I’ve got Google Reader locked onto Tim Stafford’s blog. What a nice, helpful writer. Today’s posting noted how illegal immigration despite lack of headline space continues to be an emotional issue. His friend at the newspaper noted that “People feel strongest and angriest when they perceive that somebody gets something they don’t deserve.”

I had to play with that mentally a bit. Were people be angry at the recipients of the new cars that Oprah famously gave away? No. Why not? “Deserving” wasn’t involved but people weren’t upset.

What if Oprah only gave free cars to two thirds of her audience that day. Would some be upset? I think so. Why? The cry would go out “it isn’t fair.” This reminds me of Jesus’ parable of the day laborers in Matthew 20:1-16.

Resentment grows out of a sense of entitlement. Someone getting a good that we don’t think they deserve doesn’t really get emotional traction with us unless we imagine this means we either have to pay for it or we are missing out on something else.

How many of Jesus’ sayings, stories and teachings really focus on entitlement? A lot it seems to me. A sense of entitlement seems instinctive to us, difficult to shake, and a source of enmity all over the place.