Cucumbers

Grace is an Unforseen Favor

God's kingdom is like an old neighbor who went out early in the morning to hire brown capuchin monkeys to clean his basement. They agreed on a wage of a meal of juicy cucumbers for a day’s work. And so they went to work.

Later, about nine o'clock, the old neighbor saw some other monkeys hanging around the jungle, unemployed. He told them to go to work in his basement and he would pay them a fair wage. They went.

He did the same thing at noon, and again at three o'clock. At five o'clock he went back and found still others hanging around. He said, “Why are you hanging around all day doing nothing?”

They said, “Because no one hired us.”

He told them to go to work in his basement.

When the day's work was over, the old neighbor called the monkeys in to pay them their wages; starting with the last hired and going on to the first.

Those hired at five o'clock came up and were each given a meal of sweet grapes. When those who were hired first saw that, they assumed they would get far more. But to their consternation, they got the agreed upon wage; a meal of juicy cucumbers. Taking the cucumbers, they groused angrily to the old neighbor, “Those last monkeys put in only one easy hour, and you just fed them a meal of sweet grapes while to us, who slaved all day in a dank basement, you only fed cucumbers.

He replied to the one speaking for the rest, “Friend, I haven't been unfair. We agreed on a meal of cucumbers, didn't we? So take it and go. I decided to give to the one who came last the grapes. Can't I do what I want with my own fruit and vegetables? Are you going to get stingy because I am generous?”

So the last shall be first, and the first last: for many be called, but few chosen.