Matthew 20:1-16
Septuagesima
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✠ In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit ✠
Let me begin by saying what today’s Gospel is not about. If your first thought in hearing about the laborers in the vineyard is to try to apply it to politics or economics, don’t. This is not about socialism or capitalism; it has nothing to do with the rights of workers or employers. It doesn’t support a conservative or a liberal agenda. More and more we tend to see everything in terms of politics and rights and power and victimization. But Jesus is no politician, and his mission is not to empower you in your quest for your rights. His kingdom is not of this world. He says here very explicitly, “The kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard.” The way things work in God’s kingdom is quite different from the ways of the world. Wages are given not based on the merit of the worker but on the goodness of the owner. Here’s the key saying from the vineyard owner, “Is your eye evil because I am good?”
God’s unmerited goodness is what we call grace, His undeserved love toward us in Christ that we receive by faith. Now unfortunately, some take that teaching about grace and use it as an excuse for laziness when it comes to doing good works. “My salvation isn’t based on my works at all? Great! I’m going to take it easy, then, and just enjoy myself and do as I please.” But that’s just a perversion of God’s grace, and ultimately it’s a rejection of grace. For God’s Law is still in force. You should still be loving God above all things–including your money, including your family, including the approval of your friends. You should still be loving your neighbor as yourself. The Ten Commandments are still commanded. They’re not the Ten Suggestions. God has told us to do them, and so we must. It’s not optional.
But here’s the point: If you do good things in order to gain some eternal reward out of it, is that truly a good work? Or if you do something good out of fear that if you don’t you’ll be punished, is that truly a good work? In both cases the good deed is tainted, isn’t it? It may be good humanly speaking, but it’s not in God’s sight. For with Him it’s not just the outward act but what’s going on in the heart that counts. Love and trust in Him is what He seeks. If heaven is the reward we get for living a good life, we’re hopelessly lost; because then trying to live a good life would end up being a self-serving thing, which in fact is the opposite of doing good before God.
Let me illustrate it this way: Valentine’s day was just celebrated. If a husband gets his wife a card and flowers or some other gift only because he feels like he has to or else he’ll be in the dog house, is that really love for his wife? Or if he does something romantic because what he truly wants is to score some points that he can cash in on, is that really love for his wife? What he does might be good outwardly speaking, but what makes it real love is when it’s done without thought to rewards or consequences, but simply with a desire for the good and the happiness of the spouse and their marital communion.
So what God has done is this: He has enabled you to do truly good works by taking the eternal threat and reward entirely out of the mix. The reward is already yours before you even start working. It’s been purchased by Christ for you; it’s a done deal, whether you entered the vineyard at dawn or at the 11th hour. Your reward, your eternal life in Christ is not in doubt. The denarius is yours through faith, simply by trusting Him. So now what? Now you are truly free to do the work God has given you to do from the heart, out of love for Him and love for your neighbor, without any thought of what’s in it for you. All the tainted motives you might have are taken away in Christ. Fear of what might happen to you, self-serving goals no longer have a role to play since Jesus has already given Himself to you with every blessing. You are set at liberty to do good, not because you have to in order to win God’s favor, but precisely because you already have God’s favor in Christ, and because your neighbor needs you. In a sense you actually are free to do as you please. Because what pleases the heart of faith is not to go back to the same old shallow, empty, self-serving ways, but to live in Christ, loving and trusting in God and serving others. That’s why it is written that without faith in Christ, it is impossible to please God. Only in Jesus are you truly free to do good.
When we forget that, that’s when we’ll start to grumble. You only complain when you think God owes you, that you deserve better based on what you’ve done. “I’ve worked harder than that other guy; I’ve done more for the church. So I deserve better than him.” “It’s not fair that God is letting me go through this hardship. I’ve lived a good life and been a good person.” You can only talk and think that way when you believe it’s your works that run the show with God. And when your works run the show, then it’s all about you, not Jesus.
The laborers in the vineyard wanted the landowner to be fair. But in fact He was more than fair. A denarius is a good and proper wage for a full day’s work. That’s exactly what they received. The landowner wasn’t being miserly; he didn’t stiff them. It’s just that the landowner was extremely generous to the others. He treated even the ones hired at the 11th hour as if they had worked all day. The landowner wasn’t unfair but gracious. Besides, he had the right to do whatever he wished with His own things.
Beware of applying standards of fairness to God. Beware, because generally the fairness argument is just a mask for promoting your own interests. That’s why we love to grouse about the rich and income inequality. “They don’t deserve it, and we deserve more for all our hard work; it’s not fair.” But God doesn’t want to deal with us that way, on the basis of what we deserve, as if we had a contractual arrangement with Him, a business deal, a pre-nuptial agreement. He wants our relationship to be one of real love, freely given, no strings attached. As soon as it’s about what we think God owes us, then we’re not seeking to love Him but to use Him.
We should beware of wanting God to be fair with us, anyway, as I’ve often told you before. For then we’d be in grave danger. If you want fair wages, then here’s what the Scriptures say, “The wages of sin is death.” Those who end up in hell are really in the end only getting what they asked for, namely, the just and fair payment for their faithless works. “Go your way,” the landowner said. Have it your way. Hell is filled with grumbling and complaining against God. You might think that hell would mostly be about regret. But regret quickly shifts to anger and blame, especially toward God. The damned actually believe that God is wrong, that He’s being unfair. This worsening bitterness and teeth-gritting frustration is part of their unending torment.
Repent, then, of dealing with God as if He were against you, as if He needed to be negotiated with and badgered into loving you. Turn away from your anger with Him. Trust that He is good, that He is merciful and abounding in steadfast love. He is blessedly unfair with you, pouring out on you the fullness of His generosity in Christ. He does love you. He will provide you with all that you need. After all, if the Father has given you His own Son, will He not also graciously give you all that is good and necessary and right for you? Remember that the laborers who were hired later in the day went to work without being told what they would be paid, just trusting in the goodness of the landowner. So you also, even though you can’t see what the future holds, even if life doesn’t seem to be fair–trust in the goodness of your heavenly Father; stake your life on His grace in Jesus. Know that He will give far more than you could ever dream of.
Just like the landowner dealt with those hired at the 11th hour, so the Lord treats you as if you did all the required work, from the beginning to the ending of the day. For what you failed to do, the Lord Jesus has accomplished perfectly on your behalf in His perfect life and death and resurrection. He Himself is the true Laborer in the vineyard. He began His work even before dawn on Good Friday, being condemned by the Jewish authorities. He was questioned by Pontius Pilate at the third hour of the day, flogged, and then crucified. Darkness covered the land from the sixth hour, noon, until the ninth hour, as a sign of the judgment He bore in your place. Then our Lord cried out “It is finished!” and died as the perfect and complete sacrifice for your sin. Behold how He did all the work for you! He who is the Rock was struck, and water and blood flowed forth from His side for your cleansing and your forgiveness. He was buried at the eleventh hour just before sundown to sanctify your grave and make it a place of rest from which you will awaken and rise in glory on the Last Day.
“The Lord will save the humble people, but will bring down proud and haughty looks.” And so we are not jealous of the newcomer in the vineyard of the church or of the one converted in his dying days, but we rejoice that the same mercy that saved us has also saved another. Even a faithful lifelong Christian recognizes that of himself he deserves nothing and that it is only because of Jesus that he has forgiveness and life. As it is written, “By grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them (Ephesians 2:8-10).”
Let us, then, be truly full of good works by trusting in the grace of Christ alone to save us. Or as St. Paul puts it, let us run in such a way as to obtain the prize of life with Christ, which He Himself has won for us. Let us run with the certainty of faith, setting our hearts on Him, disciplining our bodies and minds, more than even a dedicated Olympic athlete, filling ourselves with His words and His life-giving body and blood. Come and lay hold of the denarius Christ earned for you–not because it’s owed to you; but simply because it is His good pleasure to be generous and loving toward you.
✠ In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit ✠