Learn a lesson from Israel’s pride

Sermon for Septuagesima

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

For these next three Sundays, including today, before Lent begins, the Holy Spirit has some powerful, focused teaching for us in the Gospels, and also some powerful warnings.

In today’s Gospel, we’re presented with the parable of the workers in the vineyard. It’s a parable that teaches us something important about how covenants work and about God’s grace. But there is a powerful warning at the end, and in the Epistle, too, to watch out for that deadly serpent’s seed of pride. Combining those two thoughts, we’ll give today’s sermon this heading: Learn a lesson from Israel’s pride!

I mention Israel because the nation of Israel is like the first set of workers who were hired by the master of the household at the beginning of Jesus’ parable. For the kingdom of heaven is like a master of a household who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard. After agreeing with the workers on a denarius for the day, he sent them out into his vineyard. God brought Israel into a covenant with Himself early in the day, before any other nation. It was the covenant of the Law on Mount Sinai, and it was a two-sided covenant. God approached Israel, after freeing them from slavery in Egypt, and offered them something on His part, but also required them to obey His commandments on their part, including the commandments to have all their males circumcised and to keep the Sabbath Day and all the ceremonies and dietary restrictions and ritual cleansings in the Law of Moses. It was going to be hard work, but they agreed with God on these terms. All the people answered with one voice and said, “All the words which the LORD has said we will do.” Like the landowner who agreed with the workers on a denarius for the day.

What was the denarius? What was it that God agreed to give Israel, that ended up being the same thing He gave to everyone who was “hired” later? (Since, at the end of the parable, we learn that the last workers hired received the same thing as the first workers who were hired.) In a word, it was Christ. Among all the benefits God promised to give to Israel, none was greater than that the Christ Himself would be sent to them, sent from them, given to them to make atonement for their sins, given to them to rule over God’s people forever and to give them the gift of eternal life. That covenant was agreed upon by the Israelites, and they went to work, generation after generation, observing the Law of Moses.

Today’s parable doesn’t have the landowner inspecting the work of the workers at all. If the Lord were to inspect the obedience of Israel, what would He find? You know. Long stretches at a time of turning away from the Law of Moses entirely, idolatry, sorcery, and all kinds of evil. Even those in Israel who tried very hard at keeping the Law found it impossible. Peter later describes what living under the Law as an Old Testament Jew was like: It was a yoke on the neck… which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear. If the Jews were honest with themselves, they had to confess that they weren’t actually keeping up their end of the bargain. They should have realized that they could never earn God’s grace or the salvation that the coming Christ was coming to bring.

So much for Israel. The Lord of the vineyard wasn’t satisfied to have just the Israelites working for Him. He went out at various points in the day to bring other workers into His vineyard, into His Church. At the third hour, at the sixth hour, at the ninth hour, and even at the eleventh hour, just an hour before quitting time, He went out and found others. But instead of making a two-sided covenant with them, where they both agreed on the terms each would fulfill ahead of time, the landowner simply tells them, You also, go into the vineyard, and I will give you whatever is right.

And they did. Gentiles like Naaman the Syrian, whose leprosy the prophet Elisha cleansed. Jewish tax collectors and sinners at the time of Jesus who hadn’t been working very hard at keeping the Law of Moses. And Gentiles, non-Israelites, who were being invited into God’s kingdom, too, not on the basis of any works of the Law they had done or who they were descended from. Purely on the basis of God’s grace toward them.

What happens at the end of the day reveals the main purpose of this parable. At the end of the day, the landowner orders those who were hired last, who did practically no work in the vineyard, to be paid first. And they were each given a denarius. All those who were hired later in the day received the same thing, a denarius, and the first workers noticed that. The lord of the vineyard wanted them to notice that. The Lord God wanted the Israelites to see that His grace isn’t earned. It’s a free, generous gift. That the Christ had been sent to Israel, not because Israel had earned His coming by all their hard work over the centuries, but because the end of the day had come, the end of the Old Testament era, and the time had finally come for God’s greatest gift to be given: His own Son, the Savior of the world. As Paul wrote to Titus in chapter 3, But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, that having been justified by His grace we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

Instead of rejoicing in God’s grace to all and in the coming of the Christ, the Israelites, in their pride, grumbled against God, as the first workers grumbled against the lord of the vineyard. These last men have worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us, who have borne the burden and heat of the day. “We’ve worked so hard, and they’ve hardly worked at all. We deserve more than this lousy denarius. We deserve more than this lousy Christ.”

The lord of the vineyard was not happy with the first workers. He answered one of them and said, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius? Take what is yours and go. I want to give this last man the same as I give you. Is it not lawful for me to do what I want with what is mine? Or is your eye evil because I am good?

Yes, Israel was given much work to do. But it wasn’t without its advantages. As Paul writes to the Romans, What advantage then has the Jew, or what is the profit of circumcision? Much in every way! Chiefly because to them were committed the oracles of God. God spoke to them through the prophets and gave them His written Word. Also, Paul says, to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the service of God, and the promises; of them are the fathers and from them, according to the flesh, Christ came, who is over all, the eternally blessed God. Amen. Israel had many advantages as the first workers who were hired in the vineyard and given the covenant of the Law of Moses.

But they were supposed to understand that, no matter how many works of the Law they did, they were still sinners. They would all be condemned, if God were to inspect their work and judge them on the basis of it. They could never earn God’s grace. The Christ and His salvation were pure gift. And that very same gift would be given to the Gentiles and to those who didn’t spend even one hour working under the Old Testament Law. The gift of Christ has been given to all, even to the Israelites who rejected Him. He came to Israel. He died for Israel. The denarius was given. But then unbelieving Israel heard the horrible words, Take what is yours and go. Their pride had cut them off from Christ and from the salvation He came to bring.

Of course, some of Israel believed. Peter spoke for them in the book of Acts: We believe that we shall be saved in the same manner as the Gentiles: through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ.

You believe that, too, don’t you? That’s the faith into which you were baptized and brought into God’s covenant of grace. Christians believe, not that we’re the greatest workers in the world, but that God has saved us, through faith, apart from our works, through Christ and His work on our behalf. The Christian Gospel isn’t, “Whoever works the hardest or whoever obeys enough of God’s laws gets to heaven.” The Christian Gospel is, “You have not obeyed God’s Law. You have earned only wrath and eternal condemnation for your sins. But God, in His grace, wants you to be saved and has given the Christ into death for your sins. Repent and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and be baptized for the forgiveness of sins!”

Yes, you have believed and have been brought into God’s covenant of grace. So now the warning in today’s Gospel also goes out to you, especially to those who haven’t spent their lives in open wickedness and disobedience and idolatry. It’s a warning to those who have worked the hardest at being good Christians, at keeping God’s commandments, a warning to those who were baptized early in life.

Were you called into Christ’s kingdom early in life? Good! Many are called! But few are chosen, chosen to remain in the kingdom at the end of the day. And why are the few chosen? Because, at the end of the day, they were found still trusting in God’s grace, still hoping in Christ, not claiming their own goodness or their own works. They are last in their own hearts, and so God has made them first. And why aren’t many chosen? Because many end up relying on their own works instead of on God’s grace in Christ Jesus. They are first in their own hearts, and so God has made them last.

Did you make a good beginning in the Christian faith? Were you baptized early in life? Good! The Israelites who left Egypt also made a good beginning, as Paul says in the Epistle, with most of them God was not pleased, for they were struck down in the wilderness. Have you been faithful at attending church, zealous to keep God’s commandments? Good! 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.

So learn a lesson today from Israel’s pride. Being called by the Gospel and enlightened with the gifts of the Holy Spirit is the beginning of the Christian life. But “being sanctified and preserved with Jesus Christ in the true faith” is the continuation of the Christian life, and you have to make it to the end of the day still relying on God’s grace alone, if you would remain in God’s kingdom for the next life. So work hard in God’s kingdom! Use the means of grace! Pray! Obey! And bear the heat of the day! But also, 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, never by your works! 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.