Reading Matthew Ch 20 v 1 – 16
The Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard
“For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard. He agreed to pay them a denarius for the day and sent them into his vineyard.
“About nine in the morning he went out and saw others standing in the marketplace doing nothing. He told them, ‘You also go and work in my vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.’ So they went.
“He went out again about noon and about three in the afternoon and did the same thing. About five in the afternoon he went out and found still others standing around. He asked them, ‘Why have you been standing here all day long doing nothing?’
“‘Because no one has hired us,’ they answered. “He said to them, ‘You also go and work in my vineyard.’
“When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Call the workers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last ones hired and going on to the first.’
“The workers who were hired about five in the afternoon came and each received a denarius. So when those came who were hired first, they expected to receive more. But each one of them also received a denarius. When they received it, they began to grumble against the landowner. ‘These who were hired last worked only one hour,’ they said, ‘and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day.’
“But he answered one of them, ‘I am not being unfair to you, friend. Didn’t you agree to work for a denarius? Take your pay and go. I want to give the one who was hired last the same as I gave you. Don’t I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?’
“So the last will be first, and the first will be last.”
SERMON: “The Generous Landlord”
The parable we have today is titled the Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard. I would like to suggest to you that it could have a different title, that it could equally be called the Parable of the Generous Landlord.
Whatever you call this parable, it is for many of us one of the few parables left in the Bible that still has the power to disturb us and perhaps even anger us.
There is something about this parable that offends people and if you think about it for a minute or two you can see why.
Jesus tells his disciples that the kingdom of heaven is like a landlord who hires help at various times through the day so that some work twelve hours, some nine, some six, and some, the last ones, were hired only for one hour.
Perhaps that is a situation that we can relate to but what follows next is, according to some people, not quite as good,
What happens next is that at the end of the day when the boss pays off his workers, those he hired last receives not one hour’s pay but a whole day’s pay.
Now that’s great for them, but what happens after that doesn’t for some seem quite fair, what happens is that those who toiled all day long in the heat of the sun also only get a day’s pay.
Is that fair? Many people do not think so. Certainly the workers who toiled all day in the heat do not think so, and they grumble and then complain to the landlord.
“These men who were hired last worked only one hour and you have made them equal to us who have undertook the burden of the work and the heat of the day”.
It is an interesting point. Has something like this ever happened to you? Has it ever happened that you have had to work hard to get something and then someone breezes in towards the end and gets the same thing without all the effort?
If it has then you can understand where the labourers who worked all day long are coming from. If it has then you can understand why the answer of the landlord doesn’t sit too well with some people, the answer that says “don’t I have the right to do what I want with my own money”.
It is an upsetting parable especially if you look at it from the point of view of someone who believes that those who work harder and longer deserve more than those who work for less time and without as much difficulty.
The problem that these people have however is precisely that: They look at the parable, in fact they even look at life, from a point of view that is simply not God’s point of view.
Before going on let us remember that the workers who were hired in the morning received everything that was due to them for their labour.
They were contracted to do a day’s work for a day’s wage and that is the primary fact we need to remember. But we might also remember that those workers who were hired first had a great privilege: they knew from the very beginning of the day that they had work and they knew that they would be paid fairly for it.
Now, let us look at the parable from the point of view of those hired last.
All day long they stood around in the unemployment line whilst landlords came and went, but they were not hired. At home they had a family and nothing to feed them with, hope disappeared for them as the sun set across the sky.
They longed to be in the fields under that hot sun working for someone and at the end of the day being paid a wage which would feed and clothe their family.
And finally, just as their last hope is about to set with the sun someone comes and hires them and tells them that they will receive whatever is fair. And they go, and they work with the hope of bringing home something, a small portion of a day’s wage, which will hopefully be enough to maybe survive another day.
It’s tough being an outsider, being one who has no hope or very little hope. And I’m not talking here about unemployment though I know what that is like as well. I’m talking about being an outsider with no hope, or at the best very little.
And so you can imagine just how those hired last felt when the time to be paid came.
They probably didn’t feel very good at all, they knew they were going to get something but would it be enough to go around? Would it be enough to really help them all that much? Would it be enough to feed their wife and their children? Who might have to go without? Who could afford to eat less?
But then the landlord does something what appears to be completely crazy, completely wild, completely unexpected, completely and totally generous something beyond their wildest dreams……….. he gives them a full day’s wage!
He gives them a full day’s wage even though they haven’t earned it and by doing so he gives them enough to live on, for their families, their homes, their very lives.
That’s incredible isn’t it? But that is what happened. And I would like to offer you the thought, that is what the kingdom of heaven is like.
So what is really the problem with this parable? Why are some people so unhappy with it? Why do the workers who worked all day grumble and complain? I think it is because they have forgotten just how lucky they are?
They are so used to the certainty of their salvation, so used to being part of God’s work and being guaranteed their reward that they can no longer remember or imagine what being outside is like? What being without God is like?
They forget, and they begin to complain, and their complaints are based on the worst of all things, they are based on comparisons, and selfish ones at that like I’ve worked harder, I’ve been here longer, I’ve done more, I have had to go through this so should you.
All sense of their own blessedness disappears and how sad is that?
But praise be to God that the kingdom of God does not work that way. The kingdom of God works on the basis of God’s love and not on the basis of what we deserve.
I believe that if the people who are now working in the vineyard, would only remember how blessed they are, they would stop grumbling and complaining about other people.
What I am saying is that many people, perhaps you, perhaps not, need to refresh their thinking about life and about God.
You see, we may be the workers who have worked all day in the heat but we will be paid what we agreed to, we are secure and safe for we know what is coming to us and that it is enough, and as such it is not for us to grumble and complain because God reaches out to others and treats them well.
There is Gospel to be found in this parable. The Gospel of The Landlord’s love and in other words The Gospel of God’s love.
The Landlord / God looks at us, and he sees our needs and he meets those needs. And the question in God’s mind is not ‘how much do these people deserve?’ but rather, ‘how can I help them? How can I save them before they perish?’
And that is God’s right and God’s pleasure, just as it is a landlord’s right and pleasure to be generous with his help, to give them more than they deserve, to make their hearts glad if he or she so choses.
It is all grace and blessings. It is grace to be hired in the morning, and grace to be hired at noon time and grace to be hired near the end of the day. And we should do well to remember that.
Jesus said “The last will be first, and the first last.” Not to tell us how things are in the world, but to warn those who are first about the dangers of forgetting how we got to be first, the danger of being so comfortable in our position of being first that we dare to question God’s love for others who happen along after us.
The parable of the Generous Landlord is offensive, if you believe that God’s love is something you earn.
It is offensive if you measure other people rather than really try to love them as God loves them.
It is offensive if you do not cry over the hunger of the unemployed and weep over those who are wasting their lives away in things that do not profit them.
It is offensive if you are the kind of worker who believes that seniority is the only important thing or the kind of business man who thinks that generosity only counts if it is tax deductible.
But for those who have eyes to see and ears to hear the parable is glorious news about God’s love for us all. Indeed it is a source of hope and strength for everyone who is called to labour in God’s field rather than be left to perish in the marketplace with those who have not been chosen.
May our prayer to God could/should be this:
O you who has given so much to me, give me one thing more, a grateful heart, and help me Lord to remember that while it is possible to give without loving, it is impossible to love without giving.
Amen
PRAYERS
Thank you, gracious God, for always giving us much, much more than we can earn or ever deserve. Compared with our calculating, tight-fisted way of doing business with one another, your love towards us seems reckless, extravagant, and unbelievably gracious.
You have given us our lives, our families, our homes, and our friends. You have given us confidence for this day and hope for tomorrow. Forgive us when we consider all of this our right rather than as your gift from you.
Forgive us too for when we have resented the love you show towards others who have not served you as long as us – for when we have been angry because you have brought joy to others….
Lord in your mercy hear our prayer
Father, you call us to work in your vineyard – to reach out to others in your name – and bring your healing word, your gentle touch, your embracing love to them. Help us to be good workers – ones that seek the lost in the market places and village squares – ones who are unafraid to see in a stranger the image of Christ and in a sinner a brother or sister for whom he died and rose again. Empower us as individuals and as a church to be the kind of ambassadors who know and do your will so well that in meeting us – people meet you.
Lord in your mercy hear our prayer
We also pray today for the needs of those around us who are in need – be it in body, mind, soul or spirit. We offer up to you those we know personally who struggling and in a moment of silence we offer them up to you (at this point please offer to God any one you wish to pray for).
Lord in your mercy hear our prayer
We ask all these things and proclaim your praise and your goodness through Christ Jesus our Lord.
Merciful Father, accept these prayers for the sake of your Son, our saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.
And so sealing our prayer together, we pray the prayer that Jesus Christ taught his disciples… the Lord’s Prayer
Our Father, who art in heaven,
Hallowed be thy name, Thy kingdom come,
Thy will be done; on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory, For ever and ever.
Amen
Revd Kevin. Priest at St.Wilfrid and St.Thomas
