Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

¹⁰ When God saw their deeds—that they turned from their wicked ways—God relented from the calamity that He said He would do to them, and did not do it.

Jonah’s Displeasure at God’s Mercy

4 But it greatly displeased Jonah and he resented it. ² So he prayed to Adonai and said, “Please, Lord, was not this what I said when I was still in my own country? That’s what I anticipated, fleeing to Tarshish—for I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and full of kindness, and relenting over calamity. ³ So please, Adonai, take my soul from me—because better is my death than my life.”

⁴ Yet Adonai said, “Is it good for you to be so angry?”

⁵ So Jonah went out from the city and sat east of the city. There He made a sukkah and he sat under it, in the shade, until he saw what would happen in the city. ⁶ Then Adonai God prepared a plant and it grew up over Jonah, to give shade over his head to spare him from his discomfort. So Jonah was very happy about the plant. ⁷ But God at dawn the next day prepared a worm that crippled the plant and it withered away. ⁸ When the sun rose, God prepared a scorching east wind, and the sun beat down on Jonah’s head so that he became faint. So he implored that his soul would die, saying, “My death would be better than my life!”

⁹ Then God said to Jonah, “Is it good for you to be so angry about the plant?”

“It is,” he said, “I am angry enough to die!”

¹⁰ But Adonai said, “You have pity on the plant for which you did no labor or make it grow, that appeared overnight and perished overnight. So shouldn’t I have pity on Nineveh—the great city that has in it more than 120,000 people who don’t know their right hand from their left—as well as many animals?”

Glory of the Kingdom

Psalm 145

²¹ For to me, to live is Messiah and to die is gain. ²² But if to live on in the body means fruit from my work, what shall I choose? I do not know. ²³ I am torn between the two—having a desire to leave and be with Messiah, which is far better; ²⁴ yet for your sake, to remain in the body is more necessary. ²⁵ Convinced of this, I know that I will remain and continue with you all, for the sake of your progress and joy in the faith— ²⁶ so that your confidence in Messiah Yeshua might overflow because of me through my coming to you again.

²⁷ Only live your lives in a manner worthy of the Good News of the Messiah. Then, whether I come and see you or I am absent, I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit—striving side by side with one mind for the faith of the Good News ²⁸ and not being frightened in any way by your opponents. For them this is a sign of destruction, but for you salvation—and that from God. ²⁹ For to you was granted for Messiah’s sake not only to trust in Him, but also to suffer for His sake— ³⁰ experiencing the same struggle you saw in me and now you are hearing in me.

Parable of the Day Laborers

20 “For the kingdom of heaven is like the master of a household, who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard. ² Now when he had agreed with the workers for a denarius per day, he sent them into his vineyard. ³ And he went out about the third hour and saw others standing in the marketplace, idle. ⁴ And to them he said, ‘You go into the vineyard too, and I’ll give you whatever is right.’ ⁵ So they went. Again he went out about the sixth and ninth hour and did the same. ⁶ And about the eleventh hour, he went out and found others standing around. And he said to them, ‘Why have you been standing here idle the whole day?’

⁷ “‘Because no one hired us,’ they said to him.

“He said to them, ‘You go into the vineyard, too.’

⁸ “Now when evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Call the workers and pay them their wages, beginning from the last to the first.’ ⁹ And those who had come about the eleventh hour each received a denarius. ¹⁰ And when the first came, they supposed that they would receive more; yet they too received a denarius.

¹¹ “But when they received it, they began to grumble against the master of the house, ¹² saying, ‘These last guys did one hour, and you’ve made them equal to us, who bore the burden and scorching heat of the day!’

¹³ “But answering, he said to one of them, ‘Friend, I’m doing you no wrong. Didn’t you agree with me on a denarius? ¹⁴ Take what is yours and go. But I want to give this last guy the same as you. ¹⁵ Am I not permitted to do what I want with what belongs to me? Or is your eye evil because I am good?’

¹⁶ “So the last will be first, and the first last.”