1 Corinthians 9.24–10:5 & Matthew 20.1-16
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
A landowner goes to the marketplace at the beginning of the workday, 6am. He invites the men standing there to come and work in his vineyard for the day. They agree on a wage, a denarius for a day’s work, and the men go to work in the vineyard. The landowner wants more workers in his vineyard, so he goes to the marketplace again at 9am, and finds some standing idle in the marketplace. He tells them, “You also go into the vineyard, and whatever is right I will give you.” These men know that they don’t deserve an entire day’s wages, but they trust the landowner’s generosity. They are confident that He will give them what is right. The landowner goes out again at the sixth hour, noon, and then the ninth hour, which would be 3 o’clock in the afternoon. He calls more men to work in His vineyard. Even at the eleventh hour, 5pm, one hour until quitting time, the landowner goes into the marketplace again and calls those men to work in his vineyard. Although these men claim that no one had hired them all throughout the day, the landowner hires them with the same promise given to the workers hired at the ninth hour: “Whatever is right you will receive.” Such is the generosity of the landowner, that He calls men throughout the entire day and promises to give them what it good and right. He proves himself true to His word at the end of the day when he pays the eleventh hour workers a denarius, a full day’s wages, even though they only worked one hour. Not only did He graciously call them into His vineyard so late in the day, he rewarded them based on His generosity, not their work or merits.
The landowner’s generosity has a different effect on the men hired first. When they see the eleventh-hour workers, the one hour workers, receive what they, the 6am workers had agreed upon, they assumed that the landowner had changed the agreement and would reward them according to their works, the time of their labor, and their own merit. When they receive the denarius—which they had agreed to—they grumble against the landowner. “These last men have worked only one hour, and you made them equal to us who have borne the burden and the heat of the day.” These men had entered the landowner’s vineyard by His grace. But they forgot that. When they saw the landowner’s generosity to others, their eyes became evil, that is, they despised the landowner’s goodness. Suddenly, their agreement wasn’t enough. They expected more because of the amount of work they had done and the length of time they had worked. But the landowner tells them, “Take what is yours and go your way. Is it not lawful for me to give to this last man the same as to you? Or is your eye evil because I am good?” He gives them the agreed upon wage and then sends them out of His vineyard. They began the day by the grace of the landowner, but by the end of the day they wanted nothing to do with His goodness.
What does this parable teach us about the kingdom of God? The kingdom of heaven is the church on earth. The landowner is Christ who graciously calls men throughout the day of human history. He calls men from all ages of the world. He also calls men many times throughout their lives, some at the beginning of their life, others in their youth, others in midlife, and others during old age. The call is always the same, “You also go work in my vineyard, and whatever is right I will give you.” When Christ calls men to work in His vineyard, the church, He is not calling them to earn their salvation by their works. He graciously gives them His salvation when they enter into the vineyard. The call goes out to all men, at different times of their lives, to repent of sin and enter into a kingdom of grace in which God graciously provides you with everything you need to stand before God the Father in righteousness and purity. Everyone enters the vineyard of Christ’s church with the promise, “Whatever is right I will give you.” No one enters the vineyard because of his works and merits. Everyone is called by grace, without regard to their works or merits.
And good thing too! For the only thing that we deserve and merit is condemnation and wrath. “All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God,” (Romans 3:23). “There is not a just man on earth who does good and does not sin,” (Ecclesiastes 7:20). We sang earlier in the Tract the words of Psalm 130: “If You, Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? But there is forgiveness with You, that You may be feared.” We do not deserve anything which we have in this life, only wrath and condemnation for our sins. But the Landowner is gracious, and His graciousness abounds to sinners. This is the reason that the Son of God became Man and was named Jesus, because He came to save people from their sins. The Son of God came to earth to destroy the works of the devil, the chief of which are sin and death. He calls men, He calls you, into His vineyard not because of anything you have done, but in spite of the evil you have done and the good you have left undone. He does not mark iniquities or keep records of sins. The devil does that so he can tempt you to despair of God’s mercy, reminding you of sins long forgotten. The Lord graciously forgives your sins by applying the merits of Christ to you when you believe the gospel. The Lord graciously absolves you of all your sins in this vineyard as often as you confess them. He calls you into His vineyard to give you all the blessings Christ earned on the cross.
But the vineyard is also a place of work and labor. There is planting and cultivating, pruning and watering to be done. The call to work in the church does not mean that He calls each of us to the work of the ministry. He calls some to be pastors and teachers for the equipping of the saints, for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ (Eph 4:12). But everyone Christ calls into the vineyard of His church He calls to the work and labor of living the Christian life—what St. Paul calls a race and competition in today’s epistle. To labor in Christ’s vineyard means to break up the soil of our hearts by daily repentance, to cultivate our hearts with trust in the promise of the forgiveness of sins. To labor in Christ’s vineyard means to bear the fruit of the Spirit while pulling the weeds of sin and temptations as they arise from the soil of our hearts. To labor in the vineyard is to live a holy life in your callings as citizens and spouses, parents and grandparents, children and friends, volunteers, and members of this congregation. To labor in the vineyard of Christ is to endure suffering and hardship with patience and trust that God will deliver you in His good time in the way that is best for you. To labor in the vineyard, the church, is to discipline oneself—our bodies and minds, our desires and will—and bring ourselves into subjection to God’s will, lest sin gain mastery over us, so that we drive out the Holy Spirit and thereby become disqualified from everlasting life.
In this way Jesus’ parable is also a word of warning to us, that we do not despise His grace and favor like the workers called first. They entered the vineyard and worked diligently, but when they saw the landowner’s graciousness to others, they suddenly wanted to be in the vineyard because of their works. They entered the vineyard in grace but ended the day trusting in their own works and merits. For this they were given their denarius, which are temporal blessings, and were promptly cast out of the vineyard. They received many temporal and worldly blessings from their work in the vineyard, but they despised the Landowner’s grace and so they were driven from the vineyard. St. Paul says that if we allow sin to gain mastery over us, we will disqualify ourselves from our heavenly reward, the imperishable crown of eternal life. Jesus says something similar in this parable. Just as we are not to let sin gain mastery over us so that we willfully go along with every temptation, so we are beware lest we fall into the sin of presumption, imaging that we belong here in Christ’s church because of our good works and behavior. This, too, is His work in us, as He says in John 15:5, “For without Me you can do nothing.”
In the kingdom of heaven the only merit that matters is Christ’s merit. In Christ’s vineyard, there is no goodness in which we should glory except the goodness of the landowner who promises to reward our works in this life and in the life to come, for He says of our work in the vineyard, “Whatever is right I will give you.” But, dear saints of God, do not work as if working for the reward. Do not labor in Christ’s vineyard with your wages in mind. Work in the vineyard as one who does not deserve to be here but IS here solely because of God’s grace in Jesus Christ. Labor in your callings, run the race, knowing that you labor in the grace of God. Rejoice, not in your own merits and works, but in the merits and work of Christ Jesus, in whom you have the forgiveness of all your sins, the grace of God, and the imperishable crown of everlasting life. Amen.
May the peace of God which surpasses all understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
