Text: Matt 20:1-16
In the name of + Jesus. Amen.
“Life isn’t fair.” You probably heard
someone say that to you at some point in your life. Maybe when you suffered your first major
disappointment. Maybe one of your
parents or grandparents said this to you.
“Life isn’t fair.” It’s a dose of
reality about our fallen world. There is
injustice. There are people who get away
with things, who don’t get what they deserve.
There are times when we don’t get what we deserve.
And that’s just how life is. If we expect things to be fair in the realm of the devil, the world, and our sinful nature, we will be disappointed. And so, our elders will sometimes just shrug and say, “Life isn’t fair.” It’s a bitter pill to swallow, dear friends.
And as bad as it is in our fallen world, the fact that “life isn’t fair” in the “kingdom of heaven” is good news for us! For what do we deserve from God, dear friends? While we complain about people all around us getting off scot-free, and not facing justice, what about us?
Are you perfect? Have you committed sins? You must have. I heard you all speak the confession at the beginning of this service. You called yourself a “poor, miserable sinner.” I did too. You said that you, “justly deserved” God’s “temporal and eternal punishment.” So did I. And if it isn’t true, then you lied – so it must be true. And yes, let’s be honest: it is true. According to our works, we deserve to be punished in this life by suffering here in time, and in by suffering in eternity in hell.
Life isn’t fair. If it were, we would all be in prison until we die, and in hell after we die. You know the people that make you angry because they get away with stuff? Well, go look in the mirror.
The “kingdom of heaven” is a rigged system. It is unjust and unfair. Jesus Himself says so by means of a story called, “The Parable of the Laborers in the Vineyard” which we just heard. Let me remind you of how that went.
A guy running a vineyard hires day laborers in the morning. He offers a group of guys “a denarius a day” to work in his field. That is a typical wage for a typical day. And so these men set out to work a twelve hour day for a twelve hour wage. A couple hours later, the master of the vineyard hires another group, promising to pay them “whatever is right.” He goes out around noon and again at three o’clock, making the same offer. Finally, one hour before sundown, he hires still more men who will only be working for an hour.
At the end of the day, it’s time to be paid. Lo and behold, guys who worked one hour were paid a denarius – twelve hours of pay! This was a surprise that nobody expected. But when the guys who worked twelve hours came to be paid, they now expected to be paid more. But they weren’t. Life isn’t fair.
“They grumbled at the master of the house, 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.” In other words, they are arguing that being paid a denarius for twelve hours is now unfair and unjust.
But what they are forgetting is that they agreed to this pay rate. The vineyard belongs to the master. He kept the contract that he made with them. The fact that he cut someone else a break is not their concern. The owner says: “Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius? Take what belongs to you and go. I choose to give to this worker as I give to you. Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or do you begrudge my generosity?”
So, dear friends, just as this life isn’t fair, so too, the “kingdom of heaven” isn’t fair either. And thanks be to God that it isn’t! If God were fair, we would receive our just wages. St. Paul put it well when he said, “The wages of sin is death.” This is the “temporal and eternal punishment” that we deserve, dear friends. Do you really want God to be fair?
Jesus says that the moral of this story is, “The last will be first, and the first last.” We are not paid according to our works, but rather on account of the Lord’s generosity. For He is free to do what He chooses with what belongs to Him. And we belong to Him, dear brothers and sisters. He chooses to have mercy on us. Jesus is teaching us about the cross. The cross is unfair, because the last is first and the first is last. The one who lives a perfect life dies for the sin of the world, and the one who has sinned is credited with righteousness.
God chooses to give us wages as if we had earned a place in glory instead of paying us our just desserts in hell. So instead of complaining, “Take what belongs to you and go.” Go, and live your life in the joy of the Gospel, because you are forgiven! Go, because for the sake of Christ crucified, you have been credited with His righteousness. Go, enjoy the wages earned by our Lord Jesus Christ who took our place in the punishment we deserve. Go, because you have the promise of everlasting life in His name.
And whether you have been a Christian your whole life long, or whether you converted yesterday; whether you have a long resume of service of good works, or whether you have a rap sheet a mile long; whether people think you are worthy of praise, or whether you have a bad reputation – in Christ, none of that matters! In Christ, whether you are first or last doesn’t matter. In Christ, you are paid a denarius regardless of what you think you deserve, or what others think you deserve. God thinks you deserve a denarius. And He owns the vineyard.
Life isn’t fair. And in eternity, that is something to rejoice about.
For just as St. Paul said, “For the wages of sin is death,” he points out that, “the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” The owner of the universe pays us not for what we have earned by our works, but rather, He rewards us according to His generosity, “for the sake of the holy, innocent, bitter sufferings and death” of God’s beloved Son, Jesus Christ, and He is indeed “gracious and merciful” to us poor, sinful beings.
Life indeed is not fair. Thanks be to God!
Amen.
In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen
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