Matthew 20:1-16

The Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost | 9/24/2023 | Matthew 20:1-16 | Dr. Ryan Mills |

[Jesus said to the disciples:] ¹“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 the usual daily wage, 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 the usual daily wage. ¹⁰Now when the first came, they thought they would receive more; but each of them also received the usual daily wage. 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 the usual daily wage? 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” (Matthew 20:1-16, NRSV).

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son +, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

A couple years ago I noticed a little storefront on Orange Street near the church called “Labor Ready”—a day-labor agency that advertises in big letters out front, “Work Today, Paid Today.”  I thought I could go pick up some brochures, talk to some people, and learn something about today’s parable of the workers in the vineyard, workers who were hired to work for the day and were promised to be paid that day at the end of their labors.  And so I took off my collar and walked down to the Labor Ready office, and went to open the door, and lo and behold it was locked.  And now I have to admit, before the pandemic I was kind of used to going to hospitals or facilities that are locked, and have people see me and open the door.  So I knocked on the big glass door, with the manager and secretary standing in there five feet away, and they didn’t look up.  I thought, oh, they must not have heard me, and so I knocked again, and peered through the glass and waited, and I realized slowly that they would not meet my eyes.  Finally the manager just gave me a little shake of his head—“No”—and then it hit me:  Here it was 2 p.m. on a weekday at a day-labor office, and their sign said they opened at 5 a.m.  They figured I was there for work, and who wants to hire somebody for a day’s work at 2 in the afternoon?  Who wants to hire somebody who shows up 9 hours late on their first day?   And who knows if there was any work at 5 a.m. anyway, and if there was it probably needed strong backs and useful know-how, and not theological degrees!  And I have to admit in that moment that my pride was hurt, and I felt ashamed, and it didn’t seem fair as I stood on the sidewalk a few extra awkward moments.

         Today Jesus tells us a parable about hard work and unfair pay, an earthly story with a spiritual message.  Jesus says the Kingdom of God is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard.  And he agreed with the laborers for the usual daily wage, and sent them into his vineyard.

         These laborers don’t line up at the office to talk to the secretary, this Landowner on his own initiative goes out to find them and to put them to work, and then agrees with them to pay the usual daily wage, called a Denarius, which is actually a very generous daily wage, he’s not paying the federal minimum, this is a good paying job, with a good generous owner.  And they gladly get to work.

         But then, it appears the harvest is so huge, there’s so many grapes to bring in, that at 9 a.m. the Landowner goes out again, he’s again out and about searching for workers, and anyone he sees standing idle, he hires and says, “just get to work, I’ll pay you what is right,”  And then again he does the same thing at 12 noon and at 3 p.m., and even again at 5 out he goes, finding anyone in need, anyone idle, anyone hungry, “work for me, I’ll pay you what is right.”

         What kind of landowner is this?  What kind of employer is this?  This landowner is the living God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.  God who doesn’t delegate his love and care out to secretaries, but seeks us all out, coming to us again and again, even right now this morning, to bring us to faith and to put us to work for him.  He is generous in his hiring us in baptism, in his promised pay of forgiveness, and his retirement plan of eternal life.  He has the harvest of the whole world to bring in, people of every race and tongue and nation under heaven to be brought to faith in him, and to fervent love for one another.  And he doesn’t want to see anyone of us left behind, or standing idle, or without work, there is no unemployment in his kingdom– no, he has a task, a role, a job, a calling for each of us, everyone can work in God’s kingdom, because the Kingdom is open to everyone in faith; and he says, I want you –in your life, in your relationships, in your callings, in your church—I want you to bring in my harvest, and I’ll pay you come quitting time.

          So eventually 5:30 rolls around, and the checks get handed out first to the 5 p.m. hires, and lo and behold they open them and there it is in black and white—a full day’s pay, a full fat paycheck, no deductions, no adjustments for not being on the clock 8 ½ hours, here it is, more than you deserve, more than you earned, you barely began your new hire orientation, and already your paycheck is bulging.

And then you can imagine those who have been at work since dawn start licking their lips and seeing dollar signs, “If these Johnny-come-latelys who worked half an hour get a full day’s pay, just imagine what we are gonna get!”  We’ve earned it, here we go, and they open their checks, and they get the same exact dang amount.

Imagine their faces, imagine your face, as they double-check the math and begin grumbling against the landowner, “These worked half an hour, and you have made them equal to us, what kind of boss are you?”

“Friend,” the landowner Lord says, “My friend, I’m doing you no wrong, didn’t we agree for the usual daily wage, take what is yours, but I chose to give to this late group the same I give to you!  Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what is mine?  Or are you envious because I am generous?”

You know all our lives we think we want what is fair—we want what we deserve, what we have worked for, what we have coming to us, we want what’s ours by rights!  And that might work in the economy of this world, but it does not work for the economy of God.  Because God does not deal with us according to what is fair.  He does not pay us back for what we deserve.  If he did, we would all be in trouble, if we got what we deserved, we would have never been hired by him in the first place, and long ago we would be kicked to the curb, out on our ear, fired for our ungratefulness to the boss and our envy of our fellow workers, if we want what we have coming we would be shown to the door by the Almighty, permanently without a place in his Kingdom.

But instead, he is generous, he is full of grace, instead he gives us far more than we could ever ask for or imagine, not only giving us a full unearned paycheck of forgiveness, love and eternal life, but giving us that because he gave away his own Son–he gave away his own Son, so that he could make you his son, make you his daughter; he gave away his own Son to nothingness, so that he could give you everything.  “My friend,” he says, “this is what I choose to do, I choose you, I choose to give generously to you, and to make you mine!  And if those who came later, if those who have arrived later, get the same generous check as you, why is that a problem for you?”

A pastor friend of mine tells the story of visiting an elderly couple, where the wife was a faithful every-Sunday church lady involved in every single thing, and the husband was a hard-headed unbeliever who had never darkened the church door.  One week she was gone on a church trip, and so the pastor went to visit the husband alone and told him this parable about the workers hired at 5 p.m.  “What do you think it means” he asked?  “It sounds to me like you can get in late” the man said!  And the next day he called up and asked to be baptized.  At age 80 he came to faith, was harvested in, and he started showing up to worship, sitting in the wrong pew, singing in the wrong places, starting new ministries and projects that weren’t on the list, bringing other outsiders in– and his wife was hopping mad both at her husband, and the pastor.  She wanted what she had worked for, what she deserved, and here came her Johnny-come lately husband who received for free the same riches of the Kingdom as she had…and she couldn’t stand it!  “Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what is mine?” God asks?  “Or are you envious because I am generous?”

So come now, you who have worked hard, and you who have just shown up, you who are old, and you who are new, come up now not to get what you’ve earned or deserve, but to receive what God freely gives—his own Son, given in bread and wine, body and blood, given for you.  There is work for you this day, and this week—the harvest is huge and only together can we bring it in.  So be strengthened, be nourished, and come collect your pay up front—his love, his forgiveness and his eternal life, given for you, until that great day when, by pure grace, we are paid in full in the Kingdom.

And the Peace of God which passes all understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, Amen.

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The Rev. Dr. Ryan Mills

New Haven, Connecticut

Pastor@TrinityLutheranNH.org