Sermon - Septuagesima 2022 - Matthew 20:1-6

Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard, Codex aureus Epternacensis, 11th Century

What does it mean to be a Christian? Over the past century Christianity has popularly taken on a couple different forms. In the mid to late 20th century, it popularly looked like a social or civic club, kind of like belonging to the boy scouts or kiwanis. Both churches and clubs were full during these years partly because it was all the rage to belong to a club. 

But, things change. During the later part of the 20th century, and up through today, Christianity popularly looks like a “movement” instead of an institution or club. This means people identify as “spiritual but not religious,” meaning that they might personally believe in God and have spiritual beliefs, but they don’t care to attend church services, belong to a church, or practice their faith in any meaningful sense.

But neither one of those notions of the Christian life is very accurate. Christianity is neither a social club nor a movement. We’re not just here to attend meetings and socialize. Nor can you be a Christian without being religious and going to church and practicing your faith daily. The Christian life is challenging and rigorous, like a race or laboring at work. Christians aren’t lazy. Christians work in the Father’s vineyard.

“For the kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard… And 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.’ And when those hired about the eleventh hour came, each of them received a denarius.”

The kingdom of heaven is like a vineyard, God is like the master of the vineyard, and Christians are like laborers in the vineyard. Except, the laborers are more like children, and the master is more like a father. It's a terrible business practice to hire and pay someone who doesn’t work. No business owner operates like that, at least not for very long.

But you know who does operate like that? A father. Many of you are familiar with farm life. It’s pretty standard that the kids go out and work on the farm with dad, even from a relatively early age. Now, little kids aren’t very good workers, they’re small, immature, lack wisdom, knowledge, skill, and strength. If they’re splitting wood with dad, for example, dad will have a nice pile finished at the end, they’ll probably just have a couple logs done. Driving a tractor their rows may not be too straight. The nails they hammer may be crooked, and often have to be redone.

As the kids get older they improve and maybe eventually get to the point where they can work faster and better than dad, but even when the kids are little and only contribute a little bit, or maybe don’t really add much at all, the father loves all of his kids equally. At the end of the work, he pats the kid on the back and says “good job, well done, we did a hard day’s work, I’m proud of you, let’s go inside and get cleaned up before we eat.”

See, the father really doesn’t care about the amount of work the kids were able to accomplish, he just wants to work alongside his kids, he just wants to be with them. So it is with our heavenly Father. The kingdom of heaven is like a vineyard, and He calls us like a Father calls His children to come into the vineyard and work with Him. And at the end of the day He’s not just a vineyard owner, He’s also the Master of a house, and His children don’t return to the marketplace but they enter into the house with Him.

Such is the Christian life! We are God’s children and He is our heavenly Father who longs to be with us and work through us. We aren’t just called to idleness, but we are called to faithful labor in the vineyard. “About the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing. And he said to them, ‘Why do you stand here idle all day?’ They said to him, ‘Because no one has hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You go into the vineyard too.’” The Master had already been out there multiple times hiring anyone and everyone who was willing to work, these were then men either unwilling to work previously or were lounging about at home and just showed up. So when they told the master that no one hired them, making it sound like it wasn’t their fault, it was a bold-faced lie. But in spite of their earlier idleness and their lame excuse, they were still invited to come and work.

The Master calls us out of our idleness to come and work alongside Him! How wonderful this is and what great news to know that regardless of our past offenses, idleness, mistakes, and lies God still loves us and longs for us to labor with Him. It’s never too late to turn over a new leaf and give it a second shot. If you haven’t been the best Christian in the past, if you haven’t had very good habits, if you haven’t been very faithful in various aspects, then you get another chance now! God forgives you your past sins and failures, He forgives your idleness and bids you come and work with Him now! 

Dear friends, the Christian life is not only laboring, but it’s also a race! “Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable.” The Christian life is not one of idleness and lounging about doing nothing. This isn’t one of those things that you can just set and forget, like an autopay bill, rather the Christian life requires constant training, preparation, and effort.

What does this running and laboring look like for a Christian? It looks like reading the bible, singing, and praying. It looks like orienting your days and weeks around Christ. It looks like developing Christian habits. It looks like avoiding things that may harm your faith. It looks like raising your children and grandchildren to be Christians more than anything else. It looks like prioritizing God and His gifts above all other things.

The result of this life of labor is something far more enduring and enjoyable than just a trophy or scholarship, but we receive the reward of an imperishable life in paradise! Consider all of the work you go to in order to make money and buy a house and wear clothes and eat food and watch television. All of that work gains you very temporary treasures, treasures which can be lost in the blink of an eye. Compare that to the treasures God has stored up for you in paradise, and that after you run this race of faith you will receive a reward worth far more than a measly denarius.

The greatest reward is that your heavenly Father invites you into His mansion in the skies, into His home, to live with Him. “In my Father’s house are many rooms,” Jesus said, meaning that there’s room for us there. But in our Father’s house we won’t be separated from God by all of those rooms, rather we will be close to Him and dwell with Him. This is what our Father wants and it’s what every child wants: He wants to be with us and love us and we want to be with Him and be loved by Him.

This is why it’s such a sad thing when those laborers who were with Him the longest care so very little about working with Him, and only care for the money. When they received their denarius they grumbled, unhappy that they didn’t get paid more than those who came in later. In response, the Father says the most dreadful thing: “Take what belongs to you and go.” Instead of getting to come into the house and remain with the father, these laborers are treated as nothing more than laborers, and they’re cast out of the vineyard from the Father’s presence. The Father’s home has been closed to them.

My friends, let us not be so preoccupied with the worldly treasures and blessings that God may bestow on us. Let us not be so obsessed with comparing ourselves to others and making such a fuss about how much work we’ve done. The work matters, don’t be mistaken, we must labor, but what truly matters is that we’re working with our Father in the vineyard. Our laboring alongside Him is what He wants for us. At the end of the day, our Father will bring us home with Him and not just give us some lousy money, but feed us from the fruits of His vineyard. He doesn’t just feed us a feast of Welch’s grape juice, but the choicest wines that make glad the heart of man.