A scientist performs an experiment with two capuchin monkeys (apparently, this is an experiment which yields similar results with other animals, like dogs). The monkeys are placed in adjacent clear plexiglass cages so they can see each other and witness said payment for their work.
The work is simple: when the scientist gives a rock to the monkey, the monkey’s job is to return it to the scientist, at which time they receive a reward.
The backstory is that if both monkeys receive a piece of cucumber each time they perform their work successfully, both remain happy and will continue to perform the work contentedly. In other words, the monkeys are rightly rewarded and all parties are satisfied with the day’s labor.
Now, when the scientist pays the first monkey with a cucumber and the second with a grape (a preferred food of capuchin monkeys), the first becomes irate and begins to reject the cucumber. At one point the first monkey throws the cucumber at the scientist in what can only be described as disgust, becoming increasingly physically and emotionally agitated.
Why is it that creatures are content until they begin comparing themselves to others? Why is it that what was fair a moment before is now unfair based on what seems to be going on with others? When does what’s righteous become unrighteous in the eyes of a creature? And how, pray tell, is this blog going to unfold, you might be asking?
Jesus could’ve easily given this TED Talk without even having to perform the experiment. Why?
But Jesus on his part did not entrust himself to them, because he knew all people and needed no one to bear witness about man, for he himself knew what was in man.
-John 2:24-25
Jesus had low expectations of man. In fact, He illustrated this with His Parable of the Laborers in the Vineyard.
“For the kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard.
After agreeing with the laborers for a denarius a day, he sent them into his vineyard. And going out about the third hour he saw others standing idle in the marketplace, and to them he said, ‘You go into the vineyard too, and whatever is right I will give you.’ So they went. Going out again about the sixth hour and the ninth hour, he did the same. And about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing. And he said to them, ‘Why do you stand here idle all day?’ They said to him, ‘Because no one has hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You go into the vineyard too.’
And when evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Call the laborers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last, up to the first.’ And when those hired about the eleventh hour came, each of them received a denarius.
Now when those hired first came, they thought they would receive more, but each of them also received a denarius. And on receiving it they grumbled at the master of the house, saying, ‘These last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat.’
After agreeing with the laborers for a denarius a day, he sent them into his vineyard. And going out about the third hour he saw others standing idle in the marketplace, and to them he said, ‘You go into the vineyard too, and whatever is right I will give you.’ So they went. Going out again about the sixth hour and the ninth hour, he did the same. And about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing. And he said to them, ‘Why do you stand here idle all day?’ They said to him, ‘Because no one has hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You go into the vineyard too.’
And when evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Call the laborers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last, up to the first.’ And when those hired about the eleventh hour came, each of them received a denarius.
Now when those hired first came, they thought they would receive more, but each of them also received a denarius. And on receiving it they grumbled at the master of the house, saying, ‘These last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat.’
But he replied to one of them, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius? Take what belongs to you and go. I choose to give to this last worker as I give to you. Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or do you begrudge my generosity?’ So the last will be first, and the first last.”
-Matthew 20:1-16
Is it fair to say that if the pay was given to each worker privately, no one would have complained? Why is that? Well, it’s just like the monkeys in the video; even though they agreed to and were satisfied with their compensation while they considered it fair, as soon as they judged their master as unfair, they were no longer content.
Monkeys and humans have something in common, malcontent.
This fleshly disease is what gets us all in trouble. The problem is simple – we begin passing judgment above our “pay grade”. Instead of living a truly blessed life, knowing that our Master, the Lord, has always treated us fairly, we breech the boundaries of privacy between the Lord and His other creatures. What business is that of ours? And when we make it our business, how quickly does our blessed existence turn into something we loathe?
You see, the monkey experiment speaks volumes to the depraved nature of fallen man. In fact, fallen man acts no different than the monkeys. While we don’t share a common ancestry with monkeys (contrary to popular evolutionary viewpoint), we do have something in common, apparently. We can act just like the monkeys in the video left to our own depraved judgments. The psalmist empathizes.
When my soul was embittered, when I was pricked in heart, I was brutish and ignorant; I was like a beast toward you.
-Psalm 73:21-22
Every time I’ve watched this TED Talk, I’ve laughed out loud; however, it’s a laugh with an edge to it, with a sadness that ultimately extinguishes any humor I might find in it. We are so often like the monkey who rejected its payment because it noticed its neighbor being treated graciously, more favorably according to its own sensibilities (Who’s to say the grapes were even any good? – that’s another blog for another day, I suppose). We would all do well to just mind our own business.
The bigger question is: Do any of us deserve any grace from God at all?
What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God's part? By no means! For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy.
-Romans 9:14-16
The simple fact that God shows any of His creatures grace, given their unworthiness, ought to shut our mouths forever on the topic of fairness.
Is it too much to ask that we behave at a higher standard than monkeys? Or are we bent on giving the evolutionists fuel for their fire?
Love in Christ,
Ed Collins
