Cherish God’s grace. Don’t despise it.

Sermon for Septuagesima

1 Corinthians 9:24-10:5  +  Matthew 20:1-16

Our religion is not a theoretical thing. To practice our religion, to be a Christian, is not about theoretically holding to certain doctrines or reciting certain words or going through certain motions on Sunday morning. Our religion is about knowing and cherishing the grace of our God and the forgiveness of sins that is ours in Christ, and then, as those who cherish God’s grace, devoting ourselves to showing that kind of grace to others. Now, cherishing God’s grace doesn’t mean His commandments have become irrelevant, or that sin is acceptable, or that good works aren’t necessary. But in today’s parable of the workers in the vineyard, Jesus shows us what it looks like to cherish His grace and what it looks like to despise it. Those who cherish God’s goodness and grace will remain in His vineyard, experiencing His goodness forever. Those who despise His grace will be cast out, regardless of how hard they’ve worked.

It’s Holy Week. Jesus has been upbraiding the Jews for their unbelief, and He’ll have much more to say before the week is done, demonstrating how they were given everything by God, and yet, when their God came to dwell with them in their midst, they didn’t recognize Him. They didn’t want a God like that. Then, one chapter before our Gospel begins, Jesus had an interesting exchange with a rich young Jewish ruler, the one who came up to Jesus entirely earnest, Good teacher, what good thing must I do to be saved? You remember what Jesus told Him? Basically, keep the commandments. And he said, I have kept them all! So Jesus told him to go sell all that he had and follow Jesus, and he would have treasure in heaven. And at that, the rich man walked away sad, because he wanted heaven, but he didn’t want heaven enough to give away his riches. Then, what prompted the telling of the parable of the workers, Jesus’ disciples pointed out to Him how they had left everything in order to follow Him, and He promised them that everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands, for My name’s sake will receive a hundredfold, and inherit eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last first. There’s grace there, but there’s also a warning. When you start to focus on how much you’ve given up for Jesus, how much you’ve left, how hard you’ve worked—especially compared to other people, how little they seem to have given up, how little they seem to have worked—be very careful to remember that heaven is a gift of God’s goodness and grace, earned for you entirely by Christ. It’s not a reward for hard work or suffering. You’re still sinners who deserve only God’s wrath and punishment, and yet He doesn’t want to punish sinners. He wants to save them, at great cost to Himself, and to give them eternal life as a gift. So cherish His grace, and don’t despise it, thinking you’ve earned God’s acceptance or God’s heavenly blessings by how hard you’ve worked.

To illustrate that point, Jesus tells the parable of the workers in the vineyard. The owner, the master of the house, went out early in the day to find workers for His vineyard. He found some men standing in the marketplace and hired them, agreeing with them that he would pay them one denarius for the day’s work.

That’s like how God went out early to the Jewish people, at the time of Moses, and made a covenant with them to be their God and to give them the land of Israel, if they would live under the Law God gave to Moses and obey it. It’s also like how the Lord has called many Christians to do much and to suffer much for the sake of His kingdom, and we all agree, at the beginning, that heaven is worth any amount of sacrifice and suffering here.

Then the owner of the vineyard goes out a few hours later, still looking for workers, and he finds some and simply agrees to pay them “whatever is right.” And they go. No wage is set. No covenant is made based on a certain amount of work the workers must do. They’re left having to trust the master’s honesty, his righteousness, and his goodness. The same thing happens a few hours later, and a few hours later, and then a couple hours later, only one hour before quitting time. In each case, the owner agrees to give the workers what is right at the end of the day, and in each case, they are happy with that arrangement and go eagerly into his vineyard.

This is like how, when the Lord began His earthly ministry, He went out into the land of Israel and called thieves and swindlers, prostitutes and adulterers, people who had lived their whole lives as members of the Church of Israel, but who had never embraced the grace and love of God, who had lived openly contrary to His commandments, who hadn’t been “working in His vineyard” at all. And He called them by grace to repent and believe in Him, and when they did, He sent them into His kingdom to work, not as slaves, but as sons and daughters of God.

It’s also like how the Lord called the Gentiles into His kingdom. They had lived separated from God, each one going his own way, following his own path, his own religion, until the Lord called them through the Gospel to know the only true God, to repent and believe in Him for the forgiveness of sins. He promised to give them “whatever is right,” not based on the works they had done, but on His own goodness and mercy and faithfulness and righteousness. This is how the Lord has called everyone in the New Testament era. Some have labored more than others and suffered more than others and given up more than others, depending on when they were called and the circumstances of their calling. But all are called simply to trust in the goodness and righteousness of the God who called them, to do whatever work He lays out for them in His kingdom, and they all gladly go.

But what happens at the end of the day? The lord of the vineyard wants the first workers to be paid last. He wants the last workers hired to be paid first. So those who worked only one hour received a full denarius, and those who worked three hours received a denarius, and those who worked six hours and nine hours received a denarius. Imagine how happy they were, to receive a full day’s wages for less than a full day’s work. Imagine how appreciative of the goodness and generosity of the landowner.

Finally, the first workers stepped forward, the ones who had worked, if not the hardest, then at least the longest, thinking they would receive more, because they thought they deserved more. But each received the same as all the rest: the one denarius that they had been promised and that they had agreed to at the beginning of the day. And they grumbled and complained and were bitter and angry at the landowner, who then reminded them that they got exactly what they were promised, and that he had the right to do as he pleased with his money. He showed grace, he showed goodness, he showed favor to those other workers, and that’s really what bothered the first workers. They were jealous—jealous that, at the end of the day, the lord of vineyard handed out rewards based, not on works, but on grace, and that meant that all their hard work hadn’t earned them a penny. By grace those other workers had been rewarded, through faith in the goodness of the lord—not by works, so that no one could boast.

Hopefully that brought to mind the Bible verses from Ephesians 2: For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not by works, lest anyone should boast. Now, that one verse, that one statement is cherished by some, and despised by others. It’s cherished by those who recognize that their works fall short of the glory of God. It’s cherished by those who know their sins, and the weight of their guilt has pressed heavy on them. It’s cherished by those who admit the truth: that they don’t deserve anything from God but wrath and punishment. And yet, God came along and gave His Son to be our Savior, to do all the work, all day long, that would serve as a valid substitute for our works. God gave His Son into death to pay for our sins, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him, not by being righteous ourselves, but by God counting the righteousness of Christ to us through faith.

That same truth is despised by those who refuse to admit their sins and their utter inability to help themselves, who think they’ve done such good things for God, when, in reality, God views it all as filth if it was done apart from faith in His beloved Son. The truth of grace is despised by those who love their sins, too, because God’s grace isn’t given to those who view themselves as their own God, walking and living according to their own sinful desires. It’s given instead to those who look to Him as their God in humility and repentance. The truth of salvation by grace alone is despised by those who want grace for themselves but bitterly deny it to others. Such people who never learn to cherish the grace of God will hear that awful sentence from Him on the last day: Take what is yours and go. Because what is yours is imperfection, love of self and self-righteousness. What is yours is sin. But what is Christ’s—that is perfection, that is perfect love for God and man. His work is yours, if you want it. God’s grace is yours for the enjoying, if you will cherish it. Cherish God’s grace, and don’t despise it. And practice your religion accordingly. Amen.