Göttinger Predigten
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Pentecost 17, 10/01/2017
Sermon on Matthew 20:1-16a, by David Mielke
A while back I read an excerpt of the autobiography of former Chrysler Corporation chairman Lee Iacocca.
He wrote of an incident that occurred when he was in the sixth grade. There was an election for captain of the safety patrol and young Lee lost by two votes. One of his classmates pointed out to him that the total number of votes was greater than the number of students in the class. But when Iacocca told his teacher, she simply advised him to let the matter rest. It was, he recalls, his first lesson in the fact that life would not always be fair.
When Matt and Laura were children there occasionally would be similar situations which seemed unjust and defied explanation. My response would be, “Life is not fair.” Our children hated to hear me say it.
How many times have you and I looked at life and complained, somewhat bitterly, "Life isn't fair." Even God doesn't seem to play fair. This morning’s Gospel lesson reflects that view perfectly and I will briefly sum it up.
The landowner hired laborers at different hours during the day. Each agreed to work for a day’s wage.
At the end of the day all were paid the same – those who worked all day and those who worked only an hour.
The day-long workers complained that the wage they were paid wasn’t fair. In response the landowner told them, "Didn't I pay you what we had agreed on? If I want to be more generous with these others is it not my right? Is it not my money to do with as I please?"
That's a hard teaching, particularly when applied to the subject of salvation, since most of us in the church identify with those who have labored all day long. This may be one of Jesus' most difficult teachings to accept. Is it true? Can a person be an absolute scoundrel right up until the moment of his or her death and then repent, confess Christ, and receive the gift of eternal life as if he or she had been a saint?
Ty Cobb may have been the greatest baseball player of all time. Most fans knew, though, that Cobb was not a nice man. He was basically selfish, mean and surly and an overt racist. In 1961, Ty Cobb lay dying and a pastor came to his bedside urging him to repent of his sins and confess Jesus Christ as his Lord. Cobb looked up from his deathbed and said, "Is that all I have to do?” The pastor assured him it could. Ty Cobb then confessed Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior. A short time later he died, and we can only assume he rests with all the faithful in Christ’s care as would a life-long Sunday school teacher. That's wonderful, but it's not fair.
Pastors Ford, Lockley and I had a New Testament professor at Gettysburg Seminary we held in high esteem. Gerhard Krodel was drafted into the German Luftwaffe toward the end of the war and was a fighter pilot on the eastern front. He was only 15 years old and saw first hand the destruction perpetrated by the Nazis and he hated it. When we studied this text in Dean Krodel’s Gospel class he would pose this question: will you be shocked and disappointed at the Great Parousia if Hitler is there in Heaven with you? What could we say?
How can we respond to the Gospel telling us that everyone gets the same reward no matter when in life they accept Jesus Christ as their Savior? If that’s the case then why not live a life of sin and wait until the last moment to repent? Of course, it’s tempting for people to live any kind of life they desire ant then turn to God at the last moment before their death. But Jesus tells the disciples that no one knows the day of his death. But still, how do we answer such a question? It’s not so hard for people who have lived their life in the Christian faith.
You see, the question assumes that a life of sin is more desirable than a life of faith. Why else would we be concerned about waiting until the last moment? Let me ask you a serious question.
What would you change about your life if you thought you knew there was no judgment or eternity? Would you be less loving toward your family? Would you cheat on your wife? Would you be dishonest? I don't think so. We know the old saying that "virtue is its own reward" is true. There are reasons other than fear of hell to keep our wedding vows, love our families, and act ethically in our relationships. We seek to live virtuous lives not out of fear, but because we have looked around and seen that the moral life is truly the best way to live in this world. We cannot imagine a world without moral values or family ties. We may joke about the attractiveness of sin, but deep in our hearts we know that a life of sin leads only to the destruction of everything that is good and lasting and ultimately satisfying in this world. Deep in our heart we know Satan is the enemy and he tempts us to be something less than the beautiful, whole, healthy, loving children of God, that He created us to be.
What would you honestly change about your life if you knew that there was no heaven or hell? I suspect very little. Some of you are probably thinking that if there was no heaven or hell you wouldn’t have to sit through any more boring sermons. But actually, if it is the fear of judgment that brings you to church, you probably do not worship God as you should. When we come to the mature realization that we seek to do right not to please an angry God, but because it is ultimately in our best interest to do right, the death bed confession is no longer something we would envy. Indeed, we would pity him for taking so long to see what we have known all along.
By the grace of God we do right because in the long run it is in the best interest of ourselves and those we love.
But there is a second question. If God wants to be generous with others, then shouldn't we rejoice?
There is something very human about the complaints of those who worked all day long and received the same wage. What is there within us that judges not on the basis of what we have received, but on the basis of what we have received in relation to others? I taught with Ben at ASU who was hired in 1952 along with another similarly qualified man, Bill. Around 1980, Ben discovered he was making fifty dollars less per year than Bill.
He couldn’t stand it and “raised the roof” until the administration finally relented and equalized their base salaries. The thing about it was that Ben was satisfied with what he was receiving until he discovered that Bill was paid just a bit more per year. And for some people when the wage happens to be the gift of salvation, the principle is even more critical. We who have been promised salvation by grace must rejoice when others receive that same gift – no matter what their stage in life – after living a life of degradation.
The truth of the matter is that none of us deserves the gift of salvation. We sing, "Amazing grace how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me..." It is amazing. A righteous God accepts you and me as if we had never done anything wrong in our entire lives. Why would anyone want to wait to have the joy of salvation?
Why would we not testify that living for Jesus Christ is the best way in the world to live? That cancels the notion that it would be better to enjoy our sin and wait until just before the end. Living with sin is simply stupid.
Many years ago a little boy daily watched his two favorite television programs Captain Kangaroo and Mister Rogers. One day it was announced that Mr. Rogers was going to visit Captain Kangaroo’s Treasure House.
The boy was ecstatic. Both of his heroes, together on the same show! Every morning the boy would ask,
"Is it today that Mister Rogers will be on Captain Kangaroo?" Finally the great day arrived, and the whole family gathered around the television. There they were, Mister Rogers and Captain Kangaroo together.
The boy watched for a minute, but then, surprisingly, got up and started crying. His father asked him, "What is it, son? Is anything wrong?" “No,” the boy replied. "But it's just too good. It’s just too good."
That's how we ought to feel about the message of God's grace. Not that it's unfair, but that it is just too incomprehensibly good. It doesn't matter when we come to faith in God, we need to just come.
AMEN