✠ One Message: Christ crucified and risen for you ✠
The Word of the Lord Endures Forever
se cwide þæs béaggiefan ábireþ ferhþ
Matthew 20,1-16 1220
Septuagesima 020
Apollonia, well-known Virgin at Alexandria, Martyr 249.
9. Februar 2020
1. O Faithful God, You watch over and provide for Your creation, pour upon us Your love, fill us with Your righteousness and comfort us with Your justice, so that we may pass Your love, righteousness and justice to others in need of it. Amen. (VELKD Weekly Prayer for Septuagesima Sunday 2020, § 1)
2. »1Then Jesus said to His disciples: „For the reign of heaven is like a master of a house who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. 2After agreeing with the laborers for a denarius a day, he sent them into his vineyard. 3And going out about the third hour he saw others standing idle in the marketplace, 4and to them he said: ‘You go into the vineyard too, and whatever is right I will give you.’ 5So they went. Going out again about the sixth hour and the ninth hour, he did the same. 6And about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing. And he said to them: ‘Why do you stand here idle all day?’ 7They said to him: ‘Because no one has hired us.’ He said to them: ‘You go into the vineyard too.’ 8And when evening arrived, the lord of the vineyard said to his steward: ‘Call the laborers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last, up to the first.’ 9And when those hired about the eleventh hour arrived, each of them received a denarius. 10Now when those hired first arrived, they thought they would receive more, but each of them also received a denarius. 11And on receiving it they were complaining at the master of the house, 12saying: ‘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.’ 13But he replied to one of them: ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius? 14Take what belongs to you and go. I choose to give to this last worker as I give to you. 15Is it not lawful for me to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or is your eye evil because I am good?’ 16So the last will be first, and the first last.“«
3. Today’s Gospel pericope is Jesus’ Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard. Last week’s Gospel focused our attention on the salvation Jesus earned for us; today we learned a bit about the results of this salvation.
4. Jesus compares the reign of heaven to laborers in the vineyard where heaven is the the wages paid at the end of the day. Some live their lives as Christians, others for a number of years and still others only near the end of their life. All receive the same payment: eternal life. All disciples are equal in the present and future of reign of heaven in Jesus (Gibbs 988).
5. One of the first and obvious points Jesus is teaching in this parable is the immense grace His Father shows. He is constantly seeking out new people to call to faith and bring into His family. Jesus’ Parable of the Wedding Feast teaches the same thing as today’s parable (Matthew 22,1-14). There Jesus reminds us: »Then the king said to his servants: „Go to the main roads and invite to the wedding feast as many as you find.“ And those servants went out into the roads and gathered all whom they found, both bad and good. So the wedding hall was filled with guests.«
6. Therein lies the rub for some Christians, and their lament is that made by those heard first in the parable; the lament: You’ve made them equal to us (Gibbs 991). Their argument is: we have believed far longer than these others, therefore we deserve a bonus. But the payment is the same: all believers receive the same payment, regardless of how long they believe; all receive eternal life. Such a sentiment of the disgruntled workers may resonate with us for it is the way things are done in the world. A worker who has dedicated his/her entire career to a company should be paid more and have more benefits than the newly hired, inexperienced worker just out of university. While this is practical and fair in the world, the reign of heaven operates with different guidelines.
7. A few a few years after Jesus had ascended to heaven, the Church struggled with the very thing presented in the parable. At first, the Church was full of Jewish Christians, but soon more and more Gentiles became Christians. There was a vocal group among the Jewish Christians who argued that the Gentile Christians must do what they do, and their ancestors had done for centuries, the Gentile Christians must get circumcised and follow the dietary laws like we do. This is the way. Paul was against this and made it a point in his preaching to secure the Gentile Christians in the gospel and not bind them to the Mosaic law. The theme of his Epistle to the Galatians revolved around this very thing. He writes: »Yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified. O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified. Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? Now before faith arrived, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the arriving faith would be revealed. So then, the law was our guardian until Christ arrived, in order that we might be justified by faith. But now that faith has arrived, we are no longer under a guardian, for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.« (Galatians 2,16; 3,1-3.23-29).
8. When The apostles gathered in Jerusalem they affirmed that Paul was correct and the Apostle Peter proclaimed: »We believe that we Jews will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as the Gentiles will« (Acts 15,11). James, the bishop of the Jerusalem church, agreed with Peter and Paul (Acts 15,13-21). Jesus’ teaching in the parable prevailed: the first will be last and the last will be first; all are equal in the reign of heaven, for the distinctions the world boasts have no place in God saving men and women. God treats all those who are workers in the reign of heaven the same; owing to God’s grace, there is no distinction on the last day (Gibbs 988). God pays us all the same wage at the close of the Day: our wage is eternal life.
9. Jesus teaches us that all who believe in Him will receive the same wage. Whether one became a Christian as a baptized infant or was converted on his/her deathbed in old age, all who believe in Jesus receive the wage of eternal life. It is readily apparent in Jesus’ parable that the vineyard owner is very, very gracious with His wealth. As one seminary professor, now in heavenly glory, taught us: „Everything is in the hands of [Jesus] and from the hands of [Jesus]. Here are no reservations, qualifications or demands, but discipleship, faith, being given happy generous gifts beyond calculation“ (Nagel 64). I recall a cartoon that my childhood pastor had tacked on the door of his office. It was a pastor in a parishioner talking about heaven and the pastor replies: The pay may not seem like much now, but the retirement plan is out of this world!
10. Another popular phrase is: Faith is not knowing what the future holds but knowing who holds the future. We know and believe that Jesus holds the future and that He is a gracious God who gives us far more forgiveness, mercy and generosity than we expect or can contemplate. The day’s wage for being a disciple in the reign of heaven may not seem like much, but it is worth far more than it appears. Psalm 23 promises us: »O Lord, You prepare a table before me in the presence of mine enemies; You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever« (Psalm 23,5-6).
11. Last week we heard that Jesus is our Servant who suffered and died to open up the reign of heaven for us. Today we hear that all who believe receive this wage and that it’s a gift that overflows and always satisfies. Next week we will hear another parable of Jesus that teaches when the gospel falls upon good soil, those who believe, they are those who hearing the gospel hold it fast in an honest and good heart and bear fruit with patiennce. Amen.
12. Let us pray. O Lord, a Just and Gracious God; help us to be content with our salvation and the blessing it gives, so that we are comforted by Your great mercy that has made us righteous in Your sight. Amen.
To God alone be the Glory
Gode ealdore sy se cyneþrymm
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