The Perfect Job

We might work because we have bills to pay, a debt to owe. It’s a heavy burden to know that you have to work just to get out from under a huge debt. We might work because we aspire to earn a reward. But what if we had an occupation that we could do, not because we had bills to pay, or because we felt the need to get something more, but just because we loved it, lived and breathed to be able to do the ‘job’?

The story Jesus told in Matthew 18:21-35 describes the first situation. A man owed a huge debt, and begged the master for the mercy to not punish him, but just let him work to pay off the huge debt, which was so huge, a life time of work would not have paid it. In the story Jesus told in Matthew 20:1-16 we see people who work for the reward they can earn, and bicker over how the master divvies up the purse. Neither picture is a happy life!

But contrasted to these two dismal pictures are two delightful ones. The man forgiven is expected to live remembering the mercy shown him, being mercy-minded to others, whose trespasses (debts) against him must be miniscule in comparison to his own eternal debts forgiven. And the people working for the master are expected to work because of their love for the master, not looking to compare their reward to others.

Working for the sheer love of life together with Christ and our sisters and brothers, unconcerned about debts (which are all paid, anyway,) or rewards (living in love has its own reward!) this sounds like life on earth as it is in heaven. It’s the perfect job.