Week 4: Through the eye of a needle

It's funny how money can compete so much with the Savior.
This week, I'm going to cover two things. First, the story of the young rich man who wanted to have his cake and eat it too, and the parable of the men working for wages.

Just a brief recap of the story of the young rich man; This young man with a lot of wealth comes to Christ inquiring how to gain Eternal Salvation. Christ replies that the man must keep the commandments.

I think that the young man knew that he was still lacking something, because he replies in a tone that I have conceived as unsatisfied, more or less in these words, "I already do all these things". Christ then thinks for a second and challenges the young man to give away all of his possesions to follow Him.

This young man turns ashamed, because he knows that he is not in a state where he feels he can do that. He, like all of us know deep down inside what is keeping us from fully keeping the commandments, but internally wishes that it could be passed over, especially if we live our lives 90% perfectly. (Matt. 19 16-30)

Then there is the parable of the laborers in the field.

the master of a vineyard went and hired men to work in his fields at different times of the day (at the beginning, the third hour, the sixth, the ninth and the eleventh. He made the agreement with all of them that they would be paid at the end of the day, a more specific agreement for those that He had hired at the beginning for a penny.

At the end of the day, he paid each worker the same; one penny, or as Elder Holland makes better known the equivalent of one days wages so the man could possibly feed his family.

The workers who worked all day became angry with the Master of the vineyard, and complained that they were treated unfairly. The reply they received was this, " Friend, I do thee no wrong: didst not thou agree with me for a penny?" They were reprimanded for criticizing the Master's generosity.

Sometimes we do that too. We see ourselves working, and assume that all of our blessings are conditional on how long and how hard we work. I know that it is true that we get blessings for working, and often the more work we do for the Lord, the more blessings we receive....but how do we react when we see others getting blessings?
Do we murmur, become jealous of the blessings that we see someone receiving that we've been telling the Lord that we deserve?

We should be happy with our blessings and be happy that the Lord blesses others. Those that have worked their whole lives in the church faithfully live with the assurance their whole lives that the Savior loves them, they have more responsibility, and they work when they are able. They are they who worked all day. Those who come later have suffered the pain of the ignorance and separation from the fullness of the Love that could have been received all the years they did not know about the truth of the gospel. They will receive the same blessing as those who worked their whole lives, because the Lord doesn't measure the quantity of our works, he measures the desire in our hearts as we are capable and know about the work.

I love this gospel. The Savior, Jesus Christ is just, and fair. He wants to give us all the blessings that He can...for those that missed out early in life, He wants to make up for it a bit :)