If you had invested $1000 in Amazon stock in 1997, it would be worth over $1.6 million today. $1000 in Microsoft at their IPO in 1985 would have made you about $3.5 million by now. If you had invested $1000 in Bitcoin in 2009, it would be worth over $100 billion today. Did you get in at the right time? Or did you miss out?
When it comes to investments, timing makes all the difference. It can be a little disheartening to look back at missed opportunities and think about what we might have done differently. That’s true with the stock market, but it’s also the case for all of life. How many things in life might you, knowing what you know now, have advised yourself to do differently? How many foolish mistakes have you made? How many great opportunities have you missed?
Today Jesus tells us a parable about working for God’s kingdom with the time we have been given. It’s the parable of the workers in the vineyard, and this parable serves as both a warning and an encouragement, it proclaims both law and gospel. If you are a longtime Christian, if you “got in early,” don’t think highly of yourself. And when your sins haunt you and the Devil tempts you to despair saying that there’s no way to make up for the time that has been lost, rejoice to know that your reward is by God’s grace. Be grateful for time spent working in God’s vineyard.
This Sunday of the church year is a reminder of how the time grows short. We’re using the one-year historic lectionary, which includes three Sundays of Pre-Lent, a countdown to Lent. These Sundays have funny Latin names and those names themselves are a countdown, not to Lent, but to Easter. Septuagesima means 70. Next Sunday is Sexagesima or 60, followed by Quinquagesima, 50. That’s not the exact number of days. Instead they are round numbers for roughly where we are in the countdown before the 40 days of Lent. It’s all about being prepared because the time is running out.
This parable that Jesus told is one of his many parables that describe what the kingdom of heaven is like by using an earthly picture. He said, “Indeed the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard.” I would guess not too many of us have experience working in vineyards, but this kind of thing would have been common in first century Israel. Men who were looking for work went to the town square and men who needed workers went there to find people to hire. So the landowner hired some men early in the morning to work in his vineyard, and they agreed to work for a denarius. A denarius was a coin, and it was also a standard day’s wage for a worker. This would have been exactly what most people would have expected.
But the landowner didn’t stop there. A few hours later he went back to the town square, and saw some other men standing around with no work to do. And so he said to them, “You also go into the vineyard, and I will give you whatever is right.” And they went. And he did it again. He went at the sixth hour, which would be about noon. He went at the ninth hour, about 3 PM. And then finally he went at the eleventh hour, 5 PM, just an hour before closing time at 6. Still at that late hour he found men standing around, unemployed. “Why have you stood here all day unemployed?” he asked them. “They said to him, ‘Because no one hired us.’ So He told them, ‘You also go into the vineyard.’
When the day ended then he had his foreman call the workers and dole out their pay, starting with those who were hired last. Each received a denarius. And I suppose you could imagine the first workers to arrive lighting up when they saw that. “Well, if they worked only an hour and received that much, we must be in for a bonus!”
And so it’s really no surprise then that they were not too happy when they received exactly the same amount, one denarius. They began to grumble, “Those who were last worked one hour, and you made them equal to us who have endured the burden of the day and the scorching heat!”
And Jesus says, But he answered one of them, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Did you not make an agreement with me for a denarius? 14Take what is yours and go. I want to give to the last one hired the same as I also gave to you. 15Can’t I do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?’
The thing about this parable is that we kind of sympathize with those complaining workers. They’re right, aren’t they? This isn’t fair. What kind of an employer would do this? And it’s a bad business practice. Employers should dole out wages fairly, based on the amount of work that is done, not just willy-nilly, however they feel like it. Those workers who came in late should not be paid the same as those who were there the whole time.
So what are we supposed to do with this parable? We aren’t going to tell Jesus that he’s wrong. But what is it that he wants us to learn from this story that goes against everything we know? Jesus himself summarizes his lesson, “In the same way, the last will be first, and the first, last.”
Fairness is not the point. It is most pointedly and purposefully not the point. In the business world fairness matters. In the world of finance it’s necessary to make the right choices and get in early. But that is not how God’s kingdom works. And maybe we would be tempted to think that it would be better that way. “Yes,” you might say, “if God’s kingdom is fair and transactional, then just think what rewards I must have earned! I’ve labored hard in God’s vineyard. I’ve turned away temptations to serve myself. I’ve dedicated my life to attending church. I’ve given my hard-earned income in offerings. I’ve put in long hours of service here at church and elsewhere. If those who turn away from the idleness of unbelief and to Christ for salvation at the eleventh hour receive the full wage of a denarius, shouldn’t there be more for me?”
But do you see what this thinking is, how subtly the Devil has filled you with pride? If God truly deals out to you what you deserve, what will your reward be? He does not owe you. You are in debt to him.
And so the landower says that he is being generous. Truly he is. Those men hired last were about to go without. No work. No wages. They would have gone hungry that day. And the gifts and blessings God doles out to you are worth far more than anything you have earned, whether you have labored long in his vineyard or have only just been chosen and hired. Jesus labored on the cross so that you could have the gift of eternal life.
Laboring in God’s vineyard is itself a gift and a privilege. It is a joy, not a heavy burden. You are laboring in God’s vineyard when you serve each other and when you love one another. You are laboring in God’s vineyard when you work here at church, but also when you are living out your faith at home, at school, and in the workplace. Your loving Lord sees these things and delights in them.
Paul writes in Romans 11 that “if it is by grace, then it is not the result of works—otherwise grace would no longer be grace.” Thanks be to God that he has called you to labor in his vineyard with the promise of a reward that is all by grace. Work in his vineyard, and know that your reward, your salvation, is in your Master’s hands. Amen.
— Pastor Seth Georgson