Is God Fair?

An Eye For What’s Right & Generous

10.14.18 [Matthew 20:1-16] River of Life (18th Sunday after Pentecost)

Wearied by the Great Depression, our nation had a labor issue. Mass unemployment made the average American incredibly desperate. That desperation prompted many people, including young children, to accept hazardous work conditions and grueling hours for little pay. 

After winning 46 of the 48 states, FDR decided he had the political capital to do something about it. So in 1938, FDR signed the Fair Labor Standards Act into law, creating a federal minimum wage, overtime pay for non-exempt employees, and restrictions on when, where, and how children could work. Then, in the 1960s, federal laws were amended to prohibit compensation discrimination based on race, color, ethnicity, religion, sex, age, marital status, political affiliation, and disability. Equal pay for equal work was the north star. 

But even without these federal laws on the books, people have a feisty feeling of fairness when it comes to compensation. Equal pay for equal work just seems right in our eyes. And in the eyes of the people of Jesus’ day, too. And Jesus uses that to show us something critical about the kingdom of heaven: how God works in our world. 

The parable is a little lengthy, one of the longest recorded in the Gospels. But the story is easy to understand. There’s four scenes or parts. 1) The hiring cycle. 2) Payday. 3) Complaining about and then to the boss. 4) The final explanation & dismissal. 

The hiring cycle has five movements, where the landowner goes to the marketplace looking for people to hire to work in his vineyard. For the early morning hires, he negotiated a fair wage—Mt. 20:2 a denarius for the day—and sent them to work in his vineyard. Then, at nine, noon, and three in the afternoon, he went back to the marketplace and hired more people to work in his vineyard and promised to pay them Mt. 20:4 whatever was right. Finally, at five in the evening, an hour before the workday was done, the landowner sent a handful of unemployed fellows into his vineyard with no agreement and no promise about compensation. Just a flat command. Mt. 20:7 You also go and work in my vineyard. Perhaps these guys thought they were auditioning for the next day’s shift. But off they went to work. 

Then it’s pay day, and the landowner decides to pay the workers in reverse order. The guys that put in an hour get a denarius along with everyone else who worked for him that day. The landowner was good to his word and then some. But when the first shift guys get their denarius, they’re ticked off. Mt. 20:11 They began to grumble against the landowner. 

In the third scene, they voice their complaint. Mt. 20:12 These who were hired last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day. The implication is crystal clear. What you’re doing is not fair!

The landowner addresses the heart of the matter with a heart for them. Mt. 20:13 Friend, I am not being unfair to you. Didn’t you agree to work for a denarius? Mt. 20:15 Don’t I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous? Mt. 20:14 Take your pay and go. 

Our honest, knee-jerk reaction to a story like this is to side with the first shift workers, isn’t it? If this were your buddy talking about how his company distributed equal annual bonuses and included the fresh hire, you’d say that’s not right. But because this is from Jesus and we know he’s teaching us about how God works in this world, we know better. We bite our tongues a bit. And verse 15 throws cold water on our fiery fervor for fairness. Don’t I have a right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious (lit. are your eyes evil?) because I am generous (lit. good)? Being mad because someone is being generous isn’t a good look, and we know that. But that doesn’t mean that it isn’t a realistic portrayal of how we think, talk, and act. 

There are moments when it seems unfair that God makes those who just showed up, those who haven’t borne the brunt of the work or the heat of the day, equal to us. 

We contend with these feelings of unfairness when we see brand new believers being celebrated or supported more than we are. We feel overlooked and taken for granted, like an older sibling watching mom and dad and grandma and grandpa fawning over our new sibling. 

It seems wrong that we put in all that work, we try so hard to be a good and faithful Christian, and what does it get us? Nothing different than the guy who has a deathbed conversion. Nothing more than the lady who follows her heart to its wicked and selfish ends and then has a sudden change of heart. We begin to wonder: what’s the point? 

The Psalmist, Asaph, knew this struggle. He confesses in Psalm 73 I envied the prosperity of the wicked. They don’t have the troubles I do. They’re healthy and successful and popular and proud and it doesn’t seem fair that their lives are better than mine. 

Do you know that state of mind? We can have that attitude towards unbelievers. But we can also grow resentful of the believers that aren’t very regular in worship. We can begin to think and talk like they’re gaming the system. They don’t come to church except when they feel like it. Just when they need something. As crazy as it sounds, we even envy those who are spiritually anorexic! Our envy rots our spiritual bones. 

At times, we even grow frustrated as we bear with the weak. Why do I always have to be kind and patient? Why do I always have to be quick to forgive and slow to get angry? Why do I have to take their words and actions in the kindest possible way when they don’t grant me that same favor? Why does God seem to answer their prayers in powerful ways and leave me without any answers? 

Even among Christians, the comparison game can rob us of joy. Envy is the poison of the body. The moment we take our eyes off our Lord and look at all the other people he is patient, kind, and gracious to, the devil goes to work. The sinful nature shouts about how it’s not fair!

But God has been faithful to his Word, has he not? And when he went out to the marketplace and called more workers to his vineyard, the morning shift didn’t complain when their ranks swelled. They only began to grumble when they felt like they had earned it more. 

Jesus wants us to recognize that what we do for God in this life, our work in the vineyard, is a blessed privilege, not something God owes us for doing. Our service to God is not about debt or obligation, but love. 

God may not be fair, operating the way we think he should, but God is faithful to his Word and he is rich in mercy and generous with that mercy. And he has been no less generous to you and me than he has been to those who have an 11th-hour change of heart or a deathbed conversion. Keep in mind how the Bible describes those cases. We confess that we are saved by grace alone, through faith alone. It is not by our own thinking or choosing that we believe in Jesus or come to him. So those deathbed conversions, those 11th-hour changes of heart, are a testament to God’s patience, not an endorsement of mankind’s selfishness or spiritual procrastination. God has been chasing them down for a lifetime. That’s something we ought to celebrate. And as we celebrate, remember: We all get the same Jesus. 

Even if we were born into the faith, baptized on the first day of our lives, we get the same Jesus. We are loved, saved, justified, or sanctified not because of who we are, what we have done, are doing, or will do. We are saved because of what Christ has done for us. We are loved because God is love. We are justified because Christ took the blame for our sins. We are cleansed because Christ washed us. We work diligently because the Spirit has called, enlightened, and empowered us. We all get the same Jesus. And we all need the same Jesus. 

We all get the same Jesus who did the real hard work. He lived selflessly. He worked tirelessly. He sacrificed himself joyfully. He died wretchedly. He rose gloriously. You and I didn’t do any of these things. Christ Jesus did it all for us. And he shares it with us because he is good. He is generous. 

By nature, we were mired in something far more miserable than the Great Depression. We were wretched sinners. We weren’t just unemployable; we were actively working against God’s commands. So God did something unbelievably generous. He didn’t make a law. He fulfilled the Law in our place. He set us free from the debt of our iniquities. He called us to live with him and for him. He gave our lives meaning and joy. He gives us something to do that is dignifying and gratifying.

But he doesn’t insist on fairness. God is not concerned that we agree with how he uses his divine capital or how he takes care of those whom he calls to work in his vineyard at the last hour. He insists on doing what is right and treating sinners with mercy and grace. 

Though it was probably a good thing for the federal government to come in and mandate equal pay for equal work, God doesn’t need mankind’s corrections. Those laws were to set a baseline. They were a reaction to the selfishness of people and how they had been exploiting those who were most vulnerable. Our God is not selfish. He does not exploit the vulnerable. 

God is selfless. He seeks out the most vulnerable. Those who are standing in the marketplace at 5pm because no one wanted to hire them for anything. No one wanted them. God calls them and invites them into his kingdom and gives them something meaningful to do. And then he provides what they need for body and life. He doesn’t give them a denarius for an hour’s work. He gives them his Son for their salvation. He sends them his Spirit for their sanctification. He blesses them with his mercy and love. And he has done the same for you and me. 

Some days, you may feel like you’ve borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day. Look to your Savior. Remember what he has done. And rejoice, that your God does what is right, is faithful to his word, and generous.