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

Sermon for Septuagesima

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

The Christian 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, on the one hand, and what it looks like to despise it, on the other. 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.

Jesus told His disciples the parable of the workers just before Holy Week began. He had been upbraiding the Jews for their unbelief, showing them how they had been 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 who came to save sinners. They wanted a God who recognized them for how hard they had worked for Him.

Now, unlike the unbelieving Jews, Jesus’ disciples had put their trust in Jesus. But they were susceptible to the same temptation that the other Jews fell into. Focusing on their hard work instead of on God’s grace revealed in Christ. They 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 in what Jesus said, 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 happily go into the vineyard. 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 whatever 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. In His grace, in His free favor, He called them 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—a whole day’s wage, and those who worked three hours received a denarius, and those who worked six hours and nine hours also received a denarius. Imagine how happy they were, to receive a full day’s wage for less than a full day’s work. Imagine how appreciative they were of the goodness and generosity of the landowner.

Finally, the first workers stepped forward, the ones who had worked 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 lord, 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 own things. 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. 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 that God’s Law required of us, all day long. 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.

So learn a lesson today from the workers in the vineyard. Did you make a good beginning in the Christian faith, like the first workers did in the lord’s field? Were you baptized early in life? Good! Just remember, the first workers in the parable made a good beginning, too, as did the Israelites who left Egypt with Moses. But as Paul says in the Epistle, what happened to those very first Israelites whom God redeemed from slavery? With most of them God was not pleased, for they were struck down in the wilderness—tens of thousands of them for their rebellion and unbelief. Have you been faithful at attending church, zealous to keep God’s commandments? Good! Just remember, so were the Pharisees, and you know how they turned out. The longer they spent working hard under the Law, the more their pride grew and the more their desire for grace diminished. Their pride and their despising of God’s grace in Christ made all their other works meaningless, and they perished in unbelief. The first will be last, as Jesus says, and the last will be first.

At whatever point in life you heard the Gospel and were baptized, whether early or late, remember that it is only by God’s grace that you stand. So cherish His grace. Don’t despise it. And because you know the grace and generosity of God, put your religion into practice each day. Use the means of grace! Pray! Keep God’s commandments! And bear the heat of the day! And while you work, keep beating down the serpent’s seed of pride, so that you stay with Christ, so that you always hope to be saved only by grace, only for the sake of Christ, never because you think you earned it! This is how you run the race, as Paul said in the Epistle, in order to win the prize. May God keep you in His grace all the way to the finish line. Amen.