Lutheran Church of the Resurrection

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One day, a rich young man approached Jesus with a nagging question. "Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life?" To help this see that gotten on the wrong train, Jesus replied, "If you would enter eternal life, keep the commandments." The man asked, "which ones?" As though some were optional or 8 out of 10 would do it. Jesus lowered the ante to just 7 out of 10, just those commandments that deal with our relationship to our neighbor – the 2nd table of the Law. With a straight face, the man replied, "all these I have kept." Jesus replied, "oh really? Go, sell all you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven." And at that, the rich, young man went away "very sorrowful, for he had great possessions."

The lesson for us all to learn here is another sermon for another day. This is not our assigned text. But leads up to it.

Peter and the disciples heard and saw all of this and they immediately put two and two together. They had done just what Jesus told the rich young man that he must do. Peter said to Jesus, "See, we have left everything and followed you. What then will we have?"

We all know that thought behind the question, because we've all thought it. Are we going to be rewarded for our long service and the great sacrifices we have made for the Lord? Or is the rumor true that if this rich young man has a late life religious crisis and makes a deathbed confession of faith, he'll actually receive everything that we do?

Oh, and certainly we're not asking this for ourselves. We're just being practical. If this is the way it really works, then everyone is just going to hold out until the very last minute. You know how people are.

It is to this thought that is buried in Peter's question, that Jesus answers by the parable of the Workers in the Vineyard. And His point is clear, "the very thing that you do not want is precisely what I do. Everyone who comes, I pay him in full. Even those who come at the last hour."

"For the Kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard."

The thing here that strikes us right away is that the master of this house is one of those business managers who would never make it in today's economy. Today's competitive business climate demands that employers must do more with less if they want to protect their bottom line. The bottom line determines how many employees are hired or fired. And in a poor business climate, fewer employees are expected to do more work for the same pay.

This is why the master of the house in this story seems so out of step to us. He's one of those overly generous, humanitarians whose heart gets in the way of his head. He just loves to hire people to work in his vineyard. This is not the picture that we are used to seeing on the evening news of long lines of unemployed workers lined up to apply for seven openings. Five times a day, the master of the house "went out" looking for workers for his vineyard. And anyone who was idle and willing to work, he hired on the spot. And it's not because He needs the help or that His vineyard will fail unless He gets enough workers to do their share. For Him, it's all about the fact that men and women who need to be at work in His vineyard.

Although this is certainly not the point of conflict in this story, you'll miss the whole point of the parable if you miss this point right here. The master of the house went out from his vineyard to bring all he found in. They didn't look him up and come to him and beg Him for a job in His vineyard. He went out and found them and invited them to come and work for Him.

This, Jesus says, is what the Kingdom of heaven is like. It comes to you and calls you to enter it in. So to all of you rich young men out there, the Kingdom of heaven is not something that you must qualify for by your good performance. And to all of you disciples out there, it is not something that is awarded to you because of the sacrifices you've made.

It is strictly because the Master went out to find you and repeatedly if necessary, and called to you by His Word – "You go into my vineyard too." This is what the kingdom of heaven is like.

This of course, puts a whole new slant on our work in the vineyard than the one we are used to putting on it. It turns Peter's question, "See, we have left everything and followed you. What then will we have?" on its head. When you've been invited by the master to come into His vineyard, to work it and take care for it, you've got it all. Adam had it all when God put him in His garden to work it and tend to it. How absurd if Adam had said to the Lord, "so if I work it really, really hard and give it my best effort, what then will I have?"

What this means is that all of our work and service in the vineyard is pure privilege, to be done with pure joy in pure gratitude for Him who went out from the vineyard and found us and called us. Whatever we do in the name of the Lord of the vineyard, whether it be supporting foreign mission work or the ministry of the local congregation, or the everyday labor of parenting or neighboring or employment or citizenship or praying, or whatever the work that is given to us to do may be, it is never a means to an end. Rather, this is the end itself, because we are doing all of this at the invitation of the master of the house in His vineyard, which is where ever you are in whatever vocation in life He has called you to be at work in. This is what the Kingdom of heaven is like.

Isn't this nice? The Kingdom of Heaven is such a nice concept, such a grand and glorious ideal. But then comes payday, and the whole thing comes crashing down. "And when evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, 'Call the laborers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last, up to the first.'

As strange as is the hiring practices of this employer, his practice for paying wages is even stranger. Everyone was paid the same. Those who were hired last and only worked for an hour were paid the same as those who were hired in the ninth hour, the sixth hour, the third hour and, those who were hired early in the morning, who had, as they put it, "borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat."

What had been such a blessed privilege suddenly becomes burdensome work under oppressive conditions. Instead of being grateful for the wage that they were promised, they're ready to file a union grievance for unfair treatment.

As for those who were hired late and paid the full days wage, it's unthinkable that they would have laughed at the others because they had gotten off so 'easy.' They would never have thought to have said, 'thank God we got our denarius so cheaply and thank God that our last minute repentance was enough.' No, they could only have said, 'how deeply we regret that we squandered so much of the time we had been given searching for happiness and joy where it simply was not to be found.'

But those who were hired first file complain. "And on receiving their wage, they grumbled at the master of the house 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.'" The master's generosity and free spirit was all nice enough in principle. And if it had just remained a principle and nothing more, it would probably still be just fine. But when it is no longer just a principle but becomes the practice, and the master is actually generous to someone in particular, then it's not good.

"But he replied to one of them…" And don't we just wonder which one of them in particular? "Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me?" And those words hit us like the jolt that comes from touching a live electric wire. Is He really allowed to do this? Does He really have the right?

There's a lot of talk about rights swirling around us these days. "Inalienable rights," "human rights," "women's rights," civil rights," "gay rights," "animal rights," you name it, everyone demands their rights. But none of these challenge our notion of fairness and justice so much as when we God demands His rights.

And just what right is He claiming for Himself? Just this. It is His right to be generous. "Or do you begrudge me my generosity?" Literally, the original reads, "is your eye bad because I am good?" "Why are you seeing my goodness as something bad?" Everything was just fine until I was generous with others. You weren't even bothered that I hired freely, never complained that those late-comers where taking good up paying jobs. It wasn't until you saw what I gave to them that you grumbled about what I have given to you. "Is your eye bad because I am good?"

"Or do you begrudge me my generosity?" I pray that you would not. For unless the master is allowed to exercise His right to be generous, we are all doomed. What hope do we have except that the master is generous with all? Where would we be if we got what we deserved for our labor in the vineyard and the sacrifices we've made to follow Him? It is, in fact, the foolishness of the master's practices in hiring and paying out the wages that is our only hope. It is in fact, only because He will not be denied His right to be generous, that we do not despair.

We must always keep in mind just who it is who is telling this parable. Jesus is the master of the house, the owner of the vineyard. He is the generous one. He is allowed to do what He chooses with what belongs to Him. And you belong to Him. He has gone out from His vineyard and found you and spoken His Word to you, "you go into the vineyard too." And He has chosen to pay you the wages that you are due.

And just what wages are you due? "The wages of sin is death." These are the wages that you are due. And these are the wages that He has paid. By His foolish generosity, He has paid the wages due for your sin, in full, with His blood, whether you be the first, the last or somewhere in between, just as He promised.

Will you begrudge Him His generosity? I pray you would not.

Tags: Matthew, Parables, Rights

Related Entries:

» Sermon – "The Vineyard of the Lord" – Matthew 21:33-46 – 10/5/08
» Sermon Index – Lutheran – LCMS
» Sermon – Lent 5 – "Surely Not!" – Luke 20:9-20 – 3/21/10
» "Fruit of the Spirit" – 9 Sermons
» Sermon – Lent 3 – "Unless You Repent" – Luke 13:1-9 – 3/7/10
» Sermon – Pentecost 22 – "The Invitation You Can't Refuse" – Matthew 22:1-14 – 10/12/09

This entry was posted on Sunday, September 28th, 2008 at 1:47 pm and is filed under Audio Sermons, Sermons - Lutheran - LCMS. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.