The Gospel of Our Lord Jesus Christ According to Matthew
“For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard. 2 He agreed to pay them a denarius[a] for the day and sent them into his vineyard.
“About nine in the morning he went out and saw others standing in the marketplace doing nothing. He told them, ‘You also go and work in my vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.’ 5So they went.
“He went out again about noon and about three in the afternoon and did the same thing. About five in the afternoon he went out and found still others standing around. He asked them, ‘Why h ave you been standing here all day long doing nothing?’
“‘Because no one has hired us,’ they answered.
“He said to them, ‘You also go and work in my vineyard.’
“When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Call the workers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last ones hired and going on to the first.’
“The workers who were hired about five in the afternoon came and each received a denarius. So when those came who were hired first, they expected to receive more. But each one of them also received a denarius. When they received it, they began to grumble against the landowner. ‘These who were hired last worked only one hour,’ they said, ‘and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day.’
“But he answered one of them, ‘I am not being unfair to you, friend. Didn’t you agree to work for a denarius? Take your pay and go. I want to give the one who was hired last the same as I gave you. Don’t I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?’
“So the last will be first, and the first will be last.” (Matthew 20:1-16)
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I had a friend who worked for an airline that was bought by another larger airline. He kept his job, for which he was thankful, but he lost the seniority he had built up with his original airline, and moved to the back of the line in the new airline.
He lost all the perks that he had built up over his years of service.
And the fault didn’t lie with the company.
It was a union policy.
In other words, union brothers at one airline refused to let their union brothers from the other airline be integrated into the seniority system, but insisted they be tacked on at the end.
I read of one example where a man who had been flying planes for thirty years was behind his own son in seniority after the merger.
Where is the equality, the fair treatment, the brotherliness in that?
I have no doubt, though, human nature being what it is, that if it had been the other way around, the same thing would have happened.
The thought seems to be that it’s good that I have the perks that come with seniority, but I don’t want you too have them too. My enjoyment of my perks would be spoiled if you were to get them too.
It’s like you get to a certain level of salary in your job and you feel good about it, then you find out that someone else, who doesn’t seem to have worked as hard, or as long as you gets the same.
You have the same raise as before. You have reached the same level as before. But it just doesn’t seem that good anymore, does it?
Gore Vidal famously said, ‘It isn’t enough to succeed, others have to fail.”
It’s true, isn’t it?
Just imagine you have run in a race as hard and as fast as you can, and you break the record for that distance, then you find that all the other runners ran through the finishing tape, just as you did.
The all broke the record together.
That would kind of spoil it wouldn’t it?
Now I don’t wish to boast, or seem more righteous than anyone else, but I don’t fit that pattern.
As a long time minister, I have many perks in my job.
That’s right.
I can come into the church whenever I want, and ring the bell.
I can come in and read from the big bible, anytime I want. I can – and don’t tell Marilyn – come into the church and play the organ anytime I want.
And if a new minister comes in, I don’t mind sharing my perks with him or her.
Even if they don’t have all the years that I have served.
The worker who was chosen first in the parable we heard today, said, “ I have worked all day, and got the pay I was promised, but when I find out that you have only worked one hour and got the same pay, then my pay which I thought was fair, doesn’t seem fair any more.”
There was no unemployment insurance in those days. There was plenty of unemployment, of course, because a lot of people had been moved off their land when they couldn’t pay the taxes the Romans demanded.
No unemployment insurance!
If you didn’t work, you didn’t eat.
If there was no work then there was no food.
Men would stand around in that hot sun, waiting for an employer to come along and choose them for a day’s labour. If they were chosen at the beginning of the day, then their families would eat.
If they were chosen halfway through the day, then they would eat, but not so well.
If they waited in that burning sun all day long and were not chosen, then their families would starve.
This employer came early and took the men he thought he would need, but there was too much work for them. So he came back at noon, and then later, at three o’clock, and again at about five in the afternoon and took more workers each time.
That was normal.
What was different was that when it came time to pay his labourers, this man paid each of them – the ones who had worked all day, the ones who had worked only half a day, and even the men who had worked for one hour only – he paid them all a full day’s pay.
The ones who had been there the full day, and who had been paid what they had been promised, didn’t like the way this employer worked. They grumbled that the late-comers had been treated as well as those who had laboured all day.
Does that sound like the airline union member with seniority? The worker with twenty years experience? Does it sound like long-time faithful workers seeing new people coming in and being treated as well as they? And not liking it!!
It doesn’t seem fair, does it?
And we don’t like it.
Now I must say it is not like that in my church.
You may only have been a member of the church for a month and you will be just as privileged to provide for the coffee hour as someone who has been here for ten years.
And I have seen people here for the first time, helping to put away the chairs and tables after coffee hour is over.
And no one complained.
All joking aside, Jesus is saying that’s how the kingdom of Heaven is – everyone accepted fully, and welcomed, whenever they find Him. and you know, I am glad that’s how it is.
I am glad that when I finally came to know my Saviour, I was accepted, forgiven and loved, as much as those who had come to know him years earlier.
I never felt that I was second class.
You know, some people die after a full life, and have had the chance to serve Him for years. Others, die young, and consequently don’t have the same number of years to serve God. But He loves us all the same.
The problem with us human beings is that we may have forgotten how to be grateful for his grace. We are too busy comparing what others are getting.
The men who were chosen to work first thing in the morning had the satisfaction of knowing that they had work. They would be paid. Their families would be fed.
Those hired halfway through the day, would have experienced relief that at least they would earn something. But imagine how those who had to wait until mid-afternoon, or just one hour before the end of the day – imagine how they felt at not being chosen.
Imagine how their hearts must have fallen each time they were passed over?
The ones who were chosen first had a lot to be thankful for, over and above their pay and knowing what it was like not to find work, they should have been glad to see others doing alright.
A truly grateful person can never resent another.
We might overlook the goodness that God has sent to us. We might take for granted the lovely way he has looked after us. Sometimes, it takes seeing another’s loss to bring it home to us.
There was a couple who had lost their son in the war. They made a sizeable contribution to their church, in his memory. When the announcement about the donation was made, a woman whispered to her husband, “Let’s give the same amount for our boy. “
Her husband said, “What are you talking about? Our son wasn’t killed.”
“That’s just the point,” she said, “Let’s give it as an expression of our gratitude to God for sparing our son.”
Let’s be grateful for what God has done for us,
Let’s do our best to help others find His love and Grace – just as we have.
The story that Jesus told to illustrate the kingdom of God, is a great story, isn’t it? It guarantees all of us a welcome into the kingdom, however early, or however late we arrive.
And it behooves us all to point the way for others. And to rejoice with them when they find it.
No matter how late in the day.
AMEN.