Grace isn’t Fair
St. Matthew 20:1-16
February 17, 2019 anno Domini – Redeemer
Happy Septuagesima. Septua-what? It’s seventy days until Easter. Septuagesima means 70 days. Our life and faith stand on this one historical truth – Jesus Christ rose from the dead. It’s all about Easter. Lent used to be called Quadragesima – 40 days till Easter. Next Sunday will be Sexagemisma – sixty days, but don’t do the math too closely. It doesn’t work out exactly – evidently those who planned the lectionary aren’t very good at math. Perhaps they learned that from God. He doesn’t do the math very well in today’s parable. That’s because His Kingdom is one of grace, not numbers, not fairness.
The Kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. This is way God works in the world and In His Kingdom. He doesn’t do things magically. He uses people. He uses men to father children and women to bear children. He brings male and female together in marriage to raise children in life and faith. He uses snowplow drivers to clean roads and tow truck operators to pull us out of the ditch. He used the flesh of a man, Jesus of Nazareth to pay the price for ours sins. In the church He uses water with His Word to wash away our sins and bread and wine to deliver Christ’s body and blood to us. He uses men to preach and acolytes to light candles and organists to accompany our hymns.
Throughout the Old Testament God used people — Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, the 12 sons and twelve tribes. In the parable these might be the first workers hired. From the very beginning God chose Israel. They began the work in His vineyard. It was His fruit but they were used to bring it forth.
God wants as many as possible to live and work in His Kingdom and enjoy its fruits. “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.” (Matthew 20:3–5, ESV) Already in the Old Testament some non-Israelties were called into the Kingdom – Naaman the Syrian leper, the residents of Ninevah, Rahab of Jordan, Ruth the Moabitess. You might say that in the third hour He called the people of Africa and Asia. The Lord went out about the sixth hour and called in Germans and Swedes and Norwegians. The Kingdom of God spread and grew outside of Jerusalem and the Roman world. The great explorers like Christopher Columbus brought the Gospel with them. God has called people from Saint Cloud, Sartell, Waite Park, even from Sauk Rapids.
Think of God’s grace. God doesn’t need you. He could do His work any way He wants. He could do His work without you and me, but He wants us. He wants you to be in His vineyard, to join together with Him in life, to drink the sweet fruit of His grace and mercy and forgiveness.
Life is in and only in the vineyard –only in the Kingdom of God. Look around the world and you will see there is no real life here. The best gifts we have in life, father and mother, husband and wife, son and daughter – we lay in the grave. Death is not what our heavenly Father wants for us, even though the world looks on death as the answer to life – an unwanted child is solved by the death of the child. A suffering or non-productive member of society is fixed by death.
From God’s Word we know that death is neither the problem nor the answer to life. We are our problem. We’re outside of God’s Kingdom. By our sin we rebel against God. We walked out on the Author of life, but He didn’t walk out on us. God pursues us like the landowner – all day long, until His harvest is complete. God pursues us with Jesus. Instead of you dying for your sin Christ Jesus dies. God’s own blood is shed on the dead tree of the cross – and that dead tree becomes the Tree of Life. Jesus is buried, planted if you will, in a garden tomb and on the third day He springs to life again. His tomb is open. His body risen. And now through that open door comes God’s invitation to you – He wants you in. Christ Jesus forgives your sins. Come, enjoy life, work in the Kingdom.
The landowner is gracious (which means He’s not really good at counting.) With one hour left until the end of the day He heads to Manpower one last time. They’re closed, but there’s still a crowd of lazy losers standing at the bar across the street. They wasted the whole day and even blamed the landowner when he asks them why they aren’t working. “No one has hired us.” “Yeh, right. I’ve been here four times today and you’ve wasted the day in a bottle.” But that isn’t what he says. He calls them into the vineyard. “You go into the vineyard too.” They don’t even ask about wages. They just trust that he has called them and he will reward them accordingly.
The harvest is in. The workers are to be paid. According to generally accepted practices – those hired first would be paid first. First come. First serve. But God doesn’t run the Kingdom like a business. He runs it by grace – so the last hired are the first paid and he pays them a whole day’s wages. Wait until the International Brotherhood of Grape Pickers hears about that.
And then the guys who work all day get the exact same wage. That’s not fair. And they make it known how unfair it is, “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?” (Matthew 20:12–16, ESV)
The Kingdom of God involves work – if you want your child to grow up in the faith you need to work at it. If you want a church at 3rd Street and 27th Avenue N it requires work. But don’t work thinking of what you deserve. That will lead to the sad ending of the parable. The landowner said to those who despised grace, “Take what belongs to you and go.” They walked out of the vineyard. They left life. Those who work by faith in the landowner all get the same wage – a wage far greater than they deserve. Everyone in God’s Kingdom gets the same abundant Jesus. Abraham gets the same Jesus, the same forgiveness, that you get. It’s God’s Kingdom – all of it. And as He asks, “Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me?” So God chose to offer His Son on the cross for your sins. That wasn’t fair. It was grace. It’s a gift whether you’ve worked your whole life in the church or whether you make a death bed confession. It’s a gift whether you’re forgiven central Minnesota sins or Maximum Security Life in Prison sins. Don’t begrudge our Lord’s generosity. Don’t worry that it’s not exactly 70 days until Easter. It doesn’t matter. Easter matters. Live and work in His Kingdom because He chose not to be fair to us in the name of Jesus. Amen.