INTRODUCTION
After graduating from college and before serving at my first full-time church, I worked for a few months at Velux in Greenwood, a plant that manufactures sky lights. As I began to look for a job in Greenwood after returning from Florida, I found circumstances quite different from the last time I had looked for a job. In my previous times of looking for work, a person could go to the plant itself and fill out an application. But now, almost every plant I went to I was told that I would have to go to a temporary staffing office to fill out an application. It seems they did all their hiring through these agencies.
I soon learned that this was a way for a company to save money. You see, even though I did the same work as the employees of Velux, I was not paid as much as they were. Neither did they pay insurance on me as they did employees. Further, I did not have the opportunity to invest in a 401K or get anything out of profit sharing at the end of the year. Additionally, the plant shut down for two weeks during Christmas and also for some other major holidays. The employees were paid for these days but I wasn’t.
I recall that others temps-as we were called, and myself often discussed the unfairness of these circumstances. We were expected to do the same jobs with the same diligence as regular employees of Velux but without the benefits and pay.
But I could look at that situation another way. Velux did not owe me a job. That they would give me one at all was gracious on their part. It helped me pay my bills. They were not obligated to provide insurance for my family or me nor were they obligated to let me receive some of the profits the company made. They could have paid me minimum wage if they had so desired. So I suppose what appeared unfair to me was fair when looked at from another viewpoint.
Now there have been and still are many cases of unfairness in our country and other countries. Minority groups have been discriminated against in our country and in other countries. For many years in our country women could not vote nor could African Americans. Even after African Americans received the right to vote, there were groups who tried and did keep them from the polls.
Some of you recall the movie from some years back, Mississippi Burning. It was based on a true story in Mississippi where several civil rights workers were killed for registering blacks to vote. They had the right to vote but could not exercise it because of threats and other measures used against them.
From the outset it seems Jesus tells a story about unfairness. He tells of an owner of an estate who goes out early one morning to hire workers for his vineyard. There were all types of work that had to be done in a vineyard. It could have been preparing a new vineyard or planting vines in an existing vineyard. It could have been harvesting the grapes. Whatever he hired them to do, we can be assured it was difficult work. Most of the vineyards were prepared on terraced hillsides where the ground was very stony. To prepare the terrace one had to dig out the tier and then use the stones for a retaining wall. This then had to be filled in with good soil, which had to be carried up the slopes.
In summer the old and new vines had to be pruned so that production would increase. The harvesting was done in September when the weather was very hot and before the rainy weather began. Since a vineyard owner did not usually have enough servants to take care of such a large task, it was often necessary for him to hire day laborers. Day laborers usually worked one day at a time and had no guarantee of work beyond that. When dawn came, they would gather at the market place in hopes that someone would hire them.
The first day laborers he hired agreed to work for the normal daily wage. They probably began work around 6 am. At nine o’clock the owner of the estate was again passing through the marketplace and saw some people standing around doing nothing. So he hired them too telling them he would pay them what was right at the end of the day. At noon and then again at three o’clock he did the same. At five o’clock in the afternoon he passed through the marketplace and again hired other workers.
That evening the foreman was instructed to call the workers in and pay them their wages. Those who had only worked an hour received a full day’s pay just like those who had worked all day. In fact, they all received the same pay. Now the ones who had worked all day were not happy about this as we can imagine. Listen to their complaint, “Those people worked only one hour, and yet you’ve paid them just as much as you paid us who worked all day in the scorching heat.” Now we can sympathize with their complaint.
Then the owner of the state answered their request, “Friend, I haven’t been unfair! Didn’t you agree to work all day for the usual wage? Take it and go. I wanted to pay this last worker the same as you. Is it against the law for me to do what I want with my money? Should you be angry because I am kind?”
The elements of this parable represent different things that are important for us to understand if we are to comprehend what Jesus is teaching through the parable. The vineyard represents the kingdom of heaven, the landowner is God, the foreman is Jesus, the laborers are believers and the day’s pay is salvation.
GOD INITIATES AND ACCOMPLISHES SALVATION
As we beckon people to trust in Christ as their Savior and Lord, we need to remember that it is not cleverly devised presentations that result in people choosing to follow Christ. It is because God initiates the process. He may work through our methods, but they do not confine him.
I think this is one of the tragic mistakes that Baptists have made in the past. We have told people that if they are not trained in some witnessing program they cannot lead someone to know Christ as their Savior. I suppose one of our outstanding debacles was Continuing Witness Training. I was required to take this course to graduate from college. Some of you are familiar with this program and you know that it entails an enormous amount of memorization. We had to share this with so many people and then write out our witnessing encounters to get credit for the course.
Now when I was using this program in my witnessing, I was so caught up in trying to remember all I was supposed to remember that I did not enjoy the process of leading someone to know Christ as their Savior. I kept thinking, “Why can’t I just share the Roman road with them or some other simple process of knowing Christ, like the ABC’s we used in Bible School?”
Listen, I am not saying these programs are wrong. It is beneficial to memorize Scripture and to have training. What I am saying is that if we are not careful we can lead people to think that it is difficult to tell someone how to know Christ as their Savior, and it’s not. You don’t have to memorize a great amount of Scripture or take a witness training course to share your faith.
The other problem I had with some of our courses is that they seem to try and trick people into becoming Christians. You know, I’ll pretend to be your friend and lead you to think we have some things in common, but all I’m really after is your decision to trust Christ. That way, I can put another notch in my gun belt. Ulterior motives.
Folks listen, I don’t care how many verses of Scripture you know or how many training courses you have been through to share your faith. You better remember that it is God who initiates and accomplishes salvation. He uses us as instruments, but without him we cannot save anyone. It was the landowner who went out looking for workers not the workers who went to the landowner. He asked them to work in his vineyard. They did not ask to work in his vineyard. God has sought every person who claims to be a Christian.
Jesus said, “For people can’t come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them to me.” Believing that God initiates and accomplishes salvation alleviates all boasting. The Bible also says, “God saved you by his special favor when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it.”
GOD ESTABLISHES THE TERMS OF SALVATION
Since God is our creator and the one all people will one day have to answer to, it only makes sense that he make the terms for salvation. After all, we were the ones who sinned and rebelled against him. We have no right or authority to set the terms of salvation.
In the parable, the pay is eternal life or salvation. You will remember that the pay was the same for all the workers. It did not vary between the ones who had worked all day and the ones who had only worked one hour. Salvation comes because of God’s grace, and God’s grace is consistent. It never varies. Sometimes we want to cry unfair, but we as sinners have no right or authority to tell God who he should or should not extend his grace to. We cannot cry unfair as the elder son did in the parable of the prodigal son. He did that because he did not understand the grace of God.
God’s grace is extended to all no matter how bad or good they have been or when they ask for it. This explains why the person who received Jesus as Savior at a young age and the person who received him on their deathbed receive the same grace from God. It is why the murderer and the good person can both go to heaven if they repent of their sins against God. God’s grace is consistent and free to all who ask.
The laborers who worked all day did not understand this. They thought they should have received more than the people who worked only hour. And if this were really a story about employees and employers they would have been right to complain. But the story is about God’s grace, and God’s grace is extended freely and equally to all.
For example, suppose you go to the bank and take out a loan to buy a vehicle. You do not set the terms for that loan. The person doing the loaning does the term setting. You only accept or reject the terms. You don’t tell them what interest rate you want. You just accept what they give or you go somewhere else. You might have the privilege of telling them how long you want the loan for, but that’s about it. In like matter, God sets the terms for salvation, not us.
GOD CONTINUES TO CALL PEOPLE INTO HIS KINGDOM
Notice in the parable that the landowner continues to go back to the marketplace and hire more workers. This is a picture of God continually calling people to follow him in obedience. Since we are the instruments he uses to call people, it means that there should never come a point when Christians stop inviting people to trust Christ as their Lord and Savior. God will continually call people until the end of time.
Why does God continue to call people to follow him? The Bible says; “The Lord isn’t really being slow about his promise to return, as some people think. No, he is being patient for your sake. He does not want anyone to perish, so he is giving more time for everyone to repent.”
GOD SAVES EVERYONE WHO DESIRES TO BE SAVED
The day laborers were completely dependent on someone to hire them. They were needy, and they had no hope outside of someone hiring them. Having these needs, they accepted the work offered to them with gladness. They looked to the landowner to help them meet their needs and he did not disappoint them.
Just as the landowner put everyone to work who wanted to work, so God saves all who desire to be saved. No one will be turned away who wants a relationship with God. Jesus said, “Those the Father has given me will come to me, and I will never reject them.”
GOD IS COMPASSIONATE TO THOSE IN NEED
We have many needs in life, but our greatest need is to have our sins forgiven. God shows compassion when he does this for us. But he has also promised to supply all our needs, so we don’t have to worry about the necessities of life. Just as the landowner showed compassion to the laborers, who needed money, so God shows compassion to people who need it from him.
ALL WHO ARE IN GOD’S KINGDOM WORK
The landowner hired the laborers to work, not to sit around and do nothing. Some worked longer than others, but all of them worked. We just finished a series on spiritual gifts wherein we learned that all God’s children have gifts given to them by God’s Spirit. These gifts are to be used in his work, and since all of us have gifts all of us are to work. When all of God’s children don’t work then others have to take up the slack and his work doesn’t happen with the force that it could if all were working.
Folks listen, don’t skimp out on God. Recognize the gifts he has given you as well as the opportunities he gives you to use them and use them. Be all he wants you to be and do all he wants you to do.
CONCLUSION
In the play, Raisin in the Sun, an African American family inherits $10,000 from their father’s insurance policy. The mother sees in this money a chance to escape the ghetto life of Harlem and move into a little house with flower boxes out in the countryside. The brilliant daughter sees in the money a chance to live out her dream and go to medical school. But the older brother has a plea that is difficult to ignore. He begs for the money so he and his friend can go into business together. With that money he can make something of himself and can eventually give back to the family all they have missed.
Against her better judgment, the mother gives the money to the son. Life’s chances have never been good for him and this money might change that. But his so-called friend skips town with the money. The desolate son has to return home to break the news to his family. His sister lashes into him with a barrage of ugly epithets. She calls him every despicable thing she can think of. When she takes a breath in the midst of her angry tirades, the mother interrupts and says, “I thought I taught you to love him.” The daughter answers, “Love him? There is nothing left to love.”
But listen to the response of the mother and hear in it a picture of God’s grace to us; “There’s always something left to love. And if you ain’t learned that, you ain’t learned nothing. Have you cried for that boy today? I don’t mean for yourself and the family because we lost all that money. I mean for him: for what he’s been through and what it done to him. Child, when do you think is the time to love somebody the most: when they done good and made things easy for everybody? Well then, you ain’t through learning, because that ain’t the time at all. It’s when he’s at his lowest and can’t believe in himself ‘cause the world done whipped him so. When you starts measuring somebody, measure him right, child, measure him right. Make sure you done taken into account what hills and valleys he done come through before he got to wherever he is.”
God has taken into account our state. We have sinned against him. We’ve lost what we could have had, but instead of turning his back on us, he continually comes to us with the offer of salvation and forgiveness. We have to come on his terms, but he freely welcomes all who come. And after we come, he expects us to go to work for him.
