Matthew 20:1-16
Ben Cremer
Take a second and give this cute video a watch before you read on:
From the time we are kids, we have a problem with sharing. We have to have things on our own terms. "I'll like you when you give me cookies, but no other time." If he only likes his mom when he gets cookies, imagine what his response would be if his siblings got cookies and he didn't. Watch out, mom! I saw another video this weekend of toddlers playing with toys (I think baby videos are cute, so sue me). The little boy refused to share the toy he had with the little girl, but he was totally fine giving her the blocks he didn't care about. He made sure her playing with the the toys was done on his terms. Heaven forbid he should share the toy he was playing with. Heaven forbid that mom should withhold cookies from her 3 year-old if he demands them. Well, thank heaven we all grow up and learn how to share like mature adults. Then again, maybe not.
As we grow, we may be able to share toys and cookies better. But replace cookies and toys with money, food, healthcare, and education and see if we each don't have our own terms about how those things should be shared, and ideas about those who deserve it and those who don't.
The questions I want to ask from this passage is:
Do we as the church take the same approach to God's grace?
Do we only like God when God gives us what we think we deserve?
Do we have our own terms about how God's grace should be shared to others?
A common tendency of reading this parable of the vineyard workers is to focus on verse 16: "So, the last will be first and the first will be last." Sometimes we insist that this refers to the gift of eternal life, the gift that will be granted to all the laborers of the field, the gift that will be the great equalizer. No matter when you came to Christ, whether you were the first or the last to come to him, the gift is the same: eternal life. Although that is such a wonderful message, I would like to set that understanding aside for today and focus instead on what this parable illuminates about our willingness to share and our willingness to receive.
This parable comes between two major events. One at the end of chapter 19 and one toward the end of chapter 20. We have the rich young man ask Jesus what he must do to be saved, only to turn away grieving because he had many possessions he was being asked to part with. We then see the disciples clambering around Jesus in verses 25-27 saying, "How are we to be saved? Look, we have left everything and followed you. What then will we have?" Both the rich young man and the disciples were asking about what toys and cookies they get for following Jesus. They wanted to know what positions of power they would receive from Jesus so that they could set their own terms with him.
Then we see the other event toward the end of chapter 20. When the disciples weren't getting anywhere with getting Jesus to give them a straight answer over what specific positions of authority he was going to give each one of them, James and John's mommy comes to the rescue. In verses 20-21 "The mother of Zebedee’s sons came to Jesus with her sons and, kneeling down, asked a favor of him. ‘What is it you want?’ he asked. She said, ‘Grant that one of these two sons of mine may sit at your right and the other at your left in your kingdom.’” (Matthew 20:20-21, NIV)
These events before and after today's parable deal with three clear issues:
1 Discipleship
2 Possessions
3 Authority
The rich young man refused to become a disciple and make Jesus the authority because his many possessions were his authority.
The disciples pointed out that they had given up all their positions to follow Jesus and wanted to know what positions of authority they would hold in God's kingdom.
The rich young man, the disciples, and James and John's mother misunderstood those three things— discipleship, possessions, authority. We often misunderstand them as well. You see, they all saw their discipleship and possessions as a way of determining what authority they would share with God, rather than using their discipleship and possessions in a way that makes God their ultimate authority.
What place will I hold in the kingdom? Look what I've done with my possessions, Lord! Look how well I follow you, Jesus! Now tell me God, what authority will you give me in your kingdom?
Did you know that the word authority comes from the word author? The one who is the authority is the one who creates beginnings and endings: an author. And Hebrews 12:1-2 says, “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” (Hebrews 12:1, 2 NIV)
Who is the author of our faith? Who is the author of our lives? Do we use discipleship and our possessions in a way that makes Christ Jesus our highest authority? The author of our life's story? Or is something or someone else the author of our life's story? Because if the beginning and end of our life is not Jesus, then we don't know the end of our story and the positions of authority we hold in God's or any other kingdom become our primary concern. Christ must be the author of our lives if we are to see ourselves and others in the proper perspective.
So in between these people wrestling for position, wrestling for authority, we have the parable of the laborers in the vineyard. After he explains to his disciples that many who are first will be last, and the last will be first, Jesus says, "For the kingdom of heaven is like…" He again explains what the kingdom of heaven is like through a parable. The kingdom of heaven is like a land owner who went out to hire workers for his vineyard. He hired some in the morning, midday, afternoon, and even some late in the evening. We notice that none of these laborers would have work if he had not hired them to work in his vineyard, and they agreed to work for a fair wage. At the end of the day, the land owner told his manager to call all the laborers together and pay them.
The manager was instructed to start with those hired last and pay each group of laborers the usual daily wage. Well, as the manager went down the line and paid the workers, the first assumed that they would be paid more than the usual daily wage since they had worked more than the others. When they were paid the agreed upon daily wage, they grumbled and complained. They said, "This last group of workers only worked an hour and you have paid them the same amount? How is that fair? We have been working all day, outside, in the scorching heat!" But the landowner responds saying, "Friends, I'm not doing anything wrong to you. We agreed on the usual daily wage, right? I am choosing to give of what belongs to me as I see fit. I am choosing to give these last workers the same amount because of my generosity. Would you who are first be envious of my generosity to these who are last? Would you who are first put your own terms on what is only mine to give?”
The first grumbled because the landowner didn't play favorites. The first grumbled because the landowner didn't over-compensate them after paying the last the agreed upon wages. It sounds like the first would have been fine with the last getting the usual daily wage only if they would have been paid more. They got their noses out of joint because they were not favored above the rest. Jesus ends the parable by saying, "So the last will be first and the first will be last."
So what are we to make of this parable in light of the events that surround it? How are we to understand God through the actions of the landowner? We could say, "Well, God is impartial. God treats everyone the same. The parable communicates God's impartial treatment of everyone who labors in His name." But that would be missing the mark. Remember, the landowner went out and called those who would work for him. He knew which group was the first and which group was the last. He didn't force himself to forget who was first or who was last at the end of the day. He recognized and remembered the diversity of those he called all throughout the day. So it isn't impartiality that defines the landowner's actions, but sheer generosity.The same is true for God's grace.
Through this parable we are to understand the sheer abundance of God's grace. God's grace cannot be used up or run out. God's generous grace is the very thing that makes it possible for those to come to work for him later in the day. Those who labor, whether they are first or last, could not labor for the gift of eternal life if it wasn't for God's grace.
I don't know about you, but this makes me think about how God has called people all throughout history to work for the Kingdom. This challenges my understanding of when I was hired to work in the vineyard; or of when we were hired to work in the vineyard.
A homiletical experiment might be fun to do with your people this Sunday. You could look at how God has worked throughout history by imagining that the entire Bible is a 24-hour day. Genesis is sunrise and Revelation is sunset. During that day, God is going out to hire people to labor in the vineyard. We see God make a covenant with a people called Israel. God makes an agreement with them to be a light to the world. God’s first hire. All throughout the Old Testament, God continues to call, continues to hire. Noon passes, afternoon passes, and God comes in the flesh to make one last hire in the evening: the Church. The first to be hired and the last to be hired. God will keep the covenant, God’s agreement with Israel. God hiring the church to labor as well does not take that agreement away. The Church has simply been grafted into that covenant as the new Israel. But in understanding this, the Church should not presume that she is first to be hired, but the last. The church must know that we only understand why and how we labor through the agreement that God made with the first to be hired: Israel. We only have the Old Testament because Israel was faithful to recored both their faithful and unfaithful labors. We can learn from them so that we might be faithful laborers in our work in the vineyard.
Israel grumbled when the Church came on the scene claiming Christ as Messiah. They complained and said, "Hey! We have been working all day long. In the heat of the day. And these gentiles are now equal recipients of your love? Your promises? Your grace? How is that fair?" This is why Paul writes what he does in Romans chapters 9-11. He writes insisting that God's promises to Israel remain in effect. Israel has stumbled on the stumbling block that is Jesus, but she has done so in order that salvation may come to the Gentiles. As different as the Church is, Israel's story is still our story. It is through God's sheer grace that we labor together as one. Israel was the first to receive God's promise; the Church was the last. The Church was the first to be entrusted with the message of Christ and sent into Israel to spread that good news of eternal life. "But," as Jesus said, "Many who are first will be last, and the last will be first." Yet, God, full of abundant grace, is seeking that all who labor in the vineyard receive the agreed upon wage of eternal life. No matter how late in the day they come to see Christ as Lord.
This is our prayer for all those who are lost. All those who are standing in street the with no labor, no work to do. God is calling them to work in the vineyard and we pray that they answer that call. But will we put our own terms on God's generosity when God does call them?
A final and very intriguing part of this parable is that the land owner told the manager to pay the workers starting with the last and ending with the first. If the landowner had started with the first, they would have never had a chance to be upset over the wages given. So why start handing wages to the last, and then move to the first? What can this tell us about God's grace? I think this shows us that when God's grace moves among us, it not only frees us, but reveals what we are being freed from. In this case: greed, envy, and jealousy. "God's grace is the grace of truth refusing to hide from us the character of our envy of those who we think is undeserving of such grace. This parable shows God's justice—a justice that is disciplined by the truth."
After this parable, Jesus tells his disciples the third and final time that he is headed to Jerusalem to be handed over, to be flogged, crucified, and be raised again. Such is the fate of the vineyard owner. This is God's act of salvation for all—whether they are hired first or last. This is the overturning of the kingdom of heaven. This is God's generosity at work!
Remember what the landowner says in verse 15. "Don't I have a right to do what I want with what belongs to me?" Usually when people say "I'm going to do what I want,” you predict a selfish behavior. You predict an action that places themselves first. But when God says, "Don't I have the right to do what I want with what belongs to me?" What does God do? God is generous, giving, and abundant in kindness. This is a reflection of God’s heart to the core. When God expresses the right to do what God wants, it results in generosity.