The Gospel Makes Us All Equal

Kongsvinger Lutheran Church

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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

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Minnesota. We proclaim Christ and Him crucified for our sins and salvation by grace through faith alone.

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And now, here's a message from Pastor Chris Roseberg. The Holy Gospel according to St. Matthew, chapter 20, verses 1 -16.

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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.

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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,

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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.

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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?

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And they said to him, Well, because no one's hired us. He said to them, You go into the vineyard too.

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And when evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, Call the laborers, pay them their wages, beginning with the last up to the first.

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And when those hired about the eleventh hour came, each of them received a denarius.

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Now, when those hired first came, they thought they would receive more, but each of them also received a denarius.

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And on receiving it, they grumbled at the master of the house, saying, Well, 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.

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But he replied to one of them, Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius?

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Take what belongs to you and go. I choose to give to this last worker as I give to you.

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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 last?

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This is the Gospel of the Lord. In the name of Jesus. Amen. What an interesting parable.

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What's the problem here? Why are these guys grumbling against this generous housemaster?

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Hmm. Let's kind of spell the problem out very clearly, very quickly.

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Over and again, we recognize that Scripture, rightly divided, must be divided properly along the lines of law, gospel, sin, grace, repentance, and the forgiveness of sins.

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So what's the sin here that's being addressed by Jesus in this parable? Well, the sin that is being addressed is none other than self -righteousness.

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Have you ever stopped to think for a second that self -righteousness is a sin? Now, to kind of help bear this out, think with me for a second.

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If you have ever had a conversation with an atheist or an unbeliever, somebody who isn't a Christian, and you've told them the good news that Jesus has bled and died for their sins, and you say that he is willing for them to repent and to be forgiven, and rather than responding and saying, this is really good news, you're right,

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I can now be reconciled to God, they instead say, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, wait a second here.

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Are you saying that Jesus died for the sins of the whole world? And you go, well, yeah, he did.

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Are you saying that anybody can be forgiven? Well, yeah, including you.

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And they'll sit there and go, well, let me do the math on this. You're saying that if Hitler Hitler repented of his sins and believed in Jesus on his deathbed, that he's in heaven right now.

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Well, yes, God's mercy is that great. And then they lose it.

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Have you ever had this conversation? I've had a few of them along these lines. And the reason why they lose it, it goes something like this, is that how is that fair?

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You're telling me I need to repent of my sins and be forgiven. Yet I have been a good person my entire life.

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I have paid my taxes. When my kids were young, I helped out with the Boy Scouts. I even give money to the

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Rotary. And one time I put a whole $20 bill in that kettle for the

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Salvation Army before Christmas. And you're going, there's a problem here.

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What's the problem? The problem is self -righteousness.

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Are there any who are good? Not according to Scripture. All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, including your pastor, including you.

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All have fallen short. But see, self -righteousness basically wants everything to be fair.

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And they want to be judged according to their righteousness. I want you to think with me for a second.

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I don't want you to think I am promoting this, but I want you to kind of get the idea. Everything runs in this country by law.

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Everything in your work experience, if you work out in the corporate world, works by law.

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Have you ever been a part of a company where it comes annual employee evaluation time?

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What's the expectation? Those who've worked hard, they get a better raise than those who've been slacking.

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And if you've ever managed employees, there is nothing worse than dealing with the employee who comes storming into your office, closes the door with a slam, and says, why did

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I only get a 50 -cent raise and he got a 75 -cent raise? I bust my behind and that guy takes 10 -minute long, 5 -minute coffee breaks.

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Don't you see I've been doing a harder job than he has? This is not fair. Have you ever had that conversation?

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Maybe you've been the one who slammed the door. I will neither confirm nor deny any such things regarding myself.

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You see, this is the reason why we hate the concept of scoreless little league. Think about it.

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Scoreless little league, what a complete waste of time. Because what are the parents doing in scoreless little league?

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One, two, oh, we beat them. Because we want everything to work according to the law.

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We want what's fair. So that's at the heart of this parable today.

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This self -righteousness, this desire to be recognized by the law.

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And the gospel doesn't work that way at all. And we need to be very happy about this.

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But let's walk back through our parable today. And I'm going to work from my translation. Now the reason

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I'm going to do this today is because I on purpose want what I say to not quite line up with what's in your scripture.

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Because it's going to force you to pay attention to a few things. And there's a particular thing at the end of this parable that I think is better the way, if you just translate it straight from the

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Greek. It's an interesting statement. Here's what Jesus says. The kingdom of the heavens, yes it's plural, is like a man who is a house master.

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And this is actually kind of a beautiful phrase in the Greek. Who went out together with the early morning. What a great phrase.

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This man went out together with the early morning. This is at the crack of dawn to hire workers into his vineyard.

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Now I don't know if they have this practice here. But back in the ancient world, and still in the modern world, day laborers would go to a particular place in the marketplace, the agora, in order to hire themselves out for the day.

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We lived in Southern California. We knew some of these places where they existed. And what would happen is that somebody would come who owned a construction company or was a farmer.

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And they would hire day laborers. And these were all the illegal aliens. These were the illegal immigrants, those who had no documented papers.

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And so what would end up happening is that some fellow would drive up to a place. And you could see this from time to time.

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He'd drive up to a place where there was a group of fellows. And the truck would stop and say, I pick you, you, you, you, quick get in the car, we've got to go, because this is illegal.

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And off they go. And these guys would work for a day. And they were hired for one day at a time. Well, in the ancient world, they didn't have to work with the illegal aliens.

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This is just a common practice. Blue -collar day laborers worked in this way. And the fee for doing a day's wage was a denarius.

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One day's wage, a denarius. It's really simple. So that's kind of how this works out.

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Now, it's important to note that in this parable, the denarius is going to symbolize salvation.

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And so you can't say that they're earning this, because you have to kind of look for the idea that here's this housemaster going and looking for these people, and it is by grace that they are coming into his vineyard, and he's willing to give them these things.

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Does that make sense? There we are. He's early morning hiring the workers. By the way, have you ever heard of laziness?

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Do any of you ever suffer from this? Or you know somebody who works along these lines? Are those who are lazy, are they there at the crack of dawn saying, please, please pick me so I can work today?

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No. What are they doing? Sleeping. So keep this in mind. As the day progresses, the quality of the day laborer is dramatically diving.

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And so you can kind of think of it this way. As he hires these people, you've got the ambitious folks at the beginning, the guys who are working off a hangover, you know, about 9 in the morning, and then the people who slept in past lunch, who clearly have way too much time on their hands.

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They're not really ambitious. And so the rabble level continues to rise with each passing cycle through.

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Keep that in mind. He went out together with the early morning to hire workers into his vineyard.

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Having made an agreement with the workers for a denarius, for the day, which is the standard rate, he sent them out into his vineyard.

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And having gone out around the third hour. Isn't this interesting? Watch the hours.

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In the early part of this parable, they kind of punctuate the same hours of Jesus' labor on the cross.

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6 in the morning, his kangaroo trial. 9 in the morning, him being nailed to the cross.

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Noon, 3 in the afternoon. It's fascinating how that lines up. So, having gone out around the third hour, so this is 9 in the morning, he saw others standing idle in the marketplace.

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And to those he said, you also, you go into the vineyard and I will give you whatever may be right. And the ones went.

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And again, having gone out around the sixth hour and the ninth hour, he did similarly.

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And then having gone out around the 11th hour. This is 5 at night.

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Is this any time to start a day shift when everything is dependent on the sun?

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Not at all. At the 11th hour, he found others standing there and he said to them, why are you standing here idle the whole day?

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Because we're worthless. We're not very ambitious. Our wives made us stand out here, but we're trying to not make eye contact with anybody.

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So they said, well, because no one hired us. So he says to them, you also go into the vineyard.

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So having become evening, the master of the vineyard says to the manager, call the workers, pay them the wages beginning from the last ones up to the first ones.

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And having come to the ones hired around the 11th hour, they received a denarius apiece.

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One hour's work equals a full day's wage. Huh. Imagine you're with the group of guys who started at 6 in the morning.

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You're seeing that going, whoa, wait a second here. They got a whole denarius for one hour.

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The guy's paying a whole day's wage an hour. So they're thinking, that's 12 days wages for one day's work.

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This is what they're thinking. How do we know? The text goes on. So having come, the first ones thought that they would receive more.

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And they also received a denarius apiece. And then having received it, they were grumbling against the housemaster, saying, those last ones did one hour and you made them, and here's the rub, you made them equal to us.

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Oh boy. There's the problem. You see, the law doesn't make us equal.

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The law actually makes us all kind of different. But the gospel makes us all equal.

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You made them equal to us, they said. The ones having borne the burden of the day and the burning heat.

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Keep that picture in your mind, we'll come back to it. But the one having responded said to one of them, friend, and the

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Greek here is actually kind of funny. It's not friend like, hey friend, it's more like, hey buddy.

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It's a little more terse than that. Yeah, we're not really friends, but I'll call you friend.

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Hey buddy, I'm not wronging you. Did you not make an agreement with me for a denarius?

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Take what is yours. But I want to give this last one as I also gave to you.

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Or is it not lawful for me to do what I want with my own things? And then here's the best phrase, and I'm going to translate it straight.

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Or is your eye evil because I am good? Wow. That is quite the charge.

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So they're charging him with evil for being generous. While they themselves are actually the ones who have the problems.

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Thus, the last ones will be first, and the first ones last. And again, what's the problem here?

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Self -righteousness. Total self -righteousness. And this idea that it is scandalous that God pardons and forgives not sinners in the abstract, but actual for real sinners.

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Remember the story of Jonah. We all know the story of Jonah. Jonah and the big fish, or Jonah and the whale.

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It wasn't a whale, it was a fish, but it was a big one. And God comes to Jonah, he's a prophet, and tells him to go to Nineveh, part of the

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Assyrian Empire, and the Assyrians made the Nazis look like schoolgirls.

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These are the fellows who had the very first prototype of crucifixion. When they would conquer a town or a city, they would take the fighting men who fought against them that had been defeated and they surrendered, and they would take them and stick them up on a pike, and kill them in that way, and leave their dead carcasses for everybody to see.

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They were the perfecters of psychological warfare against those whom they defeated.

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And it was the Israelites who suffered defeat at the hands of these exact same cruel people.

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So the word of the Lord comes to Jonah to go and preach against the sins of Nineveh, and what does

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Jonah do? We all know how the story goes. Nineveh's this way, Jonah says, I'm going that way.

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He gets on a boat, heads to Tarshish, we're not exactly sure where that is, we think Spain, it's a long way away, and there are no beaches in Nineveh.

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And God decides to engage in some, how shall we put it, subtle motivation to kind of work out this little rebellious streak in Jonah.

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Causes a storm to come up, he ends up being sacrificed and sent to the deep, and a fish swallows him and he spends 3 days in the belly of a fish, and he probably had claustrophobia the rest of his life and never ate sushi again.

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I always loved when I was in Sunday school, they would talk about how the stomach acids of the fish probably bleached his skin and his hair, and then when he was finally belched out onto the beach, he probably looked like an albino with seaweed wrapped around his head.

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It's always a wonderful picture, but usually when somebody tells the story, that's where it ends.

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And so the moral of the story is when God tells you to do something, get right to it. No!

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Now, I'm not saying you should disobey God, that's not the idea here. The question is, why did

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Jonah go the other way? And this is the part of the story that nobody gets to.

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So Jonah chapter 3 says these words, beginning in verse 1, Hopefully God gave him a little bit of time for his hair to grow out and it no longer looked like a bleached -headed surfer dude.

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He said, rise, go to Nineveh, the great city, call out against it the message that I tell you.

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So Jonah thinking, well, I better do it this time. So Jonah rose and went to Nineveh according to the word of Yahweh.

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Nineveh was an exceedingly great city. Three days journey in breadth. Jonah began to go into the city, going a day's journey.

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He called out, yet 40 days and Nineveh shall be overthrown. And listen to these words.

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And the people of Nineveh believed God. Huh. Revival broke out in Nineveh.

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And you would think Jonah would be going, praise the Lord! There's revival here in Nineveh.

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All these evil war criminals, they're repenting and being forgiven. It's the best thing ever.

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They're confessing the Lord as their Savior. No. This does not make

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Jonah happy. He does not praise God because these people believe God and repented. Listen to how the story unfolds.

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So Nineveh believed God. They called for a fast. They put on sackcloth from the greatest of them to the least of them.

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The word reached the king of Nineveh. He arose from his throne, removed his royal robes, covered himself with sackcloth, sat in ashes.

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And then he issued a proclamation and published it throughout all of Nineveh. By the decree of the king and his nobles, let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything.

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We're fasting. Let them not feed or drink water, but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth.

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Let them call out mightily to God. Let everyone turn from his evil way, from the violence that is in his hands.

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Who knows? God may turn and relent and turn from his fierce anger so that we may not perish.

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And when God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way, God relented of the disaster that he had said that he would do to them, and he did not do it.

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But this displeased Jonah exceedingly. He's angry because by forgiving them, what has

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God done? He's made them equal with Israel. He's pardoned their sins, given them eternal life.

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Are you kidding me? I'm going to have to share eternity, new heavens and new earth with those guys?

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Didn't you see what they did to my brother? That's the idea. So he was displeased exceedingly.

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He was very angry. And so he prayed to the Lord, and he said, Yahweh, is this not what

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I said when I was yet in my country? This is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish.

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For I knew you are a gracious God, and you are merciful, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster.

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Notice, in Jonah's way of thinking, God's mercy and grace is not a strong point when it comes to God.

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It's an utter disgrace. Therefore, Lord, please kill me now.

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It is better for me to die than to live. Well, ho. Yeah, that grace stuff can get really scandalous.

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We don't mind if our work everyday 9 -5 neighbor comes to Jesus.

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But what about the town hooker? What about the local drunk?

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What about the person who is known for being sexually promiscuous with not just females, but also males?

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What about him? Do we really want to share heaven with that guy? Do we really want to be equal with him?

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What about that politician you hate? I don't know. Name one.

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There are lots to choose from in that group. Do you really want to share heaven with him?

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Do you want him forgiven? Do you want to be equal with him? You see kind of how this all works then.

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This is why Jonah is upset. And his solution is kill me now. Kill me now.

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So the Lord said to him, well, do you do well to be angry? You can just see Jonah fuming.

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So Jonah, not to be dissuaded by God's mercy, went out of the city, sat to the east of the city, and made a booth for himself, like a temporary shelter.

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He sat under it in the shade until he should see what would become of the city. He's praying, hoping, please,

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Nineveh, let this repentance of yours be just like a sham. Go back to your evil ways so that God will destroy you.

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I'm going to watch the fireworks. Does anyone have any popcorn? That's what's going on. And God, in his mercy, appoints a plant, made it come up over Jonah that it might be a shade over his head to save him from his discomfort.

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So Jonah was exceedingly glad because of the plant, but when the dawn came up the next day,

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God appointed a worm that attacked the plant, so it withered. When the sun rose, God appointed a scorching east wind, and the sun beat down on the head of Jonah so that he was faint.

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And then he asked that he might die. He said, it is better for me to die than to live.

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So God said to Jonah, do you do well to be angry for the plant? He said, yes, I do well to be angry, angry enough to die.

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And Lord said, you pity the plant for which you did not labor, nor did you make it grow, which came into being in a night and then perished in a night.

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And should not I pity Nineveh, that great city in which there are more than 120 ,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also much cattle?

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You know, Jesus, speaking against those who in his day refused to repent of their wickedness, refused to repent and trust in him for the forgiveness of their sins, he said to them that Nineveh would rise up and condemn them on the last day, affirming that these

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Ninevites truly had received God's mercy and a full pardon. And it's scandalous.

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You think of the scandal of the Nazi war criminals. A while back I told the story of Pastor Gerke, who was an

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LCMS pastor right after World War II who was asked to stay on after the war in Germany and to be the pastor and chaplain for the

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Nazi war criminals who were on trial in Nuremberg. And at first, none of these guys really wanted to have anything to do with this fellow.

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But through the preaching of the word and the proclamation of Christ, six of these

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Nazi war criminals, all of them who hung on the gallows for their crimes, repented of their sins and were forgiven.

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One of them, as he was ascending the gallows, Pastor Gerke was there to watch him leave this earth.

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One of them said to Pastor Gerke, I will see you later. And he rightly died for his crimes against humanity.

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The government is not given the power to forgive sins, only to punish them. But we are given the authority to forgive.

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And a Nazi war criminal who has the blood of millions on his hands can be forgiven by Christ.

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And he chooses in the 11th hour to give them full salvation.

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The same salvation he's given to you who've been baptized when you were infants at this font and have lived your lives, believers in Christ.

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He gives you the same salvation that he gives to them. And it's scandalous.

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But see, that's how it works. Now if you remember, bore the heat of the day, the parable says.

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And I noted the fact that the hours mentioned in the parable line up with the events of Jesus' crucifixion.

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And I would like you to think of it this way. Jesus, on a Friday afternoon, began his work early in the morning.

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Crack of dawn. He was put on trial. And he was found guilty of crimes that he did not commit, but crimes that you had committed, that I had committed.

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At nine in the morning, he was marched out to Golgotha and nailed to a cross and spent the rest of the day laboring and suffering under the heat of God's wrath for your sins and for mine.

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The text tells us this from Luke. Two others who were criminals were led away to be put to death with Jesus.

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And when they came to the place that is called the skull, there they crucified him, the criminals, one on his right and one on his left.

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And Jesus said, Father, forgive them. They do not know what they are doing. And then they cast lots and divided his garments.

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And the people stood by watching, but the ruler scoffed at him saying, He saved others. Let him save himself. If he is the

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Christ, God's chosen one. The soldiers also mocked him, coming up and offering him sour wine and saying,

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If you're the king of the Jews, save yourself. But see, he wasn't saving himself. He was saving you.

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There was also an inscription over him and it read, This is the king of the Jews. Now one of the criminals who were hanged railed at him saying,

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Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and save us. But the other rebuked him saying,

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Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed justly, for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds.

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But this man has done nothing wrong. Now consider the occasion.

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These two criminals are rightly being punished for their crimes.

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And their crimes had risen to the level that they had earned for themselves the death penalty.

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One, even in his death pangs, the suffering he is going through for his own sins, mocks

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Christ. The other rightly confesses that he is getting what he deserves, but Jesus is not.

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That is what we call a confession of sins. Now note, he is not very far from dying.

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Not very far at all. Hours at this point. He is already beginning to experience death.

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He is on his deathbed and his deathbed is raised straight up. And here's what he says to Jesus.

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A wonderful prayer. Jesus, please remember me when you come into your kingdom.

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He confessed his sins and didn't even have the audacity to ask Jesus to forgive him.

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He just said, please remember me. To be remembered by God is to be saved.

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For God to remember you is a good thing. For God to remember your sins is a terrible thing.

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Please remember me when you come into your kingdom. And then these scandalous words.

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This man, who is not even capable of working an entire hour in God's vineyard, is literally at the verge of his own death.

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Jesus said to him, truly I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.

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And we sit there and go, what? If he were a smoker, he didn't even have time to put his cigarettes in the trash.

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If he were a drunk, he hadn't even sobered up. He's a criminal who's being punished for his crimes, and rightly so.

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And in the midst of all of that, just hours before he dies, Jesus gives him a full and complete pardon?

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You see it? You see, and the reason for it, it's quite simple. It's because there,

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Jesus was putting in his long day's work so that he can earn a denarius.

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And the text goes on. It was about the sixth hour. There was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour.

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When the sun's light failed, the curtain of the temple was torn in two. Then Jesus, calling out with a loud voice, said,

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Father, into your hands I commit my spirit. And having said this, he breathed his last. And now when the centurion saw what had taken place, he praised

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God saying, certainly this man was innocent. I would beg to differ, because Isaiah is so clear on this, that on Jesus, God had laid the iniquity of us all.

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And on the cross, Christ bleeds and dies for all of your sins.

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He's punished in your place. He endures the heat of God's wrath in the middle of the day.

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And he earns that denarius. And now the scandal is this. He comes and he slips it in your pocket.

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And he says, I don't need this. You do. Take it. Free. And it's scandalous.

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And it's so amazing. You see, our Old Testament text today said these words.

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My thoughts are not your thoughts. Neither are my ways your ways. How many times have we heard those words?

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A bazillion times. Usually we say them in the context of things that don't make any sense. Well, God's thoughts are not our thoughts.

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I don't get it. I don't understand it. But notice the context in which these words are spoken. Seek the

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Lord while He may be found. Call upon Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake

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His way and the unrighteous man his thoughts. Let him return to Yahweh so that he may have compassion on Him and to our

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God, for He will abundantly pardon. For my thoughts are not your thoughts.

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Neither are my ways your ways. As far as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.

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We never think of forgiving. It's scandalous.

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You can just let that person slide? Get off scot -free? Yeah. Is it not lawful for me to do what

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I want with my own property? The self -righteous hate it.

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They want to be judged. By what they do. They think it's not fair.

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And I agree. According to the law, it is not fair. Instead, it is merciful.

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I don't want what's fair from God because I need mercy. And so do you.

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And this is why it's good news that anyone repents, whether they are a child or an old man on his deathbed.

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The angels rejoice equally because the King of the Universe pays everyone the same equally as a gift because he's the one who earned the denarius that one

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Friday on Golgotha. In the name of Jesus, Amen.

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If you would like to support the teaching ministry of Kungsvinger Lutheran Church, you can do so by sending a tax -free donation to Kungsvinger Lutheran Church 15950 470th

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Avenue NW Oslo, MN 56744 And again that address is

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Kungsvinger Lutheran Church 15950 470th

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Avenue NW Oslo, MN 56744 We thank you for your support.

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All of our teaching messages may be freely distributed as long as you do not edit or change the content of the message.