Matthew 20:1-16
Septuagesima

✠ In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit ✠

One way of understanding today’s Gospel is that it’s a debate about equality, and whether or not equality is a good thing.  The laborers who had worked all day in the vineyard did not favor equality.  For when those who worked fewer hours were paid a full day’s wage by the landowner, their complaint was  “You made them equal to us!”  They didn’t like that.  

And to some extent we can understand their complaint.  It doesn’t seem particularly fair to reward everyone equally for unequal work–sort of like a group project in school where one or two people do all the heavy lifting, but the slacker in the group still gets an “A” grade.  Imagine if everyone in the Olympics was rewarded equally after the competitions, and the person who fell three times in a skating event received the same medal as the one who performed all the jumps flawlessly.

In this sense we can rightly say that sometimes equality is not good.  Coercing and forcing equal outcomes and rewards is fundamentally unjust, no matter how the socialists and Marxists want to spin it.  It is good and just that the one who works harder, takes more risk, has more responsibility is given a higher wage.

But then what’s going on in today’s Gospel parable?  Well to begin with, Jesus is not speaking about politics or economics here.  Nothing that He says here has to do with being a republican or a democrat, a social justice warrior or a free-market capitalist.  This is not about the kingdoms and power structures of this world.  For what does Jesus say?  “The kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard.”  So let us zero in today on what Jesus is teaching us about the way things work in God’s kingdom, how He desires to treat us, and what that means for us who have been called to work in the vineyard of His church.

“You made them equal to us!”  The complaint was accurate; that’s what the landowner did.  So in what ways are we all equal in God’s sight?  Firstly, we are all equally created by God, knit together by Him in our mother’s womb, and therefore equal in dignity and worth as human beings, made in the image of God–whoever we are, wherever we come from.  But as Scripture makes clear, that image has been broken in each one of us.  We are also equal before the Lord in this respect, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”  Not a single one of us can lay claim to some sort of heavenly reward or say that God owes us anything.  In fact, quite the contrary.  The wages we have earned by our work, the equal wages of sin is death.  If God were to be just and fair with us and give us what we deserve, eternal death is what we’d all receive.

This is where we begin to see the difference between the first laborers in the vineyard and the later laborers.  For the first, they thought that anything good they received was based on their work, what they did.  They were operating under the principles of a contract; a day’s wage for a day’s work–that’s what a denarius is.  But notice how it was for the later workers.  The landowner said to them, “You also go into the vineyard, and whatever is right you will receive.”  Now if that was you, would you go and work for this man, without any idea of what you’d be paid?  Well it depends, doesn’t it.  It depends on what kind of person you think him to be–is he miserly or generous, is he a man of good character or bad?  It depends on whether or not you trust him–do you know him, do you have a good relationship with him?  If you don’t trust the landowner, you probably won’t go into his vineyard.  If you do, you will.

That ultimately is the real difference between the first and the last in this parable.  The first were dealing with the landowner on the basis of the Law, a legal agreement; the last were dealing with him on the basis of the Gospel, faith in his goodness.  The first wanted to deal with him on what they deemed to be fair.  The last dealt with him on the basis of what he deemed to be good and right.  That’s a huge difference.

Remember, the Lord is not unfair with the first men.  He is just very generous to the others.  The Law was not broken.  The first received a just and fair wage.  He tells them, “Go your way.”  “You want it to be all your way, based on your work, fine.  Take it and go.  But I wish to be gracious to these others and bring them joy.  If that makes you grumpy, too bad.”  Hell is filled with grumbling and complaining against God.  The damned in their pride actually believe that God is wrong, that He's somehow cheating them, that His grace is unfair.  This worsening bitterness and teeth-gritting frustration is part of their unending torment.

Do you find yourself considering God to be unfair because of your situation in life or something that’s happened to you?  Are you one whose religion is like a contract with God, a system of rewards for your good deeds?  Do you negotiate with God in your prayers (I’ll do this for you if you do this for me)?  If so, then you are behaving like the first laborers in this parable, and you must repent.  Turn away from ranking yourself above others, turn away from trusting in your own works, and turn to the works of Christ.  Believe that it is only and entirely through Him that you receive any blessing from the Father.  Trust in Christ alone to save you from death and hell.  

Unbelievers seek a God who is fair, and then when they find Him, they don’t like Him.  Believers seek a God who is merciful and gracious, and when He finds them, they love Him.  (Notice how in the parable, it’s the owner who finds the workers; He initiates the “hiring.”)  Believers know that it is only by grace that they are even in the vineyard, no matter how long they’ve been there.  They consider it a privilege to be able to work in the vineyard and contribute to its health and growth.  They are not jealous of the newcomer or the repentant restored sinner or the one converted in his dying days, but they rejoice that the same mercy that saved them has also saved another.  They’re glad to say to the Lord, “You have made them equal to us!”  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, “The free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 6:23).”  And again, “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 (Eph. 2:8-9).”

In the same way that 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 completetly on your behalf in His perfect life and death and resurrection.  He Himself is the true Laborer in the vineyard who brings you the generous reward at the end of the day.  Jesus 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.  At the 11th hour our Lord the 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 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.

So to bring this full circle, Jesus is like that classmate who is the only one in your group who understands the material and who gives you to share in His perfect score on the project.  He is like the gold medal winner who invites you up onto the podium to share in His glory.  He is the one who gives you “whatever is right,” that is, His own righteousness and undeserved love as a gift.

And now, living in that confidence, we are freed to do truly good works, without calculating what’s in it for us or what reward we’re going to get out of it.  Instead of ranking ourselves above others and sneering at equality with them, we give attention to the words of St. Paul when he says, “Count others more significant than yourselves.”  1 Corinthians 12 speaks about how it is in the body of Christ, “The eye cannot say to the hand, ‘I have no need of you,’ nor again the head to the feet, ‘I have no need of you.’ On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and on those parts of the body that we think less honorable we bestow the greater honor. . . God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together.”  We are all one body in Christ, we have all equally received the denarius of grace.

Let us then attend to the work of the vineyard of the Church and be full of good works by trusting in the grace of Christ alone to save us.  Let us run in such a way as to obtain the prize of life with Christ.  Let us fight the good fight of faith, setting our hearts on Him, disciplining our bodies and minds, 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; 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 âœ