Matthew 20:1-16
In the name of the Father and of the ✠ Son and of the Holy Spirit
Is God fair? If by fair you mean, is God just and righteous, the answer is yes, absolutely. But if you mean, does he always give us what we deserve, then the answer is no–thankfully so. For our God is a God of grace as well as justice. And to illustrate this point, our Lord Jesus tells a parable to teach us how His kingdom works.
In this story of the workers in the vineyard, a boss goes out in the morning to hire laborers. As the sun rises, he makes a contract with several laborers for the standard rate of a denarius a day. And he sent them into his vineyard. A few hours later, about nine in the morning, he hires another group, but interestingly, their agreement is not for a specific amount but for “whatever is right,” whatever is just and righteous. And so they went. The same thing happens at about noon, and then about three. Finally, at five in the afternoon, with only a single hour left in the workday, the boss hires one last group, and sends them into the vineyard too.
As the sun sets, the foreman brings the workers in to get paid. The boss says, “Call the laborers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last to the first.” The guys that worked one single hour received their pay: “each of them received a denarius,” that is, a full day’s wage. Imagine that! They were paid for 12 hours, but only actually worked one hour. So the guys who worked twelve hours, were really looking forward to getting paid. Surely, they would receive much more, maybe as much as 12 days pay for a single day’s work (if the pay rate was going to be equal). At the very least in their minds, they should be getting a lot more than what they originally contracted for. “But each of them also received a denarius.”
Now it would seem that Jesus couldn’t possibly approve of this. It doesn’t seem fair! After all, those who worked 12 hours “have borne the burden and the heat of the day,” unlike those Johnny-come-latelies who were sitting idle all day, who then only worked an hour in the evening air, and got paid for twelve hours. When you look at it from the point of view of “equal pay for equal work,” that sounds outrageous. Maybe this unfair boss is going to be punished in the story. Maybe he will be forced to pay his workers more fairly. Jesus has to fix this, right?
But instead, Jesus sides with the boss. “Friend,” says the business owner to one of the men who worked twelve long hours for a denarius, “Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius? Take what belongs to you and go your way. I choose to give to this worker the same as I give to you. Am I not allowed to do what I want with my own things? Or is your eye evil because I am good?”
That’s an interesting phrase that Jesus concludes the story with, isn’t it? It’s about the eyes, this grumbling and complaining and discontentment. It’s about looking at others and making comparisons and finding some reason to be outraged at people and offended at how you’re being treated or how life’s just not fair. To have an evil eye is to have a covetous eye that is focused always on yourself and what you can gain for yourself. A person like this can’t be happy for someone else when things go well; they can only engage in grumbling and insults and in pity parties for themselves.
It’s important to remember in this parable, though, that no one was treated unfairly. No injustice was done. The first workers got a fair day’s wage. That was good and right. It’s just that the others were the recipients of the landowner’s great generosity. People might expect that Jesus’ message would be different, that He would side with the workers seeking fairness with management. But Jesus is like the landowner who has every right to do what He wants with His own things and to be generous to whom He wants to be generous.
Now you could make the point here that Jesus is no Socialist, and He does not advocate for the right of workers to make a claim on what does not belong to them, or to violate their contracts. But, of course, the main point of this parable is not really about politics or economics but about what the kingdom of heaven is like. Jesus says that in God’s kingdom, “The last will be first, and the first last.” Jesus says that “fairness” according to the ways of the world is not how His kingdom operates. In fact, it’s turned upside down. Those who think God owes them something more than what He’s given are gravely mistaken. His ways are just and gracious. Who are we to begrudge His generosity to someone?
Here’s really the key spiritual point to take from the Gospel: the difference between the first laborers and the later laborers is that the first had a specific contract, a legal compact, with the landowner, whereas the last workers had nothing specific, just a promise that the landowner would give them whatever is right. That’s a big difference, isn’t it. Would you work for someone without knowing in advance what your wage was going to be? Well, it depends on the character of the one hiring you. Is the person greedy or generous? Are they trustworthy or not? Is it a stingy next door neighbor wanting to get their lawn mowed on the cheap, or is it grandma and grandpa looking for an excuse to give their grandchild a big gift?
So you might say that the first laborers were operating under the Law, and the later laborers were operating under the Gospel. The first laborers were relying on their own works, the last laborers were living by faith in the goodness of the landowner. That’s why the last are first, because their confidence is not in themselves but in the Lord and what He does. Remember what the landowner said, “Is your eye evil because I am good?” The Lord is good, and His mercy endures forever.
The truth is, we should thank God daily that He doesn’t judge us by what is fair; He doesn’t give us what we deserve. For we deserve death and hell. We may be considered good people in a worldly sense. But how often have we been idle and lazy in doing good works? Have any of our words or deeds even done damage to the vineyard? We deserve wrath. “The wages of sin is death.” However, because of the work of Jesus and His sacrificial death, God is free to show mercy to us. He is free to do good to us which we have not merited or deserved. In the cross of Jesus, justice (what is fair) and grace (what is undeserved) come together. At Golgotha, the just punishment for sin is carried out. Justice is done; Jesus pays the price. And at the same time grace overflows. Your sins are forgiven; you are treated as if you worked perfectly and tirelessly all day. The merits of Jesus are credited to you. “The gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
He who is the first and the greatest humbled Himself to be the last of all on the holy cross. He Himself is the one who bore the burden and the heat of the day that brings us the generous reward of salvation. Jesus was handed over to Pontius Pilate at dawn, crucified at the third hour of the day; darkness covered the land at the sixth hour, noon. Our Lord died at the ninth hour as the perfect and complete sacrifice for our sin. He was buried at the eleventh hour of the day just before sundown. See how the work was all done for you, simply for you to receive by faith. Hear again those words from the cross, “It is finished.”
One more point: Very often when we hear this parable of the laborers in the vineyard, those of us who have been lifelong Christians and lifelong Lutherans like to think of ourselves as having worked the whole day. We didn’t come to faith later in life; we were baptized as infants and have been a part of the church right from the very beginning. And that’s certainly an acceptable application of this parable–although it is also a warning. Remember what happened to those hired at dawn! Let us never grumble at the grace of God shown to sinners and to those who repent and receive the denarius of salvation later in life!
But there’s another way to think about and apply this parable, too. And that is that we ourselves are actually among the last workers hired. Those who have really borne the burden and the heat of the day in the Church have come before us in history. We’re not the ones who fought the early heresies and formed the Scriptural Creeds of the Church. We’re not the ones who faced the power of emperors and the power of popes, risking death for our faith (though that day may soon be coming). We’re not the ones who crossed oceans and sacrificed everything to be able to practice our faith and raise our children according to the truth. We are not the ones who preserved the liturgy and penned the great hymns of the Church. Truly an astonishingly rich heritage has been handed down to us. And here we are near the close of the age, at the end of the Day, eagerly waiting for the Last Day, relying on the goodness of the Master, privileged to work in the vineyard and to be a part of the one, holy, Christian, apostolic Church. Truly, it’s all a gift of God’s grace.
Our Lord does what He chooses with what belongs to Him. And that is true here again today, as Jesus freely chooses to give you His very body and blood, once offered up as the atoning sacrifice for all of your sins. Here at the altar you all are paid the denarius of salvation, regardless of how long you’ve been in the vineyard. For in truth we are all those last fortunate workers who just squeaked in, though we do not deserve it. The Lord is just. The Lord is gracious. The Lord is good. Blessed is the one who trusts in Him.
In the name of the Father and of the ✠ Son and of the Holy Spirit
(With thanks to the Rev. Larry Beane for some of the above)