“Our Generous God”
Matthew 20:1-16
Remember when Jesus was Crucified, He was executed with two thieves, one on His left and one on His right.
One of the thieves asked Jesus: “remember me when you come into your kingdom,” and Jesus answered him, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.”
Well, there is a story about Simon Peter and that thief on the Cross.
Both died—of course--and went up to heaven.
And up in heaven they lived on the same street.
Think about it, Simon Peter lived on the same street as the thief on the Cross.
And Peter wasn’t too pleased about this situation.
One day, God came walking by and Peter said, “You know God, the thief and I are living on the same street here in heaven and we both have very similar houses.
I want you to know that I left everything for you.
I left my fishing nets for you, my occupation, my boats.
I gave all of this up and I followed you my whole adult life and I even got crucified upside down at the end of my life in Rome.
This thief here, he wasn’t a Christian for even fifteen minutes.
I don’t get it.
It’s not fair.”
And that is the attitude this parable is addressing.
It’s the attitude of, “I deserve something for following Jesus.”
“I’m entitled to more of God’s love because of something I have done or for time put in.”
But it’s a lie straight from the devil himself.
I wonder how many of us have been messed up by that one.
Anyway, this parable, Jesus tells it to the disciples right after Peter says to Jesus: “We have left everything to follow you!
What then will there be for us?”
And Jesus answers him: “Everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life.
But many who are first will be last, and many who are last will be first.”
Then He goes on to tell this parable about the workers in the vineyard.
And, in our way of looking at things, the Kingdom of God may not seem fair.
When we work hard, we expect to be paid more than those who haven’t worked so hard.
If we have put in more hours, we should be rewarded for it.
We live in a competitive world.
This competition is the driving force behind the concept of capitalism.
Not everyone gets paid the same!
Some are rich; some are poor.
Some live in huge mansions--paying more for their beautifully landscaped yards than many of us make in a year or in 10 years.
But, that is not the way it works in the Kingdom of God!
In God’s Kingdom life is so fair that it is difficult to get our minds around it!
It’s fair in such a way that we humans can barely even conceive of it!
Will Peter and the rest of the Twelve receive a reward?
You bet!
And it will be the greatest reward imaginable!
But then, everyone else who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved as well.
Even the ones who come into the Kingdom in the last hour or the last minute or second.
Christianity knows nothing of the concept of superiority nor competition…
…not REAL Christianity that is.
As one person has written, “God does have favorites.
But the trick is that we’re each His very favorite.
And so, when God pours out His love and favor toward someone else, we need not worry.
If we’d just take the time to look, we’d see that God has filled our cup to the brim as well.
In fact, it’s overflowing.
And, when God’s favor is extended toward those of whom we disapprove—well, it’s time to grow up, and begin looking at the world the way God looks at the world.”
I love how Author Phillip Yancey puts it in his book: “What’s So Amazing About Grace?”
“I have meditated enough on Jesus’ stories of grace to let their meaning filter through,” writes Yancey.
“Still each time I confront their astonishing message I realize how thickly the veil of ungrace obscures my view of God.
A housewife jumping up and down in glee over the discovery of a lost coin is not what naturally comes to mind when I think of God.
Yet that is the image Jesus insisted upon.
Jesus says in effect, ‘Do you want to know what it feels like to be God?
When one of those two-legged humans pays attention to Me, it feels like I just reclaimed My most valuable possession, which I had given up for lost.’”
Have you ever thought of yourself as God’s most valuable possession?
You are.
Have you ever thought of other persons this way?
They are.
Let’s take a look at the parable we read this morning
God the Father is portrayed as the Owner of all things....
....and we are the people standing around in the marketplace with nothing to do…
…Until God shows up and offers us a job and a reward!
Some of the folks were hired early in the morning about 6 a.m.
At 9 a.m. God goes hunting for persons again, and when God finds them God says to them, “You also go and work in my vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.
So, they went.”
God went out again searching for
those who had nothing to do, this is at 12 noon.
God did the same at the 3 p.m. and then 5 p.m.
God is always searching for the lost.
How awesome is that?
“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.’”
Let’s face it, we were all useless until we were found in the marketplace…
…even the Apostle Peter!!!
Life is a marketplace of people waiting for the opportunity to do something.
Every person has great potential which is waiting to be discovered.
The laborers in Jesus’ parable would have stayed in the marketplace all day if the landowner had not come and given them a job.
The landowner’s call--like our call from God--was the beginning of their self-worth and their productivity.
But some of the workers complained: “You have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day.”
They were complaining that they had worked all day and had endured the hot sun, but those who had joined in the last hour got the same pay.
But in fact, if the landowner had not come to the marketplace and chosen them, they would have received nothing!
We must all remember that the field belongs to God...not to us!
Also, everyone in this parable rolls out of bed unemployed.
But the landowner finds them and gives them work.
Now, our modern capitalist impulses lead us to think that the laborers are providing the landowner some kind of service—like He needs them or something.
I mean, aren’t we prone to reduce human interactions to self-interest: if this is a real economic exchange, then there’s something in it for the landowner as well.
But Jesus’ parable is not about a landowner looking for help from others as much as it is about a landowner who helps others.
More to the point: it’s about a landowner who sweeps up lost people and gives them a purpose.
It’s not that God needs us; it’s that we need God!
And God comes looking for us.
Not the other way around.
This is some radical stuff.
These words of Jesus are meant to remind us that we are all in need of God’s grace and no one is deserving, and, certainly no one is more deserving than some others.
We all need to be saved.
And God goes searching in order to save all of us.
To quote Philip Yancey again, “Jesus’ story makes no economic sense, and that was His intent.
He was giving us a parable about grace, which cannot be calculated like a day’s wages.
The employer in Jesus’ story did not cheat the full-day workers.
No, the full-day workers got what they were promised.
Their discontent is aroused from the scandalous mathematics of grace.
They would not accept that their employer had the right to do what he wanted with his money when it meant paying scoundrels twelve times what they deserved.
Significantly, many Christians who study this parable identify with the employees who put in a full day’s work, rather than the add-ons at the end of the day.
We like to think of ourselves as responsible workers, and the employer’s strange behavior baffles us as it did the original hearers.
And so, we risk missing the story’s point: that God dispenses gifts, not wages.
None of us gets paid according to merit, for none of us comes close to satisfying God’s requirement for a perfect life.
If paid on the basis of fairness, we would all end up in hell.”
And isn’t that true?
The world says, “You get what you deserve.”
And many of us tend to agree with that.
But, in God’s Kingdom, “We all get what we don’t deserve!”
If this parable still sounds “unfair” to our ears, keep in mind that it sounded just as unfair to those who heard Jesus say these words 2,000 years ago.
But these words are only unfair if we are looking out for ourselves first.
There is a Latin term—incurvatus in se—which means a life lived inward for oneself rather than outward for God and others.
Martin Luther believed this describes our sinful, corrupt nature.
Due to the first sin, we are so deeply curved in on ourselves that our nature not only bends the best gifts of God toward ourselves, but even seeks to use God for our own sake.
But, what if, just for a moment, our main concern was for someone else to get ahead?
I mean, what if that was the main thing on our minds?
If it was, this parable would be amazing.
This parable would be exactly what we are looking for.
What would it take for us to cheer for those last workers who came in when the job was just about finished, and everyone was cleaning up for the day?
What would it take for us to whoop and holler when their check was just as big as everyone else’s?
What would it take for us to be those workers who came in the cool of the morning and to rejoice that those who came at the end get the same paycheck as us?
It would take the mindset of God.
It would take being a real or perfected Christian.
Here’s the thing, when it comes to God’s Kingdom, there’s only one prize: Being in God’s Presence now and forever.
That’s it.
There isn’t a consolation prize.
No silver, no bronze.
And anyone is allowed in, whether they signed on early, or whether they skidded in at the last minute.
And God is excited about each and every one of us who are in, no matter how long our commitment.
And that is because Jesus shed His blood and died to save the first laborers.
Jesus shed His blood and died to save those who came next.
And the ones who came last?—Jesus shed His blood and died to save them.
So now, isn’t this parable amazing!
Jesus says in Matthew Chapter 9, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few.
Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.”
In this world, in this neighborhood, in this city: men, women and children are standing around lost and idle without purpose, without meaning…
…without a relationship with God through faith in Christ—without a chance!!!
God has called us…
…has hired us to work in His harvest field.
And we are to go out and invite others to work with us!!!
There is more than enough reward to go around!
There is plenty of room in the Kingdom of God.
All are invited to come in.
Praise God.
Amen.
