“Laborers in the Vineyard” Matthew 20:1-16

 “But, that’s not fair!” Has anyone heard that statement from one of the children in your life? Or have any of you said “Life’s not fair” in return. 

It is true that life is not fair. But even though we try to teach our children that amidst their cries demanding fairness, the reality is that even as adults we seek out fairness. Perhaps that is one of the reasons that this parable, which is only found in the Gospel of Matthew, rubs us the wrong way. We recognize that it isn’t fair - and we don’t like it. 

Jesus is once again trying to teach folks what the Kingdom of God is like, using something that they understand - vineyards. Vineyards that needs extra workers when it is time for the harvest. So a landowner goes out and starts collecting people to help with the task before them - clearly stating what he would pay them for the work of the day. 

Only the first group of people weren’t enough for the work - so when he saw people standing around the marketplace, he asked them if they would like to work as well. He did this again and again, until it got time to call it quits for the day. He told the foreman to bring in all of the workers and one after the other, he handed them their wages - the agreed upon denarius. 

Only the folks who were there with the morning sun, those who had worked the most hours - they wanted more than what had been agreed upon when they saw that everyone was getting the same wage as them without putting in the same hours. You can hear the cries now, can’t you “but that’s not fair! We don’t deserve to be equal with everyone else. We’ve been here longer.”

In some ways this parable reminds me of another that is found in the Gospel of Luke - the parable of the prodigal son. I can hear the cries of the older, obedient, hardworking older brother who was faithfully at his father’s side, and who was upset when the prodigal son returned home and was showered with a homecoming party. “It’s not fair!”

While the Gospel of Matthew never uses the word “grace” its still talking about grace in this parable. A grace that is lavish and a grace that is not fair. 

This is also a unique parable because we find Jesus pointing to the landowner, as an image for God. While Jesus often speaks about the Kingdom, he does not often use these parables of teaching to speak of God’s divine governance. Except here. 

God doesn’t rule by the niceties of the land. God rules with a heart of grace.

And the grace of God is generous. The grace of God will not let us go -as the landowner goes out again and again, four times in total, even to the final hour before the workday would close, to find people to come. To come and be part of this work. 

But how do we respond to the generosity of God, church? Well we can end up sounding a whole lot like those folks who showed up to work first. Those who were in the right spot to get the job early in the morning. Those eager to work hard. 

Until.

Until we end up being a little envious because God is just as generous to everyone else. 

Ouch. 

This parable can rub us the wrong way, friends, because it can hit a little bit too close to home. Too close when we say that folks who are new to the faith 'haven’t been around long enough’ to have their voices heard. Or when we say that people need to ‘pay their dues’ or ‘get to know how things are done around here’ before we have them as part of the leadership. Or when we seek to serve ourselves, those already here first, instead of seeing that the mission of the Kingdom of God is for those who are not yet here - as evidenced by the landowner going out again and again and again. 

Then we can sound a little bit like those first workers. Shouldn’t we be taken care of first? Shouldn’t this put us further ahead in the Kingdom? Where’s our bonus for working harder and longer?

To which God replies - I’m not being unfair. I gave you exactly what I promised - life and life abundant. 

The grace of God shakes the very foundations of our understanding - turning everything around so we see it not from the eyes of the world, but from the eyes of the Kingdom. And we are okay with that when it’s to our benefit, but when it looks like we aren’t the ones being favored - then we aren’t as happy about the economics of the Kingdom and grace. 

This parable ends with perhaps one of the most well known verses in the Gospel of Matthew - “So the last will be first, and the first will be last.” When we hear that its not just about turning the heiracrchy of the time - which was a real thing - upside down. It wasn’t just about higher and lower rank. It was also about upending who comes earlier and later. Temporal time does not mean the same thing in the Kingdom of God. 

My parents have been teaching Sunday school since around the time I was born. When their class first started, it was mostly young parents like them - trying to wrangle kids into coats and carseats to get to church on Sunday morning. Knowing that work to be rough at times, they named their class “Better Late than Never”. Even as the participants in that class have moved from being parents to grandparents, the name has stayed the same. Because the name is an act of grace. Even if you can’t be here first - come when you can. God has something here for you. 

Friends, we do not earn a gold-star with God because of the length of time that we have been on this journey of faith. That isn’t how it works. The gift that we receive for being on this journey is the journey itself. Being a disciple. Sharing the faith. Growing closer to Jesus. 

But in order to accept that gift we need to come apart from the ways of the world that tells us about earning and deserving. Those are not words within the Kingdom. And replace them with mercy and grace - which is how God deals with us and with others. 

What would it take to transform the way you see the world and how would that change the way you live out your faith? Amen.