In a rather shocking story that Jesus told to a crowd of people, he shared with them that the ways of God’s relating to people are actually quite a bit different from our rules of fairness, justice, and good economic principles.
Listen now as I’ll tell you a story like Jesus told it – it comes from Matthew 20:1-16, but I’m not going to read it word for word. Listen as one in the crowd around Jesus would have heard this story…
Let me tell you about the way God’s Kingdom works. It’s like the employer in this story. A man owned a vineyard and needed some laborers to come and work in the vineyard. So he went to the marketplace early in the morning to find some workers. He found some workers eager to find work in those early hours and he invited them to come work for him. Before they started working, they agreed upon a fair wage – a denarius – for the day’s work. They immediately began doing the work the employer had hired them to do.
Around noon he went back to the marketplace, saw some people standing around and invited them to go work in his vineyard. He told them “I’ll pay you what is right for your labor.” So these went and got to work.
At 3:00 and at 6:00pm he did the same thing two more times, each time finding some people lazily standing around. He asked them “Why have you spent the day just standing around?” “Because no one has hired us, they replied.” Now the owner of the vineyard had been there earlier and knew they weren’t even looking for work, but nonetheless he invited them to get to work, too.
When the sun got so low that work in the vineyard had to come to a close, the owner of the vineyard gathered the workers, and began to pay them for their labors. He started with those he had hired right before the end of the day. He pulled out a denarius and handed it those who had only worked an hour or so.
He did the same with the workers who came at 3:00 and at noon.
Each group of workers started grumbling more than the last, seeing that everyone was getting the same wage, regardless of how long they had worked.
When those who had worked since early in the morning came to receive their wage, they spoke up and said “This is not fair! You’ve paid equally to those who only worked a little bit and we worked all day long through the scorching heat.”
The landowner replied, “Friend – am I not doing right by you? You are getting what you agreed to work for – a denarius. But I want to give the man who was hired last the same as I gave you. It’s my money after all! Don’t I have the right to do what I want with it? What is it to you if I choose to be generous with my money?”
This is an interesting story, isn’t it? If you’re like me, you identify yourself with that worker who was responsible. You were there looking for work early in the morning so you could be sure and provide for your family. You worked hard all day long. Your back hurts, and your fingers have been rubbed raw from working all day long. You are hungry and thirsty. But at least you’re going to get paid. There will be food on the table tomorrow again, and that is a good thing. As you stand in the line to get your wages, you see the joy and the surprise in the faces of those who worked only 1 hour as they walk away with their denarius. You immediately begin doing the math in your head. You think to yourself, “Wow – if that’s what they are getting, this could be like winning the lottery for me!” In fact you start to think about what you have coming to you. You actually deserve much more than that denarius, if that’s what the owner pays for only one hour of work.
In that time you’re standing in line everything changes. You’re no longer grateful for your wage, you’re steaming mad. Not only are you mad at the land owner – you’re also resentful of those lazy workers who got the same as you. It just isn’t FAIR!
And that is EXACTLY what Jesus wanted to get across to people. The Kingdom of God is not a Kingdom of Just Desserts. It is not a place where you earn certain rewards depending upon how long you served God. The Kingdom of God is built upon the principles of grace and generosity, not justice and fairness.
God does not “pay us” according to what we deserve. The amazing thing about this parable is that those of us who have been serving God in our lives for a long time tend to identify with those first hired. But when we really understand it, the parable is a message to remind us that every person that God brings to salvation through faith in Him is getting more than they deserve. Each and every one of us, no matter how long we live and serve God, no matter how much we suffer or give up for the sake of serving God – none of us “has anything coming”!
We are blessed because God chooses to be generous with his gift of salvation. He loved us before we had done anything for him. He invites us to come work to bring His Kingdom to the world even when he sees we might have squandered a good portion of our life’s time.
Because He is God – he has the right to invite people to join him in His Kingdom, and to reward them generously if they respond – regardless of how long or how much work they do.
APPLICATION:
Such a teaching is revolutionary when you really think about it. Especially when I think about how I, as a disciple of Jesus Christ, am called to be a representative of God and the ways of his Kingdom here on earth.
I’m not proud to admit, but far too often I love people according to the mathematics of economics instead of the mathematics of grace. It is my fallen nature to love people who deserve it, or who I think will give me something in return, or who will “make good” on my investment of energy and time in their life.
But if I understand this parable rightly, such love does not represent the ways of God’s Kingdom. If I want to truly represent God here – I will be generous with my love. I will give it away as a gift to others – to anyone who will receive it. Sometimes it will seem foolish, and sometimes it will make sense. But the Kingdom of God is based upon grace – that giving of benefits that are undeserved.
Each one of us is really character in the story who gets the full wage for doing only an hour’s work. And so each of us has ample reason to worship God with thanksgiving, and to offer that same grace to others.
Matt. 19:28 ¶ Jesus said to them, “I tell you the truth, at the renewal of all things, when the Son of Man sits on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.
Matt. 19:29 And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life.
Matt. 19:30 But many who are first will be last, and many who are last will be first.
Matt. 20:1 ¶ “For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire men to work in his vineyard.
Matt. 20:2 He agreed to pay them a denarius for the day and sent them into his vineyard.
Matt. 20:3 ¶ “About the third hour he went out and saw others standing in the marketplace doing nothing.
Matt. 20:4 He told them, ‘You also go and work in my vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.’
Matt. 20:5 So they went. ¶ “He went out again about the sixth hour and the ninth hour and did the same thing.
Matt. 20:6 About the eleventh hour he went out and found still others standing around. He asked them, ‘Why have you been standing here all day long doing nothing?’
Matt. 20:7 ¶ “‘Because no one has hired us,’ they answered. ¶ “He said to them, ‘You also go and work in my vineyard.’
Matt. 20:8 ¶ “When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Call the workers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last ones hired and going on to the first.’
Matt. 20:9 ¶ “The workers who were hired about the eleventh hour came and each received a denarius.
Matt. 20:10 So when those came who were hired first, they expected to receive more. But each one of them also received a denarius.
Matt. 20:11 When they received it, they began to grumble against the landowner.
Matt. 20:12 ‘These men who were hired last worked only one hour,’ they said, ‘and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day.’
Matt. 20:13 ¶ “But he answered one of them, ‘Friend, I am not being unfair to you. Didn’t you agree to work for a denarius?
Matt. 20:14 Take your pay and go. I want to give the man who was hired last the same as I gave you.
Matt. 20:15 Don’t I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?’
Matt. 20:16 ¶ “So the last will be first, and the first will be last.”
