Theme: The fidelity of God
Text: Is. 55:6-9; Phil. 1:20-24, 27; Matt. 20:1-16
In every human being, in each one of us, lies a potential just waiting to be discovered. But many people never discover what that potential is either because they never get the opportunity to use and develop it or more often than not they fail to recognise and seize the opportunity when it comes their way. Life is a marketplace full of people waiting for the opportunity to discover and use their God given potential. The labourers in Jesus’ parable today would have stayed in the marketplace all day doing nothing if the landowner had not come and given them the opportunity to work. Yet some of the workers were not happy. When we look at our own lives closely and are honest with ourselves we cannot fail to realise how much opportunity God has given us and how much He has done for us. Very often, however, when we see or hear about God doing more in another person’s life than He is doing in ours, we get envious. We feel that God must bless us at least in the same way if not more than the other person. Today’s Gospel reading confirms we are not the only ones who behave that way - other people do the exact same thing. It is human nature not only to be interested in what we receive but also to be interested in what others receive so that we can compare. It could be our salaries or the various gifts we receive. In today’s parable we are told that the men who were hired last worked only one hour, yet they received the same as those who had worked 12 hours – those who not only did most of the work but also worked during the hottest and most difficult time. This parable seems so unfair and out of character with the justice of God that it tends to make many people very upset and even angry. If such a thing were to happen here today the workers would go on a demonstration and embark on a strike. We however need to pay attention to this parable because it is told by Jesus Himself and is an object lesson on the fidelity of God.
What makes this parable so distressing is that the person we feel we should identify with seems unjust and the people we feel obligated to oppose seem to have a legitimate complaint. It is human nature to claim that a situation is unfair when someone gets more than we think they deserve. Today no employer would get away with what this landowner did. The government and the trade unions would make sure of that by accusing him of treating his employees unfairly. If this were the only reference we had concerning the personality and character of God, we might draw some very unfavourable conclusions. The Scriptures however portray God as good, just, faithful and loving who deals with men and women in a different way than the world does. In the world it is made sure that those who work longer get a higher pay and bigger bonuses. According to the world the wages of workers depend on the amount of work done. According to God they depend on Him and not on the amount of work done.
The world is mainly concerned about productivity and has elaborate laws and rules that cover wages and workers are paid according to the amount of work they do, the position they hold and the length of time they have spent in employment. The landowner in today’s parable went very early to the marketplace and agreed to pay the workers the daily wage. Then throughout the day he continued to return to the marketplace, each time hiring anyone who was willing to work. The landowner’s first trip to the marketplace can be attributed to his interest in seeing work done in the vineyard. But his subsequent trips at 9 O’clock in the morning, at noon, at 3 O’clock in the afternoon and finally at 5 O’clock suggest an interest in the workers themselves and not in the work on the vineyard. These men were hired, not so much because the landowner needed them, but because they needed the job. He knew and understood their need for meaningful employment for without it life would have no purpose, no meaning and no direction. Everyone needs something to do, somewhere to go, and someone to be responsible for. Nothing can so undermine a man’s sense of self-worth as the feeling of not being needed. God chooses us not because He needs us but because we need Him. This does not mean that we can control how God is going to bless us or someone else. God does not need our counsel before He gives to us or to someone else to make sure that he or she is getting what he or she deserves. In today’s parable those who worked all day believed that those who had worked only one hour did not deserve what they were paid. To add insult to injury they were the ones who were paid first. We are gathered here this morning to worship God because God chose us to be here. We may think that we are here because we chose God, but we did not. God is calling everybody to come and to work for Him. Until we give our lives to him, we are like the labourers just standing around doing nothing. Let us answer His call today and discover His will for our lives.
The labourers who did not work the full time knew perfectly well that they had received a gift they did not deserve. God delights to deal with people in terms of grace. It is grace that has made eternal life available to us. It is not something that God gives to us because of who we are and what we have done but something God gives to us because of who He is. He chooses to express His love that way. The reason the men who worked 12 hours in the vineyard were so upset is that they knew the men who had worked one hour did not deserve a full day’s wages. For that matter they felt the same way about those who had worked six hours and those who had worked nine hours. They felt they deserved something more and that they were unfairly treated.
This parable also teaches that God in His mercy is constantly giving people the opportunity to realise their potential by entering into His Kingdom and participating in the work of the Kingdom. Very often we act as if we were doing God a favour. This was the way the workers who had worked 12 hours acted and the reason why they expected more than the rest. This is the way many Christians who had come to Christ earlier and have served Him longer behave thinking they are better and deserve more than the new believers. Like the workers in the vineyard they are so interested in the reward that they miss the landowners’ interest in their welfare. They fail to understand the real reason for their employment - that He cared for them and wanted them to have fellowship with Him. To them it was just another day’s work, a job, and a pay cheque. There are many people who are working in the Lord’s vineyard today who are only concerned about their pay cheque. They are not concerned at all about their fellowship with God and all of us can easily think we are serving God when in reality we are only serving ourselves. The person who told this parable we are looking at today is the very same person who served the Father perfectly and died on a cross to make salvation possible for all mankind. Salvation is infinitely costly and none of us, being sinful, can ever pay for it. Jesus Christ bore the burden of human sin and paid the price for it. And now by believing in Him, we who could not possibly pay the price of sin are forgiven and saved. The grace of God not only ensures our salvation but also enables us to grow into the likeness of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. Grace has within it divine enablement which empowers us to grow, not only into the likeness of His character but also into His supernatural power. We are to grow in character bearing the fruit of the Spirit and to grow in power manifesting the gifts of the Spirit.
God can be trusted and we do not need to negotiate and enter into a contract with Him. The first group of workers who were hired negotiated with the landowner on the daily wage. They negotiated a contract and received the contract sum. All the rest who were hired afterwards trusted the landowner’s fairness and needed no contract. They simply accepted his words ‘you also go into the vineyard, and whatever is right you will receive’. Negotiated contracts are necessary in the business world but have no place between God and man. If God were to listen to some of us and enter into a contract with us, we would be most miserable. Left to His own desires, He will always do what is right. His mercy is always greater than what we deserve and His generous grace always exceeds all our goodness. If we would leave the choice to Him, He will always give us more than we deserve or can ever earn.
We may want our employers to deal with us fairly in terms of work and pay, but no one would want God to be fair in His dealings with us. If God were to deal with us according to what we deserved, we would all perish. This is why when we think about salvation, we should not think about it in terms that suggest that people are saved because they had worked long and hard enough to merit it. We need to appreciate that salvation is not earned but given purely by grace. In the sixteenth century Martin Luther and other reformers rediscovered this truth that changed the religious world. At the time the Church had been preaching that money could buy salvation for them and for their deceased loved ones. It was the Churches method of funding an ambitious building programme in Rome – the building of St. Peter’s Cathedral. Charging money for salvation was unscriptural and many people were deceived. One Church leader even went to the extent of using a copper bowl to collect the money claiming that the ringing sounds the coins made was the sound of a bell ringing in heaven to receive their loved ones. Unfortunately this sort of thing is still happening today and there are many people who give the impression that if you give them enough money they can assure you of your salvation. No amount of money can do that - we are saved by grace and no amount of money or good works can save us. Salvation cannot be earned ‘for by grace we have been saved through faith, and that not of ourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.’ We are privileged to be living in this day of grace but this day will not last forever. It will come to an end as surely as the day ends and the night comes. Today is the day to accept God’s gracious offer of salvation.
In God’s Kingdom life does not appear to be fair and we can be thankful that what God values is different from what the world values. This is the reason why we can crucify God’s Son and be forgiven, why we can rebel against God, spitting in his face, and be forgiven and why a thief or a murderer can confess in the final moment of life and be forgiven. We can thank God that His kingdom is run on grace and that we are saved by grace and not by anything that we can do. The last words of Jesus on the cross were ‘it is finished’. All that ever needed to be done to pay the penalty for man’s sin and to purchase pardon and salvation for all men has already been accomplished by the suffering and death of Christ. To suggest that any man might ever need to do anything more would be to reject the testimony of God’s Word and to discredit the efficacy of Christ’s atonement. Any attempt by any man to earn salvation by his own good works is in effect an insult both to God the Father and to God the Son. It carries the implication that the work of atonement and salvation, planned by the Father and carried out by the Son is inadequate or incomplete. But it is complete. The penalty for sin has been paid for and the Lord is, as it were, standing in the market place imploring all the people to come to him and discover whom they really are. He is imploring all of us to come to where our needs can be met. It is a call to everyone who is not satisfied and who feels that their life is incomplete. The only qualification that is made to the invitation is that one must recognize his or her need. The invitation is to all but the offer isn’t available indefinitely. Today is the hour to receive God’s favour; today is the day of salvation. The salvation of God is there for all that will come to him in repentance and faith. God’s grace and gifts are not given to reward us for what we have done but to meet our needs. Our greatest need in the world is Jesus Christ and God is inviting everybody to come into His kingdom today. His words to us are “Come, all you who are thirsty, and you, who have no money, come buy and eat.” It is unbelievably that we should refuse such an offer – refuse God’s invitation to eternal life. Have you accepted the invitation and received Jesus Christ as your Lord and Saviour? Today is the day of salvation. Do not harden your hearts. Amen!
