The Kingdom of God is like...
The Parable of the Workers - Matthew 20:1-16
The conundrum of the basketball tickets.
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In the book "Misbehaving," we are told of two questions that were put to 100 students.
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The questions are these: "You are given two very expensive tickets to a basketball game that you would very much like to go to. But on the night of the game, the weather turns foul. It is an hour's drive each way, and will be a difficult, even dangerous drive.
Question 1: Having not paid fot the tickets, would you go?
Question 2: If you had paid for the tickets. would you go?
Before you read on, you might want to take time to give your own answers, and explain them.
Evaluation of the student's answers.
The majority of the students answered "No" to the first question, and "Yes" to the second.
The book calls these answers irrational and emotional: they go against economic principles. The fact that you paid for the tickets is irrelevant. The money is gone either way. Economic theory says: Never allow money that is already spent (known as 'sunk money') influence what you do now. The money is gone; forget it, and take the wisest step forward from here. The answer should only hinge on how much you want to go to the basketball game.
Therefore the answer to the two questions should both be "Yes" or both be "No." ​
Question 3. Do you agree with this evaluation?​
Question 4. How is all this relevant to the parable of the workers? To my Christian life?