MPC 11th July 2004.Matthew 20:1-19 - "Fairness and Farmwork"
Stuart Atkinson MPC 11th July 2004.
Australian Idol star Shannon Noll recently released a cover of one of my favourite shower songs. First verse goes like this:
Well there's a little boy waiting at the counter of the corner shop.
He's been waiting down there, waiting half the day,
they never ever see him from the top.
He gets pushed around, knocked to the ground.
He gets to his feet and he says...
You might know the next line... "What about me? It isn't fair. I've had enough, now I want my share can't you see, I wanna live. But you just take more than you give. What about me?" It's a song about fairness.
And in the shower you can really hit that line what about me as you think about all the times you've been ripped off, mistreated. And you sing, "It isn't fair. What about me?" It's not fair. Fairness is something that matters to us. We're passionate about fairness Especially as Aussies. We care about fairness. It's an Aussie saying isn't it? We say give us a Fair Go! We want a fair go. Fairness is important to us.
Of course we face our own personal issues of fairness wherever we are. You know the whole "me first", "not fair, he pushed me", "it was his turn last time". And it's not just at the office, it's everywhere, isn't it? We want fairness at home, in the classroom, on the road, in the family. Have a listen to talk back radio and you'll hear the latest live issue, and I guarantee you, it'll be about fairness. Should the people who were accidentally paid an extra $600 per child in parenting payment give the money back to the government? Should politicians get a higher rate of Superannuation than other workers? And the one that gets me going - Is it fair that some people get three thousand bucks from the government just because they have a baby after the 30th of June? Not mentioning any names of course. What about me? It isn't fair.
There's something in us that craves justice, that craves fairness, and despairs when we don't get it. It's hard enough to find ourselves in situations where we've been treated unfairly and we say what about me. But what about when we consider how God treats us? Does God treat us fairly? How do we cope with the idea that somehow God, might not be fair? See that's the issue Jesus is raising in this section of Matthew's gospel.
Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem. He's been teaching about the new order in the Kingdom of Heaven. In chapter 19 just before what was just read out - Jesus has been talking about different order in the Kingdom. Some children have just come to Jesus and while the disciples try to hold them back (disciples think the children aren't worthy to come to Jesus) Jesus says no - let them come. Let them come. The Kingdom belongs to such as these. Next a wealthy man comes to Jesus, no problem with the disciples letting him come, he's important. He's a rich man. He's an upright man. Yet he goes away sad. Not a part of the Kingdom. Jesus is turning their world upside down. Disciples say to Jesus, "Who then can be saved?" Starting to despair. And Jesus comes out with this statement: "Many who are first will be last and the last, first". People they thought would be last - are first. And the first are last.
It's worth asking the question - is it fair? That you do your best to do well. To achieve something. You work hard. You do your best to get ahead in this life. Is it fair that in the Kingdom of Heaven all that counts for nothing - that in some sense I am last. While someone else whose achievements are among the last - God makes them first! Is that fair? Surely the Kingdom of heaven can't be like that - just doesn't sound fair. And, really, if we expect fairness from anybody, We expect it from God.
And its into this context that Jesus tells the parable we're going to look at today.
This parable Jesus tells is about winners who will be losers, and losers who'll be winners. We see there in verse 1. An ordinary scene. A normal working day. Early start. Sunrise. 6am. Something like that. 10 am if you're at Uni.
A landowner goes out and hires some workers to go out into his vineyard. Makes an agreement with them. He'll pay the going rate for a day's wage. He sends them into the field to work.
Verse 3 he goes back to the market at the 3rd hour - nine o'clock - hires some other blokes who are standing around -verse 4 says, whatever is right I'll pay you.
If you scan your eye down the page you'll see he does the same again at the sixth hour, and the ninth, and lastly at the eleventh hour.
This starts out like your ordinary scene, a man hiring some workers. But as you go along, it starts to get strange. You start to ask questions - what's going on here? Did he miscalculate the job, at the start? Didn't he get enough workers at the beginning? Were the earlier workers just slack?
As the story starts to get unusual it should alert us to the point Jesus is trying to make. What's going on? Why would the owner bother getting more workers at the eleventh hour? See their literal eleventh hour is our metaphorical one. It's the last minute. It's right at the death, that he hires the last workers. An hour to go, if it's a twelve hour day. Why would he do that? It doesn't make sense. That's not normal. They don't even seem to be good workers - end of verse 6 - he says why do you stand here idle all day? Their answer tells us a lot - nobody will hire us. These are the guys always hired last - lucky to get work at all. Even for an hour.
But they're hired, and for what it's worth sent out into the field. Pretty strange, but that's not the end, there's more to come.
Have a look at what happens next. It's knock off time. Sunset. Down tools. Time to pay the workers. And the owner tells his foreman - the ones I hired last, pay them first. There in verse 8
Matthew 20:8 "Call the workers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last ones hired and going on to the first."
Remember these were the no hopers, the ones hired at the eleventh hour. Who've barely worked up a sweat, now they're paid first. Bit strange. But not as strange as how much they get paid. See it says there in verse 9 that they each receive a denarius. Now, means nothing to us, but it means a whole lot to the guys who were hired first. Because a denarius is a whole day's wage. That's how much the first guys agreed to work for. For the whole day.
So you'd have to say its looking pretty good for the workers hired first. If the hopeless layabouts who got dragged in for the last little bit of the day got a whole day's wage. What are they going to get? They're pretty hopeful. They should get heaps more. Says there in verse 10 if you have a look.
Matthew 20:10 "So when those came who were hired first, they expected to receive more."
Of course they did. They're wringing their hands. This is an unexpected bonus for them. They're already thinking about what they're going to spend the extra money on. Now I don't know what they'd spend it on back then - no big screen TV's, Playstation, new toga, set of mags for the chariot. Whatever, but as far as they're concerned, it's money in the bank. And they deserve it. They've worked hard. Much harder than those other guys. As we keep reading in verse 10 here's the big shock in the story. Verse 10.
Matthew 20:10 "They expected to receive more. But each one of them also received a denarius."
A denarius! Got up before sunrise. Worked all day. Through the middle of the day in the heat. Paid last. And got the same as the bludgers hired with an hour to go. How would you feel? Have a look in verse 11 at their response. They're not happy.
Matthew 20:11 "When they received it, they began to grumble against the landowner."
Keep reading verse 12
Matthew 20:12 'These men who were hired last worked only one hour,' they said, 'and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day.'
This what they're saying. We're good workers. High achievers. Hired first. Worked harder, worked longer. Worked better. Yet you pay us last, you pay us the same as them, it isn't fair. In other words - what about me? I've had enough - I want my share. You know what they'll be singing in the shower tonight - what about me! It isn't fair.
So they grumble against the owner. They're filthy. And can you blame them. Imagine someone who does 50 hours work a week, stumbles across a payslip. Discovers that the cleaner who does 1 hour a week gets paid the same. You'd be grumbling too. So would I. It just doesn't seem fair. You'd call the Equal Opportunity Commission. So the workers bring their grievance to the owner.
But his response points out the real reason they're upset. And it's not because the owner's been unfair. It's not because they've been ripped off. After all, they got exactly what they agreed to work for. A denarius, a days wage. That's what they agreed, and that's what they got paid. It's because he's been generous to the others that they're really upset. Have a look from verse 13.
But he answered one of them, 'Friend, I am not being unfair to you. Didn't you agree to work for a denarius? 14 Take your pay and go. I want to give the man who was hired last the same as I gave you. 15 Don't I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?
What they're upset about is that the landowner wasn't generous to them. So it's unfair. They want to dictate to the landowner who he should be generous to. And in their humble opinion its them! That's why they're upset. Not that they didn't get what was fair, but that the others got more than what they deserved. This is the basis for their argument. "We did more work than the others, so we get more." That's how it works. It's a logic we understand. That's what's fair. And if we're honest we're sympathetic for the first hired workers. If I was going to give out bonuses it'd be to my hardest workers, I'd dish it out on the basis of performance, reliability, best work. That's how it works, doesn't it? Employee of the month gets a bonus. Usually something pretty cheap like, you know a single movie ticket - go by yourself. Actually my mother and she's here today was working in a call centre when she was about 50 I think, and they had this incentive program where you'd be rated each month and they'd call you into the office and tell you what galaxial rating you'd achieved. One day mum got home and said 'I'm a supernova!!'
But this is the big point of the parable and we need to see it. For the owner it's not a matter of fairness to those who deserve it. It's a matter of generosity to those who don't. Generosity is not fair. By nature. It can't be. It's not to be judged by the rules of fairness. This is a gift given for services that haven't been rendered. Real generosity is never deserved. It's not fair. That is, not fair to those who receive it. They don't deserve it.
That's the point of the parable. Its about the landowner's generosity. He's generous to those who don't deserve it.
And Jesus says this is what the Kingdom of Heaven is like. The owner - its pretty obvious - the landowner he's talking about is God. And he will be generous to those who you'd never expect. To the ones who don't deserve it. That's the gospel in a nutshell. God's generosity to those who don't deserve it. Where the last are first and the first last. And that is hard for us to understand. Because we live in a world where the first are first. The strongest, the richest, the best are first.
The first in the Kingdom of Heaven are the ones to whom God gives out of his sheer generosity. Who receive an undeserved gift. And who are the last? They're the ones who think they can dictate to God how he should act. Who he should be generous to. Who demand fairness. Problem is, demanding fairness from God means getting what we deserve. And the Bible's clear - what we deserve from God is rejection. Because we are sinful people. People who have rejected God. Our wages - if we want to insist on fairness - according to Romans 6.23, is death. But that's only Romans 6.23a; 6.23b says this - "But the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." See, we don't need fairness from God. We don't need the wages we deserve. We need grace. The workers who were employed at the eleventh hour understood. They received what they didn't deserve. It's the last who are grateful.
The complainers are the ones who thought they were first. Who measured themselves by their achievements. That's why it's hard for the rich to enter the Kingdom of Heaven - hard for the powerful, the winners of this world. It's hard for those who are ahead in this world to accept being ahead counts for nothing in the Kingdom of Heaven.
The parable is about God's gift of forgiveness. And it's only good news to those not obsessed with coming first - it's only good for losers. Now that's a hard message to swallow. And Jesus wants to make sure his disciples understand. So he pulls them aside. There in verse 17. And he reminds them where they are going. They're going to Jerusalem. Where Jesus himself. The King in the Kingdom of Heaven will come last. Jesus who had a great mind. Whose intellect and teaching has shaped the history of the world. Imagine what he could have achieved - He could have gone on to become an even greater teacher - he could have become a great political leader and overthrown the Roman Empire. Could have been a great healer.
But he goes to Jerusalem. To be betrayed by followers. Tried for blasphemy - sentenced, mocked, executed as a common criminal - have you seen a greater loser? Have you ever seen such unfairness? The innocent Son of God punished. Even Pilate when he condemns Jesus to die washes his hands in front of the people and says this man is innocent. He's the only one who is. He's the only one who's not guilty of sin. It's us who've rejected God. Who deserve this punishment. Yet he's punished. It's not fair. No, it's grace. He was punished so that we who are guilty might be pardoned. This is God's generosity. We're told in 2 Corinthians,
21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
See, the one who is first made himself last so we might not be treated fairly, but so we might be treated graciously. That we might not receive what we deserve - that is, punishment and judgement. That would be fair. The question I think Jesus is challenging us with in this parable is pretty simple. Where do you want to be when it comes to the Kingdom of Heaven? Do you want to be first, or last? Do you want God's gracious gift of eternal life, or will you demand fairness from God? While we come to God thinking we deserve something, Jesus is saying we'll go away disappointed. It's only when we come knowing that we have nothing to offer that we'll receive God's gracious gift of life. Knowing that we're more like the guys hired at the eleventh hour than the first. Trusting in what Jesus has done for us.
Maurie asked Cathy and I to promise earlier during Liam's baptism to teach Liam about the Lord Jesus. So that one day he would come to know him as his own Lord and Saviour. I've got mixed feelings about that. Because I want Liam to succeed. I want him to do well. It's only natural. See, following Jesus will mean coming last in some sense. His peers will mock him, he may be persecuted. It will mean sacrifice. It will mean instead of clamouring to the top to be first in this life, following the one who came last. And being like him. That's the dilemma. And that's Jesus' challenge. What do you want? For yourself? For others? Do you want to be first here? Or in heaven? You can't have it both ways.