Delivered September 25, 2011
Back in 1992 Bill Clinton had slogan during his presidential campaign: “It’s the economy, stupid!” Even though I do no approve of calling people stupid, he understood the issue at that time; it was a catchy phrase, and it worked. Here we are 20 years later, and it is the same issue! This presidential primary and general election will be won or lost on the issue of the economy. Obviously there are other issues like war and healthcare – which interestingly were also both issues back then also – but the main issue remains the economy, especially in the last three years of what is being called the Great Recession. People are upset about unemployment and underemployment. The long lines of people applying for jobs and attending job fairs tell the story. People want to work, but they can’t find work – at least not at a wage that will support a family.
The passage of scripture that we are looking at today is about people looking for work. Jesus uses a parable that speaks about a landowner employing people and paying them a living wage. He uses it to communicate spiritual truths about the economy of the Kingdom of God. It is a great parable. I love this parable because it raises all kinds of troubling issues, and I love troubling issues. I love it when a passage of scripture causes us to argue with it. I love it when scripture challenges our assumptions and values. That is what this text does. I want to take it section by section.
I. The first section is just verse 1. “For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard.” This tells us right away that the kingdom of God involves WORK. That is a controversial statement these days. A lot of people don’t really think that the spiritual life should be work. They work enough during the week. They do not want to come to church and hear a preacher tell them that the spiritual life also is about work. But Jesus says, “For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard.” Clearly the landowner represents God, and we are the laborers.
But that is not the model that is sold in today’s religious marketplace. Today we are consumers of a spiritual commodity. Religions and churches are like businesses selling a religious product to the public. They package it and market it. The whole point is to try to get people inside the doors of a building to buy a product and put their hard-earned money into the offering plates. The American church has been shaped and defined by American consumerism. Pastors have bought into the model. Many pastors see themselves as CEOs of their churches. Church boards see themselves as board of directors and success is measured in terms of profit or loss defined by the numbers of people and the bottom line of the financial sheetss.
But Jesus does not say that the Kingdom of God is like Walmart or Bank of America. He says that “the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard.” In the economy of the Kingdom of God we are not consumers; we are laborers. We are not the business owners; God is. Jesus uses this image many times. “He said to His disciples, “The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few. 38 Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.” It communicates the truth that the spiritual life is work.
I think that most Christians don’t think of the spiritual life as work. They see it more as recreation. It is something to do in our spare time on the weekends – like attending a movie, a play or a sporting event. We think that the benefits of religion – things like happiness, fulfillment, meaning and moral character - should be accessible with little effort. In fact we expect it to be delivered to us in exchange for our faith. For many people even attending worship on Sunday morning feels like work. It is just another obligation to fulfill. It is so much more enjoyable instead to take a walk in the woods or read a spiritual book in an armchair at our leisure. But it is called a worship SERVICE for a reason. It is not entertainment. It is service, and we are not the ones being served. We are the servants who render service to the Lord of this church.
Nothing worthwhile comes without a price. That is especially true of the spiritual life. There is a lot more to the Christian life than believing certain ideas about God and Jesus, coming to church, and giving money. Jesus ends the parable with the words: “ For many are called, but few chosen.” That sounds like being a part of the Kingdom of God is not an automatic or a sure thing. It is not pay your money and take your seat and you get a reserved place in heaven. When he says, “For many are called, but few chosen,” that sounds like there is a weeding out process, a winnowing, and God is the one who does the chosing. We have bought into the idea of entitlement so much that we think we are entitled to whatever spiritual benefits God is offering.
II. The second point Jesus makes is the fair wage given the workers. Verses 2-7 “Now when he had agreed with the laborers for a denarius a day, he sent them into his vineyard. 3 And he went out about the third hour and saw others standing idle in the marketplace, 4 and said to them, ‘You also go into the vineyard, and whatever is right I will give you.’ So they went. 5 Again he went out about the sixth and the ninth hour, and did likewise. 6 And about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing idle, and said to them, ‘Why have you been standing here idle all day?’ 7 They said to him, ‘Because no one hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You also go into the vineyard, and whatever is right you will receive.’
The landowner contracts with the first laborers for a denarius a day. A denarius was a fair wage in those days. It was a normal day’s wages. It was enough for a man to feed his family. He wasn’t going to get rich, but it would pay the bills. Reaching the end of a job interview, the Human Resources person asked a young applicant fresh out of Business School, "And what starting salary are you looking for?" The applicant said, "In the neighborhood of $200,000 a year, depending on the benefits package." The interviewer said, "Well, what would you say to a package of 6-weeks vacation, weekends off, 14 paid holidays, full medical and dental, company matching retirement fund to 50% of salary, and a company car leased every two years – how about, a red Corvette?" The applicant sat up straight and said, "Wow! Are you kidding?" And the interviewer replied, "Yeah, but you started it."
The idea here is that in the kingdom of God, the Lord makes a fair arrangement with his servants. We shouldn’t expect to get rich, but neither will we starve. The Kingdom of God is not a sweatshop where illegal aliens are paid substandard wages. In the Bible there is a constant emphasis on economic fairness throughout the OT and the NT. There are a lot of rules and regulations in the OT law protecting the most economically vulnerable. These just standards should be the model for any society that claims to be founded on Christian or biblical values. All those who are employed get a fair wage. This is repeated in this passage for a reason. It is putting forth the biblical principle. “whatever is right you will receive.”
Notice also that everyone in this parable is employed. There is full employment in God’s economy. No one is turned away. Everyone who wants to work gets to work in this story. That also is an economic standard that should be modeled in society and in churches. Everyone in a church is involved in the work of the church. But the truth is that there are a lot of people in a lot of churches who do not have much work to do in the church beyond Sunday morning. Some may not want to do any more than that for a variety of reasons, partly because of that consumer and entertainment mindset I was talking about earlier. People do enough work during the week and don’t need any more to do. They are tired.
Some don’t think they have anything to offer. They do not feel they have much talent or time. Some just have not been asked and are reluctant to volunteer for any number of reasons. Others need to be encouraged and taught how important it is to give of time and talent. The church structure of boards and committees in most churches can encourage or discourage getting people involved. No one should feel guilty, but everyone should feel welcome and encouraged and enabled to serve. I am not talking just about church centered work. Spiritual service to God is much more than church programs. Much spiritual work for the Kingdom may not have any formal ties to any congregation. What is important is that we serve God in the way God is calling us. In this parable everyone works according to the ability and time that they have.
Back to the topic of wages, notice here that the wage is not based on the amount of time worked. This is where it gets controversial. The landowner starts off at 6am and hires workers. Then at 9am (the third hour) he sees some other workers and tells them to go into field and work and says, “whatever is right I will give you.’ No set wage is defined here; just that it would be fair. Then at noon he hires more and at 3pm he hires more, and even at 5pm he hires some, even though quitting time is at 6pm they would only work for one hour. He tells them also “whatever is right you will receive.’
III. This leads us onto the next section, which is payday. Verses 8-12 “So when evening had come, the owner of the vineyard said to his steward, ‘Call the laborers and give them their wages, beginning with the last to the first.’ 9 And when those came who were hired about the eleventh hour, they each received a denarius. 10 But when the first came, they supposed that they would receive more; and they likewise received each a denarius. 11 And when they had received it, they complained against the landowner, 12 saying, ‘These last men have worked only one hour, and you made them equal to us who have borne the burden and the heat of the day.’”
This is the punch line of the parable. And it punches us right in the gut. The landowner pays everyone the same amount. The ones who worked 12 hours and the ones who worked 9 and 6 and 3 and even one hour, all got the same wage. This doesn’t seem fair. It didn’t seem fair to the ones who worked for twelve hours. They say in verses 11-12 “11 And when they had received it, they complained against the landowner, 12 saying, ‘These last men have worked only one hour, and you made them equal to us who have borne the burden and the heat of the day.’” And it doesn’t seem fair. There is a lot of talk and lawsuits these days about making sure that women get the same pay as men. Walmart was recently involved in just such a lawsuit. “Equal pay for equal work.” In this parable it is equal pay for unequal work. There is something inside of us that protests at this arrangement.
This is exactly why Jesus tells this story. He tells us this story to show us that God’s Kingdom doesn’t operate by human standards. He says to the laborers in the parable: “13 But he answered one of them and said, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius? 14 Take what is yours and go your way. I wish to give to this last man the same as to you. 15 Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with my own things? Or is your eye evil because I am good?’” In short the landowner is saying, “I can do whatever I want, and it doesn’t matter whether you agree or not.” This is a rather blunt response, but that is the way it is. In God’s kingdom everyone gets what they need regardless of how long they have served the Lord. The saint who serves for 90 years gets the same as the thief on the cross who was a servant of Jesus for only 90 minutes, whose arms and feet were tied to a cross and could not serve in any way.
In the kingdom of God, it is not about fair; it is about grace. And it is about attitude. Jesus obviously is trying to highlight the attitude of the laborer who feels he ought to get more than he contracted for. This whole story focuses on the 12-hour workers who are feeling like they got shortchanged by the Lord. I run across this attitude a lot in my ministry. When something bad happens, people ask, “Why me?” Behind this question is the idea that they do not deserve to be treated this way. That they are decent people and deserve to be treated well. And if God doesn’t treat them well according to their standards of fairness, then the heck with God. A lot of people judge God very harshly concerning how he runs things. And they judge Christianity harshly also. They look at the world and their lives and it doesn’t seem fair. They did not get what they deserved, just like these laborers in the parable looked at what they got and it didn’t seem fair.
Jesus told this parable to highlight this idea that life is not fair. People struggle with the problem of evil and suffering in the world. Theologians struggle with it. Why do so many terrible things happen in the world? Why does God allow these natural disasters? Can’t he prevent it? Why does God allow evil people to do terrible things to innocent people? Why doesn’t God do something about it? People reason that the existence of suffering and evil in the world means that there is no God. Or if there is a God, then he doesn’t care or is powerless to do anything about it. This is one of the big philosophical and theological issues. This parable – and others like it – tells us that life is not fair. Get over it. That is basically what the landowner is telling the complaining laborers.
I will tell you the answer to this great theological problem of evil and suffering. The answer is … that there is no answer – at least not this side of heaven. The Christian life is living by faith when there are no answers. The innocent suffer. Sometimes the innocent die early and painful deaths at the hands of unjust and evil people. That is life. That is what the Cross represents. The Cross is the innocent man Jesus dying an early, torturous and unjust death at the hands of bad people. That is the reality of life on earth. And we can’t explain it away.
But the cross of Jesus also teaches us that there is true and meaningful life in spite of this injustice. The cross is not the final word. That is the meaning of the resurrection. The world shouts “Crucify Him” on Good Friday, but that is not the final word. The final word is “He is risen” on Easter Sunday. The final word is that God has the final word. His word is grace in the midst of the injustices of life.
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