Grace Isn't Fair

The Scandal of Grace in Matthew 20

Welcome to the teaching ministry of Kungsvinger Lutheran Church. Kungsvinger is a beacon for the gospel of Jesus Christ and is located on the plains of northwestern Minnesota. We proclaim Christ and Him crucified for our sins and salvation by grace through faith alone.

And now, here's a message.

From Pastor Chris Roseberg. The Holy Gospel according to St. Matthew, the 20th chapter. Glory to you, O Lord. Jesus said, The kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house, who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard.

After agreeing with the laborers for a denarius a day, he sent them into his vineyard. And going out about the third hour, he saw others standing idle in the marketplace, and said to them, You go into the vineyard too, and whatever is right I will give you.

So they went. Going out again about the sixth hour and the ninth hour, he did the same. And about the eleventh hour, he went out and found others standing. And he said to them, Why do you stand here idle all day?

And they said, Because no one's hired us. He said to them, You go into the vineyard too. And when the evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, Call the laborers and pay them for their wages, beginning with the last up to the first.

And when those hired about the eleventh hour came, each one of them received a denarius. Now 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. But he replied to one of them, Friend, I am doing you no wrong.

Did you not agree with me for a denarius? Take what belongs to you and go. I choose to give to this last worker as I give to you. Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or do you begrudge my generosity?

So the last will be first, and the first will be last. This is the gospel of the Lord. Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. Blessed Trinity, you may be seated.

God's Ways Are Not Our Ways

Brothers and sisters, we hear these words in our Old Testament text today. God says of himself, My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are my ways your ways, declares the Lord. Have you considered just how scandalous the gospel is?

Is it any wonder that the Apostle Paul says of the gospel, I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God unto salvation for all who believe. The gospel, the good news that Christ has bled and died for our sins.

Now if you've ever had conversations with atheists, or maybe today's modern manifestation of social justice warriors, have you noticed that social justice warriors have no concept of reconciliation, or mercy, or grace, or forgiveness?

In fact, they're scandalized by the thought. If you have a conversation with an atheist about what Christ has done for us on the cross, they might protest. And you may have had conversations with people who've protested this way.

Are you saying that if Hitler confessed his sins and was forgiven on his deathbed, that Hitler is in heaven rather than hell? And they're scandalized by the whole thought of it. Could you imagine Jesus forgiving Hitler?

Oh, I hate that idea. I refuse to believe in a God who would forgive Hitler. And the problem is, is that people think they're basically good, you know, and not recognizing that the sins that they've committed, oh, they rank up there with Hitler.

You remember the gospel text last week? The guy, the fellow who, well, racked up a bazillion dollar debt? That's you. That's me. Each and every one of us have transgressed God's holy law so severely that that is the debt that we have racked up.

Fairness, Justice, and Human Expectations

So our gospel text today really builds on the scandal of all of this. Think of it this way. We want things in life to be fair. That's what we want, right? At least in certain things. And then in other things, we want things to be just.

Let me give you an example, all right? When it comes to professional sports, what we expect is a fair playing field, that no team has what we would call an unfair advantage. And of course, there's been scandals in sports history.

You know, I think back to when a certain quarterback for the New England Patriots may or may not have been involved in a scandal related to a playoff game with the Indianapolis Colts. I was living in Indianapolis at the time, right?

And there were footballs that were deflated, that were not at the proper pounds per square inch. And so what? The New England Patriots, they had an unfair advantage. When it comes to sports, we want things to be fair.

Why? Because on the sports field, what do we want? We want the people who've put in the time, who've done the work, who have the talent, who've got the moves, have got the plays down. We want them in a fair playing field to be able to rise to the top and defeat those below them who haven't quite put in the time and the effort.

The whole idea behind a championship is that you found a team that excels in doing great things. Other teams, the reason why they fall by the wayside is because they don't have what it takes. So on a fair playing field, we expect the cream to rise to the top and the dross to fall to the bottom.

And the one thing we all hate, and by the way, I hate it, are those sports leagues for kids where every team gets a championship trophy and no score is allowed to be taken. This is nonsense. This is ridiculousness.

We despise the idea. Now regarding fairness also, think of it this way. When it comes time for your annual review at work and it comes time for your performance, and along with your performance being evaluated, you expect to get a commiserate raise in your salary.

Oh, we want everything to be fair. We want the boss to notice, I'm working harder than that guy. I'm putting in the time. Oh, that guy, he calls in sick at least twice a week. And have you seen his shoddy work?

So when it comes time for the annual review, if that guy got the same raise as me, oh, you better believe it. HR is going to be given a visit. There's going to be emails that harshly written, and everybody's going to know that that is not fair, right?

And so we think that salvation kind of works the same way, right? Lord Jesus, I've given up dancing for you. Well, you're Norwegian. That's not a big deal. Lord Jesus, I've given up smoking and chewing, and I even cut back on the number of curse words that I use.

That's what I do, right? And you expect that you're going to have some kind of an in. And of course, you look at that poor fellow, you know, that guy comes to church, what, maybe once or twice a month.

And have you seen how he doesn't dress up for Jesus the way I do? You totally expect that when it comes time for salvation to be doled out, there's, well, maybe that guy might make it. He has salvation.

But me, I have super salvation, right? Because everybody knows that's what would be fair. Keep this in mind as we work our way through this text, because the scandal of the gospel here is on display for us all to see.

The Parable of the Vineyard Workers

Christ says in our gospel text today, the kingdom of heaven, it's like, so you know, this is a metaphor. It's a parable. It gives us a picture of what the kingdom of heaven is like. It's like a master of a house who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard.

Don't make no mistake about it. This guy is Christ. That's who's doing the hiring here. He's the master of the house. After agreeing with the laborers for a denarius a day, he sent them into his vineyard.

You know, these are, you're kind of like your cream of the crop, construction guys, right? Worked it out with them. They've got a union representative. They sat down. What are you going to pay us for your work?

I'll give you one denarius for a day's work. No problemo. That's the going labor rate. And so the union boss says, okay, sends a bunch of his best guys over to work the vineyard. Now, going about the third hour, he recognizes he's going to need a little bit more help.

You're not going to go with the union boss at this point. When I lived in Southern California, there was a weird phenomenon. You can see this in Southern California. I haven't seen it here, but I'm sure maybe there's an equivalent to it.

If you go to Home Depot early in the morning, you could usually find a group of guys kind of hanging out in the Home Depot parking lot. These are your day laborers. And trucks would show up and say, I'll take you, you, you, and you.

And those guys hop in and they go for a day and they do a day's worth of work. All right? So that's what's happening here. The master heads off to the Home Depot. He needs a few more laborers. And here's what it says.

You go into the vineyard too, and whatever is, and here's an interesting thing in the Greek, I know that your ESV says, whatever is right, but the Greek word is dikaios, which means just. And whatever is just, I will give you.

Notice he doesn't say fair. He says, whatever's just, I will give to you. All right. So they went going out again about the sixth hour and the ninth hour, he did the same. And now about the 11th hour, he went out and found others standing.

11th hour. I mean, you got one hour left of the workday, one hour left of the workday. And who's he finding to go work in the vineyard at this point? I mean, these are the guys who didn't get hired earlier in the day, later in the morning, early in the afternoon.

These are kind of your leftover dregs of whatever. And these are fellows here. They have no expectations whatsoever of earning a denarius. None. Maybe they'll get enough that they can, after work, head over to the local bar and have a beer afterwards.

But I mean, hey, if this guy's going to pay me for an hour's worth of work, I mean, at least when it comes Miller time, I can, you know, go off and enjoy a beer. So he found others standing. He said to them, why are you standing here idle?

They said, because no one's hired us. He said, then you go into the vineyard too. No negotiation here. No negotiation. There's no discussion of price or nothing. So when the evening came, so now 12 hours of the workday have gone by.

Evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, you call the laborers and you pay them their wages, beginning with the last up to the first. And when those hired about the 11th hour came, each of them received a denarius, a full day's wage.

And you can kind of see how this is working. Okay. You got them all lined up. Okay. The guys who came in last, they're at the front of the line. The guys who came in first, they're at the back of the line.

You see the last will be first. The first will be last. And so what happens? Guy number one, who shows up for an hour, who barely did even broke a sweat, if he broke a sweat at all, he receives a shiny denarius, a full day's wage.

And he goes, whoa, I got a whole denarius. And you can see how this is going down then. The news goes down the line and the guys that got hired at the beginning of the day are sitting there going, this dude's paying a denarius an hour, man.

This is going to be awesome. No, he's not. He's not paying a denarius an hour, but you'll notice the generosity of the fellow who shows up at the end of the day, right? So 11th hour came, each of them received a denarius.

Now when those hired first came, they thought they would receive more. They're thinking this guy's paying a denarius per hour, but each of them also received a denarius. And on receiving it, they grumble at the master of the house.

Grumble, oh, this guy's worthless. I cannot believe what a jerk this guy is. This is not fair. Right? Where's HR? There needs to be a law. We got to do something about this because everybody knows equal pay for equal work, right?

That's a slogan we hear a lot today. Oh boy. Uh-huh. Well, so they grumble at the master. 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.

Oh, there's the, there's the rub, isn't it? That worthless fellow who only worked one hour, you, you made him my equal. I'm better than him. I put in more work than he did and yada, yada, yada, on it goes.

Grace Is Just, Not Fair

But now the master doubles down on grace and it's wonderful. So he replied to one of them, friend. And I always like to think that in the Greek here, this is a little bit of a different kind of friend.

In the Greek, this is more like, hey buddy. That's, that's a little closer to what this is saying. Hey buddy, I'm doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius? Well, actually you did. We negotiated that with your union boss.

This is you. So take what belongs to you and go. I choose to give this last worker as I give to you. Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or you, do you begrudge my generosity?

So are you saying that if Hitler confessed his sins on his deathbed, that he's forgiven and he has eternal life? Yeah. Well, you're, you're, you're making Hitler equal with all the other Christians and Christians who were Christians their entire life.

You're making Hitler equal with him. He has eternal life. That's just not fair. That's not right. Of course it's not fair. It's just, and here's the reason why it's just, is because Jesus is the one who bore the heat, who put in the day's work, languished on the cross the entire day.

It was his death, his work, his righteousness that saved miserable sinners like you and like me, so that we can be saved, whether we are saved as children, whether we are saved on our deathbed, so that we can be forgiven.

Do you begrudge the fact that Jesus told that thief on the cross, today you will be with me in paradise? You're making that thief equal with me, Jesus, and I've been, I've been following you my whole life.

Do you begrudge that? Then you're scandalized by the gospel itself, because Christ is generous in forgiving sinners and not giving us what we deserve. Jesus isn't fair. Grace isn't fair. Grace is just because Christ is the one who worked the whole day.

In fact, a good way to think of it is this way. Christ already did all the hard labor, and as you came into the vineyard, he already put that shiny denarius in your pocket before you even lifted a finger to do anything, because that denarius was won for you by him.

And so he generously and freely forgives sinners like you, like me. And sadly, for all of the despots out there, he's bled and died for them as well, even if they didn't repent of their sins. And that's the tragedy of it.

The generosity of Christ and of the gospel extends to all humanity, from sinful Adam to Adolf Hitler to Mao Zedong to Stalin to name your most hated politician to even you, even you. I've said it before, and I'll say it again.

It's a scandal. It's a scandal that Roseboro is forgiven. It's absolutely scandalous. The Roseboro will someday walk into the new earth, and there will be tax collectors, thieves, robbers, prostitutes, name the riffraff, and they're going to be looking and going, oh my goodness, Jesus is letting anybody in now, and that's the point.

Abundant Pardon and the Call to Repentance

So do not be ashamed of the gospel. It is the power of God into salvation. Christ has bled and died for all, and so we can rejoice with those who have faith and been given repentance and faith from the time of their infancy through the whole lives to those who on their deathbeds hear the gospel, and the Holy Spirit quickens their hearts, raises them from the dead, and their sins are forgiven.

We can rejoice at the generosity of Christ, that his forgiveness and eternal life and salvation is for anybody, any time, as long as they are still breathing. I don't think you can add too much to that.

So here again the words of Isaiah, seek then the Lord while he may be found. Call upon him while he is near, and he is near today. Scripture is clear. Christ is clear. Where two or more gathered, he is present.

Christ is here today to serve you. He's here to forgive you. He's here to feed you with his body and blood, to assure you of his mercy and grace. So prophet Isaiah says, let the wicked forsake his way.

Let the unrighteous man his thoughts. Let him return to the Lord so that he may have compassion on him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. I find it fascinating that there are people today who, for whatever reason, want a gospel without adverbs.

Isn't that weird? Stop talking about how free the gospel is. Stop talking in these superlatives. And yet the prophet Isaiah here says that God abundantly pardons. Do you need forgiveness today? And I know you do.

Note this, that Christ is not handing out his forgiveness piecemeal. Well, here's two grains of grace for you. Instead he says, here, open your bag. He pours as much grace as you need and beyond into your bag today.

He abundantly pardons. Why? Because God's thoughts are not your thoughts, are my thoughts. His ways are not our ways. He is not interested in being fair when it comes to your salvation. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.

And you see the difference between us and God is that he freely forgives. He gives people what they don't deserve because Christ took what they deserve upon himself so that they can be given abundant pardon and grace.

In the name of Jesus, amen.

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