One of my all-time favorite movies is Amadeus. It is loosely based on the 1979 stage play of the same name, which is even more loosely based on the lives of Antonio Salieri and Wolfgang Mozart. It is not a biography of the two men, but rather, an imaginative look at Salieri’s own struggle to understand how God could lavish such musical genius on a young, boorish individual like Mozart.

In a sense, Amadeus poses the same question as the biblical book of Job, only inverted. The author of Job ponders the question of why God would “punish” the most righteous man on the face of the earth, while Amadeus ponders why God would “reward” an undeserving, preadolescent brat. It just doesn’t seem fair, does it?

But then again, God has a long history of doing things that many of us would call unfair. For example, why would God choose Jacob, who was a conniver and a con artist, over the more dutiful (albeit somewhat dull) Esau? Why would God specifically instruct Samuel to bypass Jesse’s older sons in favor of anointing a young, inexperienced shepherd boy as Israel’s next king?

Even some of Jesus’ own parables force us to wrestle with the question of fairness. Is it fair that the prodigal son is welcomed back without any repentance at all? Is it fair that the one-talent servant is cast aside for playing it safe and keeping his master’s original investment intact? Is it fair that the stalwarts who labored twelve hours under the blazing sun receive exactly the same pay as those who come waltzing in right before the final whistle blows and barely break a sweat?

From our perspective, the answer is a resounding “No!” In fact, the story of the laborers in the vineyard doesn’t even make economic sense—and that may have been Jesus’ intent. He is trying to get us to understand grace—not as something we toil to earn, or perform well enough to deserve—but as a gift from God!

Bear in mind that the owner of this vineyard does not cheat anyone. The full-day workers get paid exactly what they were promised … and more to the point, exactly what they agreed to work for. Had the owner pulled a “bait-and-switch” and paid them less than what they were promised, then they might have had a legitimate complaint. They would have been right to say, “This is not fair”—because it wouldn’t have been! But as it is, they are receiving the same rate of pay that their contracts clearly stipulated.

The problem is that, in their minds, it wasn’t what they deserved. After all, they worked longer than the others … they worked harder than the others … and therefore, they deserved to be paid more than the others.

However, the fact of the matter is that, when it comes to grace, none of us gets what we rightfully deserve—and thank God for that! I don’t know about you, but if I thought God was going to give me exactly what I deserved, I’m not sure I would sleep very well at night. What allows me to sleep is the firm belief that God is not going to give me what I most deserve … but rather what I most need!