His Ways are not Your Ways
Matthew 20:1-16
24 September 2017 – Redeemer
My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord through the Prophet Isaiah. Start reading the Bible and you will see that the God of Holy Scripture isn’t like you. He doesn’t think like you. He doesn’t act like you. You would divorce your spouse if he or she committed adultery. God would not. He does everything in His power to win his adulterous bride Israel back. In His foolish love He forgives her more than seventy times seven for her sin. You delight in your enemy getting what he deserves. God delights in paying the price for His enemies crimes so they can be His friends, even His children – after all that’s how you got into His Kingdom.
Today’s Gospel reading is proof positive that God’s ways are not our ways.
“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. The Kingdom of heaven is like a Master of a house. That means the Kingdom of heaven is about One Guy – that’s Jesus, that’s God, that’s the Trinity. It is His Kingdom, His vineyard, His everything. The great news is that He wants you in His Kingdom, so He comes out looking for you. The master of the house goes down to the temp agency and finds people looking for work. Isn’t that an apt description of all of us? We’re looking for something. We’re seeking some purpose, some contentment, some answer. Saint Augustine’s famous quote captures it well, “Thou hast made us for thyself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it finds its rest in thee.” The Devil will tell you to seek everything but God to find your rest, your purpose, your place. God seeks you in Jesus to give you rest, purpose, and a place in His house.
He called the workers to work and gave them Union wages – a denarius a day. These workers had nothing until the Master of the House hired them and promised them a wage. Without Him they had no work, no purpose, no place in His Kingdom. We confess the same about God’s Kingdom. I have no place in God’s Kingdom because of my sinful nature and my rebellious deeds. You deserve nothing from Him, instead you deserve everything the Devil can throw at you – suffering, trouble, eternal death, and hell. However, because of God’s mercy in Christ you and I have everything in the Kingdom and the Devil has nothing on us.
We Lutherans do a pretty good job of confessing we are saved by grace alone – that Christ’s work is a gift to us. But do we remember that everything else we have is also a gift from God’s hand? Your body, your gender, your parents, your spouse, your children, your job, your government, your cabin, your boat, your social security check, your retirement. All of this is yours “only out of Fatherly and divine goodness and mercy, without any merit or worthiness in [you].” The Son of God is a gift to you that will last for all eternity. The car that brought you to church this morning is also a gift – it just won’t last as long. The Master of the house is gracious. God loves to give.
That’s exactly what we see as the parable continues. 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. Some of these guys had one too many beers. Some had several too many. Others were kept awake by their newborn babies. They hit the snooze button. Ignored the alarm. When they finally woke up they were sure they lost a day’s wages. First come first to get work. The late and the last lose out, but they needed work so they went. Thanks be to the Master they got hired. He still has grapes to bring in and no shortage of funds to pay for the harvest.
Then we come to the surprise of the parable. Dave Dahl has forecast a hard frost. Time is of the essence to get the grapes in. Tomorrow is too late. The landowner hops in his F150 for one last trip to town. He’s already hired four rounds of workers, everyone He could find, but the end is near and He wants a good harvest. The workforce office is closed, but there’s a bunch of guys smoking outside next door at Bruce’s Beer and Billiards. 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.’ They were lazy liars. They had been drinking beer, playing pool, seeking their pleasure and ease all day long. They didn’t look for work. They didn’t want to work. They didn’t deserve a job. But by now you should know the Master of the House – His ways are not your ways. His thoughts are not your thoughts. He doesn’t accuse. He doesn’t laugh at them. “You go into the vineyard too.” They understood. They would get paid for what they did – perhaps enough for another beer, a pack of smokes, and a game of pool.
Some of you spent three nights this week at church. Others of you were running your children to school, packing them lunches, and doing homework. Some of you drove truck, some work in medicine, others in retail. Many of you volunteer. You grandparents babysit and pray for your children and grandchildren. Whatever you did this past week (apart from your sin) was given to you by God. What you do is God’s work – serving your neighbor. Most of you have been in the Kingdom since the beginning of your days. From the moment of your baptism, you have been at work and receiving gifts from the Master.
That’s why the surprise of this parable can be somewhat upsetting. At the end of the day the paymaster rolls up the little green shade on his banker’s window and starts handing out the wages. “Pay the last guys first,” instructs the owner. Surprise, they receive a whole denarius – a full days wages for an hour’s work. Sort of sounds like a pastor, doesn’t it? A full week’s wages for an hour’s work. The moment those last guys left the payroll office, bragging about their fortunes, what did everyone else start doing? They started calculating – one hour = one denarius. I worked 6 hours – I’m getting a week’s pay. I worked 12 hours – that’s almost two week’s pay. Hunting shack here I come – no need to work tomorrow. But surprise everyone gets the same pay – one denarius.
What happened? Instead of banking on what the Master promised, they starting thinking about what they deserved. They forgot the Master’s word and thought about themselves. Neither the first man hired nor the last did anything. The Master gave them work and gave them pay. But those who worked long and hard thought they deserved more.
If something is a gift it is not about what you have done or have not done. It is simply a gift. So it is with the Kingdom of Heaven. In Jesus you have the Father’s gift. You have nothing but sin. Jesus has everything you need – the death that takes away all your sin, the Father’s pleasure, resurrection and eternal life. Christ’s death is offensive because it puts us all on the same level. No one deserves more of Christ, because no one deserves Christ at all. He is gift. The Father sends His Son. Jesus bears your sins. Jesus dies your death and rests in your tomb. You get everything that He earned by His work and purchased by His blood when you believe.
But what about all your work, what about all those hours you sat with your kids and didn’t get a thing out of the sermon, what about all those prayers you prayed, what about all the offerings you gave, what about your long hard struggle against sin? Well. all of that will earn you great blessings, but not heaven. All that work will be rewarded, just not with forgiveness and the resurrection. The only way to understand “the first will be last and the last will be first” is to realize that your great works or your lack of works, your first-ness or your last-ness isn’t what God is counting. He does not count your sins against you, but rather He counts you righteous in Christ and give each of you the same wonderful pay – the wages which His Son earned for you. He gives you the forgiveness of your sins, in the name of Jesus. Amen.
Pr. Bruce Timm
24 September 2017