Matthew 20:1-16 - Do You See Grace Clearly? - October 4, 2020

This parable has lots of moving parts, but if you boil it down to one basic truth, this parable is about seeing clearly. If you can’t see this, it’s not really your fault, it’s because you can’t see the original Greek. When the landowner asks are you envious because I am generous? He literally asks “is your eye evil because I am good?” While having an evil or envious eye is obviously dangerous for many reasons, the greatest danger is that it prevents you from seeing grace. So, do you see grace clearly?

One reason we may not see grace clearly and not understand Jesus’ warning is that we haven’t heard the context in which this parable is told. A rich young ruler had just left Jesus depressed and disappointed because he wasn’t willing to give up all his possessions to follow Jesus (Matthew 19:16-24). Then Peter pipes up. And if we’ve learned anything over the course of our past several months in Matthew’s Gospel – it’s that there’s at least a 50/50 chance that when Peter speaks he’s going to say something foolish. He lives up to that reputation here. He asks look, we have left everything and followed you! What then will we have? (Matthew 19:27) To call that a self-righteous and self-serving question would be putting it mildly. Peter actually had the gall to suggest that he and the other apostles deserved a greater reward than other disciples.

But if Peter’s question is shocking, Jesus’ answer is even more so. He doesn’t rebuke him, he rewards him: you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel (Matthew 19:28). Then Jesus provides an answer to any other disciple who may wonder “what’s in it for me?” Everyone who has left homes or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or fields, because of my name will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life (Matthew 19:29). But doesn’t that answer just support the false idea that God’s blessings are based on merit? Well, perhaps, but it’s also the truth. Jesus has clearly promised that those who seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness will be given everything else they need for life as well (Matthew 6:33). However, just because Jesus does promise to reward his disciples doesn’t mean that getting them should be our goal. That was Peter’s problem. That’s why just before this parable and right after he issues the same warning: the last will be first, and the first, last.

Once we clearly see the context of the parable then we can clearly see the point of the parable. After you strip away all of the ornamental details, what is the main point? It’s not really about vineyards or hours worked or fair compensation. The heart of this parable is the question are you envious because I am generous? And this question is aimed directly at people like Peter, people like us, people who can be tempted to think that because we attend, serve, give or otherwise work in the kingdom we deserve a better reward – and thus forget that serving in God’s kingdom is a gracious privilege, not a meritorious obligation.

Scripture is clear: there are rewards in this life for following Jesus (Mark 10:29-30). Think of all the benefits we have right now as Christians. We are forgiven. We possess salvation. We know that Jesus is directing everything in this world for our good (Romans 8:28). We don’t fear death – whether it threatens to come as the result of Covid or some other way. We don’t get worked up or stressed out about presidential elections because we know that whoever is elected, Jesus reigns (Ephesians 1:21-22). And, as if that weren’t enough, Jesus has also given each of us a measure of health, wealth and happiness. Here’s the problem: we don’t all have the same level of health, wealth, or happiness. Some of us are remarkably healthy while others are chronically sick. Some of us have more money than we need and others never seem to have enough. Some of us are always cheerful while others are always depressed. And when we start to compare our lives to the lives of others – that’s when we’re in danger. That’s when an evil eye can cloud our vision and prevent us from clearly seeing God’s grace to us.

Here’s the thing about envy: it’s not really about other people. It’s about God. When those hired first in the parable grumbled, they weren’t grumbling against those who were hired last, they [grumbled] against the landowner. When I think that I’ve been given a raw deal, I’m alleging that God is unfair. “Why should the person who hasn’t given as much, served as much, done as much as I have get the same as me? Don’t I deserve more?” The point being: whatever you envy about any other Christian: the car they drive, the home they own, their health or children or happiness – you’re “evil eye” isn’t really aimed at them, it’s aimed at God.

And this kind of evil eye, this grumbling, isn’t without consequences. The landowner tells those who were hired first, those who had agreed to work for a denarius, those who grumbled, to take what is yours and go. They got the earthly reward they had bargained for but they didn’t get the heavenly inheritance of eternal life. They who appeared to be first in God’s kingdom, in the end, got themselves kicked out of it, damned to hell forever. Sadly, the first became last. This should put the fear of God into the heart of every believer.

Because the scary part is why they were dismissed from the kingdom. It wasn’t because they were too sinful. It wasn’t because they were lazy. It was because of their “evil eye.” Instead of continuing to see their Lord as a good and fair and generous master, they now saw him as evil – all because they didn’t get more than others, because they didn’t get as much as they thought they should. Do you clearly see the point of this parable yet? It’s not about how long you’ve worked; it’s not about what others have; it’s not about getting what you deserve – it’s all about the landowner: the Lord freely and generously hiring workers of all kinds at all times and giving them whatever he wants. It’s about grace. And the point of the parable is that if envy or an “evil eye” clouds your view of God as good and gracious, you put your salvation at risk.

And when we clearly see the parable’s context, when we clearly see it’s point, then we can clearly see how it applies to us. Just like every one of those workers – from the first to the last – we didn’t deserve to work in the Lord’s vineyard at all. Not one of us were born into this world as a part of God’s family, as members of his church, as disciples deserving of heaven. Paul reminds us that: like all the others, we were by nature objects of God’s wrath (Ephesians 2:3). We were all standing idly outside the kingdom like those workers. But because God couldn’t bear to leave us to die under his judgment, he came outside of his vineyard to get us. He took on our flesh and blood in Mary’s womb. God the Son became human. And by doing what we could never do, by keeping God’s commandments perfectly – and then by suffering what we deserve, both temporal and eternal death, Jesus won us the right to work in his Father’s vineyard.

But he didn’t stop there. He also came and got us; “hired” us to come and work in his Father’s vineyard. He came and got us by baptizing us in his name. He came and got us by sending a friend or parent or teacher to tell us about God’s great love for undeserving sinners. He came and got us by turning us on to a podcast or blog or church that preaches and teaches the pure truth of the Gospel. And this point is key: God is the one who gets the credit for bringing workers into his vineyard – not us. Just try going down to McDonald’s and act like you work there. Start taking orders, flipping burgers, taking out the trash – they’ll kick you out in no time. So it is in God’s kingdom. No one gets in by volunteering or deciding to take a job there. God himself, the owner, must bring you in (Ephesians 2:8-9). And he does this by baptizing, preaching and teaching to you.

But now you’re in! Now it’s up to you to stay in; it’s up to your effort to maintain your place in God’s kingdom, right? Wrong. Just as nothing but grace got you in…nothing grace keeps you in (2 Corinthians 1:21-22). But grace gets lost, grace gets rejected whenever we start thinking in terms of fairness, rights or justice. Because what is the fair compensation here in time and in eternity? Punishment. What rights do people like us, people who sin daily against a holy God, possess? The right to go to hell. What does justice look like for people who are guilty of crucifying the Lamb of God? Justice would be you and I looking longingly at Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob lounging in the comfort of heaven while we weep and gnash our teeth in the endless torture of hell (Luke 13:28). Do you still want to base your salvation on what is fair or just?

So what’s the good news? Well, it’s not that you need to stop envying what God has given others that he hasn’t given to you. I could tell you that until I pass out, and it wouldn’t matter. Why not? Because as fallen, sinful creatures, we will always judge ourselves as more deserving than others. That demand would only lead to either despair or self-righteousness. Neither is the good news found in how you view your Lord. Again, I could demand that you view any of the time or money or effort you exert in God’s kingdom as nothing less than a privilege. But it won’t work. Each of us, myself included, will, in some sense, continue to view God with an “evil eye.” There will always be a part of us (the opinio legis) that sees our our service as a meritorious obligation – something we better keep doing if we want God to keep blessing us now and to give us heaven when we die. The good news is not that we must strive to change our “evil eye” or else. That would be hopeless; that would, in fact, be law.

The good news in this parable isn’t found in your eyes but in God’s eyes. The good news is in how God sees you. He made himself last so that you could be first. He stepped out of the vineyard so that he could bring you into it. But he didn’t just give you his place; he gave you himself: his righteousness, his holiness, his perfection (Colossians 3:10). So that now when God looks at you he sees Jesus. He sees you as patient, compassionate and forgiving. He sees you as never grumbling but always happy to be here in his house to hear his Word and receive his gifts. He sees you giving of your time, your talent and your treasure not looking for a “thank you” but as a way of saying, “Thank you, Lord!” He sees you going away from here with your denarius, whatever it may be – sickness or health, poverty or wealth, pain or pleasure – just as happy as a child who loses a tooth is pleased with a shiny new quarter. He sees you getting into your car, sitting down for supper, and looking at the roof over your head and saying: “Can you believe that God has given us all of this and heaven too?”

“But that’s not me,” you’re thinking. I’m not talking about what you are, but what God sees. God sees you washed in Baptism. He sees you declared forgiven in the Absolution. He sees Jesus in you as you receive his very body and blood. He sees you – whether you were hired first, last or in between – as not only a worker in his vineyard now but a rightful heir of his kingdom forever. No, that’s not what any of us deserve, but that’s what God has freely chosen to give us anyway. That’s not fair – that’s grace. Do you see that clearly now? Amen.