9-19 The Generous Landowner

This week’s reading: Matthew 20:1-19

Hi Friends,

     God rarely acts the way you and I would expect. And this is simply because the way He sees life, and the way we do, are different. Have you ever seen a mosaic picture? You know, an image that is made up of all sorts of tiny pictures put together? (see image on side) Well imagine now a mosaic within a mosaic. We humans think we see life as it is, but it is a bit more complex than our understanding allows. Because God is Eternal, He sees each human life, as well as all of Humanity, through the lens of Eternity. We humans, on the other hand, see life through a very tiny frame, so we do not see the whole picture, but we assume a lot, don’t we? We think God should act the way we would want Him to, and then get confused when He does not. We saw this last week when we talked about that camel going through the eye of a needle. Many still think that those who are wealthy in this life have been given some special favor by God; almost like a thumbs up from Him that they must be good people who deserve good things. The disciples thought, for sure, the rich young man would make it to Heaven, but as usual, Jesus turns things right side up. Please note: I said “right side up,” not upside down! We are the ones who get life backwards and God is teaching us His way, the righteous way. Matthew chapter 19 ends with this counter-intuitive saying, “But many who are first will be last, and many who are last will be first.” (Mt 19:30) This is where we pick up our reading this week in Matthew chapter 20 with the Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard. We will read verses 1 through 19. This parable has so many levels to it. Let’s look at it superficially first, then go deeper, shall we? Listen:

“But he answered to one of them, ‘Friend, I am not being unfair to you. Didn’t you agree to work for a denarius? Take your pay and go. I want to give the man 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?’” Mt 20:13-15 NIV

     Surface: hired workers in the landlord’s vineyard. On the surface, this story Jesus is weaving is about a landowner who has a huge field that must be harvested before the rains come. He gets up early and goes to the place where those who want to work gather. He makes a verbal contract with some, who agree with his terms, and off to work in his vineyard they go. Yet this wise landowner sees that there is still so much work to do, so he takes action. Once again he goes out, and I repeat “to the place where those who want to work gather,” and he sees others still waiting to be hired. So he hires them, agreeing to pay them a fair wage, to which they agree, and off they go to work in his vineyard. He does this three other times in order to hire enough workers to get the entire job done. To give us an idea of when each group is hired, let’s think of a 12 hour work day. This means the first group were brought in bright and early, about 6am, the next around 9am, then 12noon, then 3pm, and finally about 5pm, right before sun down at the end of the workday which would be 6pm. At that time, this landowner lines up his employees to pay them. Interestingly enough, he begins with the ones hired last. This is where the story can lead us astray. What this landowner does, does not seem fair to those were hired first…do we sympathize? I mean, these guys worked all day long, in the heat of the sun no less, and this landowner gives them the same exact wage as he gives to those who only worked one hour?! Doesn’t seem right. Ahh but again, our ways and God’s are so very different. (Isa 55:9) First of all, he is the land OWNER and all these men are HIRED to do a specific job. If he had not hired them to work HIS land, then they would have no money to pay for life’s expenses, right? He was helping them, as they were helping him. Secondly, it was a contract, to which they AGREED on, remember? They were merely doing what they were supposed to do, and for the price they should have been paid. (see Lk 17:10) So why would they expect more? One word: covet. 

     A little deeper: I want what they got. We talked about the Ten Commandments last week and the last one on the list, but certainly not the least, talks exactly about this: you shall not covet. We may not be familiar with this word, but it can wreck our lives. When we compare ourselves to others, there is always a potential for problems. Comparing leads to two things: either we think we are better than others because we have more, achieved more or know more, OR as in this case, we think others have more than we do and we are the ones who deserve that “more.” Either way, this is Pride. And sadly, the truth is whichever category we think we fall into with those two options, we are never really satisfied as we continue to want more and more, because there will always be someone else who has “more.” Man, I can’t even stand that false idea of “more,” how about you? It is such a childish concept. Have you ever seen two young children playing and one rips a toy out of the other one’s hands trying to set claim to on it as their own? This is us humans. In the meantime, it all belongs to God. When we jealously desire what others have, we quickly become dissatisfied with what God has given us. This is exactly what happens to those who were first hired. As these 6am workers compared themselves to those who came later, they thought they deserved more and became disappointed with the contract they had agreed to honor. They were missing the point. Do we? Whenever we focus on MMI and worldly stuff, instead of on the Generous Landowner, we are being our old self-centered person. Please check out some of my favorite verses from the Book of Proverbs 30:7-9. The truth is, life is not about “ME”! It is about the one who created me! And only He gives me the Grace to do and have anything at all. (see Dt 8:18) It is not about what we deserve. It is all about God’s Grace. And thank God it is because, what do all humans, who are sinners from birth, deserve? Let’s take a moment and praise God that He does not give us that which we truly deserve! By His Grace, He has saved us and brought us into His Vineyard. We are not to compare ourselves with the other workers, but join with them to get our part of the harvest done. The only person we should be in competition with is ourselves. (see Jn 21:21-22) I long to be a better person than I was yesterday, while moving forward to become an even better person tomorrow. If we really must want “more” then we should want to be more and more like Jesus, able to love God with all we’ve got and love our neighbors as ourselves. This is the goal, not accumulating any fading toys or accolades from this world. Instead of becoming one as God desires we do, coveting, longing for the things others may have, only causes division. While it is not wrong to want to BE more influential IN this life, it is wrong if we are not seeking to GIVE more TO life also. If the focus is MMI getting “more,” instead of freely wanting to give more too, it is sinful. Do we see this? By God’s Grace alone, He has gathered us into His Vineyard. Now we are to become workers of His Vineyard too, which first requires we WANT to be HIS workers. Recall how I said the landowner went to the place where those who want to work gathered? Where is our heart, Church? Do we even want to join Jesus in His work of Salvation? It seems to me it is always 10% of believers doing 100% of His work, yet everyone thinks they deserve full payment. No guilt here, but I do hope I am reaching, and motivating, more than this 10%. All workers are required to harvest this huge field before the “rains” come. Will we seek to be His hired hands? 

     Next depth: honored to be hired. We need to let go of this false idea that we deserve anything good. It is only because God is Generous that He blesses us. God’s gift of Heaven is not based on what we do or do not do, but solely on His generosity, for what good can we do apart from Him? (see Jn 15:5) It is because He is the Generous Landowner, that He chooses to be good towards us. And why does He bless us? So that we can be blessed workers, who will seek to bless others, as we harvest His Vineyard. When God created each of us, He also prepared good works for us to do. (Eph 2:10) The problem is, there are still way too many potential workers, sitting around idle. “The harvest is plenty but the workers are few,” Jesus warns. Then He adds, “Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.” (Mt 9:37-38) We should be encouraging one another to work for God’s Vineyard, not only focusing on what we deserve for any part we are playing in it. There are so many lost souls in this world, my Friends. God desires to bring in as many as possible, and as early as possible. But how reassuring that, even if we come to Jesus on our final hour, we will be given the same gift of Heaven as every other believer that may have been working the fields all there lives. The goal is to be united with Jesus, and one another, forevermore. Did we hear that? United with Jesus AND one another, but are we united? If we are still squabbling about the Grace and Generosity of God that He would open up Heaven to everyone who believes, no matter what hour they surrender, then this heart issue can lead to a very divided Church where no one wants to be a worker. The problem is our backward mentality tells us that we are still an autonomous being. See how this MMI thinking leads to problems instead of goodness? Once we become a “hired worker,” that is born again, everyone gets the same reward: Eternal Life. Not because we have worked this much or that little, but because we agreed to God’s Covenant. You know, that’s the contract where He did all the work and we just received the benefits. Then hopefully out of gratitude we will join Him in harvesting, bringing in the rest of the saints. It truly is an honor to work for this Generous Landowner, and this parable is supposed to point us to Him, not to the workers. Let us learn this valuable lesson: stop comparing ourselves with others, keep our eyes on our Generous God and be grateful workers of the Vineyard.

     Deeper still: if one wins, we all win. If my hand picks up a fork full of delicious food, my whole body is about to be blessed, right, not just my hand. But what if my foot says, “Man, I can’t believe that hand! I should be picking up that food, not it! I deserve it more, after all, I had to walk all the way over to the stove to heat up that food. If it wasn’t for me, that hand would have no food to even pick up! I am really the one blessing the body, not that hand, so I should be the one getting the credit!” Ok, that’s a silly example, I know, but do we act like this sometimes? In Christ, we are all supposed to be One Body. Once you become born again, whether in the early hour or the eleventh, you become one with every other person who has ever believed in Jesus. We should actually find ways to help one another do our Vineyard work. So if one of our brothers or sisters do something for God that brings in some believers, shouldn’t we all rejoice? Instead, I hear way too many people grumble about the good deeds others are doing. Listen, it is above our pay grade to say where their hearts are when they do these good works. After all, in this parable, Jesus never tells us about the quality of the work they are doing. What if those hired later actually did more harvesting than the first group, right? We don’t know. Again those are issues that are way above our responsibility. This is how St Paul puts it, “But what does it matter? The important thing is that in every way, whether from false motives or true, Christ is preached. And because of this I rejoice. Yes, and I will continue to rejoice,” (Php 1:18) So long as the Gospel is not altered or watered down, so long as we are pointing to Jesus as the only Way, Truth and Life, let’s stop giving the enemy fuel for his dividing fire, and let’s choose to support, encourage and pray for every worker instead. It is God Who knows the heart and it is He alone that will grant us the gift of Eternal Life for surrendering to Him and becoming a “hired worker,” and then it is God Who will reward us accordingly in Heaven on top of that, if our hearts are sincere. It was Jesus Who said the worker is worth his wages, right? (Lk 10:7) If any preacher is working hard to share the Good News, then shouldn’t they be given funds so they can continue to focus on that good work? And the results of that good work should be a blessing, a reason to rejoice, for the whole Body of Christ. Every time one soul comes to Jesus and surrenders their lives to Him, it is a win for the whole Church. Just like all those workers, who were hired at different stages of the day, should have been high fiving one another that they, together, got that vineyard harvested, we too should stop pointing fingers at one another and seek ways to join in the work. But do we still live for MMI alone? Separated into dozens of denominations, how can we be ONE? Is the devil the only one who understands: a house divided will fall? (Mt 12:25) Church, it is time for us to come together and agree on what we should agree on, the Gospel as taught in the Bible should never be changed, but then we must learn to agree to disagree on the rest. If it is not something that keeps souls from Heaven, then let’s choose to drop it, and become one. It is only united that we stand. Once again, instead of being like these 6am workers who were only thinking of themselves and not the landowner or the harvest as a whole, let’s choose to celebrate that the harvest is taking place, and then join in where, when and how we can.

     Deepest: The Generous Landowner dies for His workers. We end this reading with Jesus, once again, predicting His death. And here’s the thing: it is one of His own disciples that betrays Him. While we must continue to pray for the lost because Jesus desires them to come to Him and be saved, I think Jesus is equally concerned with those who claim to already be saved. Sadly, in the end, I think it is going to be someone in the Church that will betray Jesus once again, just like Judas did. Listen to these wise words from the great British preacher Charles Spurgeon, “And still is he betrayed! If the gospel dies in England, write on its tomb, ‘Betrayed.’ If our churches lose their holy influence among men, write on them, ‘Betrayed.’ What care we for infidels? What care we for those who curse and blaspheme? They cannot hurt the Christ. His wounds are those which he receives in the house of his friend.” As the Church bows down to this culture, are we doing just that, betraying Jesus? Whether this means those who focus on money and power, instead of souls and grace. Whether this means those who alter the blessed meaning of the rainbow, tainting the promise of God. Or whether this means those adding burdens and guilt with their endless list of “do’s and don’t’s” on the shoulders of those who should be set free by God’s Love. Whichever way, we, the Church, are not being workers of the Vineyard. We all must learn to surrender our hearts by living a life of repentance. We all must learn to submit our souls- that’s our thoughts, emotions and will’s- to that of our Lord. And we all must learn to mature so we can live out the Gospel, drawing others into Christ. Jesus, our Generous Landowner, gives Himself up for us, the Body…will we give up our lives for Him, or betray Him like Judas? Living this Abundant Life, pointing others to Jesus, is certainly a process because it does not come naturally to us. But every time I engage with the Holy Spirit, as He leads me in this Sanctification, everyone wins: God is glorified, others are blessed and my own life does become more and more abundant. Would you like that too? Then won’t you join me?

     Until we meet again, keep lifting your eyes to God, He’s closer than you think.

<>< Peace, Diane