Matthew 20:1-16

“For the kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. After agreeing with the laborers for a denarius a day, he sent them into his vineyard. And going out about the third hour he saw others standing idle in the marketplace, and to them he said, ‘You go into the vineyard too, and whatever is right I will give you.’ So they went. Going out again about the sixth hour and the ninth hour, he did the same. And about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing. And he said to them, ‘Why do you stand here idle all day?’ They said to him, ‘Because no one has hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You go into the vineyard too.’ And when evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Call the laborers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last, up to the first.’ And when those hired about the eleventh hour came, each of them received a denarius. Now when those hired first came, they thought they would receive more, but each of them also received a denarius. And on receiving it they grumbled at the master of the house, saying, ‘These last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat.’ But he replied to one of them, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius? Take what belongs to you and go. I choose to give to this last worker as I give to you. Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or do you begrudge my generosity?’ So the last will be first, and the first last.”

• God Generously Gives Work

A quality of God’s nature is that is he unknowable. His love is too deep, His mercy too vast and His wrath too colossal for human minds to fully wrap themselves around. These are more than just attributes He has, He is the very embodiment of them. We know from 1 John 4:16 that God is love and we know from 1 Corinthians 13:12 that what we see now is partial, incomplete, seen “in a mirror dimly.” But we see Jesus frequently helping us form an understanding in the Spirit of something far beyond our comprehension as He displays God’s qualities within the bounds of flesh and lays out parables concerning the coming kingdom. The first thing I took away from today’s parable is the rightness, and purpose found in the service of God and pursuit of the kingdom. We see from the beginning that the master, that God goes seeking laborers. In Revelation 3:20 Jesus says,

“Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.”

God states multiple times throughout the Bible, “I will be their God and they shall be my people” expressing a desire and calling us to a place of communion with Him. We don’t see the laborers in the parable snatched from other occupations and strongarmed into work at the vineyard, but those standing idle, looking for work but finding nothing as we all are in this world. God as the master provides good and righteous work – the work our hands were made for. We see this fitting with what Paul would later write in 1 Corinthians 6:13-14,

“The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. And God raised the Lord and will also raise us up by his power.”

While Paul was addressing the more specific and persistent problem of sexual immorality (arguably the most toxic sin), the message carries farther than that single subject. We are made for God, to honor, serve and obey Him in His glory. As the parable continues we see the master return and take in more laborers who are seeking work but standing idle. These aren’t promised the set wage that those who showed up first were, but are simply told, “whatever is right I will give you.” At 5:00, one hour from the end of the workday we see the master return and find still more laborers standing idle. This begs the question, where were these laborers earlier? A logical conclusion is that they were seeking work in the wrong places. Jesus says in John 6:35,

“Jesus said to them, ‘I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.’”

Something we have to understand is that we are all hungry, we are all thirsty to the point of death, and the world offers up countless mirages of feasts that turn out to be nothing more than sand, the mouths of false prophets are dry wells. Jesus says in Matthew 7:13,

“Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.”

There are multitudes seeking work in the wrong places, when God offers the work our souls crave in Him. Another possibility for the eleventh hour laborers is that they have been passed over by other employers. Their answer when the master asks them why they’re standing there is, “Because no one has hired us” which creates the possibility that for whatever reason they may have been deemed unworthy or unfit by other employers. We know from verses like John 3:16 that God’s love is for the whole world. We see in Jesus’s interactions with sinners, tax collectors, leapers, and those in general whom the religious elite looked down or condemned that the gift of salvation was and is open for all. We see in the parable that these late comers aren’t turned away. They’re also not promised a set wage or even that they will be paid “what is right” as those who came during the third, sixth and ninth hours. These found at the eleventh hour are simply told, “You go into the vineyard too.” They don’t know what they’re getting, but they know there is the promise of something.

• Generosity Provides What is Promised

We see the workday end and the master instruct his foreman to pay the laborers their wages, starting with those arrived last. Instead of being given a percentage or a fraction of the days wage, they’re each paid a full denarius, a day’s wage as opposed to the hour they worked. There are a number of things that can be inferred from this. Someone could read and draw the conclusion that those who showed up later must have worked extra hard to have earned the same reward as those who labored all day, but to think this way misses the point that our salvation and reward is not attained by our own works, but by God’s provision. Yes, salvation through Christ is required, and personal acceptance is a key part of this, but the promised reward is given not based on our worthiness, but on the covering that Christ has provided, as Paul states in Romans 3:21-25,

“But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for fall have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith.”

Christ’s sacrifice is not made greater or diminished by our works – He is perfect and complete, like the Passover lamb that symbolized His sacrifice so many years ahead of his coming, His work was finished all at once and there is no additional merit for us to add to it. We see from the sum they’re paid that the work of the eleventh hour laborers was worth a day’s wage, but we know this is not a testament to their own abilities. This gives us a glimpse of God’s limitless potential working through us. We think from a human perspective, and by this reasoning no one could perform the value of a full day’s work in an hour. Our influence is, thank God, not limited or based on our own capabilities but is boundless in the Spirit working through us. To reference Paul’s writings again, he says in Philippians 4:12-13,

“I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me.”

God is not limited by time or space, the physical and mental constraints of this world are as nothing before Him. We second guess ourselves in our flesh, but in His power there are no limitations, we can do all things because He can do all things. This means the value of our service isn’t reliant on how hard we work, what time we start, or what our plans might be, but on our obedience to Him and what He does in and through us. Considering the example of Paul, history tells us that he was around thirty years old when he encountered the Lord on the road to Damascus and was shown the Way. I’ve also read that he would have been around sixty years old at the time of his martyrdom. But no one looks a Paul’s life and says, “he wasted half his life, what more could he have done for the Lord had he converted sooner.” God took him in his wickedness, broke him and set him on a path to be one of the most influential figures in the early church and to write the bulk of the New Testament. Paul did in thirty years by the will and hand of God more than any man could do in an eternity by his own power. Our work is made worthwhile by our Father. 

Seeing the sum that the eleventh hour laborers were paid, the laborers we were there from the start of the day assess their time spent working, assume their contribution to be of greater value and anticipate a greater compensation that what they were promised. When they are handed the denarius they were told they would receive, they begin to grumble.

Grumble: to mutter in discontent.

Grumble is a small word in many ways, but it’s one that gives me chills when I see it come up in scripture. The Israelites grumbled frequently in the wilderness, against Moses and Aaron but most importantly against God. Their ungratefulness often led to death. Looking at John 6 again we see in verses 41-50 that the Jews grumble about Jesus’s claim that He is the bread of life, just as their fathers did over the manna that God provided in the wilderness. Grumbling is passive, it’s not loud outrage or open rebellion, but it’s muttered discontent that sows disobedience in the hearts of men. But in Matthew 20, we don’t see a harsh rebuke from the master. The ground doesn’t open to swallow the grumbling servants, they’re not set upon by fiery serpents or exiled from the master’s presence. They’re called friend and counseled to the truth of things – all the laborers receive their wage by the generosity and of the master. Psalm 91:1-2 says,

“He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say to the LORD, ‘My refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.’”

What those who have been laboring throughout the day miss in their grumbling is that they were blessed with work, security, stability, and the promise of a wage secured from the start of the day. The master sought them and they were found ready to work from the start and they were blessed in this. This speaks to the danger of complacency that can develop in the heart and mind of someone who has been a Christian for an extended time but hasn’t progressed in the sanctification process. Though we are given assurance, we are not justified by the amount of time we’ve spent under the yoke of Christ, but in out submission to Him and His work through us. After all, we are called to sow. It is the Lord that yields the harvest. It’s also important to make the distinction that serving God isn’t about personal gain. A greedy, grasping heart isn’t one that’s seeking God, but glorification of the self.  We see Jesus provide the needed contrast in Luke 10:17-20,

“The seventy-two returned with joy, saying, ‘Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name!’ And he said to them, ‘I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall hurt you. Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”

“I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven” has become one of my favorite pieces of scripture. There’s so much in that once sentence: there’s a reminder and caution against pride, but it also speaks to who Jesus is, not just a man, but a manifestation of God in living flesh, who has seen, among many things our minds can’t quite grasp, the fall of Satan. But looking at His words in Luke and how they reference against today’s parable we see plainly that while there is a reward in heaven, and there are countless spiritual blessings to serving the Father, the blessings aren’t why we serve. To be obedient before God is right, it’s part of our very design. We also see that what is promised is what is delivered. We see the promise for our honest obedience in Galatians 6:7-9,

“Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.”

Or, even more simply through what Jesus said in what may be the most quoted verse of all time, John 3:16,

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”

• Generosity’s Availability has an End

The final thing shown in the parable isn’t stated explicitly but is revealed through the framework of the workday. The laborers are all paid evenly, some are given more than they probably anticipated, others grumble over their wage, but all are given good work, and all are paid their due from the master. But the workday ends. While God’s rewards do not diminish, there is a window of acceptance, a sunset on grace and a beginning for judgement. Our lives in this world do not endure forever and the Son of Man will come like thief in the night, blindsiding a fallen world.  We see in Revelation 20:12-15,

“And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done. And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done. Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire.  And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.”

God has provided a path for us, a calling to come to Him. Life in the Spirt is the work our souls are crying for, but were not forced into labor in His vineyard, admission to the kingdom isn’t forced. God’s generosity is unlimited, however our ability to accept it is.

Link to Pastor Chris’s sermon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=45EnjMHjFeE