God's Fair Wage

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Due to the large amount of sermons and topics that appear on this site I feel it is necessary to post this disclaimer on all sermons posted. These sermons are original to the author and the leading of the Holy Spirit. While ideas and illustrations are often gleaned from many sources including those at Sermoncentral.com, any similarities and wording including sermon title, that may appear to be the same as any other sermon are purely coincidental. In instances where other minister’s wording is used, due recognition will be given. These sermons are not copyrighted and may be used or preached freely. May God richly bless you as you read these words. It is my sincere desire that all who read them may be enriched. All scriptures quoted in these sermons are copies and quoted from the Authorized King James Version of the Holy Bible.

Ideas for portions of this sermon were obtained from a sermon by Rev. Paul Black. His sermon entitled, "Living with an unfair God" may be viewed at tthis website also.

Pastor James May

God’s Fair Wage!

Matthew 20:1-15 - The Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard

20:1 For the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is an householder, which went out early in the morning to hire laborers into his vineyard.

20:2 And when he had agreed with the labourers for a penny a day, he sent them into his vineyard.

20:3 And he went out about the third hour, and saw others standing idle in the marketplace,

20:4 And said unto them; Go ye also into the vineyard, and whatsoever is right I will give you. And they went their way.

20:5 Again he went out about the sixth and ninth hour, and did likewise.

20:6 And about the eleventh hour he went out, and found others standing idle, and saith unto them, Why stand ye here all the day idle?

20:7 They say unto him, Because no man hath hired us. He saith unto them, Go ye also into the vineyard; and whatsoever is right, that shall ye receive.

20:8 So when even was come, the lord of the vineyard saith unto his steward, Call the labourers, and give them their hire, beginning from the last unto the first.

20:9 And when they came that were hired about the eleventh hour, they received every man a penny.

20:10 But when the first came, they supposed that they should have received more; and they likewise received every man a penny.

20:11 And when they had received it, they murmured against the goodman of the house,

20:12 Saying, These last have wrought but one hour, and thou hast made them equal unto us, which have borne the burden and heat of the day.

20:13 But he answered one of them, and said, Friend, I do thee no wrong: didst not thou agree with me for a penny?

20:14 Take that thine is, and go thy way: I will give unto this last, even as unto thee.

20:15 Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine own? Is thine eye evil, because I am good?

Over the years past I have been employed on a number of jobs and, like most of you, I have seen some pretty unfair practices along the way. There was one job that I had that, if you were called out on a holiday and answered the call, it didn’t matter if you were there for 5 minutes or for 8 hours, you were paid double-time and a half, or about $40 per hour with an 8 hour minimum pay.

I have also seen those times when you worked overtime, sometimes as much as 80 or 90 hours a week above the normal 40 hour week, and the earnings on that time spent would earn less than $2.00 per hour.

There have been so many who have cried out against unfair wages, especially to women who are paid less for doing the same job that a man is paid for doing. It seems that the world of business has the out-dated idea that a woman’s income is “secondary income” for the family since it is assumed that her husband is the primary breadwinner for the family. Of course, we all know that this is no longer the case in our society, and yet, the business world, in general, still follows this faulty thought process because it saves them money.

In the scripture for today, we can also see what seem to be, a gross mistreatment of some workers and a very generous treatment of others. How could every worker be paid the same even though some had not worked even 1/10th of the time of another who received the same wage?

Let’s look at another example. Just suppose that one of the local businessmen had purchased a new building and was planning to move all of his stock into the new store.