Pentecost 16 –
Proper 20 – Series A (Setember 24, 2017)
“God Gives Whatever is Right”
(Matthew 20:1-16)
INI
We have
an amusing little custom here at Messiah.
At the Lord’s Supper, after each group or table has received the Lord’s
body and blood, the question is always, “Who leaves the table first?” This would not be a problem if we had side
aisles. But here, everyone has to return
down the center aisle while the next group is lined up. So, our rule of thumb is, “The last will be
first, and the first last.” You probably
recognize that from Jesus’ concluding words of the Parable of the Laborers in
the Vineyard.
What
prompted Jesus to tell this parable? In
the verses just prior to our text, Peter seems to smugly suggest that the 12
deserve more than anyone else. “Look, WE
left all things and followed you. What, then, will WE have?” Peter wants what he deserves! And I’m sure the others felt the same way.
Jesus
affirms that the apostles do have a unique role. He even says the Twelve will have a role to
play in the final judgment. At the same
time, he also says that many who are first will be last and last, first. Of course, Jesus is not telling us how to
line up at the communion rail and how to return to our pews. He is not telling us how to line up at the
food line at a wedding reception.
Instead, he is taking a “poke at any prideful comparisons that may be
lurking in the hearts of the apostles” (Gibbs, Matthew, 987), thinking that they DESERVE any better treatment
because of who they are and what they have done. Even their call to apostleship is a gift of
grace. They did not choose Jesus. Jesus chose them. Same for us.
Then
Jesus tells the parable where a master of a house goes out to hire
laborers for his vineyard. He hires the first group for a denarius a
day, a typical day’s wage in those days.
Then he proceeds to hire four other groups of workers, at 9, Noon, 3,
and around 5, just before quitting time.
No amount is agreed upon, but the master says, “Whatever is right I will
give you.” At the end of the day, each
man received a denarius. No matter what
time they started working, each received the same wage. Of course, that didn’t sit well with the guys
who started at 6 in the morning. But the
master responds, “Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or do you begrudge my generosity?” And then, Jesus rephrases what he said just
before the parable, “So the last will be first, and the first last.”
This
parable is about God’s generosity. Those
of us who have been Christians since the day we were baptized may feel cheated
when we see someone in the resurrection who converted on their death bed. Why should that guy get the same heavenly
reward as me? I went to church every
Sunday (well, almost every Sunday) … I gave my offerings … I taught Sunday
School … I mowed the lawn and pulled weeds … I served on this board or that
board … I volunteered for all sorts of things. We’re just like Peter. “Look at all we’ve done for you, Jesus. Now, what will WE have?”
But
that which is just and fair to God does not often match up with our ideas. “For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways,” says the Lord through the prophet Isaiah (Is
55:8). God would not make a very good
business owner, according to our standards … paying everyone the same
wages. Where’s the fairness in
that? Our standard is every man for
himself, scraping and clawing to get ahead of the other guy, comparing
ourselves to others and figuring we are better.
“Whatever
is right, I will give you,” the master said.
Actually, the workers received a gift, even the ones who were hired
early in the day. They were just
standing around. This reminds me of a summer
when I was still in high school. My friend
and I worked as gophers for a building contractor from my church. But early in the morning, on the way to whatever
project he was working on, he would stop at a spot along the road where a group
of men would stand around, waiting to be hired for the day. No one forced my boss to hire them (let’s not
get into the legalities of hiring people who may be undocumented … that’s
another issue). They don’t have to be
picked up by anyone. He knew nothing
about any of those men, unless some had worked for him before. So, in one sense, even stopping to hire these
guys was a gift.
“Whatever
is right I will give you,” our Master says to us. In fact, the word for “right” can also mean
just and righteous. It’s related to the
word for “justification.” And in Christ
Jesus, God gives us what is right and just.
Because of what Jesus has done for us, by dying on the cross to atone
for our sins, God declares us righteous and holy. That’s a gift. We weren’t looking to become a part of God’s
family. We were sinfully idle. God is the one who sought us out. He is the one who sought us out and placed us
in his family, in his kingdom, in the waters of Holy Baptism. Even the call to faith is a gift of grace,
not to mention our wages, our reward, of grace.
It’s a reward given for the sake of Christ, not for our own sake.
And
praise God for that. If forgiveness and
eternal life were dependent upon our performance – how long we worked, how hard
we worked – we would all have been fired a long time ago. “Whatever is right I will give you.” Punishment, condemnation, eternal separation
from God would be just for our sins.
Scripture says that God will “render to each one according to his works”
(Rom. 2:6). God will give us our just
wages. And the wages of sin is death
(Rom. 6:23).
Instead,
God’s forgiveness and eternal life is based upon the performance of one man …
Jesus Christ. He was called from
eternity. Sent into the vineyard to work. Labored faithfully for three years. Worked himself to death, in fact. Called forth from the tomb, in fact, with his
reward for his faithfulness … which will be our reward one day, too … a reward
totally and completely given by grace for the sake of Christ.
Jesus
became the last and the least for us … so you and I could be first in him. Now we can be last for others, letting “your
manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ … standing firm in one spirit
… with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel” (Philippians
1:27). In Christ’s Church, there is “no
room for self-promotion, no occasion for competition, no basis on which one
disciples can say to another ‘I have no need of you’ or ‘I am more important
than you are.’” Each of us are “simply laborers in the vineyard like every
other baptized believer in Jesus.” (Gibbs 991)
“Whatever
is right I will give you,” our Master says to us. And we respond, “What shall I render to the
Lord for all his benefits to me?”
Nothing other than a heart prepared to offer sacrifices of
thanksgiving. Because the life and
salvation that God gives to you is all a gift. So give thanks, and “lift up the cup of
salvation and call upon the name of the Lord” (Introit; Ps. 116:12-13).
Now, you
can come to the table today, remembering our little memory device about who
returns from the table: “the last will be first and the first, last.” And I hope that little memory device takes on
a whole new connotation for you. As it
is here at the table, so will it be in eternity. We are all the same as we gather to receive Christ’s
gifts. No one is greater. No one is lesser. No distinctions. Only sinners saved by grace.
INI
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