Workers in the field. Matthew 20:1-16

As I started to prepare for this Sundays talk the thought that was uppermost in my mind was God’s generosity towards us, for Psalm 84 verse 11 says, “The Lord bestows favour and honour”. I interpreted that to mean that the Lord is generous.

For God is generous by nature, just look at what He bestows to us. His gifts are precious and are given to us freely. He gives His grace to us even when we fall short because He loves us. He gives His generosity to those who seek it, He is generous to sinners because they need it.

Our reading from Matthew is very thought provoking, it is a story of a landowner who hires workers at different times of the day and then pays them all one Denarius at the end of the working day, no matter how long or how briefly they had worked. There’s nothing out of the ordinary with that, but tempers flared when they stood around and their wages were paid. Let’s dig deeper into this challenging parable.

We must remember that in this parable the landowner is God. Now the landowner called several workers in the morning to work in his vineyard. He agreed to pay them one Denarius for the day, which they accepted as a fair wage and the workers were happy. At the third, sixth, ninth and eleventh hour the landowner employed more workers. He sent them to work in the vineyard saying, “I will pay you whatever is right”. When evening came which was about 6pm, the landowner paid all the workers the same amount one denarius. No matter how long they had worked. Those workers who worked the full day received what they had agreed, they were not cheated in any way. But they were unhappy that those who worked less received the same amount.

As I said earlier this is a challenging parable, but what I think Jesus is saying is that it is all a question of deserving, for no one truly deserves to enter the kingdom of God through their own means, for you can’t earn it for who you are, or what work you do.

We need to understand two things in this parable. Firstly, the denarius represents salvation. All who are chosen by God receive the same salvation equally, no matter how long they have served God, no matter how long they have been Christian’s. Remember the criminal on the cross next to Jesus believed in the last minutes of his life, but he received the same salvation as any other believer.

The second thing that we need to understand is that God is fair, He agreed to pay those who worked 12 hours a denarius, he kept his agreement. He was also generous with those workers who worked less. He actually paid them more than they deserved. How can being generous be unfair, God’s grace is free and God gives it to whom he chooses. Our salvation is a free gift from God, we cannot earn it, and in reality, we don’t even deserve it, but God is merciful.

I believe it was through envy that’s those who had worked the full 12 hour shift began to grumble. Why did they start to grumble? Not because of any injustice, but because they were envious. Do any of us here occasionally experience this same kind of envy, I have to hold my hand up and say, ‘yes, I have. Someone gets a promotion or a higher salary, and what do we do we grumble because we are envious.

The landowner said to one of the workers who had worked all day, “I am not being unfair to you”. If I want to be generous with those who worked less, that is my right, “are you envious because I am generous?”. We must never grumble against God, we can cry out to him, but we should not grumble because of our envy.

God has actually made an agreement with all believers, God has agreed to give us a wage, which is eternal life. We agree to serve him through our faith, our belief in Him and our work for the kingdom through our own individual ministries. We should not complain, for God will keep His side of the bargain, we must keep ours.

We now come to the difficult part of our reading. ‘So, the last will be first, and the first will be last’. Jesus is not saying that the first will go to the back of the line and the last will go to the front. There is no first or last, there is no line, actually there is only God. The last and the first will enter the kingdom at whatever moment they came to believe.

Here we are reminded that eternal life is fundamentally a gift from God, and while our reward is the gift of eternal life which is given to all who turn to Jesus, whether early in life or late, will receive this gift because of God’s great generosity and mercy. There will be many people we don’t expect to see in the kingdom who will be there. The criminal who repented as he was dying will be there along with people who have believed for many years.

This parable is not about rewards, but about salvation, our salvation. This parable is about God’s grace to us, God’s generously given freely to all you believe in Him. Romans chapter 10 verse 9 sums this all up. “That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

So, this parable is not about the ‘labourers’ it’s not a parable about the growth of the vineyard, we hear about the complaints, but it’s not about those either. Jesus highlights in this parable the generosity of God. For He is the “ultimate” landowner.

To conclude, the landowner’s question in this parable is actually Jesus’ punchline for the whole of the story and it is, “Are you envious because I am generous?” Jesus said that the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who we have seen this morning wanting to give everyone a fair chance to work on the harvest. For that reason, the landowner kept returning to the marketplace to recruit anyone who would respond to that call. He made no false promises; he didn’t exaggerate any false claim on those who were offered work and for that reason the landowner accepted the contribution of all who came to work for him. The landowner valued every individual to the same extent, just as God values each of us, and for that reason they were all paid the same amount, one denarius.

Blessings Rev Ian.