That’s Not Fair!
Matthew 20:1-16
Chenoa Baptist Church
Pastor Jefferson M. Williams
10-09-2022
That’s not Fair
If you have children, or ever worked with children, you have heard the following three words again and again - it’s not fair!
It’s not fair that my sister gets to stay up later than me! It’s not fair that you bought my brother a car! It’s not fair that they get to go to the dance and I don’t!
It seems, from a very early age, we develop a “fairness meter” in our brains that is constantly on the lookout for unfairness in our world.
But it isn’t just children that say these words. As adults, we may think of them just as often as little ones but the situations become much more difficult and tragic to understand.
I recently asked on FaceBook for examples of things that aren’t fair. Here’s some of the things people wrote:
It’s not fair when a mother and child are killed by a drunk driver.
Not being able to conceive when you see people celebrating aborting babies.
Childhood cancer
Losing a spouse
Favoritism
Hypocrisy
When people who have no love for God thrive and become rich and powerful
Several people said, “When bad things happen to good people.” I’m reminded of how R.C. Sproul responded to this. He said, “That’s only happened once. And He volunteered.”
As my children were growing up and would whine, “That’s not fair,” I would always respond. “Life’s not fair and I’m not Santa Claus!” To which Josh answered, at about eight years old, “My theory is that you are!”
The Fan
I’ve shared this story before, but before we get into our parable today, I need to remind you of some definitions.
When one of my sons was about 6 years old, he became fascinated with the fan. It was a stand up fan and he would put a pencil in the blades to hear the sound it made.
He was told multiple times not to do that until he actually broke the fan.
When I drove into the driveway, he met me at the car and said, “I didn’t mean it daddy. It was an accident. Please don’t pank me.”
Maxine had already let me in what had happened and I decided to use this to teach a lesson.
I asked him if he deserved to be punished. He said yes. I told him that he wasn’t going to get what he deserved. Getting what you deserve is justice.
Not getting what you deserve is mercy. I showed mercy on him that night.
But then I took it a step further. I took him to Dairy Queen and got him an ice cream cone. That was grace. Grace is getting what you don’t deserve.
Parables
We continue our study of Jesus’s parables. The word parable means to place something alongside something else. It’s a contrast and comparison. They are earthly stories with heavenly points.
Over a third of all of Jesus’s teaching was done in parables. They are designed to be subversive, they make us think deeply and try to figure out what He’s trying to get out.
In order to understand the parable of the vineyard, we need to remember to take the text in context.
Turn with me to Matthew 19.
Prayer.
The Text within Context
In Matthew 19, Jesus encounters what we have come to call “the rich young ruler.” He was a wealthy young man who asked Jesus “what good thing must I do to inherit eternal life?” (Matt 19:16)
He was seeking. He was curious.
Jesus told him to keep the commandments and this young man assures Jesus that he has.
He then looked at him and said, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” (Matt 19:21)
The young man considered Jesus’s proposal and then turned and walked away because he had great wealth.
Jesus wasn’t teaching that having wealth was bad. The young man didn’t own his stuff. His stuff owned him. His wealth was idolatry and Jesus uncovered it.
Jesus then said to His disciples:
“Truly I tell you, it is hard for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.” (Matt 19:23-24)
The disciples, confused and astonished, asked, “Who then can be saved?” (Matt 19:25)
Jesus responded:
“With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” (Matt 19:26)
This prompted a question from Peter, who was never shy about asking questions:
“Peter answered him, “We have left everything to follow you! What then will there be for us?” (Matt 19:27)
Let me read that again. There is something wrong with Peter’s heart posture toward Jesus. Do you hear it?
“Look how much I’ve done for you! What’s in it for me?”
Jesus responded to the group:
“Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, at the renewal of all things, when the Son of Man sits on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life.” (Matt 29:28-29)
And then He sets up there parable with these cryptic words:
“But many who are first will be last, and many who are last will be first.” (Matt 19:30)
The Parable
Lets read through the parable, I’ll make some observations along the way, and then we will look at some applications.
“For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard. He agreed to pay them a denarius for the day and sent them into his vineyard.” (Matt 20:1-2)
Thirty times in Matthew, the phrase “the kingdom of heaven” is found. It simply means the reign of and rule of King Jesus.
We are introduced to the characters in the story. God is the landowner. We are the workers. And the vineyard is the world in which we can serve Him.
This land owner obviously had a large vineyard of grapes that needed to be harvested quickly. He went out at the start of the workday, 6:00 am, to the market to hire day laborers to work in his vineyard. This is still a custom in many places in the world.
He pulled his F-350 up and said that he needed ten guys, who promptly jumped in the back of the chariot.
They agreed to work for a denarius, a day’s wages. For our purposes this morning, we are going to say $100.
“About nine in the morning he went out and saw others standing in the marketplace doing nothing. He told them, ‘You also go and work in my vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.’ So they went.” (Matt 20:3-5a)
Notice that there wasn’t a contact agreement. They trusted the landowner. They must have heard that he was fair.
“He went out again about noon and about three in the afternoon and did the same thing. About five in the afternoon he went out and found still others standing around. He asked them, ‘Why have you been standing here all day long doing nothing?’
“‘Because no one has hired us,’ they answered.
“He said to them, ‘You also go and work in my vineyard.’ (Matt 20: 5b-7)
These workers weren’t lazy. They just hadn’t had the opportunity to work.
The land owner even went back at 5:00 pm. By the time this group got back to the vineyard, it would be time to end the day’s work.
“When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Call the workers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last ones hired and going on to the first.’ “The workers who were hired about five in the afternoon came and each received a denarius.(Matt 20:8-9)
In Deuteronomy, we are told the importance of paying workers on time:
“Do not take advantage of a hired worker who is poor and needy, whether that worker is a fellow Israelite or a foreigner residing in one of your towns. Pay them their wages each day before sunset, because they are poor and are counting on it. Otherwise they may cry to the Lord against you, and you will be guilty of sin.” (Duet 24:15)
The landowner has the foreman do a curious thing. He is to pay the ones that were just hired, the 11th hour guys, first. They received $100.
“So when those came who were hired first, they expected to receive more. But each one of them also received a denarius. When they received it, they began to grumble against the landowner. ‘These who were hired last worked only one hour,’ they said, ‘and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day.’ (Matt 20:10-12)
The 6:00 am guys, the ones that had borne the brunt of the work in the hot sun all day, saw the 11th hour guys get $100 and began to get excited. If they get $100 for doing next to nothing, what are we going to get?!
But the foreman handed each man exactly the same amount -$100.
At this, they began to grumble and, if it had existed back then, they would have called their union representative!
“But he answered one of them, ‘I am not being unfair to you, friend. Didn’t you agree to work for a denarius? Take your pay and go. I want to give the one who was hired last the same as I gave you.” “Don’t I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?’ (Matt 20:14-16)
The landowner isn’t mad. In fact, he calls them friend. But he does ask three very important questions?
Did you not agree to work for $100?
Don’t I have the right to do what I want with my own money?
Are you envious because I am generous?
Remember that the people listening to this parable would have immediately understood. The 11th hour people were the Gentiles, the tax collectors, the prostitutes.
As Jewish people, they had the promises of God and a relationship with him that went back thousands of years.
But Jesus was now opening that relationship with the Gentiles and they were screaming in their hearts - that’s not fair!
It was a heart posture problem that Peter exhibited in his question, “what’s in it for us?”
Basically, the workers were saying to the land owner - give us what we deserve! Which is a very dangerous thing to say to God because the only thing we deserve is destruction.
He ends the parable the way he began it.
“So the last will be first, and the first will be last.” (Matt 20:16)
Grace means that no one is too bad to be saved. It also means that some people are too good to be saved. Those that think they don’t need God’s grace will in the end, get what they deserve - justice.
Five Questions to see if you have a contract mentality
Peter had a contract mentality. “See, look all that I’ve done for you. I deserve more than you are giving me.”
Instead of understanding that everything he had was because of grace, his heart posture was a quid pro quo with God.
Pastor J.D. Greear lists five questions to see if you have a contract mentality with God.
I want to say up front, as your pastor, that I have experienced all of these. It is something that we must put on our armor and fight against each day.
Bitterness
Am I bitter because God has withheld some blessings from me that I think I deserve?
I’ve said before, as we grow older, we have a choice. We can grow bitter or grow better.
Let’s be careful demanding that God gives us what we deserve.
Some people told Jesus about a group of Christ Followers that Pilate had executed. Jesus responded:
“Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way? I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish. Or those eighteen who died when the tower in Siloam fell on them—do you think they were more guilty than all the others living in Jerusalem? I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish.” (Luke 13:2-5)
In other words, any day that a tower doesn’t fall on our head is a good day!
Beware if we find ourselves saying, like Peter, “look how much I’ve done for you God, why didn’t I get that job? Why didn’t she say yes? Why didn’t I get that promotion? Why didn’t I win that game?”
I’ve told the story before of my experience at the prison. All I had to do was give a drug sample, and I could start work. And I couldn’t. I was accused of using drugs and escorted out of the prison. Do you think I might have said, “This isn’t fair?” I did.
But I had a choice between letting that heart posture destroy me with bitterness toward God and others or believing that God was redirecting me to another assignment, which turned out to be this church!
The writer Nancy Leigh Demoss words resonate here:
“An evidence that our will has been broken is that we begin to thank God for that which once seemed so bitter, knowing that His will is good and that, in His time and in His way, He is able to make the most bitter waters sweet.”
B. Jealousy
Am I jealous of good things others have that I want?
Pastors are not immune to this thinking! When we look at other pastor’s churches that are growing and their books are selling and they have a jet, our hearts can become jealous and we can covet.
Beware of thinking, “Okay God, that guy is driving a Lexus and has a beautiful house and they don’t love God as much as I do! They don’t serve like me. What’s the deal? That’s not fair.
What’s the root of this thinking?
Foolish pride that assumes God owes you certain things and unbelief in the goodness of God who has promised to take care of you
“Do not let your heart envy sinners, but always be zealous for the fear of the Lord. There is surely a future hope for you, and your hope will not be cut off.” (Prov 23:17-18)
Tim Keller has written:
“If Jesus didn’t complain when He received a life infinitely worse than He deserved, how can I complain when I experience a life infinitely better than I deserve?”
C. Anger
Do I get angry when God doesn’t answer my prayers the way I think He should?
Once, I took a long bike ride and ended up in a field in the middle of nowhere. I got off the bike and decided to have it out with God. He had not held up His end of the bargain. He hadn’t answered my prayers the way I thought He should.
I jumped up and down. I yelled. I may have even said a few cuss words. When my temper tantrum was over, I sat quietly in the field, half waiting for the lightning bolt that would finish me off.
Instead, I noticed a butterfly flitting around me. When the kids were little, we taught them that whenever they saw a butterfly, it meant that God was watching over us.
That butterfly reminded me that God wasn’t punishing me. He punished Jesus in my place.
“Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus…” (Rom 8:1)
And He had not forgotten me. I could trust His heart even when I couldn’t follow His hand.
"And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” (Rom 8:28)
Sometimes we can find ourselves mad at God for not answering promises He never made.
John C. Broger wrote:
“Anger and bitterness are two noticeable signs of being focused on self and not trusting God's sovereignty in your life. When you believe that God causes all things to work together for good to those who belong to Him and love Him, you can respond to trials with joy instead of anger or bitterness.”
D. Insecurity
Do I feel uncertain about where I stand with God or insecure about the future?
Have you ever thought to yourself, “Have I been good enough for God to love me?” Or thought, “I didn’t do my quiet time this morning, so God is disappointed in me.” Or, “Maybe God will eventually get sick of me and cast me aside?”
That’s proof that you don’t understand the grace of God!
Are you good enough? Not even close! But being good enough doesn’t get you into heaven. God demands perfection and we failed the test. But Jesus took the test, made an A+ and then applied His grade to our report card!
In Christ, you are forgiven, loved, accepted. It’s not about what you do but about what Christ has done!
If you remember last week, Jesus said that many will say to Him “Lord Lord” but He will tell them to depart because He didn’t know them.
Charles Spurgeon said that Jesus could never say that to him because “when I was hopelessly condemned with guilt, I looked to you to be my righteousness. When I felt weak and had fallen again again into sin, I looked to you and said You have to be my strength. And when I felt lost I said You’ve got to be my way. And when I felt dead, I said that You have to be my life.”
E. Indifference
Am I moved toward action by the suffering of others?
Have you ever found yourself saying, “Those people deserve what they are getting?”
Have you judged people in your heart for decisions they have made?
The guys that were hired first and had worked all day, looked at the 11th hour guys and said, “That isn’t fair! That’s ridiculous! They were lazy and hung out all day while we worked and they got the same pay?”
Has your heart grown cold toward others who are suffering because they sin differently than you do?
This is the heart posture of the older brother in the parable of the prodigal son. The younger brother asks for the inheritance and goes to the far country and wastes it completely. He decides to return home and when he does, His father runs to him, and orders that a fattened calf be killed and a party held for his wayward son.
But the older brother, who in the parable represents the Pharisees, refused to attend.
“The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. But he answered his father, ‘Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!’ (Luke 15:28-30)
The Father replies, much like the landowner,
“‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’” (Luke 15:31-32)
Is your heart so cold that you can not celebrate when an 11th hour sinner comes home?
Paradise
Imagine with me Peter standing at the foot of the cross. He looks at Jesus and then to the men on each side of Him. I’m sure his heart scoffed at them and would tell you that they were getting what they deserved.
But then Jesus makes a most remarkable statement to one of the men, “Today, you will be with me in Paradise.” (Luke 23:43)
If we could have just listened into Peter’s heart.
“What? Wait a minute! That’s not fair! I’ve given everything to you for the last three years! Everything. I’ve served, gone hungry, traveled from town to town. I’ve taught Sunday school, given hilariously and generously. What has this criminal done to deserve paradise? Absolutely nothing!
My friend Brian Bill pointed me to Phillip Yancey’s book, “What’s So Amazing About Grace.” In it, Yancey points out that part of our problem is in the nature of grace itself. Grace is scandalous. It’s hard to accept, hard to believe, and hard to receive. Grace shocks us in what it offers. It is truly not of this world. It frightens us with what it does for sinners.
Baptized?
Jeffrey Dahmer is back in the national consciousness due to the Netflix series about him.
He was a serial killer who dismembered and even ate some of his victims.
He was convicted and sentenced to life in prison.
Pastor Roy Ratcliff received a call that would change his life. It was from another pastor telling him that a prisoner at the prison near him was requesting to be baptized. That prisoner’s name was Jeffrey Dahmer.
Roy was terrified as he went into the prison the first time to meet with Jeffrey. But after talking with him for a while, discovered that Jeffrey had been reading the Bible and had given his life to Jesus Christ. This wasn’t a jail house conversion to try to win sympathy with the courts. There would be no sympathy for someone like him.
Roy received permission to baptize Jeff and afterwards began discipling him. Jeff asked Roy if he thought that he should have been put to death for his crimes. Roy said yes but in Wisconsin there was no death penalty. He then asked, “Do you think I’m sinning by remaining alive?” They had many such deep conversations.
On November 28, 1994, Jeff was beaten to death by a mentally ill inmate. Roy had the opportunity to do his memorial service and give testimony to Jeff’s faith in Christ.
The response was understandable. Many people, including the victim’s families wanted Jeff to burn in hell forever. Even a fellow pastor said to Roy, “Jeff’s salvation stretches my view of grace.”
Roy responded, “If Jeff stretches your view of grace, then it needs to be stretched. We all deserve hell. Jeff is an example of grace.”
Grace teaches us that God does for others what we would never do for them. We would save the not-so-bad. God starts with prostitutes and then works downward from there. Grace is a gift that costs everything to the giver and nothing to the receiver. It is given to those who don’t deserve it, barely recognize it, and hardly appreciate it. That’s why God alone gets the glory in your salvation. Jesus did all the work when he died on the cross.
Ending Video: Amazing Grace (Story of John Newton)
