The Parable of the Vineyard Workers

so if you have your bibles perhaps you can turn again to Matthew's gospel and this time Matthew

Matthew 20 · chapter mention

chapter 20 so our focus is going to be this parable often known as the parable of the workers

in the vineyard but I want to read beyond that as well to set it in its context so let's again

hear God's word 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 in the heat of the day but he answered one of them I'm 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

now Jesus was going up to Jerusalem on the way he took the 12 aside and said to them we are going up

to Jerusalem and the son of man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the teachers of the law

they will condemn him to death and will hand him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and

crucified on the third day he will be raised to life then the mother of Zebedee's sons came to

Jesus with her sons and kneeling down asked a favor of him what is it you want he asked she said

grant that one of these two sons of mine may sit at your right and the other at your left in your

kingdom you don't know what you're asking Jesus said to them can you drink the cup I am going to

drink we can they answered Jesus said to them you will indeed drink from my cup but to sit at my right

or left is not for me to grant these places belong to those for whom they've been prepared by my father

when the ten heard about this they were indignant with the two brothers Jesus called them together

and said you know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord over them and their high officials exercise

authority over them not so with you instead whoever wants to become great among you must be your

servant and whoever wants to be first must be your slave just as the son of man did not come to be

served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many amen this is God's word

so this is our last parable from Matthew's gospel these stories with purpose that Jesus tells

this one the parable of the workers in the vineyard perhaps the question that we can ask ourselves is

how does Jesus turn our natural value system upside down because this is one of those parables where I

think our instinct is to sympathize with those grumblers it offends our sense of justice it's very easy to

read this parable and say that's not fair if you imagine in our own workplace setting if the new guy who's

straight in the door is promoted to the same pay and benefits as someone with years of experience

we would find ourselves probably saying that doesn't seem fair so so instinctively we get

those first workers and I think in a sense that's the point this parable is meant to shock us here's

our normal value system here's the values in the kingdom of heaven and they're so very very different

the world applies rank and status in so many different ways so next weekend Scotland will be on

their journey we hope towards the world cup when we get there if we get there we will be in not pot one

two or three we will be in lowly pot four we apply rank status matters we know this the words of a colleague

doesn't always hold the same weight as the words of our boss and we instinctively have that understanding

that time served brings a measure of entitlement that's something that can even creep into our

churches but Jesus story says it's not like that in his kingdom he invites us to reject what what

kirkagar called the sin of comparison and leads to either pride or envy and to respond gladly

to when someone else has success and has shown kindness it's an invitation indeed for us to reflect

the mercy and goodness of God so let's dive into our text we've got four things to look at together

the first we can say timing is everything in this parable so so all the way along when we'll be looking

at the parables we said one way to understand what's going on is to look for the surprising parts

and the two big surprises in this parable both have to do with timing at first to do with the

hiring process and then the payment process so just to go back to the first couple of verses we have a

very familiar scene from Jesus day we have a landowner going out early in the morning to the marketplace

to hire day laborers for his vineyard and he agreed to pay them a denarius normal day's wage

everything is as we would expect but then surprise begins to emerge this owner makes multiple return

visits and so we have two choices so either we can think well this is a very disorganized landowner

this is someone who's failing to plan well or if we understand as Jesus teaches us this is about the

kingdom of heaven this landowner represents a surprisingly generous and compassionate landowner

who keeps going out in order to meet the needs of others so in verse four after three hours of the

working day have already begun he meets some others standing in the marketplace doing nothing and he says

you go and work and i'll pay you whatever is right and they trust him and that goes all the way until

five in the afternoon so eleven hours of the working day have already been done but these guys are still

here

he asked the question why been standing here all day long doing nothing because no one has hired us

and so he responds by inviting them to to go and work in his vineyard

these 11th hour workers you imagine standing desperately hoping against hope by this stage in the day that

someone will take pity on them the sense of despair as they congregated as other people got hired

it makes me think of i read an article a number of years ago but the japanese salaryman you know very

famous japanese businessmen well um they did an article uh where it where it turns out there's a lot of

these salary men who have lost their jobs but they're too ashamed to admit that to their family they have

no prospects of finding future employment because of their age so what they they had been doing

is they've been dressing up for work getting on the tube and then sitting in the park all day

a hopeless situation makes me think of these these 5 p.m workers you know if the landowner doesn't come

there's no bread on the table there's no dignity for them and work to do and so this mercy from the

owner is good news so that's one surprise the surprise of the hirings the second surprise

is to do with the payment process so we get to six o'clock we get to clocking off time verse eight

and the owner calls the foreman call the workers and pay them their wages beginning with the last

ones hired and going on to the first so there's a bit that's normal you get to the end of the day

old testament law says you must pay a day laborer at the end of their day's work so they will have bread

to feed their family the usual order of course first one in would be the first one paid

but our owner reverses that timing now why does he do that he does it to draw attention to his mercy

his compassion and his generosity if he paid everyone an order everybody else wouldn't get to

see this is a generous merciful owner and that's what he wants people to know but what happens and we see

this is that the payment process produces tension you know how will the other workers feel about this

how will they feel about this guy who's worked for less than an hour getting a full day's wage and what

we see is grumbling what we see is jealousy but that's set against the delight of our owner it gives him joy

it's what he wants to do to show mercy and kindness and he wants these other workers to see and to share in that

joy i think there's a couple of lessons that we can draw as we think about the timings in the parable the

first lesson and we find all through the bible is that salvation is a free gift of god's grace

we do not contribute to it we do not earn it

one of the ways people go wrong when approaching christian faith is to approach it like work well if

i do enough religion and if i do enough good living surely that's what i need to earn eternal life

and the bible says said no it's not about earning rather we need to see ourselves in the story as these

eleventh hour workers we're standing hopeless and helpless because of our sin we stand under the just

judgment of god there's nothing that we can do to change that status what we need is that the free

grace of god we need god to send his son and that's what he has done so salvation is a free gift and and

and the second lesson that we can draw from from this parable i think is that god's mercy

is right on time mercy god's mercy comes in a way that brings him glory and brings us joy

paul spoke about that in galatians galatians chapter 4 verses 4 and 5 when the set time had fully come

Galatians 4:4

god's set time when the set time had fully come god sent his son born of a woman born under the law

to redeem those under the law that we might receive adoption to sonship the son of god entered history

took our humanity went under the law at god's right time to redeem us and adopt us as an expression of his

great mercy so this parable stands again as a reminder to us that the mercy of god is open to us all

we hear that the words of of the gospel today is the day of salvation the time is right for any of us and

all of us to enjoy god's grace in jesus if we will hear that invitation and respond in faith

so timing is everything the second theme that we see in our parable and in the wider section is that of

first and last the idea that jesus reverses our values and we can think in some ways of the parable

being the meat in the sandwich and what's on either side of this parable chapter 19 verse 30

many who are first will be last and many who are last will be first verse 16 of chapter 20 so the last

will be first and the first will be last jesus is driving home the point through all of his ministry

and here now we see it again god's kingdom is not like the world it's not about competing and comparing

and striving to get ahead

wealth status time served achievement beauty power those are not what counts in god's kingdom

and jesus is inviting us to recognize that we can expect surprises in his kingdom there will be

these reversals that are unexpected now how does jesus show it in our parable well we saw it didn't we in

verse 8 even the words of the story that jesus tells i had the payment policy begin with the last

one's hired going on to the first so the last or first these last workers are deliberately

honored publicly honored they don't receive performance related pay and that's good news that's grace

that's goodness and generosity that's unexpected

there was no discussion am i going to get a denarius nobody would be hoping at that stage to get a full

day's wage but they do so the payment policy shows reversal but you know we can also see it can't we in

the character of the owner so think about how this man is presented he's he's obviously a landowner with

significant wealth and resources he's able to hire many people he has standing in society

but where's his heart his heart is for these poor guys that nobody else is going to hire

he is for the down and out jesus comes as good news to the poor this parable presents hope for the

hopeless for those who have been pushed aside and marginalized jesus says that's not how our kingdom works

think about the words that the that the that jesus uses for the landowner as well in response to the

grumbling look at verse 14 when he talks about what he wants i want to give the one who was hired last the

same as you and he talks about his rights don't i have the right to do what i want with my own money

and to be generous with it that's where his heart is mercy generosity grace reversal of values in the

kingdom of heaven but we see that same idea in the wider section that's why we read in chapter 19 and

chapter 20 where do we see those reversals we see it with the the little children remember the disciples

don't bother bringing the children to jesus he's far too busy and important children were regarded as

nobodies in society and the disciples had picked up on that and jesus what does he do he welcomes them

and blesses kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these those who depend those who trust

straight after that we meet the rich man and again the disciples they're presuming well if god has blessed

anyone he's certainly blessed this guy wealth is a sign of blessing so they thought

but the way matthew writes this story we're almost invited to imagine this man with his hands full of

money he's coming to jesus looking for life but he will not let go of that money so he can welcome

jesus everybody thought he was inside but he's outside the kingdom of heaven

immediately after our parable we find jesus is on his way to jerusalem jerusalem the place where you would

expect god's king to be honored but there is reversal there too because jesus knows

he's going to jerusalem to suffer to die and then we meet a mum and two sons these two disciples

and the mum has the request that these two disciples get the seats of honor in the kingdom

and jesus talks about how different life is in the kingdom that true greatness

isn't about power it's about service and of course the cross is the ultimate demonstration of that

so again just to think about this theme of first and last one vital lesson for us to learn

is that we should never we can never limit god's grace by applying a human ranking system

and if we examine our hearts and if we're honest we probably recognize there are times when we do that

god is not just for church types whatever a church type is

there's also that constant a reminder in in the gospels

let's not give up on our prodigals let's not imagine just because someone has wandered that they are lost and we are done with them

i was so encouraged this week to hear the story of of a friend of mine i hadn't heard the story of how he came to faith

in detail so i had the chance to talk to him and and he talked about a life of being a former drug dealer

a life really just totally messed up and he had a really low point and recognized you know what i need to do i need to read my bible

and as he read his bible he said you know what i need to do i need to go back home

i need to speak to my my parents and those parents had been praying for him and those parents shared the gospel with him

and he came to faith his life was transformed and he's serving god he was a prodigal

we don't limit god's grace we don't apply rank and status and think well god likes those kind of people not those kind of people

the second lesson to draw is that in god's kingdom the way up is always down

the church does not and should not look like our workplace

it shouldn't look like our sports club

the way to greatness in jesus eyes is through humble service

like john the baptist who was wise enough to say jesus must increase i must decrease

moving on a third thing for us to think about

is response of these first workers let's think about grace and

grumbling

in verse 15 we find the last phrase from the landowner

are you envious

because i am generous

literally we could read that

do you have a bad eye or do you have

an evil eye

in other words there is something wrong with your vision

you know if i take off my glass

instantly everybody becomes a blur there is something wrong with my vision i'm going to deal with that

um what is jesus talking about here

what's wrong with their vision in this story

the problem is they do not see mercy as beautiful

rather they see it as ugly

they don't see mercy as being more precious

than them getting more money

so we see it in verse 11

as soon as they realize that those

guys that worked for about an hour

got a whole day's ways

they're rubbing their hands thinking

wow we're going to get a great bonus

and they get the same

and so they begin grumbling

verse 12

those who were hired last

worked only one hour

and you've made them equal to us

we worked harder

we were more productive

our conditions were far tougher

how dare you make them equal to us

does the owner say

i'm not being unfair

he reminds them that he's kept to his terms

but he also wants them to focus

on his mercy

you are being envious

to the fact that he is being generous

and to supply the needs of others

that should not be

there should not be pride and envy and anger and frustration

because of this man's goodness

think about it

surely

they should be glad

wouldn't we in our hearts

want to be glad

here is more families

that are going to be fed today

here is a group of workers

who have had dignity today

but instead there's envy

and there's grumbling

again i wonder

if we're honest

is this something that at times

at least we struggle with

how do we deal with

the happier circumstances of others

what's our heart reaction

to the success of others

how do we handle the thriving churches

of others

when we should be singing

sometimes we sigh

when there should be gratitude

sometimes our hearts grumble

if you know the story of the Grinch

sometimes our heart grows three sizes too small

and we're not able to celebrate the grace of God

what's happening there

our eye is bad

when we fail to celebrate God's grace

our eye is bad

when we fail to treasure God's mercy

wherever we see it

whether that's to our neighbour

whether that's to the family down the road

the church down the road

whether we hear of what God is doing

in other nations

that should always make us glad

and so one of the key lessons

that the disciples needed to learn

and we need to learn

is to ask for grace

to celebrate grace

to deal with that instinct

in our heart

that says

I wish that was me

that says

do you know what

that's just not fair

whether we see that

in our life

in our church

in the circumstances

of other

others

ask for grace

to celebrate grace

now you and I know

we all have different pressure points

for that

so I was at General Assembly this week

for Christian ministers

one of those pressure points

like

how do we handle it

when we hear of growing churches

how do we hear of it

when there are dramatic conversations

happening in other places

dramatic conversions

can I be glad

at what God is doing

where are the pressure points for you

can we be glad

to hear of someone's engagement

and their marriage

when we are single

and we'd love to be married

can we be glad

when someone has a new child

and we find ourselves longing for one

can we be glad

when someone has a new job

and they're enjoying it

and we're stuck in a terrible one

can we celebrate with others

the goodness of God in their life

one of the wonderful things

about Christian joy

is that Christian joy

isn't just tied to

what's happening to me

and my circumstances

Christian joy is so much bigger than that

it's rooted to

what's God's good work

in his world

where is he saving people

where is he maturing faith

in people

where is he causing people

to serve with joy

when we see how big

God's grace is

that's when our heart begins to expand

so the lesson from these grumblers

is

we need to learn to walk

in the shoes of others

don't we

and we certainly need to celebrate

God's grace at work

last thing to say briefly

is to think about

what we can call

the 11th hour gospel

so I think one of the things

that Jesus

would

cause

by this parable

is a tension in our hearts

and a question

how do we change

so that we can celebrate grace

where do we get

the power

to change

to see the world

differently

how can we choose

these different values

of the kingdom of heaven

the beginning of that answer

at least

is here in this parable

you know with any

story

that Jesus tells

we're always invited

to think

who do I

identify with

in this story

where do I find myself

in this parable

Jesus in the first instance

says to the disciples

and says to us

watch out

because we can so easily be

like those

first workers

who grumble

but he would also

have us all

to see

that in a very real sense

we are all

those

11th hour

workers

5pm

days almost done

standing without hope

we cannot fix it

our great need

is not

justice

our need

is God's

goodness

and grace

that he would show us

his mercy

and his kindness

and that's what we see

in the sending

of the Lord Jesus

if anybody

is first

it's Jesus

first in glory

eternal son of God

king of kings

but what does Jesus

say to his disciples

he is ready

and willing

to become last

to be rejected

to suffer

to be crucified

to die

he is ready

to serve

us

to show us

generous grace

to forgive

our sin

to give us

a new heart

to give us

the hope

of eternal life

the greatest man

who ever lived

the God man

chose to serve

sinners

like us

as Jesus said

in verse 28

just as the son

of man

that's Jesus

did not come

to be served

but to serve

and to give his life

as a ransom

for many

and as we remember

that

as we remember

Jesus the first

being ready

to become last

for us

as we remember

all that he gives

to us

by his grace

that's where

we find the power

for our grumbling

to become gratitude

that's where we'll find

we're willing

to give up

the chase

to be first

and instead

to be like Christ

to be ready

to serve

others

let's leave it there

and let's pray

together

Lord

our God

we thank you

for

the Lord

Jesus

even as he

told that

parable

he was also

telling

of his

suffering

and his

death

and he was

telling us

that he came

to be a

servant

to set us

free

from sin

by taking

sin

on himself

and paying

the price

in full

so we could

be forgiven

and have

new life

Lord help us

to see

that in the

kingdom of

heaven

it's about

grace

all the way

down

help us

to be

on the

lookout

and to

celebrate

every

evidence

of your

goodness

and mercy

whether that's

in our

own life

or in the

life of

others

give us

that capacity

to rejoice

with those

who rejoice

Lord will you

guard our

hearts

and will you

apply the

truth of your

word to our

hearts

and that you

be changing

us

in line with

its truth

we pray in

Jesus name

Amen

Now we're

going to

finish with

what I guess

to the world

is an old

hymn but

for us it was

something of a

new hymn

grace greater

than all my

sin

we sang it

last Sunday

evening

we're going to

sing it again

Kellen's going to

sing through the

verse and the

chorus for us

then we'll go

back to the

beginning

join in

obviously

whenever you

know it

but let's

stand and

let's sing

these wonderful

words

things

to look forward to the

victor القs of my