Laborers in the Vineyard
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
I am taking a systems engineering course right now, and the professor is short of making things up as he goes. He is designing what appears to be a more mathematically-rooted, scientific systems engineering theory from the ground up. In some ways, this is interesting to be part of in real-time, as we are able to offer input for the future of the course and how he designs the content.
I am taking the course asynchronously, as are many of the other students in the class, as that best accommodates my schedule. However, despite this being an asynchronous course, almost all of the graded work is collaborative.
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In Matthew 20, we see a similar phenomenon, where there appears to be this unfair measure given to those who have labored less, sacrificed less, given less of themselves.
This comes out of the end of Matthew 19, where we saw last week that we must be willing to give up everything to follow Jesus. As the disciples have given up everything to follow Jesus, Peter asks him, “What will we have?” And Jesus says that he offers everything, namely, eternal life, the whole crux of the interaction with the rich young ruler in the first place.
Jesus is always subverting expectations. He is flipping the typical order of things to present the reality that the kingdom of heaven operates in a vastly different manner than the world. We saw this in Matthew 18, where Jesus says that whoever humbles himself like this child will be greatest in the kingdom of heaven. He says in the middle of Matthew 19 that the kingdom of heaven belongs to those like little children.
And then the chapter concludes with Matthew 19:30
But many who are first will be last, and the last first.
The hidden question that Jesus confronts here in Matthew 20 is this: what if someone gives up less? What if someone follows Jesus later? What if the “everything” they give up is not as costly as what others gave up before them? What if the last are made first? How does Jesus answer these questions and confront our natural, fleshly response to them?
Tonight, as we study this parable, we will see Jesus teaching us this truth:
Key Thought: God grants eternal life equally to all who come when he calls, according to his own free pleasure.
[PRAY]
Key Thought: God grants eternal life equally to all who come when he calls, according to his own free pleasure.
So, let’s walk through this text and unpack what Jesus is teaching us here.
1. God chooses to call, and we choose to come. - v.1-7
1. God chooses to call, and we choose to come. - v.1-7
As we read this parable, we have to keep in mind the first verse, where Jesus tells us that this story he is telling is supposed to frame our understanding of the kingdom of heaven. Every detail here is important, every detail is analogizing the kingdom of God and teaching us something.
But many who are first will be last, and the last first.
“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. After agreeing with the laborers for a denarius a day, he sent them into his vineyard.
At the start of the day, which would have been around 6am, he goes and hires laborers with the agreement of a denarius, a single day’s wage at that time. God is the master, we are the laborers. The denarius he offers to us, our day’s wages for following him, is eternal life. This is God calling people to himself, inviting them into the kingdom, and giving them the opportunity to receive eternal life by coming to him. He does this early in the morning. This is potentially symbolizing God’s relationship with Israel, whom he called first, but it is most clearly and generally symbolizing those who come earlier when God calls.
And going out about the third hour he saw others standing idle in the marketplace, and to them he said, ‘You go into the vineyard too, and whatever is right I will give you.’ So they went. Going out again about the sixth hour and the ninth hour, he did the same.
At the third, sixth, and ninth hours, so 9am, 12pm, and 3pm, he goes and finds more laborers who are standing idle in the marketplace. The text doesn’t tell us why these laborers are idle. It may be that these guys just didn’t want to go work the first time (or first few times) the master called. Or, these guys were not around the other times he came through.
Regardless, the master has a lot of work he needs done in the vineyard, so he keeps going to find more laborers. Those whom he finds, he calls, offering the same denarius, the same day’s wage.
God is again giving the opportunity to come to him, to enter into his kingdom. Whether or not these laborers were around when he first called is irrelevant. What matters is whether they come at this second, third, fourth invitation.
He does this one more time.
And about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing. And he said to them, ‘Why do you stand here idle all day?’ They said to him, ‘Because no one has hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You go into the vineyard too.’
At the eleventh hour, the final hour of the workday, he still has work to offer. He still has money to distribute to those who come. He finds workers who have been idle all day, just waiting for someone to hire them. So, he hires them, under the same arrangement as everyone else he hired for the previous eleven hours of the workday.
This is the final call. This is God graciously extending his hand, one more time, inviting people to come to him.
The kingdom of heaven is like this workday. We do not have an unlimited amount of time to respond to God, to stand idle and wait. It’s like when you’re at an airport, and there always seems to be someone left at the very end whose name they keep calling. They just keep calling it and calling it. This person, for some reason, is not coming. It is likely because they just were not around, they didn’t show up. At some point, the plane has to leave them behind.
But for many people, that is not what we see happening. It might not be what was happening for these laborers. Instead, we show up, we hear the call, but we do not respond. Maybe we are deafened by our sin, so that the call is inaudible right now. Maybe we are simply stubborn and refusing to respond. How many people, how many of us even, are not responding to God when he clearly calls out to us in the marketplace.
Notice how Jesus frames this story. It is clear that the only way these laborers are given work is if the master chooses to hire them. So, God must choose to call each and everyone of us. It is up to him. But, notice notice what Jesus doesn’t say. He doesn’t say anything about the laborers being chosen with discrimination or preference. The master simply goes into the marketplace, the place where the laborers wait for work, and he hires the ones he finds there who are willing to work.
But, the responsibility is similarly laid on the worker for agreeing to come. The worker must accept what is offered when the master calls him. The laborers agree for a denarius, with the denarius representing eternal life.
This is the complexity of God’s call. He enters into the marketplace, and he chooses to call. But surely, not everyone looking for work is in the marketplace at that time, right? So, God returns, time and time again, calling those whom he finds. And we must choose to come to him when he calls, or else we do not receive what we are looking for.
If he calls, we must come, or else we, too, may miss the flight.
2. God chooses to grant eternal life EQUALLY to all who come when he calls. -v.8-10
2. God chooses to grant eternal life EQUALLY to all who come when he calls. -v.8-10
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.’ And when those hired about the eleventh hour came, each of them received a denarius. Now when those hired first came, they thought they would receive more, but each of them also received a denarius.
Jesus tells us that the master calls up the laborers and pays them in reverse order. The ones who have worked little are giving what they were promised - a single denarius, eternal life. The ones who have worked longer, all day even, see this, and they expect that they will be given even more than what was agreed upon. Who doesn’t like bonuses?
Jesus is not literally saying that those who are saved last will be at the front of the line to enter into eternal life. No, he is using this as a narrative device to magnify the purpose of the parable. Back in chapter 19, Peter asks, “What will we have?” They have given up everything and followed Christ for years, so what does that gain them? The same things it gains anyone who comes to Jesus.
Jesus is saying that those who come to him, regardless of when, are equally granted the gift of eternal life. All these workers were called into the vineyard by the master, all expecting the same wage. But when wages start being disbursed, the senior guys start to get excited. But the kingdom of heaven does not work like the world!
No, Jesus says clearly that God is indiscriminate in whom he calls, and he measures out equally the payment he has promised to those who come to him. It doesn’t matter if you got saved in the womb (not possible, we don’t believe that, just a hyperbolic joke) or if you got saved on your death bed. If you sacrificed everything in your workday, being your life, or you only gave up the final hour to the call, you will receive eternal life, amen.
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.
In Christ, we are all one, regardless of how long we have been following him.
3. God grants eternal life equally according to his free pleasure.
3. God grants eternal life equally according to his free pleasure.
And on receiving it 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.’ But he replied to one of them, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius? Take what belongs to you and go. I choose to give to this last worker as I give to you. Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or do you begrudge my generosity?’ So the last will be first, and the first last.”
The gift of eternal life is given equally. But, the laborers do not like this. And this is why Jesus tells the story the way that he does. He knows the heart of man.
The heart is deceitful above all things,
and desperately sick;
who can understand it?
God can understand it! Jesus can understand it! And he knows that we are fickle, and we are provoked to jealousy so easily, especially if we forget who we are and what God has done for us.
The worker was called by the master, and promised a wage. The master is faithful to give that wage to the worker. But Jesus says that the longstanding worker grumbles and whines about receiving what he was promised. The ones hired first expected even more when they saw what the ones hired last received.
They began to think that they were worthy of receiving more for their labor. They forgot what was promised to them in the first place. And that is what the master addresses.
“I am doing you no wrong,” the master declares! Take what was promised, and go.
The master says, “Am I not allowed to choose what I do with what belongs to me?”
Last week, in chapter 19, we saw how Jesus makes it abundantly clear that eternal life require perfect goodness, perfect holiness. The only one who meets that standard is God himself. So eternal life belongs to God!
Jesus is saying that it is his decision, his free choice, how to give out eternal life. And he gives it out generously. He gives it to those who come early in the day, and those who come at the eleventh hour. He chooses. Paul echoes this idea, both God’s choice and the typical human response to it.
14 What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God’s part? By no means! 15 For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” 16 So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy. 17 For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” 18 So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills.
19 You will say to me then, “Why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?” 20 But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, “Why have you made me like this?” 21 Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use?
Paul is talking about some different things, but the thought, the underlying principle, is the same. Who are you to fight fault with God for doing what he pleases with what he freely gives to us?
Or, as the master in this parable asks, “Do you begrudge my generosity?”
We must not allow ourselves to fall to the temptation of entitlement, thinking that we have earned more from God because of how long we have been with him. The warning is clear here. Jesus is saying, “Do not begrudge my generosity to give you eternal life!”
Our salvation, our denarius, is not something that we have earned through our own efforts. This is something we have to remember about the parable. Jesus is making analogies, and if we do not read this in the proper context, we miss what Jesus is saying. Why do we labor if it is not up to us? If God freely gives, and that is what it takes, why do we work?
Again, let’s look at Paul, who encounters these very issues in the church, and addresses them!
8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
Ah, there it is. We work, we labor in the vineyard, why? Not because we earn favor, but because God has prepared beforehand our good works that we should walk in them?
Jesus is not saying that we have earned eternal life, and only eternal life, so we get nothing more. No, we haven’t even earned the eternal life! The agreement is that God freely offers eternal life, if we come and follow him. Come and follow me. We see this throughout the gospel of Matthew.
19 And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.”
22 And Jesus said to him, “Follow me, and leave the dead to bury their own dead.”
9 As Jesus passed on from there, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, “Follow me.” And he rose and followed him.
28 Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
24 Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.
21 Jesus said to him, “If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.”
Jesus’ call is clear. Come and follow me, and you will have eternal life. It isn’t come and work to earn eternal life. He chooses to give it to us, according to his free pleasure.
13 for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.
According to his great delight, God freely extends his grace to us. That is a precious truth! We should rejoice in the kindness and compassion of God to do such a thing. He wills our salvation himself, and he works it out in our lives himself, according to his great pleasure.
The reason that we then go and labor in the vineyard is because that is what God has prepared us to do. As he calls and we respond, as he saves us, makes us a new creature, we are now sent to live how he commands.
That’s the issue here. The laborers are people who have responded to the call, sent out to work in accordance with God’s will. How many of us respond to the call, and then begin to think that we’ve done something special?
Have you ever thought, even in the back of your mind, that your good works before God are earning you a greater wage than eternal life? You do not do good works to make yourselves holier, or to earn greater riches in heaven. We work, we toil, we labor in the vineyard, either for the whole workday or just one hour, solely because God has called us to do so.
This is the very thing we are seeing in 1 Peter, right?
14 As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, 15 but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, 16 since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.” 17 And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one’s deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile, 18 knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. 20 He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you 21 who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.
What does Peter say? Remember what God has done for you. That is why you should live in such a way that pursues holiness.
This is why the laborer should not grumble when the master pays him his wage. The gift of eternal life is enough. And we only receive it because God has chosen to freely offer it to us.
This section starts in Matthew 19:30
But many who are first will be last, and the last first.
And it ends with Matthew 20:16
So the last will be first, and the first last.”
This clear bracketing, an inclusio. This whole story is framed by this idea.
Those who come first are made last, and the last made first. What does this mean? These are those of us who have long followed Jesus, but have become prideful in our faith, will be lowered.
6 But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”
Key Thought: God grants eternal life equally to all who come when he calls, according to his own free pleasure.
Response
Response
This is the scandal of grace, the offense of the gospel. We cannot save ourselves, for we are wretched and broken by our sin. And because God is the one who alone saves us, he chooses how that takes place. He measures equally to all who come to him according to his free pleasure.
How do we respond to that?
You must reckon with the reality that God chooses freely, yet you must come willingly.
Jesus made it clear in this passage. God chooses to extend eternal life to us.
But it is also clear that the laborers, those who would seek eternal life, must respond to God’s call.
2. You must never forget that it is Christ who saves you, not your labor.
Trevor taught on this on Sunday in Life Group, and we read it earlier in 1 Peter 1:17-19
17 And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one’s deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile, 18 knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.
We were ransomed from our sin by Jesus. Not by our works. It is by grace through faith, brothers and sisters. Rest in the completed work of Christ. John 19:30
30 When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, “It is finished,” and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.
It is finished. The work done to save you and me and all who would come is finished. Amen.
We must not be like the laborers who grumble at God, thinking they deserve more for working longer. That is not for us to demand. We are nothing apart from Christ. We did not earn our wages, ultimately, and so we are not entitled for anything more than what God himself has promised to give us, according to his free pleasure.
3. You must persist in your labor for Christ.
There is this mysterious tension between how God saves and secures us perfectly and completely in Christ. We see this in how Jesus talks about his followers as sheep in John 10:27-29
27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. 28 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.
Nothing can snatch us out of God’s hand once he has claimed us. Yet, Paul also exhorts the church to remain faithful in our faith!
1 Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, 2 and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain.
You will face hardship. Your walk with Christ will wax and wane. You may grow weary as you labor in the vineyard, but you are not alone. Christ himself will strengthen you in your faith. He will bring you to completion, as long as you continue to follow and persist in him.
6 And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.
I won’t pretend that I have these two truths fully reconciled, but God doesn’t expect us to. The expectation is that we trust in his promise to save and deliver us from sin, and he also calls us to be holy, making us a royal priesthood through the blood of Jesus.
