God’s Grace in a Wage-Based World – Sermon for CATM –October 3, 2020
We are continuing to explore the Parables of Jesus both in our Sunday online services, and then also in our Thursday Fireside Bible chat, where we look at the scripture passage that we talked about on Sunday, in greater depth, seeking deeper understanding and greater application in our lives.
You are more than welcome to join our Fireside Bible chat on Thursdays at 11 AM. We meet on Zoom and you can get there easily by clicking on our linktree portal. The address for that looks like this:
This is the second parable in a row that Jesus used to express profound truths about the kingdom of God and he did this using not so much farming or agrarian images as he does using the language and ideas of commerce and earning a wage.
The message today is called “Grace in a Wage-based World”.
In the parable today Jesus is talking about the workers in the vineyard. He's saying or describing what the Kingdom of Heaven is like. Jesus uses many parables and sayings to express the fullness of the Kingdom of Heaven.
The Kingdom of Heaven is the realm of God's Rule and reign. The Kingdom of Heaven is where what matters to God matters to everyone, where right and wrong are determined by God on God's terms.
And so, in our parable, there's a land owner, a person of some power and influence. It's early in the morning. As is his habit, he goes out to hire workers to work in his Vineyard.
He offers the workers each a Denarius, which they agree to, and then he sends them to work in his Vineyard.
A denarius is a decent day's wage for full day's work. Nowadays that might be the equivalent of around $100 or maybe $120. Nothing to sneer at.
So, again each worker has agreed to work for a full day for that amount.
A couple of hours later the same landowner goes out, around 9 in the morning, and sees some other folks standing around not doing anything.
So he tells them, or invites them, to go and work in his Vineyard. He says “I will pay you whatever is right”. So they went and joined the other workers.
Then, a couple hours later, around lunchtime, around noon and then at 3 p.m. in the afternoon, he did the same thing.
All the workers agree to work for the landowner, and they are trusting him that they will be paid “whatever is right”.
We get a sense that the landowner is known, trusted enough so that people will work for him and they will take his word for getting the right wage.
Around 5 in the afternoon, as the sun is starting to set, he goes out and finds still others standing around. And he asked him, ``Why have you been standing here all day doing nothing?”
They answer him frankly: “Because no one has hired us”. So the landowner says to them: ‘You also go and work in my vineyard.’
So far, no problem. A very normal day. There's work that needs to get done, there is workers who are hired to an agreed-upon wage, and then there's the work day. Nothing special going on here.
Our story continues:
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.’
9 “The workers who were hired about five in the afternoon came and each received a denarius. 10 So when those came who were hired first, they expected to receive more. But each one of them also received a denarius. 11 When they received it, they began to grumble against the landowner. 12 ‘These 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.’
So even in the text we can feel some of the tension in the room. Why the tension? What’s the affront, the offense? Those who worked twelve hours were paid the same amount as those who had worked only one hour.
There is some feeling of Injustice here.” I've been working all day, working hard, sweating in the Sun”.
“And these guys here, they barely worked long enough to break a sweat. I deserve more than them. I have earned more than them. You have made me equal with them. I think there should be a distinction. I am not equal to them. I am better than them.
I have done more. I have given more of myself, more of my time. Me and them, we're not equal. I'm speaking up for my rights!”
And how does the landowner respond? Is he fair in his response? Well he answers, to one of them, likely the one who is doing the complaining:
‘I am not being unfair to you, friend. Didn’t you agree to work for a denarius? 14 Take your pay and go. I want to give the one who was hired last the same as I gave you. 15 Don’t I have the right to do what I want with my own money?
If I put myself in the shoes of the guy who has worked all day long and who has been complaining, I'm kind of stuck.
Well, yes. I did totally agree to work for that amount of money. It's actually a fair wage for a day's work.
It's nothing to sneeze at. It was oh, okay, it was like a contract that I agreed to. And the landowner is not ripping me off. But still. Come on.
Jesus finishes his Parable: v.14 “Or are you envious because I am generous?”
Again, putting myself in the guy’s shoes: “That is exactly what is happening here. I am envious. Don't I have a right to be envious?
The original Greek is very helpful here. The NIV says: “Are you envious because I am generous”. That's helpful because it's easy to understand.
In the original Greek, Jesus uses what's called an idiom. He actually says: “Is your eye evil...”. An evil eye was associated with jealousy and envy.
“...because I am generous”. So the landowner is suggesting that what is really in the heart of the person complaining is not that this is a matter of justice but of generosity.
It’s Not a matter of Justice because the landowner is not unjust. But he landowner is generous.
The issue here, the problem here , the dilemma here, is that the landowner has not done anything wrong. He has acted with integrity and with fairness. He has paid the way he said he would pay.
But he has done more. If he has offended something, it is the idea that all that we get we earn. That idea is a powerful idea, because it's simple.
I say I will work for you for $10 an hour for 8 hours. You give me eighty bucks, minus deductions. That is very simple.
The landowner asks a rhetorical question. That’s a question asked to make a point rather than to get an answer. He asks: “Don’t I have the right to do what I want with my own money?”
This is a parable of the kingdom of God. And this question shows that God's great gifts, simply because they are God's, are distributed, not because they are earned, but because he is gracious.
In the kingdom of God, the driving force is not merit and ability (as in the world) but grace.
It is Grace. Grace is unmerited favour. It is Grace, a principle of the kingdom of God, are we seek to understand it now while we live in this world, which is a wage - based world.
The blessings of God are not earned. The good things in our lives, the joys in our lives, the spiritual blessings we receive are not earned. Even salvation itself, the saving of our souls, is not earned by us.
Do you suspect that by being good, you are putting God in your debt? Do you kind of lean in to the idea that if you do more good than bad then maybe you’ll be with God in heaven?
If you do, I have some good news for you. Although first I have bad news for you.
There is absolutely nothing you can do on your own to put yourself in God's debt, to make God owe you something. There is absolutely nothing you can do to earn salvation, eternity with God. How do I know that?
My source for anything I know about God is the Bible.
Romans 3:23 says: “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
You and I fall short of the glory of God. For most of us it doesn't take much reflection to realize that.
If we have any idea who God is, how beautiful, how holy, how righteous, how flawless, how perfect he is... we are not going to think that on our own merits, we could ever be in his presence.
To be in his presence is to enjoy his goodness and Grace now, and for all eternity.
That's the bad news. the good news immediately follows that bad news:
24 and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.
You see, We can't fix ourselves. We can't learn our way to heaven. Someone has to make a way.
Someone has to reclaim my life from darkness, my life from despair, my life from hell. Someone has to reclaim, someone has to redeem. Someone has to do it, but who is there that will do that?
In Psalm 49 it says this: 7 No one can redeem the life of another or give to God a ransom for them—the ransom for a life is costly, no payment is ever enough—so that they should live on forever and not see decay.
That's right. The ransom for a life is costly. No amount of anything is ever enough.
All that is very true. Books on 49 was written before Jesus. before Jesus came to die for my sins, to die for your sins.
Before Jesus came to Ransom Our Lives, to pay that incredibly high price, which was his own precious life.
His own blood was poured out for you and for me. Who could possibly redeem the life have another or give a ransom?
God himself, in the person of Jesus Christ can. And he did.
And so while the world that we live in is a wage - based world, where are you I paid what you earn, if you're lucky; The kingdom of God is completely different. The kingdom of God is a kingdom of generosity.
It is God's realm of authority where he exercises his power in kindness, in love.
All this is true, and all this is available to us for free, when we believe that Jesus died for our sins, that Jesus Paid the debt for our sins.
And so you see, something was earned. Something very costly was purchased. something Beyond your ability or my ability to ever come close to paying.
Your salvation, my salvation cost Jesus everything. That means he gave his everything for you. Because he considered your life, my life, every life on this planet, to be worth the laying down of his own life.
There you have it. God's grace. God's free gift. It's yours for the asking.
If you have not yet, you have the opportunity to ask Jesus Christ to come into your life, to accept his sacrifice for your sins. to repent, which means to change your direction, and to turn to God. Can you confess? Can you say, if I can, I am a sinner in need of the grace of God. I hope you can, and I hope you will.
And I hope you will join us as a disciple of Jesus, as a follower of the way of Jesus. You can go to God on your own, when this video is finished. You can turn to him and confess your sins. Confess your need for Him. Confess that you believe Jesus died for you. And when you do that from your heart, from a place of truth, God will hear you and welcome you with open arms into His kingdom.
Amen.
Communion.
