St Matthew 20:1-16/1 Corinthians 9:24-10:5/Exodus 17:1-7
In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.
The Kingdom of heaven is not like the kingdom of men. It is not a government or a nation. It is not even a corporation or business. It is not “God helps those who help themselves.” It is not ruled by fairness of equity or even normal common sense. The fair thing, the obvious thing, the most decent and expected thing is “first come, first served.” “You do for me, I do for you.”
But its not “first come, first served,” or “take a number, in the Kingdom of heaven. The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a vineyard owner who outrageously overpaid his workers!
There is a place, though, where everything is fair. There is a kingdom ruled with total equity; where everyone gets what he deserves. Hell. Even your best and greatest works are stained with the filth of sin. And the fair wages of sin is eternal death. In Hell there is a punishment for every sin; in Hell it is always “first come, first served.” Things are fair.
And if that is what you demand, if that is the kind of lord you desire, then that is what you will get: He who lives by the Law, dies by the Law. That’s fair.
Unbelievers search for a God who is fair, and 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. The Kingdom of heaven is not “God helps those who help themselves.” But in heaven, the last are first.
Thus the First-born, the Prince of heaven, came into our fallen world not to be served, but to serve; not to stand idle, but to labor. He is the First, the Alpha, the uncreated, and He was made the last; a worm and not a man. He was the Rock of Israel that gave His people drink. Yet for them He allowed Himself to be overthrown; to be consumed by the righteous wrath of the Father.
He gave us His place in line. He handed over His inheritance, His honor, His glory. It is not fair that He should serve us; that He should wash our stinking feet, be circumcised and baptized. It’s not fair that the Son of Man had no place to lay His head while we live like kings. It’s not fair that He should suffer and die for sins He did not commit.
But His Kingdom is not about fairness. It is about grace – His undeserved, unfailing, unimaginable love. “Salvation unto us has come by God’s free grace and favor.”
The greatest injustice of all time, the most “unfair” thing ever – the execution of our innocent Lord, found guilty by the most ridiculous, shame of a trial. And by that injustice is how He gives you His grace.
The charges placed over His head were not fair, but they were accurate. He is the King of the Jews, the King of Israel. And by His own decree, invoking His own Divine Right as the eternal Son of God, He rules now; but not by power and might, not by armies and force, not by political intrigue and strategizing, not by threats, or speeches, or votes. But by dying. He reigns in the hearts of men who believe in Him by the power of His death and resurrection; by His sheer grace. He is the outrageous Master of the house, overpaying His workers. He is our Lord, our Shepherd King, who rules in us by love.
Thus the parable: the vineyard owner overpays. He pays more than his workers deserve. What employer ever paid his workforce, even if they were his own family, so foolishly?
But that is precisely the point of the parable. The Kingdom of heaven is not like the kingdom of men. And it is typical of the characters in our Lord’s parables, especially those who represent Him and His Father, to behave in seemingly outrageous, exaggerated, and foolish ways. Consider the extravagant mercy of the prodigal Father; the foolishness of the Shepherd seeking the one lost for the sake of the 99; the Sower who wastes seed by casting it to the wind to land on paths and rocks and thorns.
Outrageous! No farmer wastes his seed so carelessly. No Shepherd dies for his sheep. That’s ridiculous! This is the wisdom of God that confounds the wisdom of man.
However foolish the vineyard owner may appear, he is not stupid. He knows exactly what he is doing. It is deliberate. It is not ignorance that causes him to overpay. It is generosity. Do you begrudge him? Or is your eye evil because I am good? he asked the first hired. Is he not allowed to do what he chooses with what belongs to him?
That, then, is the point of comparison, the lesson of the parable. God is generous, merciful, and gracious. He does not give us what our labors deserve. For the wages of sin is death. But instead, He gives us His own Son; the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. He lavishes upon us that which we had no right to demand or expect, that which is utterly and completely unearned.
He says to those hired at the third hour and after, You go into the vineyard too, and whatever is right I will give you. It can also be rendered, whatever is righteous I will give you. The Father is the vineyard owner, and He is not merely saying, “I will give you what is fair;” rather, “I will give you what My righteous Son Jesus won for you;” “I will give you My righteousness.”
He is the Father’s beloved, His most precious possession; but for your sake the Father gives Him in order that you might life. He is not stupid. He knows well the full cost of our salvation. And He pays it willingly, deliberately. This is His good and gracious will.
He pays you, rewards you, not according to the work or the deeds you have done, for it is not by works of righteousness that you are saved, but He pays you, He rewards you, according to His own mercy. It is written, You are declared righteous freely by His grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus (Rom 3:23).
He overpays you according to His own abundant love, with His grace. It is His to do with as He desires. And He desires you to have it and to live. This is not an exaggeration, as outrageous, as foolish as it seems. God forgives you in Christ Jesus and loves you as His own.
Consider, then, O Sinner, pay day. What have we earned? What have we deserved? Do we look for God to be fair? Or do you trust God to be merciful? To deal with you not according to your sin, but according to His grace? Is the evening call a time of reckoning? Shall we at last pay for our sins?
No. It is a day of grace, of reconciliation by the death of the Son. Do not be scandalized by this, by the fact that God welcomes the worst and most notorious of sinners, but be glad to join in. Your cup runs over, O Christian. There is nothing left to complain about. This is grace – it is so much better than fair.
Luther had this to say concerning today’s Gospel: “When our Lord declares, ‘the first will be last,’ He takes away all of your presumptions and forbids you to exalt yourself, even above a whore; even if you were Abraham, David, Peter, or Paul. But when He says, ‘the last will be first,’ He bids you cast off despair and not to regard yourself unfavorably even in comparison with the saints, even though you were Pilate, Herod, Sodom and Gomorrah. For just as we have no reason at all for presumption and boasting, so also we have no reason for despair. In this way then, all merits are set aside and God’s goodness alone is praised. We are all the same in our sin and death, and so we all receive the same grace. Always the kingdom of heaven comes by grace to whomever God desires to give it.”
The last will be first and the first last. That is the way of Christ. Notice the hours mentioned in the parable and how they correspond with our Lord’s own labor of love: at dawn He was handed over to Pilate, at the third hour He was led like a Lamb to the slaughter, darkness covered the land from the sixth hour to the ninth hour, He was buried at the eleventh hour.
Christ, then, is the true Laborer in the vineyard. And the work is done, accomplished before you were even brought to the faith. It is finished. You need add nothing!
Come, then, for the evening is at hand – no one knows when the day is finished and our last hour comes – but come to this Altar; to where the Father freely gives of that which belongs to Him – the Body and Blood of His own dear Son, offered for you for the forgiveness of sin.
Come, not as a hired hand seeking your compensation; not because its fair, not because its owed.
Rather come as a beggar, relying solely on the outrageous mercy and foolish love your heavenly Father; because it is His good pleasure to be generous and loving toward you. Amen.
In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.
The Kingdom of heaven is not like the kingdom of men. It is not a government or a nation. It is not even a corporation or business. It is not “God helps those who help themselves.” It is not ruled by fairness of equity or even normal common sense. The fair thing, the obvious thing, the most decent and expected thing is “first come, first served.” “You do for me, I do for you.”
But its not “first come, first served,” or “take a number, in the Kingdom of heaven. The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a vineyard owner who outrageously overpaid his workers!
There is a place, though, where everything is fair. There is a kingdom ruled with total equity; where everyone gets what he deserves. Hell. Even your best and greatest works are stained with the filth of sin. And the fair wages of sin is eternal death. In Hell there is a punishment for every sin; in Hell it is always “first come, first served.” Things are fair.
And if that is what you demand, if that is the kind of lord you desire, then that is what you will get: He who lives by the Law, dies by the Law. That’s fair.
Unbelievers search for a God who is fair, and 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. The Kingdom of heaven is not “God helps those who help themselves.” But in heaven, the last are first.
Thus the First-born, the Prince of heaven, came into our fallen world not to be served, but to serve; not to stand idle, but to labor. He is the First, the Alpha, the uncreated, and He was made the last; a worm and not a man. He was the Rock of Israel that gave His people drink. Yet for them He allowed Himself to be overthrown; to be consumed by the righteous wrath of the Father.
He gave us His place in line. He handed over His inheritance, His honor, His glory. It is not fair that He should serve us; that He should wash our stinking feet, be circumcised and baptized. It’s not fair that the Son of Man had no place to lay His head while we live like kings. It’s not fair that He should suffer and die for sins He did not commit.
But His Kingdom is not about fairness. It is about grace – His undeserved, unfailing, unimaginable love. “Salvation unto us has come by God’s free grace and favor.”
The greatest injustice of all time, the most “unfair” thing ever – the execution of our innocent Lord, found guilty by the most ridiculous, shame of a trial. And by that injustice is how He gives you His grace.
The charges placed over His head were not fair, but they were accurate. He is the King of the Jews, the King of Israel. And by His own decree, invoking His own Divine Right as the eternal Son of God, He rules now; but not by power and might, not by armies and force, not by political intrigue and strategizing, not by threats, or speeches, or votes. But by dying. He reigns in the hearts of men who believe in Him by the power of His death and resurrection; by His sheer grace. He is the outrageous Master of the house, overpaying His workers. He is our Lord, our Shepherd King, who rules in us by love.
Thus the parable: the vineyard owner overpays. He pays more than his workers deserve. What employer ever paid his workforce, even if they were his own family, so foolishly?
But that is precisely the point of the parable. The Kingdom of heaven is not like the kingdom of men. And it is typical of the characters in our Lord’s parables, especially those who represent Him and His Father, to behave in seemingly outrageous, exaggerated, and foolish ways. Consider the extravagant mercy of the prodigal Father; the foolishness of the Shepherd seeking the one lost for the sake of the 99; the Sower who wastes seed by casting it to the wind to land on paths and rocks and thorns.
Outrageous! No farmer wastes his seed so carelessly. No Shepherd dies for his sheep. That’s ridiculous! This is the wisdom of God that confounds the wisdom of man.
However foolish the vineyard owner may appear, he is not stupid. He knows exactly what he is doing. It is deliberate. It is not ignorance that causes him to overpay. It is generosity. Do you begrudge him? Or is your eye evil because I am good? he asked the first hired. Is he not allowed to do what he chooses with what belongs to him?
That, then, is the point of comparison, the lesson of the parable. God is generous, merciful, and gracious. He does not give us what our labors deserve. For the wages of sin is death. But instead, He gives us His own Son; the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. He lavishes upon us that which we had no right to demand or expect, that which is utterly and completely unearned.
He says to those hired at the third hour and after, You go into the vineyard too, and whatever is right I will give you. It can also be rendered, whatever is righteous I will give you. The Father is the vineyard owner, and He is not merely saying, “I will give you what is fair;” rather, “I will give you what My righteous Son Jesus won for you;” “I will give you My righteousness.”
He is the Father’s beloved, His most precious possession; but for your sake the Father gives Him in order that you might life. He is not stupid. He knows well the full cost of our salvation. And He pays it willingly, deliberately. This is His good and gracious will.
He pays you, rewards you, not according to the work or the deeds you have done, for it is not by works of righteousness that you are saved, but He pays you, He rewards you, according to His own mercy. It is written, You are declared righteous freely by His grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus (Rom 3:23).
He overpays you according to His own abundant love, with His grace. It is His to do with as He desires. And He desires you to have it and to live. This is not an exaggeration, as outrageous, as foolish as it seems. God forgives you in Christ Jesus and loves you as His own.
Consider, then, O Sinner, pay day. What have we earned? What have we deserved? Do we look for God to be fair? Or do you trust God to be merciful? To deal with you not according to your sin, but according to His grace? Is the evening call a time of reckoning? Shall we at last pay for our sins?
No. It is a day of grace, of reconciliation by the death of the Son. Do not be scandalized by this, by the fact that God welcomes the worst and most notorious of sinners, but be glad to join in. Your cup runs over, O Christian. There is nothing left to complain about. This is grace – it is so much better than fair.
Luther had this to say concerning today’s Gospel: “When our Lord declares, ‘the first will be last,’ He takes away all of your presumptions and forbids you to exalt yourself, even above a whore; even if you were Abraham, David, Peter, or Paul. But when He says, ‘the last will be first,’ He bids you cast off despair and not to regard yourself unfavorably even in comparison with the saints, even though you were Pilate, Herod, Sodom and Gomorrah. For just as we have no reason at all for presumption and boasting, so also we have no reason for despair. In this way then, all merits are set aside and God’s goodness alone is praised. We are all the same in our sin and death, and so we all receive the same grace. Always the kingdom of heaven comes by grace to whomever God desires to give it.”
The last will be first and the first last. That is the way of Christ. Notice the hours mentioned in the parable and how they correspond with our Lord’s own labor of love: at dawn He was handed over to Pilate, at the third hour He was led like a Lamb to the slaughter, darkness covered the land from the sixth hour to the ninth hour, He was buried at the eleventh hour.
Christ, then, is the true Laborer in the vineyard. And the work is done, accomplished before you were even brought to the faith. It is finished. You need add nothing!
Come, then, for the evening is at hand – no one knows when the day is finished and our last hour comes – but come to this Altar; to where the Father freely gives of that which belongs to Him – the Body and Blood of His own dear Son, offered for you for the forgiveness of sin.
Come, not as a hired hand seeking your compensation; not because its fair, not because its owed.
Rather come as a beggar, relying solely on the outrageous mercy and foolish love your heavenly Father; because it is His good pleasure to be generous and loving toward you. Amen.
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