Are you Resentful of a Generous God?

September 20th 2026

Scripture: Jonah 3:10 - 4:11 & Matthew 20:1-16

Both of our readings this morning are tied together by a simple question, a question GOD poses to all of US: “Are you resentful because I am generous?” This might sound silly at first. You might scoff at such a thought; your first instinct might be to deny – ‘of course not, God! That’s ridiculous!’ But if we sit with that question a moment longer.. allow it to settle in.. allow ourselves to examine our deepest feelings.. the ones we don’t admit to other because they make us feel ashamed.. we might be able to admit that, yes, we are resentful of God’s unconditional generosity.

Now before you go beating yourself up, let me assure you, this is a completely normal feeling! OF COURSE you feel resentful! You were culturally conditioned to believe in fairness, in getting what you deserve, reaping what you sow, earning your rewards. From a young age, you’ll hear even toddlers start to proclaim, ‘Hey, it’s my turn! That’s not fair! I was here first!’ Whether it is instinctual or culturally conditioned into us, I can almost guarantee everyone in this room has had this manner of thought at least once in their lifetime.

That’s the whole point.

This is our baseline, which God intends to move, or dare I say, shatter.

God’s love is counter-cultural.

God’s love is 100% unconditional, which means that it is so generous that it becomes offensive in light of everything we have previously been taught.

Are you resentful of God’s generous love?

Jonah was resentful.        

Jonah didn’t want to go to Nineveh. He famously ran away from God and was swallowed by a big fish before he resentfully gave the people of Nineveh the opportunity to turn from their destructive behaviors toward the God of love and life. You may recall the whale portion of the story well, but who remembers WHY Jonah didn’t want to share God with the Ninevites? This is essential to the story; there is no story without this piece, and yet so few people actually know it.

Jonah hated the Ninevites because Nineveh was the capital of the Assyrian empire, which conquered Israel. So, as an Israelite, the Ninevites were the evil enemy. However, as an Israelite, Jonah is no stranger to God’s unconditional love, compassion and mercy. THIS is why he doesn’t want to go to Nineveh; he doesn’t want God to show them mercy! He doesn’t want God to save them! He wants to stomp his feet like a toddler and demand God hate the people he hates. How dare God show them mercy when they deserve destruction! Jonah is resentful of God’s generosity.

This is very similar to the tenant farm workers in the parable Jesus told from our Matthew reading. On ‘God’s’ farm, everyone gets paid a living wage for the day, regardless of how many hours they worked. The reality is that everyone standing at the market waiting for work is at the mercy of luck. It was mere luck that those first workers were chosen right away in the morning. From there, it was pure generosity and loving intention that the rest were chosen. You see ‘God’ in the story could have chosen those first workers and been done with it. But God kept going back to see who was still out of work for the day, running out of luck, running out of hope for feeding themselves and their family for the day. Multiple times ‘God’ goes back and hires those who are still hoping for work. THEN all the workers are paid a full days wage, because it is not about the hours worked, it’s about everyone needing a living wage to survive.

Furthermore, ‘God’ in the story COULD have kept this a secret by making those who were hired last wait at the end of the wage line. But instead, those are the workers whom ‘God’ paid FIRST, so that everyone else had to bear witness. What we don’t know can’t hurt us.. but what we see unfold right before our very eyes can make us very resentful. As the workers who toiled for 8 hours received their full day’s wage, they stomped their feet and cried, ‘That’s not fair! They didn’t earn as much as I did!’ They were resentful of God’s generosity.

It seems to me that the question of every generation has always been, ‘Who is worthy of God’s unconditional love and generosity?’ For thousands of years before Christ, it was the Hebrew people. The Hebrew people are worthy, but really only the ones that followed the law perfectly. Then Jesus, God in the flesh, came to Earth to flip the tables to be as clear as possible that ALL people, in fact ALL of creation, is worthy of God’s love – WITHOUT CONDITION.

Don’t even raise your hand and ask, ‘But what about...’ 

because the answer is always ‘Yes. Them too.’ 

However, our resentful hearts have spent the last 2,000 years trying to walk this back. Wars have been fought over it.. Institutions have been built around it.. It has inspired laws, crusades, genocides, witch hunts and murders of all kinds.. simply because we cannot be convinced that God is so generous that God’s love might be unconditional. But the fact of the matter is that we will never experience the kin-dom of God on earth as it is in heaven if we cannot grow up, move beyond our childish instincts, and learn to see everyone and everything as God’s beloved, sacred family which we are blessed to be a part of.

Jonah had to learn that God loves the people we hate and dehumanize.

The farm workers had to learn that everyone deserves a living wage, regardless of how long or how hard they worked.

We too must learn that God’s love is not fair.

God’s love is generous, unconditional, irrational, all-consuming, all-encompassing, and light-years beyond anything we can comprehend.

I’ve often been asked as a pastor in a denomination which emphasizes God’s love rather than God’s judgment, how I engage people or keep people engaged without the element of fear. The question often sounds something like this, ‘If it’s all about love and no judgment, what is the incentive to participate in Church or to be good people?’ To which I have to chuckle, because, despite what we have been made to believe, LOVE is the only force strong enough in this world to make any real positive transformation.

That’s actually THE POINT OF THE CROSS by the way!

Jesus was welcomed and worshiped as a King, in direct opposition to Caesar (the Emperor of Rome), who called himself the Son of God, and ruled the world with fear, wealth, and power. Rome then sentences this ‘so called king’ to be crucified, which was the highest most humiliating and painful form of public execution at the time, in order to prove to everyone that fear and wealth and power are indeed what make a king.

However, Jesus goes to the cross willingly AND forgives his executioners for not understanding what they’re doing, because God is actually proving to the world that love is the only thing that can save us. And from that moment on the gospel is born, the message of Jesus sweeps the nations, love liberates creation both literally and figuratively and here we are today, still talking about it. Still learning what it actually means to be loved so completely. Still being transformed by its power.

God’s generosity may make us resentful, but only on the surface. If we push past those childlike concepts of fairness and let the message of God’s love transform us, that could be life-changing. That might be a message we want to share with others. That might compel us to keep showing up for God, for each other, and heck, maybe even for ourselves.

In an interview I came by this week, Dr. Ibrahim Karim was talking about love and I want to share his definition because I think it applies to the powerful way God loves us all. He said, “Love is a phenomenon that happens inside of you.. which truly resonates with you... and makes you see something deeper within yourself.. and that’s where love begins.. it has pointed you toward the true essence in your heart.. the person you love is the person who connected you back to that center.”

God’s love is generous, unconditional, even offensive, because it penetrates us to the core.

It is intrusive, invasive, and all-encompassing.

It does not ask for permission; it is simply given.

If we let our guards down,

let go of our fears and preconceived notions of worth and fairness,

we just might be overcome with this phenomenon..

which resonates with us at a deeper level,

so deep we may have never encountered it before..

and there we might be reconnected to our center,

the core and essence of our being,

which we share with God,

our Source.

We might be transformed.

Fear may not be a necessary component after all.

Amen.