The 16 th Sunday after Pentecost 9/24/2017 Proper 20A. Matthew 20:1-16. It is just not fair!

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Junior Bates
5 years ago
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1 Matthew 20:1-16 The 16 th Sunday after Pentecost 9/24/2017 Proper 20A Matthew 20:1-16 It is just not fair! Jesus said, The kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. After agreeing with the laborers for the usual daily wage, he sent them into his vineyard. When he went out about nine o clock, he saw others standing idle in the marketplace; and he said to them, You also go into the vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right. So they went. When he went out again about noon and about three o clock, he did the same. And about five o clock he went out and found others standing around; and he said to them, Why are you standing here idle all day? They said to him, Because no one has hired us. He said to them, You also go into the vineyard. When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his manager, Call the laborers and give them their pay, beginning with the last and then going to the first. When those hired about five o clock came, each of them received the usual daily wage. Now when the first came, they thought they would receive more; but each of them also received the usual daily wage. And when they received it, they grumbled against the landowner, saying, These last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat. But he replied to one of them, Friend, I am doing you no wrong; did you not agree with me for the usual daily wage? Take what belongs to you and go; I choose to give to this last the same as I give to you. Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or are you envious because I am generous? So the last will be first, and the first will be last. I have read that one of the fascinations with the social media world is reestablishing contact with people from our past. We (and I know you do too for many of you are my friends on FB) post pictures about ourselves; post info about what we are doing; become amateur bloggers; boast about our vacations and the locations across the world we visit; and if we have them, proudly display photos of our children and grandchildren. An offshoot of these re-establishments, it is said, is to do that ever so human task of comparison. 1

2 We compare our lives to the other person s life ---- so we can rejoice in their success and so we can give thanks for their way above average children and so we can vicariously enjoy their Mediterranean vacations and so we can congratulate them on how well their business lives have gone! PAUSE Well maybe! This article I have read postulates that we do these comparison for much different reasons than those I have mentioned. It thinks that we look to make sure that person from our past has aged at least as well as we ourselves have or perhaps a bit worse. We look to see what kind of life that person has compared to our own to make sure our lives as just as good as theirs. We look to make sure that they are successful but not too successful. We look to make sure that life has been FAIR as hard on them as it has been on us! The truth about this is not exactly flattering to us! There is an old fable that Satan's agents were failing in their various attempts to draw into sin a holy man who lived as a hermit in the desert of northern Africa. Every attempt had met with failure; so Satan, angered with the incompetence of his subordinates, became personally involved in the case. He said, "The reason you have failed is that your methods are too crude for one such as this. Watch this." He then approached the holy man with great care and whispered softly in his ear, "Your brother has just been made Bishop of Alexandria." Instantly the holy man's face showed that Satan had been successful: a great scowl formed over his mouth and his eyes tightened up. "Envy," said Satan "is often our best weapon against those who seek holiness. [Michael Green, Illustrations for Biblical Preaching, Baker 1993, p. 121.] All of us know that quotient the fairness quotient. It is like a Family Circus comic strip shows the two boys Jeff and Billy squabbling over the size of the slices of pie their mom has placed before them. They aren t the same, Jeff pouts. Mom tries again, evening-up the slices. Still Jeff is upset. They still aren t the same! he whines. This time Mom uses a ruler and absolutely proves that both slices of pie are the exact same size. But Mom, Jeff complains, I want mine to be just like Billy s... only bigger! THAT IS THE HUMAN DEFINITION OF FAIRNESS I WANT MINE TO BE LIKE ONLY BIGGER! 2

3 This teaching of Jesus today is found only in Matthew s gospel. It goes farther into the theme of a huge reversal of the world s values literally that God s values are different from common every day human values. The sayings of Jesus about the "first will be last, and the last will be first" frame the parable (19:30 and 20:16) and highlight its meaning in the context of Matthew's rendition of Jesus ministry. It is in this context that the disciple Peter has said, "Lord, we have given up everything, riches and all, to follow you." What then shall we have?" In others words, what s in this for us Lord. How do we stand to profit? Where s the payoff? In response to Peter s question, Jesus tells this story of a wealthy landowner. As we read this story of Jesus life it is easy to state that this wealthy vineyard owner is NOT fair. Instead he really is magnanimous at least with those Johnny-come lately ones. But he is not unfair to those who go to work in the first shift he honors what he promises. He gives them what he said he would for going to the vineyard to work. It is true that this just doesn't seem fair. It goes against the business mentality that dominates our lives. We have always been taught: you only get out of something directly in proportion to that which you put in it. Yet, that is not what happened in Jesus' story. In our way of thinking, it is easy to believe that the laborers who came to the field late got something for nothing. This parable challenges us not to look upon the Kingdom of God, or the church, as a business community FOR THIS TEACHING OF JESUS IS ABOUT GOD AND GOD S GRACIOUSNESS. GOD IS MORE GRACIOUS THAN WE ARE IT IS PLAIN AND SIMPLE. AND GOD IS NOT PARTICULARLY IMPRESSED WITH OUR LACK OF GRACIOUSNESS AND GENEROSITY WHICH WE EXHIBIT FROM TIME TO TIME IN OUR LIVES. Of course, their real problem, and in turn our problem is that we really DO NOT comprehend the nature of God's unmerited grace this teaching from Jesus is the definition of the song "Amazing Grace." Dr. William Power, a professor at Southern Methodist University, describes an experience he had in Sunday school when he was a boy. His teacher was trying to explain to him and his rowdy friends the meaning of grace, but wasn't getting very far. She tried definitions and abstractions, to no avail. Finally, she realized something the boys had known from the start. She was not connecting. She was not getting through to them. They didn't have the foggiest notion what she was talking about. 3

4 So she took a deep breath and tried again: "Look boys, grace is the break you get when you don't deserve it. That's the simple explanation. But you won't really understand it till you experience it." The wonderfulness of God's graciousness is that is not based upon what is fair, but rather what we need. The Kingdom of God is on another dimension--one that turns our world upside down. But that is precisely why Jesus was so free. For when he chose to go to the cross for you and for me he didn't first ask the questions that we would ask: do they deserve it and can they repay it. Because the answer to both questions is a resounding: NO. Jesus' parable this morning from Matthew's gospel sets a different standard for us. In the community -- the church -- which is bound to Jesus Christ in faith -- and to one another in Jesus' example of love -- we are called to give up envy of others for the generosity of God's love for us. We Christians are called to live differently -- from the standards of the world around us -- to live through the grace and power of God's Holy Spirit -- and that does not include such massive human emotions as jealousy and envy. After all -- the gift of our being included in the Kingdom of God as children of God is the greatest gift any of us could receive -- and we must come the reality of that relationship to God's kingdom as such a gift. Fairness is getting what we deserve; Mercy is not getting what we deserve; Grace is getting what we do not deserve. AND Of course it is NOT fair -- and we can rejoice that God does not act according to our fairness standards! We see this human fairness equation expressed all around us in our political world, in our business world, in our families, and yes even here in the church. We want things to be fair, as long as fair means in our favor. But God has called for us through Jesus to exhibit a different kind of behavior not fairness but mercy not giving what we think others deserve, but going above and beyond giving to others what we wish to have in our own lives. These are hard words as hard as the words of Jesus story in Matthew s gospel today were to hear in their own time. These ARE the words which can change our hearts so that we can see not just our fellow church members, but fellow spiritual journey travelers, not only them, but the poor in our own midst, our own community, our own city, our own town, our own world are not due fairness but are due mercy. Should your heart not be able to give mercy, then pray my brothers and sisters that God enter your heart and change it make it more Christ-like. 4

5 Then we can glorify the Lord in all that we do. 5

The Parable of the. Workers in the Vineyard. Bible story. bible verse Committing to memory. story lesson

The Parable of the. Workers in the Vineyard. Bible story. bible verse Committing to memory. story lesson The Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard Matthew 20:1-16 bible verse Committing to memory Matthew 20:16 So the last will be first, and the first will be last. December 18, 2011 story lesson Bible story