A Reality Check on Grace

Good Morning. This morning we look at Jesus Parable of the workers in the vineyard, a parable discussing the basics of Grace and the Gospel.

A Reality Check on Grace

Good Morning. We are looking at the parable in our Gospel Lesson today, with a focus on GRACE, especially from the angle of already being a Christian, and looking back at how we were saved.

The context of the parable, the end of Matthew 19, is Peter asking about how great of a reward he and the other apostles will have in the kingdom of heaven for their hard work and great labors. He describes how much he gave up for Jesus. So, Jesus’ parable is really meant to be a bit provoking, especially to His own. If you are a Christian, it should prick you.

We don’t always think that Jesus was telling parables to be abrasive, but most of them were. Parables contain greatly exaggerated figures, though some become so familiar we don’t realize how silly they are. Like today…

A vineyard owner goes in search of people to harvest his crop. 5 times he collects workers to pick grapes. Some worked 12 hours, others 9, others 6…3…some only worked 1. In the end, everybody got paid the same amount. It’s supposed to sound ridiculous! And you miss the point if you side with the landowner, because it’s intentionally a crazy scenario. Who wouldn’t feel resentment laboring 12 hours and seeing someone who labored 1 hour get paid the same amount. The purpose of the parable is not economics, or how landowners should pay people. It’s to teach a true perspective on Salvation.

Jesus wants to teach us what Grace is, and the difference between Salvation by Grace and fairness, and why we should be thankful that God doesn’t treat us fairly, but instead, he treats us Graciously.

Jesus picks the craziest example he could to get attention and provoke a reaction, to prove how hard it is for people to accept and understand Grace.

Grace is a gift…and by definition…Gifts are given to people who don’t deserve them, because if they deserved them, it would be a wage, and not Grace.

One more time because that’s the whole sermon. 

Grace is a gift…and by definition…Gifts are given to people who don’t deserve them, because if they deserved them, it would be a wage, and not Grace.

GRACE is offered freely because the giver, Jesus, bore all of the cost of our salvation. Grace is given to those who don’t deserve it and can’t truly appreciate it! GRACE means that no one is too bad to be saved, and actually, God specializes in saving “bad people.”

Grace also means, as Jesus often says, that some people may be “too good” to be saved! They have such a high opinion of themselves that they don’t think they need grace. Why would God reject them? Think of all the good they’ve done throughout their lives! Let’s review the parable…

The Story begins with a Vineyard Owner going out at dawn to find some day laborers. In some towns, the best place to hire someone for a day “under the table” is to go early in the morning to Home Depot or Lowe’s. In Jesus’ day, workers needing a job for a day hung out at the town marketplace.

Vineyard harvesting, late August usually, was a rush job. When they are ready, you have a week to get them at their peak. But, it was usually over 100 degrees in late summer, people tired easily, so vineyard owners sought lots of temporary workers to get the harvest fast. The 12 hour workday started at 6am, and those workers were promised a full day’s wages, a denarius.

But because it was important to pick them off fast, the owner kept going back to get more laborers, at 9 am, at noon, and at 3pm, finding as many pickers as he could find, and promising to pay everyone a fair wage. v. 6-10 again,

Even at 5 he went back and found still others standing around. He said, ‘Why do you stand here idle all day?’ “They said, ‘No one hired us!’ so he sent them out too. 8 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.’ 9 When those hired at the eleventh hour came, each of them received a denarius. 10 Now when those hired first came, they thought they would receive more, but each of them also received a denarius.

Everyone listening then would have thought this was unfair to those who had worked the entire day. Who would pay the same amount for one hour’s labor as for twelve? The story makes no business sense. I’m sure someone was mumbling, “you’ll just teach those hard-working guys they are better off sleeping-in than getting up at the crack of dawn!”

First, remember that this is a parable about GRACE…and, GRACE cannot be calculated like a day’s wages. GRACE is not something we toil to earn. Jesus made that clear in the owner’s reply, and I’ll paraphrase:

‘I am not being unfair to you, friend. Didn’t you agree to work for a denarius? Don’t I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I was being generous?

So, while it seems unfair, the employer technically cheated no one, he was just extra gracious to some. Those who worked a full day received exactly what they agreed to. The problem was they compared themselves to others.

Back to the Beginning, if you remember, Jesus is teaching Peter and the others that yes, they have a great reward, but really no different from anyone else’s reward, to be included in the Kingdom of God, and to receive eternal life with God. The Gospel is about Grace…not fairness! None of us receives salvation according to our merit! None of us comes close to satisfying God’s requirements. That’s a teaching commonly found in Cults like Mormons and JW’s.

And here is where this parable can be used to explain and help others understand the Gospel. Mormons, JW’s, Muslims, see us as workers in the field, and if we work hard enough, we can pick enough grapes, and please the vineyard owner enough that we can receive God’s Grace.

But that’s not grace, that’s a wage we earned. Jesus explains it this way. Yes, as Christians, we work in the field, Jesus calls us to go and work. But that’s because that’s what Christians do, we labor for Jesus. But laboring isn’t what makes us a Christian. Just like Human Beings breathe, but breathing isn’t what makes us a human being, just a living one.

The picture of salvation is the owner, driving around in his pickup truck, and loading the needy workers in the flatbed, or whatever the equivalent would have been in Jesus day. Jesus’ call is what saves us, not our work. We work because He calls us to work and we are His.

Grace says that we are sinners and don’t deserve to be part of God’s kingdom. That’s the hardest part. We have lots of excuses for our sins. That’s Jesus’ message to Peter. Be thankful for God’s Grace, which rewards us far beyond what we could ever earn.