Matthew 20:1-16 Fair?

Matthew 20:1-16 (Evangelical Heritage Version)

“Indeed the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard. 2After agreeing to pay the workers a denarius for the day, he sent them into his vineyard. 3He also went out about the third hour and saw others standing unemployed in the marketplace. 4To these he said, ‘You also go into the vineyard, and I will give you whatever is right.’ So they went. 5Again he went out about the sixth and the ninth hour and did the same thing. 6When he went out about the eleventh hour, he found others standing unemployed. He said to them, ‘Why have you stood here all day unemployed?’

7“They said to him, ‘Because no one hired us.’

“He told them, ‘You also go into the vineyard.’ 8When it was evening, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Call the workers and pay them their wages, starting with the last group and ending with the first.’

9“When those who were hired around the eleventh hour came, they each received a denarius. 10When those who were hired first came, they thought they would receive more. But they each received a denarius too. 11After they received it, they began to grumble against the landowner: 12‘Those who were last worked one hour, and you made them equal to us who have endured the burden of the day and the scorching heat!’

13“But he answered one of them, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Did you not make an agreement with me for a denarius? 14Take what is yours and go. I want to give to the last one hired the same as I also gave to you. 15Can’t I do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?’ 16In the same way, the last will be first, and the first, last.”

Fair?

I.

Imagine their signs and the chants as they marched around in circles trying to get some shouts of support and encouragement from those passing by on the road. The United Vineyard Workers were protesting unfair labor practices.

Management had put into place a tiered wage system. Those hired last, even though they had worked only a small fraction of the day, got paid exactly the same amount as those who had put in much more time and effort.

It’s exactly the opposite complaint of the United Auto Workers of today. Well, at least in a way. News reports say that new hires at the Big Three have a starting wage of $16/hour, many with no profit-sharing, bonuses, or pensions added to their wages. UAW members complain that it takes at least 8 years to get to a top tier in the wage structure. In the meantime, they are forced to take second jobs.

While the tier structure is the opposite of Jesus’ parable, the complaint is essential the same: “It’s not fair!”

It all started because management lined them up to get paid in reverse order of their hire. The early groups watched as the owner put a denarius into each outstretched hand as they passed by. “When those who were hired first came, they thought they would receive more. But they each received a denarius too” (Matthew 20:10, EHV).

That group of workers who had been hired first now became the United Vineyard Workers and started marching with their signs. “They began to grumble against the landowner: 12‘Those who were last worked one hour, and you made them equal to us who have endured the burden of the day and the scorching heat!’” (Matthew 20:11-12, EHV).

Most people today would agree that the newest, least trained worker should make somewhat less than the employee who has gained some skill and knowledge about the company. Certainly every person today would agree that an employee working only 1 hour should not get the same total compensation as someone who worked the entire day.

In the case of the United Vineyard Workers, there was a contract involved. “A landowner ... went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard. 2After agreeing to pay the workers a denarius for the day, he sent them into his vineyard” (Matthew 20:1-2, EHV). You can visualize the handshake that finalized the contract as the fog just began to recede from the early-morning landscape. 1 denarius. That was the typical going rate, so everything seemed in order. Off to the vineyard they went.

As management went about the process of hiring additional workers, however, the contract negotiation was much different. “He also went out about the third hour and saw others standing unemployed in the marketplace. 4 To these he said, ‘You also go into the vineyard, and I will give you whatever is right.’ So they went” (Matthew 20:3-4, EHV). The second batch of employees, and subsequent groups, were simply grateful to be given meaningful employment. Since there was no social safety net, not working meant not eating, so they would take whatever the landowner would give them. They trusted his fairness.

“When those who were hired first came, they thought they would receive more. But they each received a denarius too” (Matthew 20:10, EHV). At the end of the day, there was dissatisfaction about the contract they had signed. Well, shaken on, at least.

They stood there exhausted. A twelve-hour day picking fruit in a vineyard is backbreaking, tiring, sweaty work. They were all-in. Looks of incredulity were etched on their faces. They couldn’t believe what they were seeing! Slack-jawed, they watched as each member of the United Vineyard Workers had the same denarius placed in dirty, hard-working, outstretched palms.

II.

We’re familiar with the parable—most of us, at least. We’ve heard Jesus’ closing words plenty of times as Christians: “In the same way, the last will be first, and the first, last” (Matthew 20:16, EHV). As an academic exercise, all that Jesus says in his parable sounds just fine to us.

Paul said to Timothy: “From infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus” (2 Timothy 3:15, EHV). He could have been talking to me. As long as I can remember, I have had faith in Jesus as my Savior. I have known the things God recorded in the Holy Scriptures to make people wise for salvation. Many of you feel the same, I’m sure.

The road of a believer isn’t always smooth and easy. Perhaps from time to time we would have to echo the voice of the father of a demon-possessed boy, who said to Jesus: “I do believe. Help me with my unbelief!” (Mark 9:24, EHV). None-the-less, you kept clinging to your faith in Jesus.

Even though you have known Jesus “from infancy,” you look around and see others who came to faith later in life, or had a period where they turned away from Jesus, but now have returned. You don’t take to the picket line to protest that they will be given eternal life. You’re happy about that.

Perhaps you’ve even heard of someone who had that rare deathbed conversion. Even that gives you joy.

“I want to give to the last one hired the same as I also gave to you” (Matthew 20:14, EHV). The wheels start to turn in your mind.

Can you, perhaps relate to the United Vineyard Workers a little bit? What about the person who sits in a pew only occasionally and doesn’t lift a finger to help with all the many projects around the church? And how about the murderer who has a conversion while on death row? Does he get the same heavenly denarius as those who have worked so hard to spread the message of Jesus?

It’s tempting to grab a sign and join the picket line.

III.

“But he answered one of them, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Did you not make an agreement with me for a denarius? 14Take what is yours and go. I want to give to the last one hired the same as I also gave to you’” (Matthew 20:13-14, EHV). Before you join them with the picket signs, consider your contract. Jesus promised you heaven. He promised the repentant thief on the cross heaven. He promised heaven to Peter the denier as well as Paul the persecutor. He promised heaven to the death-row inmate and the baby whose head was held above the font.

“Can’t I do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?” (Matthew 20:15, EHV).

You know what’s really not fair? What’s not fair is the lengths our heavenly Landowner went to in obtaining the heavenly denarii he passes out from his generosity. Not just the heat of the day in a dusty vineyard. Not an autoworker’s day standing in front of a machine. Not a pastor’s day of sitting at a desk.

He went through years of life—from conception in the Virgin Mary’s womb onward—living in perfect obedience to God in a way none of us could ever hope to do. We can’t possibly understand how difficult the 40 days of temptation in the dusty wilderness were, because we can’t resist the devil and his temptations and his schemes for even one day. We surely can’t understand the beatings and the insults and all the rest as he stood silently before the High Priest and Pontius Pilate, knowing that the worst was to come. We can hardly begin to imagine the physical torture of the cross, let alone the spiritual torture of the Heavenly Father abandoning him to suffer the shame and pain of hell, even as the soldiers below the cross hurled insult after insult.

All of that is what is not fair. All of that is what Jesus did to pay for all your complaints about a lack of fairness—and every other petty complaint you’ve made to the high heavens about seeming injustice to yourself.

Do you know what else is not fair? Even our best attempts at doing good are tainted by sin. Isaiah writes: “All of us have become like something unclean, and all our righteous acts are like a filthy cloth” (Isaiah 64:6, EHV). You and I don’t deserve the heavenly denarius. What we deserve is the hell Jesus got in our place.

IV.

“Can’t I do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?” (Matthew 20:15, EHV).

Pray God we are not envious.

Thank God he is generous, and that he does what he wants with his own hard-earned money.

Here we are today, enjoying once again the generosity of our Savior. He comes to us week after week in this place in Word and Sacraments.

Here we confess our sins, even the sins of pride and the sins of sometimes wishing for more than the denarius we don’t deserve. Here he announces the absolution—forgiveness for all our sins because of the selfless sacrifice of Jesus.

What happens here is not fair. It’s generous. Thank God for that! Amen.