God's Abundance

  

Text: Matthew 20:1-16

Focus: Mercy

Function: to illustrate God’s grace

20:¹For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. ²After agreeing with the laborers for a denarius for the day, he sent them into his vineyard. ³When he went out about nine o’clock, he saw others standing idle in the marketplace, ⁴and he said to them, ‘You also go into the vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.’ So they went. ⁵When he went out again about noon and about three o’clock, he did the same. ⁶And about five o’clock he went out and found others standing around, and he said to them, ‘Why are you standing here idle all day?’ ⁷They said to him, ‘Because no one has hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You also go into the vineyard.’ ⁸When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his manager, ‘Call the laborers and give them their pay, beginning with the last and then going to the first.’ ⁹When those hired about five o’clock came, each of them received a denarius. ¹⁰Now when the first came, they thought they would receive more; but each of them also received a denarius. ¹¹And when they received it, they grumbled against the landowner, ¹²saying, ‘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.’ ¹³But he replied to one of them, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong; did you not agree with me for a denarius? ¹⁴Take what belongs to you and go; I choose to give to this last the same as I give to you. ¹⁵Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or are you envious because I am generous?’ ¹⁶So the last will be first, and the first will be last.

Good morning beloved of God!

This morning’s text speaks to us about what I would call the unlimited power of God’s grace.

We are talking about God’s mercy that extends to everyone and does not take into account the worthiness of the person receiving God’s mercy and grace.

Hopefully you were able to follow the parable well enough without me repeating it. Jesus illustrates how humans do not get the message of grace that God is trying to show us.

He points out that some workers worked the whole day in the sun and others less and a few just one hour and they all got paid a day’s wages.

People were poor and wages were small. A denarius was the day rate for a poor worker. It wasn’t much, but just like medieval times when there were serfs who worked the fields for the rich and had little rights and little to live on, the people worked for that wage because they had no other choice. It was expected to get that pay for a day’s work. Although everyone got paid only a little, it was the prevailing wage and it was acceptable. People were used to it. It wasn’t enough, but it was what was expected.

So, Jesus illustrates a human condition. When the people saw that those who worked a few hours were paid what now became a generous amount by the landowner, they expected to get more for themselves and were disappointed, naturally, because they got the same amount.

The landowner points out the he paid them the amount to which they agreed. He was fair to them by community and cultural standards of a denarius for a day’s wage. Normally, they would have been satisfied with that amount until the landowner became generous with other people and not them.

I think they were right to be disappointed. And I think that Jesus tells the story to help them get past that kind of disappointment.

He wants them to know that God is generous with mercy.

Now the first sentence comes into play here. The kingdom of heaven has this kind of value system and it is different from the human system where people have to earn the favor they get from others.

God gives God’s love to everyone based on the generous nature of God, not on whether or not they earned it.

And when he says the kingdom of heaven, some people take it to mean that this is a parable about God’s grace for when we get to heaven.

In heaven no one will lack and everyone will have enough. We imagine heaven to be this kind of Utopia.

It is a contrast to our human system that says favor must be earned and there are some who earn it and some who don’t.

And it does speak of our eternal state. I heard the story of a Medieval king who knew he was a sinner, but waited to be baptized until near his death so that he could get away with “sinning” until right at the end and then be forgiven.

I disagree with that theology and won’t get into it except to state that the problem was that he was thinking that his salvation was a reward for his living.

It isn’t

Salvation is the gift of God’s love to humanity. And it goes to everyone regardless of their own merit.

I have had the pleasure of seeing at least four men on different occasions who had previously refused to acknowledge their trust in Jesus their whole lives until their death bed. I saw everyone be filled with the joy of the Holy Spirit and weep as they acknowledged that they knew their sins were forgiven.

God loves and accepts people. God wants everyone back.

But this isn’t just about what happens in heaven. This is about a heavenly order for human society.

That comes from our last verse. The first will be last and the last will be first. This is about human hierarchy, power and domination. God’s kingdom of generosity toward everyone else does not wait until heaven to get it started. The disciples took Jesus teachings and started a society where everyone shard everything with each other and no one lacked.

They made sure that everyone had enough and that no one hoarded their excess out of fear for the future. They lived by faith that God would provide for them is they shared.

Do you remember the story of the manna from heaven? The Israelites were stuck in the desert without a source of food and God rained this sweet and nutritious substance from the sky every day except Saturday to provide for them. There was enough for a quart a day per person.

When it first came down, some people went out early a gathered more than enough to corner the marker and sell it to their neighbors.

And when that happened, Somehow God shrank the excess that they collected and grew the pittance that others were forced to collect. God didn’t allow them to take advantage of their neighbor for profit.

Jesus points out that the kingdom of heaven is different than the human system of meritocracy.

The kingdom of heaven is based on grace and mercy for everyone. Let us reflect that same mercy with others.