A sermon given at First Presbyterian
Church, Spring City, TN, Sept. 24, 2017
Matthew 20:1-16
Like
all parables, this one sounds outwardly simple but gets puzzling the
deeper you look into it. The manager of
a vineyard went out to hire workers at different times of the day, some early
in the morning, others at almost quitting time.
Then at the end of the day, the owner tells the manager to pay them all
the same daily wage. The people who worked all day are put out that those who
barely worked at all get the same wage. This offends the owner who says he has
the right to pay his workers what he desires.
There
seems to be at least two, if not three ways to look at it. The first way takes this
parable as a response to the complaint of Jewish believers against “Johnny-come-lately”
Gentile believers. After all, the Hebrews are God’s chosen people since Abraham
and ought to have an inside track. Even
his Jewish disciples might resent the attention to the Gentiles because they
were the first believers, working with Jesus since his ministry began.
Vineyard is often a symbol of
Jerusalem or the Jews. In these chapters
of Matthew, Jesus has entered Judah on his way to Jerusalem, or Zion, the
“capital” city of Judah. It is entirely possible this parable has in mind the constant
criticism of Jesus by the Jewish leaders for associating with the outcasts, the
poor, the tax collectors and Gentiles, while ignoring them as the chosen people.
Prophets speaking of the
Messiah of the Jewish people are more evidence that the Jew/Gentile conflict
could be the theme of the parable (if
we overlook passages such as Isaiah
56 that say salvation goes beyond the Jews.
In Matthew 15:21-28,
and Mark 7:24-30, Jesus
tells a Gentile woman who asked Jesus to heal her child that he came first to
deliver the Jews, not the Gentiles. But the Gentile woman has a quality of
persistence about her that revealed her faith in Jesus and he healed her child.
This interpretation means that
one’s faith, not genetic origin, gives one favor before God. Following this
line of thinking, we can safely conclude this parable describes the breadth of
God’s compassion for his children flows from God’s universal grace.
A Jew or disciple of the
time of Jesus might very well hear this parable by this first interpretation,
but if we accept that a parable is an oral story whose meaning is shaped by the
experience of the listener, we see a second interpretation.
We might hear the parable
as a treatment of another old human tendency to equate accomplishment or degree
of success to the size of the reward. Listen to these complaints:
“If I get the best grades I should get in the
best college, or get the best job.”
“When I go out of my way to ensure a job gets
done properly, and my buddy just cruises doing barely enough to get by, I
should get a better reward than my buddy.”
“I’ve worked for this guy for years,
showing up on time every day, going beyond the call of duty and I don’t get any
better reward than the person who showed up today.”
“If I am going to get the same reward as the
other guy, why should I work harder or longer to get the job done?”
The
last few weeks we have talked a lot about the danger of being focused on self
and having too much pride. These four remarks
reflect attitudes that are not very admirable. They show a sense of
entitlement, or privilege. They have the form, “If I worked this hard…then I
should get more…” Paul would say these comments put pride and ego ahead of humility
and promoting the good of our fellow Christians.
These
four complaints suggest a long-time Christian deserves some extra reward
compared to the newcomer. This thinking has a big problem. It ignores faith
alone is the only criterion for salvation. Our reaction to the reward of
eternal life to others ought to be “when we all get to heaven
what a day of rejoicing that will be.” The joy is for all our brothers and
sisters who have seen the light, not that “I saw it first.”
I
can think of a third problem mixed up in the two examples, the priority of the
Jews and a reward that befits our time or quality as Christians. These two
perspectives question of the motivation or judgment of the boss, or even betray
trust in the boss.
The story of Jonah illustrates
this point about questioning the judgment of the Boss. It relies on the fact that the boss and owner
of the vineyard is God.
Jonah, as you may know, was a Hebrew
whom God called to go to a great city called Nineveh and proclaim its
destruction unless its people turned from evil ways. Jonah did not want this
job and fled from God, ending up on a boat in a fierce storm on the sea (the
storm is symbolic of God’s anger). Jonah admitted to the sailors that he was
the cause of the storm and they threw him overboard and a large fish swallowed
him. He remained in the fish for three days. After praying for forgiveness and
promising to do as the Lord instructed, the fish spit him out and Jonah took
the message of God to Ninevah. Surprising Jonah, the king and all the people
repented and God spared the city.
Jonah was fiercely angry with God.
Jonah went through all this grief running from God when God could have left him
alone since God knew he was going to spare Ninevah anyway. Jonah built a
shelter to sit and sulk, watching what would happen to Ninevah. The Lord caused
a bush to grow to give Jonah shade during this day. The next day, God caused
the bush to wilt and die putting Jonah in the hot sun until he swooned and was
faint. Jonah was so miserable and angry
at the bush, and God, he said “I should just die to get out of this misery.” God
asked Jonah if it was right for Jonah to be angry about the bush. When Jonah said, “yes,” God said, “You are
concerned about the bush, for which you did not labor and cause to grow. It came
into being in a night and perished in a night. God continued with
this question, “Should I not be concerned about Nineveh, that great city, in
which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand persons who do not know
their right hand from their left, and also many animals?” How can you argue
about compassion?
The emperor Constantine
is another example. Constantine was the emperor of the Roman Empire and lived
in Constantinople, the largest city in the world at the time. He unified the
Church leaders to compose the Nicene Creed
that tries to explain the Trinity. Yet, he remained an unbeliever his whole
life, only to repent on his deathbed (Some say he did so to reduce his chance
of polluting his soul). Some, like the workers in the vineyard who labored the
longest wondering about the ones who barely worked at all, doubted his
sincerity, or faith, and his reward in Heaven.
Let’s make this question of doubt
really difficult. Consider this “what if” question: “What if Hitler after he
took that cyanide pill repented to God out of grief and guilt over what he had
done?” Would he get into Heaven? Do we doubt or believe it?
All three of these explanations of the
parable make sense, at least to me. First, certainly the life, crucifixion and
resurrection of Jesus represents a reconciliation of all humanity with
God, not just the Jewish people. No one is excluded from accepting the gift of
grace. God loves humanity and grace is a
universal gift.
Second, no one can doubt that Christians are all equal in faith.
We believe. We are not measured by how long we have been a Christian. It may be
that we are measured by the strength on our faith, because Jesus does say those
who are “first” may end up last, and some of us who are last will be “first,” but
the strength of our faith does not open or close the door to Heaven. This is
exactly what Paul was saying with his talk about the
strong and the weak. Paul said we are equal in the eyes of God.
Finally, remember grace is a gift - not
only a gift, but an invaluable gift of love from God for God’s own reason. It
can’t be earned, regardless of how long we work at trying to earn it. The
time we work at it pales in significance to its real value…
When we look at the story of the good
news, do not be too nearsighted and lose sight of the big picture. God’s
ways are not our ways. The way he works salvation and reconciliation are his
ways. As with Jonah, we are called to
proclaim the good news of that reconciliation to everyone, regardless of how
God choses to cause that reconciliation with all of humanity. Let’s just keep
our minds on the job and enjoy the worthy wage.
And,
by the way, the job requirements are found in the Philippians passage:
live your life in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ, …
standing firm in one spirit, striving side by side with one mind for the faith
of the gospel, in no way be intimidated by your opponents. For them this is
evidence of their destruction, but of your salvation. And this is God’s
doing. For he has graciously granted you the privilege not only of
believing in Christ, but of suffering for him as well—since you are having the
same struggle that you saw I had and now hear that I still have.”
I’ll leave you with one thought, if a
job is worth doing, the worthy reward is doing it as well as you can.
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