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+ + + In Nomine Jesu + + +
Please join me in prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
Work hard, and you will be rewarded: so we probably have been told, and so maybe even we ourselves have told others—whether at home, school, or our places of employment. However, the Gospel Reading appointed for today makes clear that, when it comes to the Kingdom of Heaven, reward is not related to work. For, in the Gospel Reading, divinely inspired through the mouth or pen of a former tax-collector, Jesus says that the Kingdom of Heaven is like a master of a house who generously “pays” the same “wages” to everyone, no matter how long or hard they have labored in his vineyard. Jesus tells the parable in order to illustrate how the last will be first and the first will be last, and so we reflect on the Reading under the theme “Last and First”.
Like the previous week’s Gospel Reading, today’s Gospel Reading presents us with one of Jesus’s parables unique to St. Matthew’s Gospel account, but, in moving from one to the other, our three‑year series of Gospel Readings has skipped over the whole nineteenth chapter of the account, including some context that we need in order to understand today’s Gospel Reading. After Jesus wrapped up His so‑called “Third Discourse” (Matthew 19:1), Pharisees tested Him by asking about divorce (Matthew 19:2-12), and Jesus blessed children (Matthew 19:13-15) and talked to a rich young man, who asked Jesus what good deed he must do in order to have eternal life (Matthew 19:16-30). Jesus told the man both that there is only One Who is good and that, if the rich man wanted to be perfect, then he needed to sell his possessions and to give to the poor.
Next Jesus told His disciples about the difficulty of a rich person’s entering the Kingdom of Heaven, and the disciples asked, “Who then can be saved?” Jesus said that with man salvation is impossible but that with God all things are possible. Peter said they had left everything and followed Jesus, and Peter asked what there will be for them, and Jesus told them that in the new world those who left possessions and family for His sake would receive one-hundred-fold and inherit eternal life, but He also warned them that many who are first will be last and the last will be first. Then, Jesus explains that saying about the “last and first” with what is called “The Parable of the Laborers in the Vineyard”.
In the parable itself, the master of a house went out at the start of the work day to hire laborers for his vineyard. (Imagine some place like the parking lot of the Taqueria a few blocks from the Church, on the northwest corner of Martin and Houston, where George-A used to tell me he picked up day-laborers.) The master of the house agreed with those laborers hired first for the average daily wage, and he sent them to work. Three hours later, he saw others standing idle in the marketplace and sent them to work, promising to give them whatever is right. (We listeners are drawn further into the story wondering what that wage will be!) The master of the house did the same again at six, at nine, and even at eleven hours into the 12-hour work day. And, when the work day was over, the owner of the vineyard told his foreman to call the laborers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last, up to the first. As they all came, those hired first saw that those hired last were paid the average daily wage and thought that they would receive more. But, when they all received the same wage, those hired first grumbled against the master of the house, saying that they themselves had worked longer and harder. The master of the house said that he did them no wrong, and he asked them whether they had not agreed to the wage that they in fact had received. He pointed to his freedom to give the same to all, to do what he wills with what belongs to him, and he asked them if they begrudged his generosity.
Anyone who has ever worked in any capacity (even children doing chores at home) most likely can relate to complaints about pay. But again, unlike home, school, or our places of employment, when it comes to the Kingdom of heaven, reward is not related to work. Peter and those who think like him are to see themselves in the grumbling laborers and, from the warning that the last will be first and the first will be last, they are to realize that, despite wonderful promised rewards, they should not presume anything or be satisfied with or confident in themselves. Do you and I presume or boast that we are among those who have worked longer and harder than anyone else? What do we think about what we should receive? Do we ever think of our eternal “reward” as something we earn and so are entitled to? Such self-confidence can lead to a horrible fall. The first will be last, Jesus says; there is an unbelievable reversal. None of us is or can become so high that we need not fear becoming the lowest. No matter who we are, how long we have believed, or anything else, we all by nature are equal sinners in the sight of God, and the actual sins that our sinful natures lead us to commit make us equally deserving of death now and for eternity.
Yet, as we heard in today’s Old Testament Reading (Isaiah 55:6-9), the Lord calls us to forsake our wicked ways and unrighteous thoughts; He calls us to return to Him that He may have compassion on us and abundantly pardon us. He calls us to repent: to turn in sorrow from our sins, to trust Him to forgive our sins for Jesus’s sake, and to want to do better than to keep sinning. The last will be first, Jesus says; there is an unbelievable reversal. None of us is or can become so low that we cannot by God’s grace become the highest. When we repent, then God forgives our sinful natures and our sins, whatever they might be. God forgives them freely by His grace for Jesus’s sake.
One of the commentators on today’s Gospel Reading says, “the more work, the more pay is the first rule of all economics” (Davies and Allison, ad loc Mt 20:10, 74). I do not know about that, but you might ask our new resident economics professor. If that “rule” is true, then we can hardly fault the laborers hired first for thinking that they would receive more. But again, unlike home, school, or our places of employment, when it comes to the Kingdom of heaven, reward is not related to work. In the parable, the master of the house gives the laborers hired later whatever is right, or just. The master of the house chose to give unexpectedly generously to the laborers hired last the same wage that he gave to the laborers hired first. The master of the house is allowed to do what He chooses with what belongs to Him. Likewise, the Lord God gives us the righteousness that the God-man Jesus Christ won for us with His death on the cross: He rewards not on the basis of human merit but on the basis of Christ’s merit. The Lord God chooses to give unexpectedly generously to us, whether we are Jew or Gentile, whether He finds us earlier or later in the history of the church, or whether He finds us earlier or later in our individual lives. The Lord God is allowed to do what He chooses; He alone is good. The Lord’s thoughts are not our thoughts but are far higher than our thoughtss, as we heard in the Old Testament Reading.
Likewise, the Lord’s ways are not our ways but are far higher than our ways. God does not work as we think He should work. God calls all to faith and forgives all by His Word in all its forms: preaching, Holy Baptism, individual Holy Absolution, and Holy Communion. We who believe all equally share one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all (Ephesians 4:5-6). We all equally share the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation through the Word preached, applied with water, spoken by a pastor after our private confession, and with bread that is Christ’s body and wine that is Christ’s blood. His means of Grace may not be what we might have them be, but they are just what we need, for they make the last first and the first last.
To be sure, there are inequalities in the world, but in the Kingdom of Heaven we find comfort. In the world, one may have more money, family, or friends than another, but in the Kingdom of Heaven, the Church, we share the same good God and His good gifts. Too often we look at those people with more temporal things, and not often enough do we look at those people with fewer temporal things and see how even with fewer things they can be content in and praise Christ. A good example of such contentment is St. Paul in today’s Epistle Reading (Philippians 1:12-14, 19-30). As he did, so we, too, may suffer for Christ’s sake, but such suffering is for our good and may advance the work of the Gospel. So we serve Him in the person of our neighbors according to our vocations—parent or child, teacher or student, pastor or people, employer or employee. And, we give the first‑fruit of our time, talent, and treasure for the work of His Kingdom in this place. We praise Him for what He has done for, in and through us, but we never presume anything nor are we satisfied with or confident in ourselves.
As we have reflected on today’s Gospel Reading, we have considered Jesus’s warning that in the Kingdom of Heaven the last will be first and the first will be last, especially as He illustrated that warning with “The Parable of the Laborers in the Vineyard”. Unlike home, school, or our places of employment, when it comes to the Kingdom of heaven, reward is not related to work. We have realized both that by nature we are all equally sinners and that by God’s grace we who believe are all equally saved. As we prayed in the Collect of the Day, we continue to pray that He help us both trust in His abiding grace and live according to His Word, through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +