Sermon Index
September 24, 2023
“For the kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. After agreeing with the laborers for a denarius a day, he sent them into his vineyard. And going out about the third hour he saw others standing idle in the marketplace, and to them he said, ‘You go into the vineyard too, and whatever is right I will give you.’ So they went. Going out again about the sixth hour and the ninth hour, he did the same. And about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing. And he said to them, ‘Why do you stand here idle all day?’ They said to him, ‘Because no one has hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You go into the vineyard too.’
And when evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Call the laborers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last, up to the first.’ And when those hired about the eleventh hour came, each of them received a denarius. Now when those hired first came, they thought they would receive more, but each of them also received a denarius. And on receiving it they grumbled at the master of the house, saying, ‘These last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat.’ But he replied to one of them, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius? Take what belongs to you and go. I choose to give to this last worker as I give to you. Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or do you begrudge my generosity?’
Jesus told the parable of the Workers in the Vineyard. We are Christians who work in Christ’s vineyard, so this parable is about us and is for us. God’s Vineyard is the Kingdom of God. In the broadest meaning this first means the whole of creation. This is the first place where all human work. When we love our neighbor, or when we continue the work of Adam to take care of God’s Garden, His Vineyard, we are heeding God’s call. The other meaning of the Kingdom of God is when we work in the church or in the fellowship of believers or doing the work of the church in society or the home. For most Christian believers, work in the first and the second Kingdom of God is hard to distinguish. That is because we are doing the work of God whatever our calling might be.
In the parable, the master hires laborers early in the morning at the crack of dawn, then about 9 AM, noon, 3 PM, and again 5 PM, the eleventh hour of the long work day. We too have been hired by Christ, called by him and sent to work at different stages of our lives. Or, we have all been working for Christ for different amounts of time, depending on our age and our experience and when we became a believer or when we were baptized. As in the parable, some people work all day long. From the time they are in Sunday school until they die. Many people keep falling asleep on the job or quit for a while or get fired, and then come back. It is classic. After Sunday school and Confirmation or youth group, they drop out of the church until they want to get married or put their children in Sunday school. So, as in the parable, God has to go back to the market place and call them again.
At the time of Jesus, workers would come to the market place in the morning looking for work. A carpenter would bring his carpentry toolbox and wait for someone to hire him. Field workers would come, but since they had no special skill, they got the lowest wage, a denarius a day, but their work was important to harvest the crop before bad weather came. Likewise, we have various talents and skills that God has given us to use in both of his Kingdoms.
In the Parable, at the end of the day, all the workers in the Vineyard receive the same wage, one denarius. The denarius is salvation, eternal life. One denarius is all that is necessary, for two times eternity is eternity. You cannot have more than eternal life, so one denarius for everyone is appropriate. Jesus says that this is from the generosity of the master of the vineyard, it is the grace of God. And this is important. Our salvation is not based on how many hours or years we worked in the church. Our salvation is based on the Promise of God and then our Faith believes the Promise. We cannot work enough to earn salvation. We cannot love enough to earn salvation. St. Paul reminds us, Romans 6:23, “For the wages of sin is death, the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
If you work really hard in the Kingdom of God, will you get a better heavenly mansion? Some people think so, some cults promise so. Jesus said that all get one denarius. And when my unworthiness, I take great comfort in Psalm 84:10, “I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of wickedness.”
If Jesus is the one who is giving out the one denarius to all the believers, where does he get that money? Did he work for it? What work did Christ do? His work was to preach the Gospel and then to bring that Gospel to us by suffering and dying and forgiving sin and rising for us. As in the parable, his call to work at the beginning of the day was by John the Baptist who said, “Behold the Lamb of God.” It was by the Father who said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased” Mt. 3:17. He was called to work when Judas said, “Rabbi” Mt.26:49. At the so-called eleventh hour, he was called to work when the crowd said, “Crucify him” Mt.27:23. He suffered through the hot day. Then his work of salvation was done and Jesus said, “It is finished” Jn.19:30. His resurrection is the denarius that is given to all of us. His blood bought forgiveness of sin. It gave us eternal life.
It is the Generosity of God. It is the Grace of God. We can never work hard enough or long enough to pay our way into heaven.
Meanwhile, we find joy and strength in our work, knowing that it is for the Lord.
Amen.
Michael Nearhood, Pastor
Okinawa Lutheran Church