Matthew 20:1-16
Grace Trumps even Justice
I cannot Read this passage without getting a flashback. A rather sad one. Somewhere between my house and the last church I served in South Africa, there was a busy intersection with a traffic light. Every morning when I went into the office or sometimes even earlier when I went to the gym, this intersection had a group of twenty or so men. In their hands they held various tools. Some held paint brushes and others brick laying or tiling equipment. These tools advertised their skills, to passersby. They would stand there in eager anticipation and tried to make eye contact with drivers. Occasionally, a driver would pull over to the side. He would then raise his hand with one or more fingers being held up. Immediately that number of men would rush to his car, get in and be taken to a worksite. Their eagerness to work, their creative way of putting themselves out there wasn’t the sad part, that was quite inspiring.
The sad part I saw was when I happen to drive by there later in the morning. Two hours later the rush hour traffic ceased. And you would then see about sixty percent of these men sitting at the side of the road with their tools beside them and a far-off stare of disappointment on their faces. Still later you would find some of them taking a nap. It broke my heart that skilled men so eager to work hard for a minimal wage, had to go through this. After this sad scene that I saw almost every day playing off, something beautiful and hopeful played happened one day… but I will et to that later.
Why is this sad? Because as children of God we carry in us a vision of God’s Kingdom. Of how things are supposed to be and about how things are going to be. We even have experience of it because in Jesus it breaks through in the here and now even though it is always incomplete and contested by other realities. Work was not the curse after the fall. The fact that work became difficult and contested was the curse after the fall. So, in the Kingdom of God there are going to be things to do. But those doing these things will relish doing them. They will find it meaningful. Their work will be an expression of their true identity. And nobody that are eager to work will be left standing wanting at a traffic light. They will be invited by the vineyard owner himself to work and they will share in the fruit of that labour. This is at least one of the pictures this parable sketches.
We are called to have an eye out for the Kingdom of God breaking through in our reality. We are called to pursue the Kingdom of God. The church is called to be a sign of the Kingdom, pointing to it and demonstrating it. That might mean doing something new. It might mean doing something differently or better. It might mean changing our habits or sometimes just adapting our understanding of what life is all about. Let’s delve into this passage and see how this parable can assist us in doing all this. Even more important what does this parable teach us about God?
Kingdom economy works differently; God thinks differently about economy
If your child and/or grandchild comes home to you telling you that he or she has been paid the same for a full day’s work as someone else was paid for only an hour’s work, your first conclusion will be what? That this employer is unfair. That your child’s rights have been violated. We are ever so quick in our day and age to see ourselves and those closest to us as victims and cry foul. Jesus shocks us by suggesting that God is like such an unfair landowner in this parable.
Monetary profit in the world we live has become the bottom line…of life. It is not that it is not important at all. No sane business owner will tell his staff that because he is a Christian his business will now aim for a deficit. I will even admit that viewed from a business perspective wealth creation in terms of monetary profit is kind of the bottom line of in business. But what is problematic is when monetary profit not only becomes to you the bottom line of business but of life. When that happens, we become jealous, vindictive, dissatisfied. We become ugly people.
To God business and money is not what it is all about. To God life is what it is all about. Life not only in the biological sense as we seem to be fixated nowadays, but life in the sense of meaning and purpose. When you love God, you will find an increasing focus on and pursuit of meaning and purpose in life. You come to realize that “just being happy” and even “just being rich” isn’t what makes life worthwhile and meaningful.
From the vantage point of people who measure reward just in Dollars and cents, God is being unfair here. But if you view obedience to what God calls you for and participation in things that are important to Him as valuable, nobody is being short sold here. Those that got to work full day at something worthwhile and meaningful to their master, should have considered it part of the reward and indeed a greater reward as the living means it provided in Dollar and cents. You have the same dynamic in the Parable of the lost son with the older brother to whom the father says that everything he participated in was also his, not just the father’s.
Muhammed Yunis of Bangladesh, winner of a noble peace prize has suggested that we start a social stock exchange for people to invest their money. The goal would be to give them their money back but the profit would be in implemented social, non-monetary gains like better education for children and clean drinking water for communities. I think he is on to something and we don’t need to wait for such a stock market. In the Kingdom of God, it already exists. There are many smaller ways in which we can use our resources not just for things that make us gain but things that makes many people gain with us.
In the 1970’s in Dauphine, Manitoba they did what was seen as a revolutionary experiment. They took the town with its 10 000 residents and worked out the average income. Anybody falling below that income was topped up unconditionally to the average income level. They basically did what the landowner did in this parable. Hospitalizations went down by 8, 3 percent, crime went down, policing costs went down. Accidents and alcohol abuse went down. People became more willing to work not less. There were some problems as well but all in all the experiment was a huge success. We might benefit by asking ourselves how God views economy and profit.
By sharing, by inviting and accepting. By surprising people with goodness and grace, they do not expect, we partake in a godly economy. If there is one thing we should revisit, it is what reward really is. We should get our dreams and creativity going about how the way we think about money and what we do with money can let the Kingdom of God break through into our world.
We should also not think of ourselves as always being on the giving side of this equation. We also need to understand ourselves as being on the receiving end. Yes, you worked hard to achieve what you had but there were a hundred things that had to fall in place for that that you had nothing to do with.
Just as I was writing this sermon, I girl that sleeps nearby the church and uses our tap to wash was outside. I was irritated because she left her washbasin there the previous day. There was also a mess me and Ron had to clean up which might or might not have been her doing. So I talked to her. I was somewhat stern and told her she must clean up after herself if she uses our tap. She said sorry. Then I saw she was struggling with a huge blanket and an old hose she connected to our tap. I asked her what she was trying to do. She told me she wants to wash it. “Why don’t you go down to the laundromat around the corner and wash it properly?”, I asked. “I have no money”, she replied. She told me it would cost 10 CAD to wash and dry that blanket properly. I told her I want to sponsor her blanket wash but she must promise me that she will use the money for just that. She agreed and even told me I can look for her bike trailer right outside the laundromat. She said she was weak today because she didn’t have anything to eat. I took her some granola bars and plums we had from our feeding project. I told her I want to be good to people around us and ask her how I can help her. She didn’t know what to say. She told me she is on the street since age 13. She is now 25. She is very clean on herself I have come to notice. She once told me she doesn’t want to go into a shelter because the people are dirty and crazy. She told me she uses meth and fentanyl and don’t want to use it for the rest of her life. She went and washed her blanket. I thought where I would be if I was on the street from 13. Probably not here anymore.
It is funny what happens when you compare down rather than up like the laborers in this parable. When you compare up, you become arrogant and self-righteous. When you compare down to people who have less than you, you suddenly become ever so humble.
God never stops going out
What is striking here is the fact that this landowner goes out repeatedly. Usually a person eager to work goes to the landowner and his vineyard. This one goes out 5 times.
Dan Allender tells the story of how he went fishing with his son. He was a novice fisherman himself. He took up the hobby to get closer to his son. Fly-fishing. So, he was speaker at a conference with a bass-fishing facility. After his obligations he and his son went out on a boat. It was pretty late and they didn’t catch a thing. Finally, with the sun disappearing on the horizon. His son begged him to let him cast one more time. He reluctantly agreed. Low and behold his son finally caught a decent fish! As they were going to shore it was quiet when his son suddenly broke the silence and said: ‘Dad, I think God just told me his name”. His son rarely spoke to him about God so it took him completely by surprize, but he managed to hide his surprise and simply asked what God said to him. “He told me he is the God of the fifth casting, the One who never gives up until he gets to us”.
Why do we keep on trying to reach people? Why do we not turn our backs on people that are hopeless cases in the eyes of the world? Because our God is the outgoing owner of the vineyard, the God of the fifth casting. Like we said a few Sundays ago, we are not afraid to go out to the fringes because God is already there. Neil recalled the story of how 20 years ago, the congregation had to decide if they would like to sell this premises and move to Fraser Heights which was a better and more affluent neighbourhood. They decided God wants them to stay right here. It spoke to me deeply. I think even twenty years ago, they got that God is the God of the fifth casting. Let’s keep on casting!
Grace tops justice
Justice is when you get what you deserve. What do people deserve that chose against God and his ways as we all have done? They deserve death because that is the way they chose by rejecting God. What did we get? Not justice. We got the only thing that tops justice and that is grace. Justice is to get what you deserve. Grace is to get what you do not deserve like the labourers that didn’t work full day. Justice settles a score. Grace changes hearts so that everything else could be changed from the inside out.
God isn’t unjust. Jesus bore the weight of his justice so that we might receive the love of his grace. When you first hear this parable you tend to put yourself in the position of the ones that worked full day. We should ourselves in the position of the ones who worked half day and got full pay. The ones who started earlier also got what they did not deserve.
Close
Back to those men at the intersection. One day at about mid day, I saw a truck pulling off the road where a bunch were sitting and lying idly. At first, I thought it was an employer but then I saw him opening the tailgate and getting out two huge pots of soup with bread. He gave all a meal. He did this everyday. This man is blissfully unaware that I saw him and that I am now telling people in Canada about him.
He gave a meal to people who for whatever reason didn’t and couldn’t work. He shows the Kingdom. He showed me what God did for me.
May God show us all how to in some way, follow this man’s
example. It makes the world a more beautiful and less sad place every time we do!
Amen