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Grace, mercy, and peace from God our Father and His Son, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ’s Church, before us today in the Holy Gospel is this parable. The title of the parable is called The Laborers in the Vineyard. To truly understand what Jesus is trying to convey to His disciples in this text, it is actually vital that we need to include the conversations that precede it. For the parable is the illustration to the previous words that include clarity with a warning that is intended to redirect the disciples back to the true gift given to them. Why does he do this? The answer is because he loves them.
It all begins with a man approaching Jesus who asked, “Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life?” Following that was this Q&A session where this man was convincing himself and conveying to Jesus that he had kept God’s law, God’s commandments, and he asked Jesus with pride, “What do I still lack?” Knowing to himself that he couldn’t think of anything else that he could add, Jesus said to him, “If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven, and come, follow me.” Jesus was telling this man that he is the only way to eternal life.
The text states that when this young man heard this, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions. So this man who had the wealth of the world lacked the understanding of God’s means of salvation—the way in which one receives eternal life. For he was not willing to take his eyes off self, off his self-righteousness, and to surrender his dependence on all this worldly stuff to follow Jesus in this life, and in doing so receive the gift of eternal life by faith. In his pride of self-righteousness, Jesus exposes sin. In his unrepentance, he missed the free gift of God’s grace, the forgiveness of sins, salvation, and eternal life.
There’s this truth that is revealed by God that contradicts the old sinful nature; it contradicts this world. It is a different standard, it is a different understanding, it is a different way, and Jesus’ own disciples were struggling, trying to comprehend. What does all of this mean? They saw a young man striving to keep the law, and he was probably kind, generous, and an outstanding citizen in his community. At Jesus’s words to this man, the disciples were astonished, and this pressure of desiring clarity was boiling up and they couldn’t keep it inside, for they said to Jesus, “Who then can be saved?”
Jesus gave them his undivided attention, looked directly at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” In other words, there is no way that anyone in the world can make themselves right before God, earning their freedom from being the objects of God’s wrath from sin through their own merits of intellect, through the intellect’s emotions, or through their works. But God can. God can intercede and provide the way to escape this bondage and eternal death, and he does. Why? Because he loves. He loves you, me, and all the world.
This past week, I had the privilege of sitting down with a young lady who had a lot of questions. In all my babbling that seemed like rambling words and unorganized thoughts to me, as I sought to share the scriptures to specific situations and circumstances, I prayed that through those words God would grant order and give her his Word. I so desire for her to hear the inspired and inerrant Word of God that speaks of his great love for her and for her to see that love exhibited in God sending His Son, Jesus, who is the fulfillment of the promised Messiah into the world to live the perfect life in her stead. To die on the cross to pay for her condemning sins and to rise from the dead on the third day to show that there is life after death for her.
The forgiveness of sins, salvation, and eternal life have been won through the words and works of Jesus and are now distributed and received through the means of grace through the gift of faith. It was my hope with this simple saving faith that God would lead her in the truth of his Word, to teach her, to guide her, to guard her, and to provide for her as she lives as his disciple and walks by faith and not by sight in a world of disorder, chaos, deception, darkness, and death. It was my prayer that she will be another one sent into the world as a laborer into the vineyard in the service of the Master with the true understanding of His blessings and benefits for her. Why did I do this? It’s because I loved her. I loved her with the love of Christ, that she too knows Jesus, and how much Jesus loves her.
This is where Jesus continues to be equally speaking to those who are His own disciples with a warning against having that same attitude and action as the man with wealth. For Peter said to Jesus, “See, we have left everything and followed you. What then will we have?” Hearing Jesus’ rebuttal against the rich man, Peter, with confidence said, “What’s in it for us based on what we have done and what we have given up in comparison to others?”
Jesus continued by saying, “And everyone who has left house or brother or sister or father or mother or children or land for my namesake will receive a hundredfold and will inherit eternal life.” Then the book ends. He provided on both ends of telling the parable of the laborers in the vineyard. He did it with these words in Matthew 19:30, “But many who are first will be last, and the last first.” And then in Matthew 20:16 after the parable, He says, “So the last will be first, and the first last.”
He tells this parable in the hearing of his disciples. There was a master who owned a vineyard, and it was the season of the harvest. So he goes out to those standing along and around in the marketplaces away from his property and engages them in the work of his vineyard. He makes trips throughout the day—early in the morning, the third, sixth, and ninth hour: 6 o’clock a.m., 9 o’clock a.m., noon, and 3 o’clock p.m. About the eleventh hour, 5 p.m., he does the same thing again.
It’s important to note that the inclusion in this activity in the Master’s Vineyard was completely by doing him going to those who were idle, unable to generate their own work. It was completely through the Master’s initiative, thus eliminating all synergism, all work righteousness. Even his conversation with the individuals he met in the early morning in the denarius was abundant and generous. This Master was different, for no one brings others into his vineyard during the last hour. By the time they arrive to the location, receive their specific task, enter the vineyard, and begin their service, the day will be done. So why does he do it? It’s because he loves them.
Even the order of payment was foreign to the ears of all the hearers of that day. You don’t pay the last first, but those who have been in the vineyard the longest receive their reward first, for it is in accordance to the service rendered, but not so with the master. According to his words, the last were paid first with the denarius. The side of that coin going into the hand of the last one that entered the vineyard made the others really, really happy, for they were sure that their amounts would be greater.
Then, group by group, from the least hours worked to the most, each of the individuals was given the same—a denarius. The text states in verse 11, “And on receiving it, they grumbled at the master of the house.” Like the rich man, they came with their own opinions of self, came with their own opinions of their own circumstances in this life, declaring self-justification, and their own answer was in contradiction to the Master. It did not make sense to them. All of this was unfair. Then they unloaded on Jesus, saying, “These last worked only one hour, and you’ve made them equal to us, who have borne the burden of the day in the scorching heat.”
With the entrance of others with different tasks and seeing the lighter loads and the shorter lengths of service, these grumblers lost focus. They lost focus on the relationship between them and the Master from a distance. We hear the words at the end of today’s Old Testament lesson: “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heaven is higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than yours, and my thoughts than your thoughts.”
Jesus was warning Peter. He was warning the other disciples with this parable. For at that time they were in the vineyard, sent with different gifts, in different circumstances, serving the master of the vineyard. And as time passes, other workers will be added to assist with the work of the harvest. Oh yes. And by the way, Jesus is addressing you and me as well. You and I are also in the vineyard, and Jesus’s words apply to us. As God’s people, Jesus has never promised you and me that our life would be easy and equally fair as one of his disciples living in a spiritually dark world where the harvest is plentiful and the workers are few.
Jesus was getting out in front of Peter’s question, “What will we have?” as he was thinking in comparison to those around him. “Master teacher, look what I have done.” Our merits and our sacrifices must be worth something, and you and I are not immune to this temptation. It’s so easy to take our eyes off the relationship with the Master and start looking around to see what others in the church are doing or not doing, crediting self with greater worth because of our service in His Kingdom.
What Jesus intended for Peter, the other disciples, you, me, and the whole Christian Church is for us to examine ourselves now as we work in the vineyard, lest we lose our soul in the great Judgment Day as the Master distributes according to His ways to all who have gathered. Jesus asked three questions that reveal the spiritual, pharisaic self-righteousness of these ungrateful workers who demanded actions according to their own understanding, and he tells them, “Take what belongs to you and go.” Total rejection by the master with the consequences of eternal life lost.
Why does Jesus say this? He says it because he loves you, he loves me, and he loves all the world. This is the meaning of the bookend. Those who believe that they are first are those who drift to the prey of envy, unbelief, hypocrisy, as they seek comparison with others around them, and they will truly dwell and grovel in it, but they will be last and lost.
While those who believe that they are last are the ones who know that they are unworthy to be in the Master’s presence. They know they are unworthy to be in the Master’s service, and they realize that it is by grace alone as they live as forgiven repentant sinners in the vineyard, basking in the blessings and benefits showered upon them through the gifts of Jesus, their Lord and their Savior. From prison, working in the master’s vineyard, the Apostle Paul writes to the church scattered across the region about the truth of this gift in the Epistle lesson. Paul writes, “For to me to live is Christ and to die is gain. If I live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me, yet which should I choose? I cannot tell. I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for it is far better, but to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account.”
Why does Paul say this? It’s because of the love of Christ that is in him and through him for others. The Lord grant to you his wisdom and strength as you live and serve in his vineyard, as you walk by faith, as you trust in him and his Word for you and through you. Amen. The peace which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.