God’s Living Wage
Another Labor Day weekend is upon us. And while I know that some of you are no longer in the workforce per say anymore, you are still working at lots of different things aren’t you? Like James for example hasn’t worked for the phone company for quite a few years but he still works on his farm with his cattle.
Some of you are in the workforce and wish that you weren’t! Labor Day is supposed to be a holiday that honors all the labors that Americans like us do all year long. While Labor Day will be fun for those of us that are still working at a job for a company because we don’t have to go into work and we’ll still get paid, we still have to get up on Tuesday morning and go back to work.
A lot about labor and work has been seen in the news lately and the world looks at work and labor differently than we as Christians do. For the world it seems that work and what we get paid is all about fairness and equality. The government has established “a minimum wage” that employers are supposed to start their employees out at and go up from there. And there has been a movement for many years now to establish what has been called “a living wage”. What that wage would be varies depending on who you listen to. I have some strong opinions about this so called “living wage” and we will talk about that more in a bit.
But before we get to that, what does God’s Word have to say about labor and fair wages?
In the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 20 verses 1-16 we read this: 1“For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. 2 When he had agreed with the laborers for a denarius for the day, he sent them into his vineyard. 3 And he went out about the third hour and saw others standing idle in the market place; 4 and to those he said, ‘You also go into the vineyard, and whatever is right I will give you.’ And so they went. 5 Again he went out about the sixth and the ninth hour, and did the same thing. 6 And about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing around; and he said to them, ‘Why have you been standing here idle all day long?’ 7 They said to him, ‘Because no one hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You go into the vineyard too.’ 8 “When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Call the laborers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last group to the first.’ 9 When those hired about the eleventh hour came, each one received a denarius. 10 When those hired first came, they thought that they would receive more; but each of them also received a denarius. 11 When they received it, they grumbled at the landowner, 12 saying, ‘These last men have worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden and the scorching heat of the day.’ 13 But he answered and said to one of them, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong; did you not agree with me for a denarius? 14 Take what is yours and go, but I wish to give to this last man the same as to you. 15 Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with what is my own? Or is your eye envious because I am generous?’ 16 So the last shall be first, and the first last.”
Right off the bat I want to help yall understand the times of day in which the landowner went to hire his workers. The first group would have been hired around 6:00 AM or the beginning of the Jewish day on average, the next group that was hired at about the 3rd hour would be about 9:00 AM, the next group would have been hired at around 12:00 noon or the 6th hour, and the next group would have been hired at about 3:00 PM or the 9th hour, and the last group would have been hired around 5:00 PM or the 11th hour.
So the landowner was basically hiring people to work for him at different times of the day. This could be the first time that we see an example of day labor! Here we find men just standing around at a gate in Jerusalem looking and waiting for someone to hire them for the day.
And since the title of this message is God’s Living Wage, I want to spend a little time here talking about what this landowner was going to pay those who came to work for him. He struck an agreement or a contract if you will, with these men. The landowner agreed to pay the men a denarius for a day’s work. The men there all agreed that this would be okay with them and they went to the vineyard to work. The landowner also made the same agreement with all the other groups of men that he hired that day. So far so good right?
Well, not for long! Because now we are about to get into one of the many points that this parable has to teach us and that point is this, when people get involved with money and labor things usually start to get messy and ugly. When the time came for the men to be paid for their labors in the vineyard, the landowner instructed his foreman to call in the laborers and pay them their wages.
But there is an important instruction that the landowner gave to the foreman that some people miss and he told the foreman to begin paying the last group first and do this until he got to the group that was hired first. The foreman did as he was told and paid the groups of men in front of each other which we all know is going to cause some problems right!? Now human nature is going to kick in and these men are going to show their true colors and they are going to get envious and jealous about who gets what and who worked longer and who worked harder, etc.
Now, I have worked in many different types of jobs with lots of different people and believe me I have worked with my share of this kind of worker. They spend a lot of time complaining about their co-workers and a lot of time being concerned about what everyone else is doing when what they really should be doing is being concerned about what they agreed to do for their employer.
I’m not saying here that all employers are created equal and that all of them treat their employee’s right all the time. But unlike the people that we have seen on T. V. protesting outside of McDonald’s and other places demanding more money from their employers, we as Christians HAVE to have a different mindset from those in the world.
Because while this parable uses labor and pay as the example, this parable is really about God, the Landowner, Jesus the Foreman, and Christians are the laborers. This parable is about the grace of God and salvation, and that God wants everyone to come to have a personal relationship with Him no matter where we are in life or when we decide to accept His offer of forgiveness and salvation.
The laborers in this parable represent people who are saved and the fact that they are not happy about someone else being saved no matter when in life it happens shows a shallow and petty kind of Christianity.
In verses 10-15 remember what was said by Jesus: 10 When those hired first came, they thought that they would receive more; but each of them also received a denarius. 11 When they received it, they grumbled at the landowner,
12 saying, ‘These last men have worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden and the scorching heat of the day.’ 13 But he answered and said to one of them, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong; did you not agree with me for a denarius? 14 Take what is yours and go, but I wish to give to this last man the same as to you. 15 Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with what is my own? Or is your eye envious because I am generous?’
When those who had been hired first saw that those that were hired last got paid the exact same wage they began to grumble and complain to the Landowner. Lamenting that they had worked so much longer, so much harder and in the scorching heat no less! How dare they get paid the same as those who were hired last and only worked for an hour?
But I love what the Landowner told them about their grumbling. 13 But he answered and said to one of them, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong; did you not agree with me for a denarius? 14 Take what is yours and go, but I wish to give to this last man the same as to you. 15 Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with what is my own? Or is your eye envious because I am generous?’
The laborers needed to be reminded of the agreement that they made with the Landowner. And this is what so many people today need to remember when they agree to work somewhere for whatever they agree to work for. Like these people protesting fast food places for more money. If they didn’t want to work for what was offered then they shouldn’t have accepted the job in the first place. Instead they want to throw a fit and demand that they get more money for a job that doesn’t pay that well because to be perfectly honest it isn’t a highly skilled job.
But as this part of the parable relates to us as Christians first of all we are in no position to be lecturing God who should be saved and when and that everyone who receives forgiveness and salvation all receive the same salvation no matter when in life someone gets saved. In other words, there is no early in life salvation and no mid life salvation and no death bed salvation, there is simply salvation and it is available to anyone and everyone who will accept it.
The Landowner also reminds the laborers that it is His money to do with what He wishes and what many Americans tend to forget too is that business owners ought to be free to set their own wages and compensation packages as they see fit and will keep their businesses competitive and profitable. As a business owner who really wants certain people to be able to dictate to them what they can or can’t do with their money and their business. I also love what God says to the laborers in verse 15: Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with what is my own? Or is your eye envious because I am generous?’
Envy is ruining the business climate in this country. There is an awful lot of class warfare going on in America today. Too many people are overly concerned about what everybody else has instead of being thankful for what the Lord has blessed them with whether a little or a lot. I will never begrudge anyone their wealth as long as they got it honestly, ethically, and morally. I respect people who start businesses and hire people and who also give some of their money to help others but I find it ethically and morally wrong to just take money that others have earned and give it to people who haven’t earned it or simply don’t deserve it.
Why then are we being envious and hateful Christians when we begrudge someone getting saved? I believe that we are supposed to be not only happy but overjoyed when someone gets saved. I’m so glad that our God is a generous God aren’t you? I would consider it a blessing to witness to someone who is near death and help get them into the Kingdom of God wouldn’t you? It wouldn’t matter to me how long they were Christians I just want them to be a born again believer in Jesus Christ!
And while we all Christians get the same salvation no matter how long we have been Christians, we all won’t receive the same rewards in heaven and I am more than fine with that! I am not envious of those who were Christians longer than I have been nor am I envious of someone who was used by God in a different or bigger way.
I don’t expect to have the same rewards in heaven as Abraham, Moses, or the Apostles, etc. I will just be extremely glad just to be in heaven period! I would rather be a street sweeper in heaven than a king in hell wouldn’t you?
I know that I will have a mansion built for me by Jesus Himself and I will be spending all of eternity with Him and yall and that is more than enough for me!
So as I close today I have a few challenging questions for all of us here.
“What are you expecting your fair wage to be for your labors?”
“Are we covetous or envious of those who seem to be blessed more for their labor than we are even though we know we have worked harder and longer than they have?”
“Do we really believe that the wages that God has promised us are sufficient no matter what His Call upon our lives will require or has required?”
I believe that when we all get to heaven that there won’t be any room in our hearts for the petty things of this world anymore and what a blessing that will be for all of us! I would want to be saved and go to heaven just to experience this wouldn’t you!?
