Grace to you from God our Father and
our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen
The text
for this meditation is written in the 20th Chapter of the Gospel
according to St Matthew: Verses 1 - 16
“For the kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house who went out early in the morning to hire labourers for his vineyard. 2 After agreeing with the labourers for a denarius a day, he sent them into his vineyard. 3 And going out about the third hour he saw others standing idle in the marketplace, 4 and to them he said, ‘You go into the vineyard too, and whatever is right I will give you.’ 5 So they went. Going out again about the sixth hour and the ninth hour, he did the same. 6 And about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing. And he said to them, ‘Why do you stand here idle all day?’7 They said to him, ‘Because no one has hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You go into the vineyard too.’ 8 And when evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Call the labourers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last, up to the first.’ 9 And when those hired about the eleventh hour came, each of them received a denarius. 10 Now when those hired first came, they thought they would receive more, but each of them also received a denarius. 11 And on receiving it they grumbled at the master of the house, 12 saying, ‘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.’ 13 But he replied to one of them, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius? 14 Take what belongs to you and go. I choose to give to this last worker as I give to you. 15 Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or do you begrudge my generosity?’ 16 So the last will be first, and the first last.”
“For the kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house who went out early in the morning to hire labourers for his vineyard. 2 After agreeing with the labourers for a denarius a day, he sent them into his vineyard. 3 And going out about the third hour he saw others standing idle in the marketplace, 4 and to them he said, ‘You go into the vineyard too, and whatever is right I will give you.’ 5 So they went. Going out again about the sixth hour and the ninth hour, he did the same. 6 And about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing. And he said to them, ‘Why do you stand here idle all day?’7 They said to him, ‘Because no one has hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You go into the vineyard too.’ 8 And when evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Call the labourers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last, up to the first.’ 9 And when those hired about the eleventh hour came, each of them received a denarius. 10 Now when those hired first came, they thought they would receive more, but each of them also received a denarius. 11 And on receiving it they grumbled at the master of the house, 12 saying, ‘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.’ 13 But he replied to one of them, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius? 14 Take what belongs to you and go. I choose to give to this last worker as I give to you. 15 Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or do you begrudge my generosity?’ 16 So the last will be first, and the first last.”
This
Gospel passage is part of a longer teaching.
Jesus has basically been teaching that everyone who enters the kingdom
of God does so by a miracle of God. He
has recently taught that the chances of a rich person entering heaven are not
even as good as the chances of a camel passing through the eye of a
needle. The thing is that the culture of
the day believed that rich people were especially favoured by God and so when
they hear Jesus saying that rich people face impossible odds of entering
heaven, to them Jesus was saying that no one has a chance. He then went on to say, [Matthew 19:26] “With man this is impossible, but with God
all things are possible.” With these
words we learn that our entry into the kingdom of God is a miracle that only He
can perform.
Jesus
then told us something else that we, as humans, have trouble understanding. He said, [Matthew
19:30] “Many who are first will be last, and the last first.” This He illustrated with the parable we heard
in today’s Gospel.
Right
across modern Australia where fruit and vegetables are grown, we see a large
annual influx of backpackers from all over the world who come to work at
harvest time. Recent proposed changes to the ‘back packer’ tax laws brought
strong protests from the farmers, as they totally rely on these people to get
their crops in and processed. They desperately and successfully opposed the tax
thereby maintaining the incentive for the back packers to travel to Australia
for the harvest.
In our
Gospel reading, Jesus began talking about a similar situation. The ‘casual workforce’ would gather at the
local market, which was usually located on the main road that entered the city
from the countryside, waiting to be hired.
The rain was coming and the grapes had to be harvested ASAP or they
would be ruined. Because of the great demand for Casual labourers the landowner
went to the market early in the day and hired all those available. The working
day was 12 hours, from 6:00am to 6:00pm. Over the day he keeps returning to the market to
see if there is more; and because he is desperate to get the grapes harvested, he
even went back at 3:00pm and 5:00pm.
I
reality, it was unheard of to hire anyone at the eleventh hour (5:00pm)… an
hour before the end of the working day.
The hour would pretty much be over by the time they walked out to the
vineyard, located the foreman, and received their instructions. There wouldn’t be much time left for them to
do any productive work for the landowner.
Never the less, Jesus tells of a landowner who is still hiring at the
eleventh hour.
So the
landowner in Jesus’ parable really starts to confuse everyone when he hires
people at the ninth and eleventh hours, but that confusion turned to
bewilderment when they hear his pay policy.
When it is time to pay the workers at the end of the day, this seemingly
irrational landowner paid the eleventh hour workers first and he paid them a
whole day’s pay! As his paymaster
continued to pay the workers, the labourers who had been in the vineyard since
dawn began to think they were in line for a bonus. After all, if the casuals who barely had time
to walk out from town got a day’s pay, then they should get a lot more. As it turned out, their rationalisations were
unrealistic. They also received a day’s
pay … no more … no less.
The
grumbling began. Notice that the problem
is not the amount of the pay. The landowner paid according to their
agreement. They cannot say they were
robbed. Listen to the complaint
again. 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. – “Equal to us” Outrage;
envy – ‘Surely we are more entitled; more important; after all we have been
here the longest!!
Envy is a nasty business: Search the
pages of the Old Testament: Out of envy Cain murdered his brother Abel; Saul
originally loved David but when Saul “saw that David was “a man after God’s own
heart” he was filled with envy and wanted to kill him. Joseph’s brothers became
envious of him and bound him and threw him in a hole and left him for
dead.
The
devastating effect of envy is there for us to read, and yet it remains a powerful
force of self-destruction in our society especially today. There is envy and loathing of people simply
because they are rich, or they got the promotion or they seem more popular or
for whatever reason.
Sadly even
within the Christian Church this emotion festers and causes division and hurt. People
get envious of those who have responsible positions, the best worship centre,
God given talents etc. etc. This is sad
in any organisation, but it is especially sad in the church because there is
one and only one person who is to have influence in the church, and that is
Jesus Christ! How much grief, anguish,
and division do we experience because we do not look to Jesus Christ and His
Word as the ultimate influence among us?
The
parable Jesus told in today’s Gospel challenges this. I like to use that old Australian idiom for a
person who seems easily fooled – ‘A soft touch’ In last week’s parable the King
who forgave the large debt seemed to be a ‘soft touch’ and now in today’s
parable we have a boss who pays a days wages for one hour’s work; he has to be
a ‘soft touch’. Unfortunately, that is a very human perception; because in
Biblical terms, when we really look at it, the person in a parable who we
consider to be a ‘soft touch’ usually represents God. The work day in this parable represents a
lifetime. Sometimes parents bring their
children to the font and those children belong to Christ throughout their lives
and on into eternity. These are the 6:00am
labourers. Then there are those times
when people in their adult life or on their deathbed repent and are baptised. These
are the ninth and eleventh hour labourers; and our loving God welcomes these people
into His kingdom joyfully. The point is that God can draw people into His
church; His earthly Kingdom at any time in life … even at the last minute.
In the
end, God pays us all with the same pay.
It is the pay that Jesus earned when He took our envy and all our other
sins to the cross. With His suffering
and death He earned the wage of forgiveness, life, and salvation for the
world. He certified the validity of His
victory over sin, death, and the power of the devil by rising from the dead on
the third day. All the people in the
vineyard receive the same pay, life forever in the gracious presence of God,
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
This
parable illustrates the idea that we are not more important than other
Christians simply because we have been a Christian for a long time or hold some
official office in the church. In the
same way, we are not less important than or subordinate to other Christians
simply because we are relatively new to the Christian faith. How often I have been approached by those who
are full of despair over their loved ones who have not yet come to the font of
grace. This parable reminds us that it is never too late. Jesus calls us to
pray and believe that as long as a person is still alive, the Holy Spirit can
work faith in them.
On two
occasions whilst holding studies on this parable, the comment is made “That
means I can do my own thing now and worry about church and salvation later in
life!” – Really? Do we shun Jesus and play Russian roulette with our eternal
salvation. Do we know if we will wake in
the morning? Can we be sure of a safe
trip home from church? Now may be our eleventh hour. Now is the day of salvation.
When Jesus
said, [Matthew 19:30] “Many
who are first will be last, and the last first.” He was speaking to all mankind. He was
speaking to the Jews of the day who considered themselves superior in God’s
sight and marked exclusively for salvation. He was speaking to us who, through
the weakness of our own human nature, tend to compare ourselves with others and
classify ourselves in terms of priority and importance. Jesus is telling us
that it is dangerous to compare ourselves to other people. When we do that, we take your eyes off of
Jesus. Our salvation is not based on how
much better we are than the other person.
It is based on the price Jesus paid on the cross. He is the one who earned our salvation. He is the object of the faith that saves …
the faith that the Holy Spirit works in us.
Dear friends, the idea that our work for the church earns
us points with God is so seductive.
Only the power of God that comes from the cross of our Lord and Saviour
Jesus Christ can save us from its subtle attraction. The love that flows from that cross shows us
that God already holds us in the highest place in His heart. It is this love at work in us that motivates
us while we live on this earth. It is
this love at work in us that will keep us in His arms forever.
God continues to search the market
place of this world looking for workers for His vineyard. He may find workers in
the market place early in the morning in infants. The Holy Spirit may find us in the market and
give us faith at the exhalation of the last breath before sun down. He may find us sometime in between. When He
does His Holy Spirit works faith in us through the Word combined with the water
of Holy Baptism. No matter when we receive this faith, we know that all the
guilt of every sin is gone – taken away by the Son’s sacrifice on the
cross. We know that, by His resurrection
and ascension, our Lord Jesus Christ has prepared a place for us. Whether our faith is old or young, we all
receive the gift of life everlasting. Amen.
The love
and peace of our Great Triune God that is beyond all human understanding, keep
your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen
No comments:
Post a Comment