Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father, and
from our Lord Jesus Christ.
Text: (Matthew
20:1-16)
Am I not
allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or is your eye evil
because I am good?
Prayer: May
the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your
sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
The things that Jesus outlines in our parable today are a
fairly unusual way to run a workplace. Can you imagine if the CEO of Loy Yang
or Yallourn power station or some major industrial company went out to hire
workers at different stages during the day. One man does a full day’s work,
another does half a day’s work and another does one hour’s work. All the
different men have done different hours, and some have done much more work than
others. But when they get their paid, they find out that everyone has been paid
the same amount as if they had all done a full shift.
Could you imagine what would happen? It wouldn’t be fair!
There would be strikes and riots and all sorts going on! The people who had
worked longed hours would think that their work wasn’t valued.
But Jesus tells us a parable where almost this exact thing
happens. A man has a vineyard, and in those days the working day went from 6am
to 6pm. At the 6am, he hires some men, at 9am he hires some more men, at midday
and at 3pm he goes out and hires some more men. Then at 5pm, he goes out and
finds some people lazing around in the market place, and he hires them too. And
at the end of day, at 6pm, when it’s time to clock off work, he pays the men
who worked for one hour a full day’s wage, and then everyone gets the same pay.
What would you think if you were one of the workers?
We read: 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 is your eye evil because I am good?
Jesus wants to teach us something very significant here.
Our reading starts with the words: The
kingdom of heaven is like a master of house who went out early in the morning
to hire labourers for his vineyard. Jesus wants to teach us that the
kingdom of heaven is not a business, and is not run in the same way that people
run a business.
When Jesus says, “the kingdom of heaven”, what exactly is
he talking about? He is talking not so much about the next life, but he is
talking about our life here on this earth, where the kingdom of heaven becomes
a reality amongst us.
But how do we know where the kingdom of God is? Martin
Luther once said: “Thank God, today even a child seven years old knows what the
Church is, namely, the holy believers and lambs who hear the voice of their
Shepherd.” We also say in the Catechism: God’s kingdom comes when our heavenly
Father sends us the Holy Spirit so that by his grace we believe his holy word
and live godly lives here in time and there in eternity.
God speaks his own word to us in the church. He allows his
own word to be read out loud and preached upon in the church. Where God’s word
is actually being preached, God’s kingdom grows. Where God’s word is not
preached, but human ideas and opinions are preached, God’s kingdom does not
grow. We need to speak and keep the word of God in its truth and purity, and not
mess it up in such a way that we mix human ideas in with it.
So through his word, God meets us here in the world and
calls us to work in his vineyard. And he goes out continually and at different
times, and wants to keep on inviting more and more people to come and hear his
word, and to build up his kingdom among us, by uniting us to his Son Jesus
Christ.
Jesus Christ united us to himself in baptism where we are
buried with him into his death and raised to new life, and continually as often
as we receive the Lord’s Supper where he gives us his body and blood to eat and
drink.
We confess our sins to God. We thank him for the many
gifts that he has given to us. We ask him to help us in all needs, and we pray
for the needs of others. All this is work: work in God’s own vineyard.
Often throughout the bible, God speaks about his people as
his vineyard, that place where holy work goes on. Christians go to work in
God’s vineyard in their homes, as fathers and mothers, husbands and wives, sons
and daughters. Each person serves the other in the home and we work in God’s
vineyard. Christians go to work in God’s vineyard wherever they are called to
work, whether it be in a company, as an employee, as an employer, as a
politician, a judge, a lawyer, a doctor, a nurse, a civil servant, a teacher, a
factory worker, a nurse, a secretary, an office worker, a soldier, a policeman
or policewoman, a labourer, a mechanic, all sorts. Christians go to work in
God’s vineyard in the church, whether they be a pastor or a hearer, or however
they might serve in the church. We all come together as sheep around Christ our
shepherd to listen to his voice. Each of these things is holy work. All of this
work is blessed by God and can be done by Christians in answer to God’s call.
But here’s the interesting thing: at the end of the day,
the owner of the vineyard pays each person the same pay. Each receives a
denarius.
Jesus wants us to know that the kingdom of heaven works in
a completely different way to the business principles of the world.
Just before our reading today, we read about a rich young
man who came to Jesus and said that he had kept all the commandments of God.
But when Jesus asked him to sell his possessions, he went away sorrowful. This
man is wealthy, this man is influential, he is a good man, a respectable
man—but he is attached to his wealth and his possessions.
The corporate business world never thinks like this. The
best people in business are the people like this man: they are able to make a
name for themselves, they made good investments, they dress with nice clothes,
they make good deals, they work hard, they work well. These are the signs of
successful people in business. Now, business is good. There’s nothing wrong
with business. But the kingdom of heaven is not a business and it works in a
different way. And for this reason, we always need to be careful when people
want to run the church as if it were a business.
In the kingdom of heaven, the most wealthy, successful,
influential person is on the same level as the failed business person. King and
queens are on the same level as those who collect the royal garbage. Parents
are on the same level as their children. Because insofar as their lives are
lived in the service of God, they are all equally slaves of Christ Jesus. And
all of them receive the same pay.
Now in this life, we always have authorities. Citizens
will always need to respect the people in government and their leaders,
children will always need to respect their parents, and those who collect the
garbage at Buckingham Palace need to show proper respect to the Queen, and so
forth.
But as Christians, when God our heavenly Father, calls us
to work in his vineyard, and calls us to faith, he will give us all the same
pay at the end of the day.
So why does he do this? Because God saves us not according
to our works, not according to what we deserve or don’t deserve, but according
to his grace. God opens the doors to the kingdom of heaven for us, simply
because he loves us, and because of any merit or worthiness in you. It is
complete and totally free, just as if you had done hardly any work at all, and
yet God still wanted to pay you a full day’s wage.
When we all come to church, we all receive the same Jesus.
We all receive the same forgiveness for our sins. We all receive the same body
and blood of Jesus given for us and shed for us. We all receive one Lord, one
faith, one baptism.
But there’s a warning here for all of us. The longer we
have enjoyed the pleasures of God’s vineyard, there is always a sense that we
want to be compensated extra for our labours. And many people in the church
have to endure long arduous days, weeks, years under the cross, whereas as some
people are admitted into the kingdom of heaven on their deathbed, just like the
thief on the cross.
Many Christians have had to endure wars, deaths,
sicknesses, heartaches, disappointments, and in the heat of the day, they say
to Jesus: “How long, O Lord, how long? Will you forget me forever? How long
will you hide your face from me?” Has this all been for nothing?
Listen: no cross that you have ever had to carry has been
in vain! Be faithful unto death and you will receive the crown of life! Don’t
give up—Jesus is with you in times of joy and in times of sadness.
But don’t let your eye become evil because God is good.
God collects up all your tears and put them in his bottle, as it says in Psalm
56. Jesus says, Come to me, all you who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will
give you rest.
But the longer we have to endure, the more there is a
temptation for us to grumble against those who are new on the scene. So in the
church, the Catholic or Orthodox or even Anglican or Lutheran churches cannot
claim to be faultless, or immune to Satan’s attacks, simply because they are
old. In a church body, the oldest congregations are not necessarily the
strongest. In congregations and families, the people who have been members of a
church the longest, are not necessarily those who are the most faithful
Christians. Also, those who have the money are not necessarily those who give
the most valuable offerings. Those who are more intellectual are not
necessarily those who are most sensitive to spiritual realities. As Jesus says
at the end of the reading: So the last
will be first, and the first last.
But there’s always the temptation to grumble at those who
are new on the scene, as if hard work is all that matters. In our reading it
says: Friend, I am doing you no wrong.
Did you not agree with me for a denarius? God values hard work, but he
doesn’t build his kingdom through human hard work. He builds his kingdom simply
through his grace. Remember the story of Mary and Martha: Mary chose the better
part by listening to Jesus, while Martha worked hard in the kitchen grumbling
about her sister.
God goes out into the market place and sends out his call
and his word. He is the one who brings people into his vineyard. And the end of
the day, he is the one who gives the pay. And because is so gracious, and so
good, and so forgiving, and so merciful, he gives an equal pay, he throws open
the doors of heaven equally to each person who has stepped their feet in his
vineyard for just a second. In fact, Jesus says to us all, “You received
without paying! Give without pay.” This is because we are not saved by works,
but by grace. How often God gives us a new insight into his grace day by day,
at the eleventh hour, almost as if we had met Jesus for the very first time! As
St John says, And this is love, not that
we loved God, but that God loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for
our sins, that is, a full atonement, a perfect sacrifice for our sins.
And so we say with David and everyone who as ever prayed the
psalms: Give thanks to the Lord for he is God, for his steadfast love endures
forever.
Amen.
Lord God, heavenly Father, we thank you for calling us
into your vineyard. Give us your Holy Spirit to carry out the work you given us
to do wherever you have placed us, and increase our longing and desire for that
time when we will see Jesus with our own eyes. In the name of Jesus Christ we
pray, Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment