+ + + 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. (Amen.)
You and I probably do not know any employer like the master of the house described in today’s Gospel Reading, who paid his workers the same full-day of wages regardless of the hours and conditions that they worked. Jesus’s original hearers probably did not know any employer like that either, which made the parable’s teaching about “God’s gift of righteousness” all the more surprising to them, as it does to us. Truly, as the Lord says through Isaiah in today’s Old Testament Reading (Isaiah 55:6-9), God’s thoughts are not our thoughts, neither are our ways His ways. As the book of Proverbs says, there is a way that seems right to us, but its end is the way to death (Proverbs 14:12; 16:25). We need today’s Gospel Reading to show and give us “God’s gift of righteousness”.
For today’s Gospel Reading, our Three-Year Lectionary Series again has skipped forward in St. Matthew’s Divinely‑inspired Gospel account, skipping over Jesus’s teaching about divorce and remarriage, Jesus’s welcoming little children, Jesus’s teaching about a rich young man’s entering the Kingdom of Heaven, and Jesus’s telling His twelve disciples what they and others would receive in the new world, but also Jesus’s warning them that many who are first will be last, and the last first (Matthew 19:1-30). Then, as we heard, in the parable of today’s Gospel Reading, the laborers hired first were paid last, and those hired last were paid first, and, after the parable, Jesus reverses but still essentially repeats the saying, that the last will be first, and the first last.
Although the rich young man had gone away sorrowful, he was not the only one who wrongly thought that he could do good deeds in order to have eternal life. If not eternal life, Peter and the other disciples seemingly wrongly thought that their leaving everything and following Jesus ought to earn them something. And, even you and I may wrongly think that trusting in grace alone might earn us a little bonus above that which grace alone gives, that our believing somehow makes us better than those who do not believe (Fickenscher, Looking Forward, 222). The parable serves Jesus’s warning that many who are first will be last, and the last first, and so the parable speaks to all of us! Do we wrongly think that our salvation is so secure that there is no danger of our falling from faith? How are we like the murmuring laborers? Do we wrongly think that the promise of a reward gives us a basis to insist on certain rights? Are we unwilling to depend solely on grace for salvation? That unwillingness to depend solely on grace for salvation must be suppressed constantly and mercilessly, if the first are not to become last, arguably not saved at all (Pieper, III:93). To be sure, what St. Paul writes to the Romans and to us, using different words than those in the parable, is nevertheless true: the wages of our sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 6:23).
In today’s Old Testament Reading, Isaiah calls us to seek the Lord while He may be found, to call upon Him while He is near. Similarly in today’s Psalm (Psalm 27:1-9; antiphon: v.4a), we sang both of the Lord’s telling us to seek His face and of our seeking His face, seeking to dwell in the House of the Lord all the days of our life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in His temple. Certainly, enabled by the Holy Spirit, the most-important thing that we seek from the Lord here in His House is the forgiveness of our sins (confer 1 Kings 8:28-30), and so also eternal life and salvation.
In the parable of today’s Gospel Reading, to those hired about the third hour—if not also to those hired at the sixth, ninth, and eleventh hours—the Master of the House promises to give whatever is right, or righteous. And, when He gives all of the laborers the same full-day of wages, those hired first wrongly think that the Master of the House is acting un‑righteously. Although the parable primarily is a warning about the first’s becoming last, the parable also shows us how the last become first, by God’s love, mercy, and grace for the sake of His Son, Jesus Christ. God’s grace is evident in the Master of the House’s repeatedly seeking the laborers, in His paying them the same, and in His letting the grumbling laborers go with their pay. We who have done wrong are not paid the death that we deserve but instead are given Christ’s righteous‑ness: His righteousness from His actively living the perfect life that we fail to live, and His righteousness from His passively suffering in our place the death that we deserve. Right after the parable, St. Matthew’s Gospel account reports Jesus’s prophesying of His suffering, crucifixion, and resurrection (Matthew 20:17-19), and, in time, Jesus endured those things for us and for our salvation. As a righteous judge, God punishes Jesus for our sin, and, as a generous Father, God gives us Jesus’s righteousness. God wants to forgive all people, but not all people respond to God’s call with faith in Him, as the laborers seemingly trusted the Master of the House to deal with them righteously.
We who turn in sorrow from our sin and trust God to deal with us righteously seek out God here in His House and receive His forgiveness of sins in the ways that He promises to forgive us: namely, through His Word read and preached to groups such as this group, and through His Gospel applied to individuals with water in Holy Baptism, with touch in Holy Absolution, and with bread and wine in the Holy Supper that are the Body of Christ given for you and the Blood of Christ shed for you and so which give forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation. So, as the parable makes clear, we each equally receive “God’s gift of righteousness”.
Biblical parables can be over-interpreted, with too many minor parable details given meanings in its interpretation beyond the main point of comparison. Biblical parables also can be over‑applied, taking the central truth of the parable outside of the parable’s original context. For example, today’s parable of the laborers in the vineyard is often taken as saying something either about the Jews’ jealousy of the Gentiles, or about lifelong Christians’ jealousy of those who convert later in life, maybe even on their deathbed. As we have discussed the parable today, such interpretations centered on the different laborers’ length of labor are not really what the parable is about. Rather, the parable is about “God’s gift of righteousness”, not earned by works but equally and freely given by grace for Jesus’s sake. To be sure, we who receive “God’s gift of righteousness” do at least try, as St. Paul describes in today’s Epistle Reading (Philippians 1:12‑14, 19-30), to let our manner of life be worthy of the Gospel of Christ, standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the Gospel, and not frightened in anything by our opponents, despite knowing that God has granted that for the sake of Christ we not only believe in Him but also suffer for His sake. With daily contrition and faith we live in our equal forgiveness of sins, knowing also that while there may be different temporal or eternal rewards, such as different degrees of glory in heaven, in the end we will not, as those hired first in the parable did, begrudge God’s generosity.
Ultimately, since we cannot stand before God relying on anything that we have done, we pray, as we prayed in the Collect of the Day, that God helps us both trust in His abiding grace and live according to His Word.
Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. (Amen.)
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +
