Septuagesima - About 70 Days until Easter

St. Matthew 20:1–16

In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

The set-up, the characters, the wages are all fairly simple to identify in this vineyard parable. The Master of the House is the Lord. The day for laboring in the vineyard is our life on earth. The laborers are those called into the church. The vineyard itself is the kingdom of heaven, which is really the whole Christian life. We are called into this life and work by grace. The Master calls, we don’t apply. And while life in the kingdom comes from His grace and is sustained by His grace, it does also involve work. Laborers don’t just lie in the shade or play games all day. We have works we are to be doing, works that God prepared for us to do: the Ten Commandments, God’s good and gracious will. But then the reward comes at the end, and the reward is also by grace. Each received a denarius—in the end, eternal salvation is still a gift. It doesn’t depend on how long or hard you worked. Salvation is by God’s grace alone on account of Christ.

All of this is fairly simple. The real trouble with this parable comes at the end of the day. The trouble comes with the ones who grumble. When those hired first came, they thought they would receive more, but each of them also received a denarius. And on receiving it 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.’ And in case you are feeling sympathetic towards those grumblers, let’s first remember: they were not losing anything. Their wage had not been cut. They were not being forced to spread their wealth. They had no justifiable complaint against the Master.

Their problem was envy—pure, simple envy. They were not hurt or cheated in the slightest, but they hated the fact that the others got the same as they did. They were simply resentful of the Master’s goodness. What Jesus actually has the Master say is, “Is your eye evil because I am good?” In other words, “Are you actually getting angry because I’m a generous man? How petty, how small and miserly and proud do you have to be?”

Jesus is very concerned about these kinds of people. They figure in some of His other parables as well. One stark example of this envious pride is the elder brother to the prodigal son, who was outraged that his father had forgiven his younger son, even though there was no injustice done to the elder. Jesus is particularly concerned about these kinds of people that bristle under the message of grace. They might accept the “idea” of salvation by grace, but they’re still trying to justify themselves by their works. They compare themselves to others: “I’ve never done that. I’m not that bad.” They confess: “I, a poor, miserable sinner,” and then a while later they’re insisting: “I’m basically a good person.” They want recognition for the work they’ve done, whether that’s from their family, their church, their community—they want the “Thank you” note, the pat on the back, the award for their special service. In the end, they want to be judged by something in themselves. This is sin. It’s pride, greed, and envy.

Now, all sins disobey God, and all sins deserve punishment in hell. But not all sins are the same. This sin is particularly dangerous because it disqualifies you from grace. It’s a rejection of grace. It rejects the one thing that can actually save you. If you insist on taking credit for anything, being recognized for anything, if you won’t be saved by Grace ALONE, then you won’t be saved at all. This is why Jesus sums up His parable with a couple proverbs: The last will be first, and the first last. For many are called, but few chosen. Many are called by grace into the church but not all remain in it. Do not take your own salvation for granted. And do not look down on your neighbor and think you are a better person or more deserving or that they are surely lost. You don’t know how things can end up.

The end of the day for those petty laborers is incredibly sad. Instead of loving this kind Master and rejoicing in His remarkable generosity—instead of being happy for their late brothers and grateful to the Master for taking pity on them—they insist on getting what’s coming to them. They think the Master is paying them for their work (because that’s what they would do). So, if the Master wants to overpay the later workers, then they deserve to get paid more. Fair’s fair. They miss the point. This Master does not pay for the work that’s done, no matter how much or little it is. He gives what is good, because He is good.

But they want to go by their work, and so that’s what they get. They get a day’s wage for a day’s work. So, it’s no longer a gift, no longer grace. They still get a denarius, but I don’t think their denarius represents salvation anymore. Because it’s not given according to the Master’s grace. It’s given according to what they’ve earned. Take what is yours and go, says the Master. Take what you earned by your works and get out.

In the kingdom of heaven there is no envy of the brother, no disputing with the Master, no measuring up, no checking the math. Now, Heaven is not communism—don’t let this parable get confused for that petty system—where everyone gets the same meager amount. God does give rewards for good works, and some saints will have more jewels in their crowns than others—God is no egalitarian. But neither is Heaven capitalism, where we compete with one another, working to gain wealth for ourselves. Nothing that we do in the kingdom of heaven is for ourselves. Jesus Christ gave up His life for us. So, we also give up our lives for each other. That’s just how it is in this Master’s vineyard. And you shouldn’t want it any other way, because it does mean you are taken care of too. Joy and bliss will be freely distributed. No one’s keeping track of how much anyone’s got because the Lord is generous and there’s more than enough for all.

Plus, in this vineyard, the work itself is a joy. The work of the Christian life is not a burden to be endured for the sake of compensation. You can’t be working for what you’ll get out of it, because then you wouldn’t be working for God. The work of the kingdom is working with Jesus and doing His good will because He loves us and we love Him. Our good works, the fruit of our labor is not what saves us, and yet, we do desire that fruit, just as our Master does. So we work for His gain and for our neighbor’s gain, not for our own. We’ve got our gain: we’ve been called into the vineyard, we get to live with the Master, we get to work at His side—like a little boy “working” alongside his Dad, “helping” him.

And at the end of the day, at the end of the world, when the “wages” of eternal life are handed out, and the feast begins, no one is going to be pouring the wine of eternal gladness with a measuring cup. Thanks be to God! His mercy endureth forever. There is no stingy Lord in heaven, no stingy angels either, and no stingy saints. If you don’t like that, then you don’t like grace, or Jesus.

Finally, let me remind you that none of this means that there’s no justice, or that sin doesn’t matter. Sin mattered to God so much that He killed His own Son. Justice mattered so much to Jesus that He willingly suffered all our injustice. The truth is that none of us have done or will do all the work for the kingdom that we could do or should do. But our Lord is good and gracious. He Himself dealt with our sin and His justice. He is fair, and at the same time, wildly generous. He calls no-good, lazy bums into His vineyard. He supplies the power to His laborers to carry out the work He has for them. And He showers grace upon grace to all who love and trust in Him.

So, you Christians who have been working in the kingdom for many years, or with great vigor: don’t be proud or withholding to those that haven’t. The Lord does indeed love the work you do for Him. And one day, He will say to you, Well done, good and faithful servant… Enter into the joy of your Master (Matt. 25:21). And you Christians, who have been working for just a short time, or you recognize you could be doing more in your Christian life: it’s still possible to “earn” the whole wage in just a short while. It comes from the kindness of Him who called you, so it’s never too late to start working for God’s kingdom. The gracious Master says, ‘You go into the vineyard too.’ And your work that was begun by His grace, will also be finished by His grace.

Let us pray:
     O Holy Spirit, grant us grace
That we our Lord and Savior
In faith and fervent love embrace
And truly serve Him ever.
The hour of death cannot bring loss
When we are sheltered by the cross
That canceled our transgressions.
     And when our earthly race is run,
Death’s bitter hour impending,
Then may Thy work in us begun
Continue till life’s ending,
Until we gladly may commend
Our souls into our Savior’s hand,
The crown of life obtaining. (LSB 693:1,3,)

In the Holy + Name of Jesus. Amen.


Preached at Trinity, Clinton, IA & Immanuel, Charlotte, IA

Septuagesima - About 70 Days until Easter

Exodus 17:1–7

St. Matthew 20:1–16

In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

The words in our Collect for today hit many of the themes from our Scripture readings: O Lord, graciously hear the prayers of Your people that we who justly suffer the consequence of our sin may be mercifully delivered by Your goodness to the glory of Your name (Collect of the Day).

O Lord, graciously hear. If there’s one point to the parable today, it is the teaching of Grace Alone. The late workers should justly suffer the consequence of working only a partial day, maybe even only an hour, and yet, they receive the Lord’s goodness. They do not work for the full day, and yet the Master gives to each of them a full day’s wage. This is what it means to say that we are saved by God’s Grace Alone. We should justly suffer the consequence of our sin, but instead we are mercifully delivered by God’s goodness. We have not worked a full day in the Lord’s Vineyard—we sin, we disobey, we are lazy—and yet, the gift of forgiveness and eternal salvation is given to us by grace. That means it’s free. We don’t earn it, we can’t work for it. It has all been accomplished by the Master of the Vineyard Himself, who paid the price and gave this gift to us.

We can see this same teaching at work in the Old Testament. The Israelites had been slaves to Pharaoh, unable to save themselves. And the Lord came down and delivered them by His goodness to the glory of His name. He broke the power of Pharaoh by His plagues, He led His people through the water of the Red Sea, and He destroyed the Egyptian army. And then, they’re barely out of Egypt, and the Israelites are already grumbling and testing the Lord. First, they come to a place that has bitter, unhealthy water, and they grumble. Well, it’s true that water is important, especially in the desert, but you would think these people, who had just seen the wonders of the Lord in Egypt and at the Red Sea, that they would trust in the Lord to take care of them. And He does, He gives them sweet, good water, and even brings them to a bountiful oasis (with a spring for each tribe), and He promises them, “I am the Lord, your healer” (Ex. 15:26). Then, maybe a month later, they start grumbling again because they’re hungry. And what does the Lord do? He provides them with miraculous manna, bread from heaven, every day.

But then, it all happens again, not long after that. They come to another place with no water, and do they trust in the Lord? Do they remember His promises and have confidence that if He saved them in the past, He would surely save them now? No, they grumble and they test the Lord, saying, “Is the Lord among us or not?” Moses prays to God, but I think he might’ve been thinking, “Third strike, you’re out.” And yet, the Lord did not make them justly suffer the consequence of their sin, but instead, once again, He mercifully delivered them by His goodness to the glory of His name. The Lord stood on the rock, and gave the word for Moses to strike the rock, and caused water to flow out for those undeserving, ungrateful people. The Israelites were not worthy of this water. They were not worthy to be saved from Egypt in the first place. And after all their grumbling and stubborn hard–heartedness, they deserved to be left out in the desert to die of thirst. They deserved to be killed, just like their Egyptian oppressors. But the Lord is gracious. He is merciful, He delivers, He is good. He saves by His Grace Alone.

We, living in America, in the 21^stcentury, with smart phones in our pockets, multiple cars and other machines that make life easy, sitting comfortably with our savings, our clothes, our food, our place in the church—we deserve nothing more than those Israelites. We deserve nothing more than those vineyard workers. We should justly suffer the consequence of our sin. We deserve to go to hell. What’s kind of funny though, is that while many Christians will agree with that—“Oh yes, I’m a sinner. I deserve death and hell.”—when it comes to any suffering in this life, we are suddenly put out and think there has been some grave miscarriage of justice. 

Justice would be you go to hell right now. In fact, you’re long overdue. We justly suffer the consequence of our sin. If you deserve hell after this life, then what makes you think you deserve anything better than that in this life? Surely, you should suffer here on earth too. Our general confession of sin is absolutely right (even if we often mumble the words without meaning it): I justly deserved Your temporal and eternal punishment (LSB p.184). That means punishment in this life and for eternity. And yet, we don’t get the full force of this punishment. We get to enjoy lots of good things in this life. We are not in hell. And we have the confident hope of life in heaven because of what our Savior has done! Even if we do suffer some in this life, we are not getting the full measure of justice. So, let’s not grumble, but say, Thanks be to God for that!

Still, sin has consequences. And anything we do suffer, we suffer it justly. Sinful people, in a sin–broken world, will bear the damaging marks of sin. There are diseases and natural disasters and evil, violent people. And even though your sickness or misfortune may not be a direct consequence of some sin, you’re still getting no more than you deserve. And sometimes, particular sins do carry direct consequences. The murderer deserves to die and can be executed. The unfaithful pastor deserves to be removed from his office. Treating sex as something casual brings with it terrible diseases, no amount of human protection can keep you safe from it all. A life of laziness and disrespect to parents and other authorities will usually bring poverty and hardship. When you endeavor to keep God’s Law, even though you won’t be perfect, your life generally will go better. But the flip–side is also true: when you persistently ignore God’s Law, your life generally will get worse and worse.

So, we pray that the Lord would graciously hear us. Because whatever we suffer, we justly suffer as the consequence of our sin. And we pray that we would not suffer all of the consequences of our sin. We pray that we would be spared in this world and also in the next. We pray that the Lord would mercifully deliver us by His goodness to the glory of His name. And He does. The Lord is gracious and merciful and good. In fact, what’s so amazing is that the Lord ONLY loves unworthy people. There is no one worthy of God’s favor, and yet, He gives His goodness to us because of what He has done, because of the price He paid in our place.

Knowing all of this, let’s not think too highly of ourselves. We must be on guard against covetousness. We must not envy what someone else has, or think that we deserve more than them. That idea is pure self-righteousness. That’s what the first vineyard workers do. They deny who the Lord is—they deny the very essence of God, that He loves and forgives sinners. And if they do that, then they deny that love and forgiveness for themselves. The Master challenged those prideful workers, “Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to Me? Or is your eye evil because I am good?” Are you envious and wicked because God is good to all? That’s the kind of God He is. Our Lord wants to be known as the God who saves sinners. That’s how He gets glory. He mercifully delivers by His goodness to the glory of His name.

So, our Lord pays what He does not owe to people who could never pay Him back. He saves and preserves people who grumble against Him and test Him. He gives generously to those who do not deserve it. Our Lord is the Rock who was struck and gives life–giving water to His people. He was pierced for our transgressions and from His side flows water and blood to cleanse us from sin and give us everlasting life. From this Rock flows the fountain of Grace Alone, filling the font, and filling the chalice, up to the brim, so that we can be saved. I love You, O Lord, my strength. The Lord is my Rock and my fortress and my deliverer (Introit: Psalm 18).

In the Holy + Name of Jesus. Amen.

Artwork copyright (c) 2010 Edward Riojas. Used by permission.