the mind of Christ.’
