Word of Salvation – Vol. 42 No. 37 – October 1997

 

The Upside-Down Values of the Kingdom

 

Sermon by Rev. J. De Hoog on Matthew 20:1-16

Scripture Readings: Matthew 19:13-30; 20:17-28

Suggested Hymns: BoW 113; 434; 247; 214

 

Dear Congregation,

There is an old saying that you can't tell a book by its cover.  That saying, however, does not always apply to a letter, does it!  You often can tell a letter by its cover, by its envelope.  Perhaps you receive quite a bit of junk mail – different companies trying to sell you things to help you do your job better.  You may have become so accustomed to some of the envelopes that you don't even open them, they just go straight into the round file.  Of course, there are other kinds of envelopes, usually with a hand-written address, where you might recognise the hand writing of a friend and eagerly open the envelope to extract the letter inside.  You very often can tell a letter by its envelope.

The first thing to notice about this story, the parable of the workers in the vineyard, is the envelope it comes in.  It has an inside envelope and an outside envelope, and these are important for understanding what the story is about.

[In the next few paragraphs, you may wish to use as a visual aid two huge envelopes that can be seen right through the whole church, and just hold them up at appropriate times.]

Look at the inside envelope.  In the verse immediately preceding the parable, in 19:30, Jesus says, "But many who are first will be last, and many who are last will be first.”  Literally he says, "Many firsts will be lasts, and many lasts will be firsts."  Then in the verse right at the end of the parable, Jesus says a very similar thing, but in the reverse order 20:16, "So the last will be first, and the first will be last."  And in this verse, 20:16, Jesus adds a word in the original language which is quite important.  He adds the word "how”.  It's as if he says at the end of the parable, "There, now that's how lasts will end up firsts, and firsts, lasts."

So one thing is very clear about the parable of the workers in the vineyard.  If it tells us anything, it's going to tell us something about how people who are first will be last, and how people who are last will be first.  That's what the inner envelope of this parable tells us about its meaning.  But what does Jesus mean by first and last?  Here it is useful to have a look at the outer envelope around this parable.  The outer envelope is the part of this gospel that we read earlier [have read 19:13-30 & 20:17-28].  It begins at 19:13.  Little children are brought to Jesus for him to bless them, and the disciples try to shoo them away.  But Jesus says, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these."  Jesus is saying that the kingdom of God belongs to those who can become like children, not working their way into salvation, not earning it themselves, but simply trusting and accepting, like little children.

Then, immediately after the episode with the little children comes the exact opposite of a little child, the rich young man.  And his attitude is just the opposite of a little child.  "Now a man came up to Jesus and asked, 'Teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life?”  You see, "What good thing must I do to get eternal life."

Jesus has just been teaching that you can't do it yourself; you have to be like a little child.  And then comes the rich young man, just the opposite of a little child, brash, confident, rich, feeling capable of anything.  "What good thing must I do?"  Jesus has to cut him down to size.  He must cut him down to the size of a little child.  He has to take away everything the rich young man is relying on.  And so he tells the rich young man to sell everything he has and give away all his money to the poor, and come and follow Jesus.

The rich young man can't do it.  He just can't give up his wealth.  He loves his wealth more than God; his riches have become his idol.

And, to the amazement of his disciples, Jesus says, "I tell you the truth, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.  Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God."  You see, the disciples thought just the opposite.  They shooed the little children away, but can you imagine how they fawned over the rich young man, this great prospect for the kingdom.  Jesus can't be bothered by little children, but this rich young man, well, here's a marvellous potential convert if ever there was one.  That's how the disciples thought.

But Jesus thinks just the opposite.  He wants to be bothered about little children, but he rejects rich young men who do not heed his call to give up their own self-confidence.  You see, children first, rich young men last.  The last shall be first and the first shall be last.

Well, Peter hasn't understood it yet, and so he blunders on.  19:27, "Peter answered him, 'We have left everything to follow you!  What will there be for us?’"  You see, Peter is getting a big head.  "Lord, you told the rich young man to give up everything and come and follow you, but he wouldn't.  Lord, that's just what we've done.  We've given up everything to follow you.  Compared to that rich young man, we've really put ourselves out for you, Jesus.  So what's in it for us?  What will our reward be?"

Jesus has two answers to Peter's blustering question.  He has a very kind and gracious answer to relieve Peter's fears, but he also has a response that is full of warning.  His first answer is full of kindness.  Vs 29: "And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life."  Don't worry, Peter.  You've given up everything to follow me, and your sacrifice will not go unnoticed.  There is great reward ahead for you.

But his second answer is full of warning.  His second answer is this: "Be careful Peter.  The first will be last and the last will be first."  The parable of the workers in the vineyard is Jesus' second answer to Peter's question about reward.

So that's the first part of the outer envelope.  But there is more, we haven't finished reading the outer envelope yet.  In the very next story, once again the issue is first and last, greatest and least.  James and John come with their Mum, Mrs Zebedee, to ask if they can be given the greatest positions in Jesus' kingdom; to ask if they can sit at the right and the left of Jesus when he comes in his glory.  The other disciples are indignant.  "How dare they ask such a thing?  What about us?  Don't we have just as much right?"

Jesus uses this episode to teach the disciples something about true greatness in the kingdom.  Vs 25, "Jesus called them together and said, 'You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them.  Not so with you.  Instead, whoever wants to be great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave – just as the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

You see, if you want to be first, be last.  Be the slave.  Serve the others.  In God's kingdom the first shall be last, and the last, first.

Notice who is being taught in these two episodes.  Who is it?  Peter, James and John!  The special disciples of Jesus, those closest to him, those he took with him on special occasions.  The future leaders of the church!  These three, the leaders, have to be taught what true greatness is.

True greatness is not being a rich and successful young man, but being a little child, simply trusting and receiving.  True greatness is not sitting at the right and the left of Jesus in positions of authority and power, but being a servant, a slave, to everyone else.  You see, the last shall be first, and the first, last.  Those who are last in the eyes of the world, little children whom Jesus shouldn't be bothered with, are the most important.  Those who are first, the rich young man, or the top three disciples, Peter, James and John, must be taught that true greatness is being willing to be last.  The first shall be last, and the last shall be first.

[Pause]

We've spent lots of time looking at the two envelopes in which this story comes.  Now we are ready to understand the story itself.  Remember, the story is explaining how it is that many of those who are first become last, and many who are last become first.  How does it in fact happen, that many who are first become last, and many who are last become first?

In the story, Jesus pictures a typical scene.  It is a normal kind of thing that happened in Palestine in Jesus' day.  The people who hear the story can identify with it at once.  In Palestine the grape harvest comes in towards the end of September, closely followed by the autumn rains.  It was always a frantic race against time to get the harvest in before it was spoiled by the rains.  Any workers were welcome, even if they could give only half an hour of their time to the work.  The thing was to get as many workers as possible.

At six o'clock one morning, a landowner goes out to the marketplace to hire some workers for the day.  The pay they agree to is perfectly normal - a denarius was the normal day's wages for a working man.  The landowner goes back again and again to the marketplace to get more workers, again, perfectly normal.  The men in the marketplace are not lazy idlers.  No, they were waiting for work, and the fact that some of them stood there till five o'clock at night is proof of how much they wanted work.  These hired labourers were the lowest class of workers, and life for them and their families was always desperately precarious.  If they didn't work for a day, the family didn't eat that day.  So far everything about the story is perfectly normal, the people would have nodded their agreement with the story so far and recognised a typical situation.

But then the story has a powerful twist at the end.  Jesus does this deliberately to surprise his hearers and to make his point.  He deliberately and brilliantly leads his hearers along step by step and then makes his great point.

Each of the workers gets the same wage!  They each get a denarius, a full day's pay!  Those who worked twelve hours in the hot sun, and those who only worked one hour in the cool of the evening, they all get a full day's pay.  The six o'clock in the morning workers are incensed.

"These men who were hired last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day."  The objection seems fair enough!  You can imagine the five o'clock in the afternoon workers going home to their families and telling the amazing story of the five o'clock blessing.  Twelve hours' pay for one hour's work!  Never has it been seen before.  No landowner would ever work that way!  If he did, no one would ever turn up for work till five o'clock, and he would never get his grapes in!

Now, of course, it is important not to press the details of this parable too far.  We need to get the main point.  Jesus has told this story for a particular purpose.  Remember, he has told this story to show how the last become first and the first become last.  So, here are the questions we need to ask from this story.  How do the last become first?  And how do the first become last?

First, how do the last become first?  What does this parable teach about how God treats those who are least – little children who can't contribute anything, people in our day who are sick and weak and disabled and seemingly unable to make any real contribution?  Five o'clock workers?  It teaches God's amazing grace!

God lifts the poor and the weak into places of honour!  Those who seem little people in the eyes of the world, the servants and the behind-the-scenes people whom nobody notices, God treats with dignity and worth.  Psalm 113 speaks of this: "He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap; he seats them with princes, with the princes of their people." (Psalm 113:7-8)

Lasts become firsts not because they have done enough good work but because they have a good Lord.  A Lord who invites them into his field even at the last hour and gives them salvation full and free.  As the Heidelberg Catechism says in Answer 60:

"Without my deserving it at all, out of sheer grace, God grants and credits to me the perfect satisfaction, righteousness and holiness of Christ, as if I had never sinned nor been a sinner, as if I had been as perfectly obedient as Christ was obedient for me.  All I need to do is to accept the gift of God with a believing heart."

You see, the Lord had promised to the late-coming workers to be fair, to pay them whatever is right.  Instead of paying what is fair, he has been extravagant beyond all measure.  God's grace is undeserved, God is much better to us than we can think, or what's right.  God does not deal with us according to our work, our deserving, but rather according to his own generosity and grace.

But now, the main point of the story.  The main point is that many who are first shall be last.  Remember, Jesus is responding to Peter's question, "We have left everything to follow you!  What then will there be for us?"  Peter is comparing himself to the rich young man, who did not give up anything and did not follow Jesus.  The rich young man went away sad, but he still had his riches!  Now Peter says, "We've given up everything, so what's in it for us?"

In the parable, Jesus warns Peter.  "Do not be proud of your sacrifices, do not look down on those who seem to be less sacrificial, for it can lead to awful judgment." Jesus is warning the disciples not to get a big head when they compare themselves to people like the rich young ruler.  He is warning us not to become proud of our accomplishments.

Here is a warning to people who have been members of a church for so long that they think they own the church, and who resent it when a new generation rises up with different plans and different ways of doing things.  Here is a warning to mature strong Christians who look down on weaker and less striking Christians and question their dedication.  Here is a warning to Christians who are conscious of being in God's work and who think demeaningly of people who do not seem to be involved.  Here is a warning to people who seem to be first.  Watch out, you are in danger of becoming last.

How do the first become last?  Through a bloated self-consciousness of their own accomplishments and importance.  "Sir, we have worked twelve hours, we have suffered the heat of the day and carried the burden of the work.  These have only just started, these have only worked in the easy cooler part of the day.  And you are making them equal with us!?  Sir, that's not fair!"

And of course, it's not fair.  God's grace is never fair.  That's just the point!  God gives generously, way beyond what is fair.  Notice that in the story the complaint of the six o'clock in the morning workers is not that the landowner has broken his word or cheated them, for he hasn't.  Their complaint is that the landowner has been too generous to the undeserving.  They boast of their deserving hard work, and think it unfair that the other workers get the same reward.  Their great problem is pride, pride in their own accomplishments.

Jesus has a special warning here to Christian leaders:

- you who are or have been elders, Sunday school teachers, youth leaders;

- you who have been Christians for a long time;

- you who are settled and firm in your beliefs and feel capable of leading and teaching others;

- you who have been working in the vineyard since six o'clock in the morning and who have put up with the heat of the day and done the bulk of the work;

- you who are the Peter, James and John of the church; you who are mature and who perhaps look at the immaturity of some other Christians and shake your heads and wonder what the church is coming to.

Jesus is saying to you, "Watch out!  Do not become proud of your maturity, of your sacrifice, of your hard work, of all that you have done and given over the years.  Remember that what you have, you have only by God's grace, and that you are no better in yourself than the young, immature, latecomers into the vineyard."

How do the first become last?  Through a self-consciousness of being first!  Through a sense of having done more than everyone else for God, and being proud of that, and thinking that such work deserves greater reward.  Here is a great danger for Christian leaders.

Look instead to Jesus Christ!

Notice something very important here.  In the parable of the workers in the vineyard, he warns against spiritual pride.  In the episode with James and John wanting to be at his right and left hands, he warns against spiritual ambition.  And exactly between these two warnings we find Jesus speaking these words to his disciples, "We are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and the teachers of the law.  They will condemn him to death, and will turn him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified.  On the third day he will be raised to life!"

Precisely when the disciples begin to think how much better they are than the rich young ruler because of their great sacrifice, precisely when they begin to think of how they can climb the ladder to the highest positions in the kingdom of God, Jesus announces that he goes to Jerusalem to die!  The first will be last.  He will give up his life, so that we might live.  "The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

Let us praise our Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us, the first becoming last.

And let us remember that for all our achievements and maturity in the Christian faith we never lose the need for God's grace.  We must never become more than a little child who simply believes and trusts and accepts God's grace in Christ.

And remember that the greatest in the kingdom is the slave of all, for even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve.

Watch out!  Do not become proud!!  Always remain broken and humble and child-like before God.

Amen.