Honest Day's Work

Scripture:  Matthew 20:1-16

 During most of the summers while I was in college, I came home and worked at Pizza Hut over the summer.  For about 3 months each year I would usually put in more than 40 hours a week making pizzas.  As far as summer jobs go, it was a good one.  The managers were fair and the people I worked with were fun.  Even though that was a long time ago, I still know exactly how many pepperonis go on a pizza.  The final summer I worked there, I was in my first week back when I learned that new hires were getting paid more per hour than I was.   This is because the company hiring policy had changed, and I had been hired under a different policy.  However, it was kind of annoying to learn that the person who I was training was actually getting paid a little more than I was.  So, upon learning this after closing I went to the general manager and informed him I quit.  Which he took as quite a surprise, but he was even more surprised when I then handed him a filled-out application.  I told him I knew they happened to have a recent opening, and I was applying for this job because it paid a little more than the one, I just quit.  As I said, the managers were fair, so they got the message and I did get the pay increase. 

 This is a place where my story has some echoes of the bible’s story because I can completely understand the feelings of the workers in this story who felt slighted because they got paid the same as those who did less work.   This apparent unfairness in the story is 100% intentional on Jesus’ part.    This morning’s scripture is a story that Jesus told in order to perfectly illustrate how the grace of God is more than fair. 

In Matthew 13:44, the gospel writer makes this observation: “Jesus spoke all these things to the crowd in parables; he did not say anything to them without using a parable.”  Because the crowds gathered around Jesus to be healed, he had a reputation as a healer but he must have also been known as a storyteller.   Often the stories Jesus told begin with something that is relatable.   He uses real life places or situations to set the scene.  That happens in this morning’s scripture.   Day laborers gathering early in the morning looking to get hired for an honest day’s work was a common practice.  This is something that all of the people Jesus was talking to would have been familiar with.  After setting a familiar scene, Jesus will then add peculiarities to these stories.  The parables of Jesus have details that diverge from the normal and into the odd.  This morning’s story has several details that the original hearers would have found to be most peculiar. 

 In this parable the landowner comes back for workers multiple times showing he must have quite the vast vineyard, but what is unusual is that the landowner would come themselves repeatedly instead of sending an underling.   The next odd detail is not only did the landowner keep coming back, but he kept finding people to hire.  This especially would have struck the original hearers as odd, why would a day laborer hoping to get hired still be waiting around at 5:00PM to get started? 

The next odd details come at the end.  Verse 8 specifically states that the landowner begins paying the workers with the ones hired last and ends with the ones hired first.  This is an odd detail to call specific attention to, and then the final oddity comes that all were paid the same.  Those who put in a twelve-hour day got the same payment as those who worked for an hour.   Just like it does today, this detail would have immediately stuck the original hearers as unfair. 

 Often these odd details that stick out in the stories Jesus told are the clues to the stories deeper meaning.  The parable begins with the “kingdom of heaven is like”, so this very quickly associates the landowner with God.  It was the cultural expectation at the time that the landowners did not associate with the lowly workers, they sent out underlings to do that.  However, unlike the cultural standard of the time, the landowner in this story is hands on with the workers.  He goes to hire and find them himself.   This communicates that our God is not a distant God.  That our God is a God who is hands on and who is involved in the world.  

               The next detail, odd details are the workers sticking around late into the day hoping for some kind of work.   For these people to still be there with only an hour left in the working day, they must have been desperate for the chance to earn anything no matter how small or meager.  As the day goes on the people left to hire would have been the latecomers, the stragglers, the ones who either had a lot of difficulties or were routinely overlooked.  With only an hour left of work to do, we get the sense that the landowner hired this last lot not because he needed the extra workers but because he wanted them.  The fact that those who started working last got paid first, reiterates this.   Jesus actually tells us in verse 16 that this parable shows that the last will be first and the first will be last.  This reinforces a point throughout scripture that God has special care for those most in need.  It drives home the point that in the kingdom of God, late is always better than never and those who are late to the party are still fully included. 

               This gets to the final oddity, the one that might annoy us the most, and the fact that everyone gets paid the same.  Yet, the parable itself makes the point that those working a full day and getting paid what they agreed to is not unfair.  Modern translations render verse 15 as “Or are you envious because I am generous?”    But that is not what the actual text states.  The actual text uses an idiom of the time, and a literal translation of verse 15 would be “is your eye evil because I am good?”  

               I kind of like that better, because of the implications.   The actions of the landowner are good, and it is only our faulty perceptions that see it as anything but good.  The landowner is not being unfair in this story, he is being more than fair.   That is the main point that this story seeks to illustrate: Grace is more than fair.   Good deeds and faithful living do not earn us more heavenly perks.   Our salvation is not based on paying our dues, it is based on the deep and abiding love of God.   This is a love that is intensely for us whether we have known it from the beginning or come to it in the final hour.  

One of the things that this parable illustrates is that our concept of fairness does not quite apply in the kingdom of heaven.  Our understanding of Fair is the first should go first and the last should go last, but Jesus says, “So the last will be first, and the first will be last.”  The kingdom of heaven is not based on merit; it is based on grace. It is not fair; it is more than fair.  And thank God it is.   None of us could work or earn our way to heaven.   We all fall short.   If we had to rely on our own merits and deeds, then we would be like if the workers at the end never got hired.  We would find ourselves without a home in God’s kingdom, but out of boundless love Jesus has gone before us to prepare a place for us.  Even though we did not rightfully earn it, we are forgiven, we are reconciled with our creator, and we have a place in God’s kingdom that has been graciously given to us.  For those who claim salvation and eternal life in Christ Jesus, we can claim that because the kingdom of heaven is one that is based in grace.

This morning’s scripture is a story Jesus told that wonderfully illustrates that grace is more than fair.  As those who have received God’s amazing grace and benefit immensely from a grace that is more than fair.  I wonder how we could also apply this kind of more than fair grace in our own lives.  Because as I look around the world, we live in it seems that grace is in short supply.  Instead of grace I see a lot of cruel indifference disguised as tough love. I see this in statements that are often referred to as a “realty check.”  It is not uncommon to see people proclaim a lack of grace as wisdom. This reality checks includes items like “the world owes you nothing” and “life’s not fair, get over it.”  

 Yes, I understand there is some truth to those statements.  I know that the world is unfair, but that does not mean we should just accept it the way it is.   Because friends, we know better than that. We can be better than that. If we know Jesus as our Lord and Savior, then we have experienced grace and we know that grace is more than fair.  Because we know this broken, unfair world is not the final word.  We know that light breaks through the darkness.  Friends, I peaked at the last chapter of the book, and I know how it all ends.  Spoiler alert: Love and goodness wins over fear and evil. Grace triumphs and God reigns forever and ever.   This morning’s parable reminds us that the kingdom of heaven is not fair.  It is more than fair.  It is a place where love is given, not earned.  And even though we may not be owed anything, it is a place that starts with grace first.

As followers of Jesus, we should seek to put grace first and show what more than fair grace looks like. Fortunately, there are examples of this happening.   Homelessness has been a persistent problem for a while, and in rural areas it has actually increased considerably.   For years, study after study into how to lower homelessness has shown that the most effective way to combat homelessness is with housing first initiatives.  Essentially, the best way to get people out of homelessness is to provide them with housing, because once they have a place to live, they are able to start addressing some of the other issues that contribute to homelessness.  Despite all of the research showing the effectiveness of an approach it often gets a lot of push back.  This push back is nearly always framed with the language of fairness.   In following Jesus, we should be asking better questions than “is it fair?”   We should be asking what is the most grace-filled way that we can meet the need. 

This is exactly what Lynhurst Baptist Church in Indianapolis is doing.   They are currently in the process of building six tiny homes on property adjacent to the church that will be used to house homeless people. They are doing this in partnership with others through a non-profit ministry called Sanctuary Indy.  While there are rules that will need to be agreed to and followed, individuals and married couples will be able to live in these homes for as long as they need to without paying for them. This is a housing first initiative that is designed to lift people out of poverty.  Our brothers and sisters in Christ from that congregation are putting “the more than fair” mentality of heaven into practice on earth.   They are responding to a real need in their community in the most grace-filled way they can. 

As Jesus himself stated he told the parable in this morning’s scripture to give us a glimpse as to what the kingdom of heaven is like.   It also points us in the right direction if we want to join God in realizing the kingdom of heaven on earth.   To make our world more like God’s kingdom we should lead with grace.  We can do this in our own lives, and we do it by showing more grace than the world around us.   God has treated every single one of us more than fair.   So may we in turn treat others the same.   Yes, this world is not fair but may we not just accept that.  May we work to build a better world that is defined les by how fair it is and more by how grace-filled it is.  May our thoughts, may our words, and most of all may our actions lead with grace, because it is upon the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ that we stand.