PARABLES OF JESUS ǀ THE LABORERS
Scott Bayles, pastor
Portions adapted from Max Lucado’s “Grace” & “In the Grip of Grace”
Blooming Grove Christian Church: 2/9/14
Well over fifty years ago, during a conference on comparative religions, experts from around the world debated, what—if any—belief was unique to the Christian faith. The debate went on for quite a while, until C.S. Lewis wandered into the room and asked, “What’s the ruckus about?” His colleagues explained that they were discussing Christianity’s uniqueness among world religions. Lewis responded, “Oh, that’s easy. It’s grace.” A sort of enlightened hush fell over the crowd. Everyone at the conference had to agree.
Grace. We talk as if we understand the word. “The bank gives us a grace period. The corrupt politician falls from grace. We describe the hostess as gracious and the dancer as graceful. We even say grace before our meals. We talk a lot about grace, especially at church.” What’s interesting to me is that Jesus never said grace.
Believe it or not, the Gospels don’t record where Jesus ever uttered the word. Run a finger down the red letters in your Bible, type it into your Bible app, or break out an old-fashioned concordance, but you won’t find the word grace falling from Jesus’ lips. It was said of him quite a bit, but never by him. Don’t be fooled, though—he may never have said it, but he lived it every day. And even though he never said grace, Jesus said a whole lot about grace. Scholars call a whole group of his stories the “grace parables.” Some of his most famous stories fall into that category. One of which is the parable of the laborers in the vineyard. Sitting on a scenic hillside in Judea, Jesus told this parable:
“For the Kingdom of Heaven is like the landowner who went out early one morning to hire workers for his vineyard. He agreed to pay the normal daily wage and sent them out to work. At nine o’clock in the morning he was passing through the marketplace and saw some people standing around doing nothing. So he hired them, telling them he would pay them whatever was right at the end of the day. So they went to work in the vineyard. At noon and again at three o’clock he did the same thing. At five o’clock that afternoon he was in town again and saw some more people standing around. He asked them, ‘Why haven’t you been working today?’
They replied, ‘Because no one hired us.’ The landowner told them, ‘Then go out and join the others in my vineyard.’ That evening he told the foreman to call the workers in and pay them, beginning with the last workers first. When those hired at five o’clock were paid, each received a full day’s wage. When those hired first came to get their pay, they assumed they would receive more. But they, too, were paid a day’s wage. When they received their pay, they protested to the owner, ‘Those people worked only one hour, and yet you’ve paid them just as much as you paid us who worked all day in the scorching heat.’
He answered one of them, ‘Friend, I haven’t been unfair! Didn’t you agree to work all day for the usual wage? Take your money and go. I wanted to pay this last worker the same as you. Is it against the law for me to do what I want with my money? Should you be jealous because I am kind to others?’ So those who are last now will be first then, and those who are first will be last.” (Matthew 20:1-16 NLT)
This story strikes a chord with many of us because it assaults our sense of fairness and justice. Many think this story is simply a reminder that even a death-bed confession can get you into heaven, but it’s so much more than that. This story is all about grace. First, this is a story about extravagant grace!
• EXTRAVAGANT GRACE
The scene that sets up Jesus’ story would have been a typical one in the days of the Bible. Even today there are places where day laborers gather to seek work. These workers were unskilled and near the bottom of the social-economic scale. In fact, many lived at a level not far above beggars. So when the landowner pulls up and offers to pay them a denarius to work in his vineyard, they eagerly hop in the back of the truck.
A denarius was a normal day’s wage, not for a day laborer, but for a Roman soldier. So, even the laborers who put in a full day’s works were compensated generously for their time. But the real extravagance of God’s grace is seen when even those who had worked for only one hour were paid just as much—so much more than they deserved. The point of the parable is that God’s grace isn’t something you earn. It’s a gift, freely given by an extravagant God.
Many of us identify with the employees who put in a full day’s work, rather than the add-ons at the end of the day. The whole concept of grace runs contrary to our instincts. We like the idea of earning our own way. We want to pick ourselves up by our own bootstraps. That’s what religion tries to do. “The Buddhist evaluates your life based on the Four Nobel Truths and the Eightfold Path. Hinduism relies on doing good Dharma to get good Karma. Muslims believe that they earn their way to Allah through the Five Pillars of Faith. Even Christians often assume that God saves good people. So be good! Work hard. Be honest. Go to church. Say your prayers. Stay sober. Keep your promises. Pay taxes. Sit through another one of Scott’s sermons without falling asleep. We think as if God grades on a merit system.”
But, let’s not miss the point of the story: God dispenses gifts, not wages. Grace has nothing to do with what you’ve earned. If it’s a wage that we want from God, the Bible says that our salary is already figured out for us. If we want to be rewarded for our merit, if we want to be compensated for our work, then the Bible spells out how we will be paid: “For the wages of sin is death…” This is what our merit has earned us. But God has a better idea: “but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 6:23 NIV). You can have your wages or God’s gift; not both.
Put another way: “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God” (Ephesians 2:8 NIV). We contribute nothing. Zilch. As opposed to a worker earning his wages, eternal life is unearned. A gift. Our merits merit nothing. God’s grace merits everything.
First, this story highlights God’s extravagant grace. Furthermore, this is a story about God’s endless grace.
• ENDLESS GRACE
Did you notice how many times the landowner went out looking to hire workers for his vineyard? Jesus said he went out early in the morning, then again at nine o’clock, and again at noon, and again at three o’clock, and again at five o’clock. He just kept coming. God’s grace is like that.
It just keeps coming, searching for people to save. The Bible says, “He does not want anyone to be destroyed, but wants everyone to repent” (2 Peter 3:9 NLT). And so, he keeps coming. No one will be able to stand before God on Judgment Day and claim that God didn’t give them a chance to experience his grace.
I’m reminded of an old story I’m sure you’ve all heard before. A terrible storm came into a town and local officials sent out an emergency warning that the riverbanks would soon overflow and flood the nearby homes. They ordered everyone in the town to evacuate immediately. But this stubborn old man heard the warning and decided to stay, saying to himself, “I’m not leaving my home. If I’m in danger, the Lord will save me.”
The neighbors came by his house and said to him, “We’re leaving and there is room for you in our car, please come with us!” But the man declined. “I have faith that God will save me.” As the man stood on his porch watching the water rise up the steps, a man in a canoe paddled by and called to him, “Hurry and come into my canoe, the waters are rising quickly!” But the man again said, “No thanks, God will save me.” Soon, the floodwaters rose so high the man had to climb up to his rooftop. A helicopter spotted him and dropped a rope ladder, but the man still refused, “No thank you! God will save me!”
Shortly after, the house broke up and the floodwaters swept the man away. In Heaven, the man stood before God and said, “I waited and waited for you! Why didn’t you save me?” And God said, “Son, I sent a car, a canoe, and a helicopter. What more did you want?”
God’s grace is like that. It comes in many forms. It may come from behind the pulpit or cloaked in the kindness of a stranger. You might discover it in the pages of Scripture or in the stillness of your prayers. But it keeps coming; searching for souls to save. God won’t give up on you. He’ll give you every opportunity possible to accept his grace—to receive his gift.
On the other hand, maybe you’ve already embraced God’s grace and that’s the problem. You keep going back for more. You’ve asked for forgiveness more times than you can remember. You’ve asked for strength to get through each day. You’ve prayed for more than your fair share of miracles. Does there come a point when you’ve reached your grace-limit? Can you make so many withdrawals on God’s grace that there are insufficient funds available? Let me answer that question with another question.
“If you plunge a sponge into Otter Laker will you absorb every drop? If you take a deep breath will you suck all the oxygen out of the room? When an ocean wave crashes against the beach, will there ever be another one? Of course, there will. No sooner will one wave crash into the sand than another one appears. Then another and another.”
That’s what God’s endless grace is like.
If God did nothing more than save us from certain doom, that would still be gracious, wouldn’t it? If God gave you eternal life and nothing more, who could complain? But God’s grace doesn’t stop there. The Bible says, “For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace” (John 1:16 ESV). If you woke up in a warm house, were healthy enough to get out of bed, and own a vehicle that carried out here this morning, you’ve already received grace upon grace. Like waves crashing against a sandy beach, God’s grace just keeps coming—with no end in sight. He gives us endless grace. Finally, this parable is also about God’s equalizing grace.
• EQUALIZING GRACE
One of the reason’s we often stumble over this parable is that it offends our sense of fairness. We think that the workers who were in the vineyard longer deserve to be given more and the late-comers deserve to be given less. But we only think that because, like the girl with the eight ounces of Coke, we like to compare ourselves to others. Jesus could have said to her the very same thing he said to his complaining workers: “Are you envious because I am generous?” (Matthew 20:15 NIV).
None of them were disappointed with that they received until they say what everyone else received. We tend to act the same way.
Can’t you just hear the laborers in the vineyard arguing at the end of the day? Hey, I put in six hour in hot sun! Yeah, well I worked nine hours. That’s nothing boys, I’ve been breaking my back for eleven and half hours! Twelve if you count lunch! I want you to notice the chain of events that took place in the hearts of these workers. They started by comparing themselves with others. This then led to coveting, which led to complaining, which led ultimately to criticizing. Do you struggle with coveting, complaining and criticizing? If so, stop comparing yourself with others.
“Comparing ourselves to other is the quick and easy way to feel good about ourselves—to think that we’re somehow entitled to more of God’s grace and goodness. Standing next to the dead-beats and junkies and prostitutes of the world, we boast, “Look, God, compared to them, I’m pretty good! Don’t I deserve more?” But that’s just the problem. God doesn’t compare us to them. They aren’t the standard. God is. And compared to him, none of us are any better or more deserving than anybody else.
Suppose God simplified matters and reduced the Bible to one command: “Thou shalt jump so high in the air that you touch the moon.” No need to love your neighbor or pray or follow Jesus; just touch the moon by virtue of a jump and you’ll be saved. We’d never make it. There may be a few who jump three feet or four. Even fewer would jump five or six feet; but compared to the 230,000 miles that remain, who can boast?
Now, God hasn’t called us to touch the moon, but he might as well have. Jesus established the standard in the Sermon on the Mount: “You must be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect” (Matthew 5:48 NIV). None of us can meet that standard, because none of us are God. Maybe you can jump six inches high than a heretic or foot higher than a heathen, but compared to the distance between us and God, we all fall terribly short.”
But that’s where grace comes in. The grace of God is the great equalizer. God, in his grace, lifts us up and puts us all on the same level. Jesus put it this way at the end of the parable: “So the last shall be first, and the first last” (Matthew 20:16 NASB). In God’s economy of grace, first and last just blur together. It’s about not keeping score. It’s not about whether Jesus gives you 8 oz, 20 oz or a whole liter of grace.
It’s just about the fact that he gives it.
Conclusion:
When I told you that Jesus never said grace that wasn’t the whole story. It’s true that the gospels don’t record a single utterance of the word from Jesus’ mouth. It’s nowhere in the Sermon on the Mount. He never whispered it to Peter, James or John. He didn’t shout it out from the cross. But here’s ‘the rest of the story’ as Paul Harvey would say. Two decades after Jesus died on the cross, the Apostle Paul prayed. Three times he asked for Jesus’ help with a particular hang-up. Do you know what Jesus said to Paul? Jesus told Paul, “My grace is all you need” (2 Corinthians 12:9 NLT).
Jesus’ words to Paul are his words to you: “My grace is all you need.”
Invitation:
When we get to heaven, there won’t be any contest to see who was the most deserving of God’s grace because no one deserves it. There will only be one contest in heaven. When we look back and see what we were before, when we see how penniless and poor we really were, when we remember the day Jesus found us on the street and reached out to us with his extravagant, endless, equalizing grace, the only contest will be to see which of us will sing the loudest, “Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost but now am found, was blind but now I see.”
Let’s start preparing for that contest today.
