Hard Conversations with Christ - On Grace and Equality

Blessing and honor, glory and power to him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb forever and ever. Amen. Dear recipients of God's grace through faith in Christ Jesus, Have you taken the time lately to appreciate the idea of grace? I'm serious. I think all too often, because we have heard the message about sin, grace, and forgiveness for years, that we take for granted the idea of grace. So today I want to refresh that concept. A concept that is completely heavenly. It has no basis in earthly thinking. In fact, earthly thinking is what gets our characters in our parable today into trouble. Hard conversations with Christ. We are working today with a conversation on equality and grace. The culture we live in, the society that shapes our thinking, the influences of our everyday stations reshape the way we see grace. It changes how we think of equality. As Americans we might often think of the Constitution, "all men are created equal." God has a slightly different message for us about equality. One that forces us to forget what society has taught us and to accept what God has done for all people. Let us pray: Dear life-giving Holy Spirit, we are eternally grateful for the amazing miracle you have worked in our hearts through the powerful gospel. Forgive us for the times we've taken this gift for granted or have treated it as a small thing. By the ongoing comfort of pardon from all sin through the merits of Jesus, continue to strengthen this faith you have given until faith becomes sight in heaven. We ask this in Jesus' saving name. Amen. THE FIRST SHALL BE LAST Jesus tells us this parable as a direct result of what happened before it. A rich young man wanted to know what he could do to gain eternal life. He wanted to know what good thing he must do. Jesus said to love God above everything and to love your neighbor as yourself. The rich young man thought he did these things, but yet he held onto money more so than God. He wasn't willing to let go of his money. He, the first in regard to earthly things, was actually last in the kingdom of heaven. And that's the focal point of this parable. The kingdom of heaven. The kingdom of heaven is God's activity of calling sinners to salvation through the gospel. That's the first key to this sermon. We are not talking about the place of glory where God dwells with his people in perfection. We are talking about the church on earth. We are talking about the kingdom of grace. And in this kingdom of grace there was a man who went out himself to hire people for his property. As soon as the sun was up, this owner wanted nothing more than to have his vineyard running at max capacity. This man was looking for people to pay. He had work to be done and wanted to give out of his abundance to those who didn't have what he did. Here is the second key to the parable. There was a vineyard that needed some help. There weren't enough hired hands. So, the owner went and found the help he needed. He told people right away the deal. If you work for me in my vineyard, I will give you a day's wage. This was the deal. If you work, you get paid. If you refuse to work, you wouldn't get paid for you hadn't accepted the gracious invitation to make money. Then at about 9:00AM he went out and did the same thing. He told the people he hired, "I will pay you what is right." Now imagine the 9:00 workers talking to the 6:00 workers. They were comparing their stories about how they were hired to work in the field. The 6:00 workers saying how they'll get paid a denarius for their work. The 9:00 workers saying how they will get paid what the owner felt was "right." The owner goes out again, nabs more people who were doing nothing. Giving them the opportunity to receive honest pay for an honest day's work. He kept doing this, over and over again until 5:00PM. At 5:00PM you might expect the owner to scoff at those who hadn't been hired, but rather he says, "go work! Go get paid!" The same conversation happens over and over again between the workers. "How much did the guy say he would pay you? ... Oh, man then maybe I will get more than a denarius." With the way our society pays hourly wages, we can relate to this 6:00 worker's mindset. That worker believed that he or she would get a hefty bonus for working the whole day. That's the way our society has handled the idea of payment for as long as I can remember. For as long as I have worked, I logged hours so that my boss would pay me what we agreed upon. Whether it be for a construction company, a hardware store, officiating basketball games, landscaping, delivering pizzas - whatever it was, I tracked hours so that I could be paid what the boss agreed to pay me. What if God were like this? What if the first people to the vineyard, those who had faith from the moment they were born - maybe even earlier - what if they received more blessings on earth? What if God held out his hand to satisfy the desire of every living thing, but even more so for those who have believed their whole lives? What if God were like that? What if you came to faith at some later time, were baptized as an adult, have strayed away from the church but now come back? What if God treated you like how our society treats freshly hired employees? Mocking you for being new. Allowing you to be trampled on by those who had been around for years. It wouldn't make for a great experience. In fact, I would reckon it would make you leave the faith altogether. According to our society that is how God should treat us. We want to put labels on God - labels that our society have handed out. God is unfair. God is spiteful. God is judgmental. God is old-school. God is hateful. God is not here. God is somewhere but not in my life. God is this and that and the other thing. But he's definitely not what he describes himself as in that old, outdated book. And our sinful nature leads us to believe it. How could a loving God allow this type of animosity in our country? How could a loving God yet again make us feel like we can't leave our homes? How could a loving God allow our church to go through so many trials? How could a loving God let my family go through another tragedy? How could God leave me when I need him most? These feelings are personal but crafted by anti-God thoughts that are being forced on us. And it brings a hard conversation with Christ. Where we place Christ across from us and accuse him. We get to thinking just like these first workers. "I have earned something more in God's eye than what I am going through now. You call me to take up my cross, well I've bore it for so long. What do I get in return?" "You get one denarius. You get exactly what you signed up for," Jesus says. When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, 'Call the workers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last ones hired and going on to the first.' Pay them their wages. What would happen if God actually gave us the wages we deserved? You've been a believer for a long time, so you have known for a long time what sin is. You have known for long time what the punishment for sin is, but yet you still so quickly jump to judgment? You should know better! Besides, you've been a Christian for so long. The new guys hardly know their left from their right. You have earned for your years of disobedience while claiming obedience, nothing but damnation. You don't deserve the payment that God has promised through faith. You don't deserve a heavenly room that has every amenity you could ever imagine. You don't deserve to be among the gathering of the elect. You deserve death. You deserve punishment forever. Stop looking over your shoulder at that guy over there who is still figuring out his faith. Look at yourself and then look to Christ. Because the first shall be last. Jesus, the firstborn over all creation, took upon himself the lowest possible thing from being God - sin. He took it upon himself to bear the brunt of the heat of the day, the hefty weight of sin, the separation from the Father, the humiliation of all existence, so that you might never be last but first before God. The Lord of all creation stepped down to be your servant. To be last for you. What payment do you deserve now? Through faith, this gift of grace is yours. Whether you're first to the party or the one who just showed up. Through faith grace is yours. THE LAST SHALL BE FIRST And because grace is yours in Christ, the last shall be first. But he answered one of them, 'I am not being unfair to you, friend. Didn't you agree to work for a denarius? Take your pay and go. I want to give the one who was hired last the same as I gave you. Don't I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?' Didn't we agree that the payment for faith in Jesus is eternal life? Did we somehow expect there to be more than the amazing gift of grace which results in eternal life? Is there a chapter in the Bible that says, "God has promised to give his life-long believers an extra slice of heaven?" Or "God has promised to make life easier on earth for those who really work hard for him?" He exclusively says the opposite. John 3:16 says that those who believe will not perish but have eternal life. Those who have faith in Christ Jesus will not die but live. A Christian is someone whose heart has been changed to rejoice in the way God deals with sinners, rather than grumble. We delight in the fact that God is merciful and gracious to us and is patient so that more may come to know and believe Jesus as their Savior. This is what the parable is getting at. Is your heart in tune with accepting the way God's heart works? Do you expect what you do here on this earth to change God's heart? What more could God already see in you, than what he sees in Christ? Without Christ, God sees a sinner. A filthy rag. A person who has fallen short of keeping the law in its entirety. But in Christ, God sees his own dear child. A forgiven child whom he himself cares for. The denarius that all believers receive from God is simply that, a denarius. One thing. It isn't a denarius for some and two for others. It's one. It's the same grace. Equal grace for each and every person. Christ died for you, the same as he died for me. Christ died for the disciples, the same as he died for the Pharisees. Christ died for the homosexuals, the same as he died for those peddling drugs. Christ died for each and every sinner. And the way to receive the benefits of that death is the exact same for each and every sinner. Can't you see why the owner's response is warranted? He promised a denarius for work. He promised it. And then he came through on the promise! We so often want to put our own promises on God, and then hold him to something he has never said to do. And therefore, Christ comes to us with a hard conversation. "Friend, didn't you believe in me for eternal life? Take the life I give you and go. I want to give to every believer what I give you - life." We, as sinful human beings, must deny ourselves. We must deny the way we have thought about grace. Deny the way we have thought about equality. For in Christ, every believer is equally loved. In Christ, every believer is equally given grace. Eternal life was promised through faith. Through faith, eternal life has been delivered. For you, for me, equally for every believer, Christ's work is yours. Amen.