Sermon - Septuagesima 2023 - Matthew 20:1-16

Parable of the Labourers in the Vineyard, Rembrandt, 1637

Laborers in the Vineyard

1. God calls us into His kingdom to labor

2. We are in His kingdom all by grace

3. A warning against idleness and self-righteousness

The context for today’s parable of the laborers in the vineyard is that of the rich young man. The rich man asked what he must do to inherit eternal life, saying that he had already kept the commandments, so Jesus told him to give away all of his possessions. But the rich man walked away sorrowful when he heard that. So Jesus said that it’s easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God. Who then can be saved? “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”

But St. Peter then pointed out to Jesus that he and the other apostles had left everything to follow Him. So Jesus said: “Everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands, for my name’s sake, will receive a hundredfold and will inherit eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last first.” 

So in order to explain this Jesus told the parable of the laborers in the 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.” From this we learn that God calls us into His kingdom to labor. Yet, we are in His kingdom all by grace. Nevertheless, He gives us a warning against idleness and self-righteousness.

Indeed, our Lord has called us into His kingdom to labor, not into a life of ease and comfort. The rich young man wanted to know what he must do to inherit eternal life, but he didn’t expect it to be difficult, he didn’t expect that Jesus would demand him to give up his comfortable life of luxury. But that is the labor which we have been called into: we must willingly forsake every earthly idol for the sake of Jesus.

Which are these idols? Jesus mentions houses, brothers, sisters, father, mother, children, and lands. It’s intentional that among those seven things, five of those things Jesus mentioned are family. Family is easily one of the most powerful idols. The vocations of child, siblings, spouse, and parent are the most important vocations we have in this life. Those people are rightly the ones whom we love the most and for whom we make the most sacrifices. Those are the people to whom we are emotionally and physically the closest; we typically love them more than we love ourselves. For those reasons it’s easy for our family to become an idol.

The other two idols Jesus mentions are house and land. Our possessions and our nation are also quick to become idols. Our possessions because we work so hard for them, they’re almost symbolic of the blood, sweat, and tears we shed to gain them. Our nation because this is kind of like our extended family. So we need to be on guard against loving and valuing our family, our riches, and our nation more than we love our Lord God.

Rooting out these idols from our hearts and growing in faith and love towards God requires constant labor. St. Paul compares it to an athlete: “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. So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. But I discipline my body and keep it under control.”

Having been called by God into His kingdom, we are to diligently labor for the sake of the imperishable wreath. To be called into God’s kingdom, His vineyard, necessarily implies that we have been called to an active life of laboring in the vineyard. We are laborers, and laborers obviously labor.

The fascinating thing about this particular vineyard, God’s kingdom, is that what matters most is that we are in the vineyard, in the kingdom. Normally, when you get hired to do a job, the most important part of the job is that you get paid at the end. I’m not sure there’s a ton of people who work long hours for someone else under the hot sun all day long as if that were the reward. Usually the hard labor is done because you want the fruits of your labor, you want the reward, you want the paycheck. But in God’s vineyard, His kingdom, the most important thing is that we are in His vineyard. Remember the guys hired at the last hour, the Master said to them: “You go into the vineyard too.” He didn’t promise them a denarius, He didn’t promise them anything, He just called them to work in His vineyard because being in His vineyard is the most important thing! Being in God’s kingdom is what matters, this is the reward! 

Christians, you already have the most important thing right now by being in God’s kingdom. You’re no longer slaves to the devil, you’re not doomed to die and rot eternally in hell, you don’t have to live in despair and gloom all of your days, because Christ has welcomed you into His vineyard, His kingdom! Already the Holy Spirit dwells within your heart, you have been freed from every eternal sadness, God’s love is yours in Christ Jesus, your guilt and sins are forgiven and released, you shall dwell in the Father’s house forever. 

You receive all of this by grace! God is He who comes out to you and calls you into His kingdom. Isn’t it incredible that the Master of the vineyard Himself goes out to call the laborers into His vineyard. Jesus is the Lord God almighty and He Himself took on our human flesh in order to redeem us from our sins and buy our entry into God’s Kingdom. God the Holy Spirit was sent by the Father and the Son to work faith into our hearts, so that even our faith is a divine gift.

The reward of eternal life is a gift to be received by grace. This is evident in the vineyard when God paid all of the laborers a denarius regardless of their labors. They didn’t receive a denarius because of their efforts, but because they were in the vineyard. So it is for us Christians! We shall not enter paradise because we have earned it, but because God has called us into His kingdom. Christ already paid the wages of death, He already bore the burden of the day upon the cross and the scorching heat of hell, so we receive salvation all by grace. We don’t labor in order to earn our salvation, rather we labor because we are already saved by grace.

Grace can sometimes be hard to stomach, so Christ warns us against both idleness and self-righteousness. Against idleness He rebukes the lazybellies in the marketplace: “Why do you stand here idle all day?” To be called into God’s kingdom is a call to action. We are passive in terms of our salvation, but we are not at all passive in our Christian lives! We are to be active and fervently engaged in running the Christian race! The only people who are idle are those who aren’t in the vineyard.

God also rebukes self-righteousness. When those hired first received their denarius and grumbled against the master, he gave them a harsh rebuke: “‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius? Take what belongs to you and go. I choose to give to this last worker as I give to you. Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or do you begrudge my generosity?’ So the last will be first, and the first last.” Take what belongs to you and go. He tells the man to leave His vineyard. This is akin to God telling the self-righteous to leave His eternal Kingdom. If you believe that you’re the greatest in the kingdom, and that you have earned a greater reward by your labors, then you will lose the greater gift of being in God’s kingdom because you have rejected grace.

So instead of idleness or self-righteousness, let us always be active and thankful, remembering that we are in God’s kingdom by grace. Christ our Lord who is indeed first in importance among us all, became the least among us by bearing our sins upon the cross, so that we who are the last may be first in God’s eternal kingdom.