Grumbling over Grace

Matthew 20:1-16

Welcome! Today we continue our series on parables, looking at a parable from Matthew that I suspect on some level makes us all uncomfortable. Most translations of the Bible, in order to make things easier to find, add headings or titles to sections of Scripture. It is important to remember that these headings are not part of the Scriptures themselves; they are additions made by the editor of the particular translation. Our passage today is Matthew 20:1-16, and the heading in the NIV is “The Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard,” but I prefer a title more like “The Parable of the Unconventional Landowner.” 

When a landowner, or more generally, a business owner, is unconventional in a good way, especially when it is obvious how much he cares for his workers or clients, we take note, because this is, generally speaking, a rare thing. I think of the classic movie as It’s a Wonderful Life an example. George Bailey, the central character, was the epitome of a generous and selfless man. Although George as a young man had big plans to go to college and build a career away from his home town, a series of circumstances leads George to forgo these and other plans in order to help his brother and to save his father’s business, a bank. Although it is not his desire, George eventually takes over the bank and starts a housing project, and there he is generous, kind, and merciful to his clients and tenants, so much so that when George himself ends up in a severe financial and legal bind as a result of his uncle’s carelessness, the entire town comes together to cover his financial needs. 

We can dismiss such stories as fiction, but sometimes you see things something like this in real life. For example, there is a chain of supermarkets in Massachusetts and neighboring states called Market Basket. Market Basket is a family owned and run business consisting of many grocery stores started in the early 1900s by Greek immigrants. Eventually a son, also named George, took over the business, and under George it had a good reputation among its workers and its shoppers; for example, it accepted credit even during the Great Depression. In 1971, George died of a heart attack, and this began an unending series of lawsuits between the children about who really was supposed to have the business. 

Between lawsuits and changing alliances on the board, control went from family member to family member until, in 2008, the board named Arthur T. as CEO. Arthur T. seemed like George Bailey in many ways. People spoke of how he remembered the names of hundreds of employees (which he called his associates), and he remembered their birthdays and milestones. He personally checked in on ill employees, attended funerals, kept up with spouses and children, and in general was loved by his employees. He also treated them well financially and socially – giving them steady schedules, paying them well above what other supermarkets pay, providing generous benefits, and even enabling every employee to participate in a profit sharing plan once they had worked there long enough. Because of this, he had tremendous employee loyalty, and a lack of turnover enabled him to keep prices significantly lower than the competition even though he paid his employees better than they paid theirs. 

But family members wanted to control the company for themselves, to make more money (even though the business was quite profitable), and in 2014, a key member of the board switched sides, leading to the dismissal of Arthur T. and several key executives loyal to him. What happened next was as astounding as how the whole town came to George Bailey’s aid in It’s a Wonderful Life. Employees went on strike! They made T-shirts and signs explaining their love of Arthur T. and encouraged people not to shop at Market Basket. The local news media of course ate this up. The strikers were remarkably effective, costing the stores millions of dollars per day, and eventually the owners agreed to sell the entire company to Arthur T.   Arthur remains in charge today, continuing the practices that made his “associates” love him in the first place. 

We love good guys! So what is remarkable to me is the fact that today’s parable causes most people to have mixed feelings about the business owner in the story. We’ll get into the parable in a minute, but first let me give the context.

In Matthew 19, a man came up to Jesus asked Him what he must do to get eternal life. Jesus told him to keep the commandments. He inquired which ones, Jesus gave him six of the ten commandments, and the man said he had kept those and asked what he still lacked (if anything, we presume he meant). Jesus told him that if he wanted to be perfect, to give all his possessions and give to the poor, and then follow Him. But the man went away sad, Scripture says, because he had great wealth.

Jesus then told His disciples how it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God; in fact, He said, it was easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle.  The astonished disciples then asked who could be saved, and Jesus said with man it was impossible, but with God all things are possible. Peter then said they had left everything to follow Him, and Jesus promised those who followed Him would sit on thrones. And He promised that anyone who had left houses or fields or loved ones for His sake would receive 100 times as much and inherit eternal life. But then he said something curious: “But many who are first will be last, and those who are last will be first.” To explain this cryptic saying, he launched into the parable we look at today:  

“For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard. He agreed to pay them a denarius for the day and sent them into his vineyard. – Matt. 20:1-2

We tend to gloss over the word “kingdom,” but when Jesus used it, and He used it often, it was a provocative term, especially used in an occupied region inside the Roman Empire. Yes it referred to a future age in which Christ/God would reign, but to Roman and even Jewish ears it was a politically threatening term meant as an immediate contrast to current conditions. Romans saw it as a threat to the Roman Empire, and Jews saw it as a threat to their political and religious power. 

So what is this alternate kingdom like? Jesus says it is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard. There would have been a location these workers knew to go to, and the employers would come out there, look out among them, and point to one and then another and another, choosing the healthiest, strongest-looking ones from the bunch. 

Growing up in southern California, I often saw a nearly identical situation in certain parts of town. A most common location was under a highway overpass, in part because it was shaded from the sun, but also because the people would be hired to work on farms out of the city and the highway was the most direct way to get there. These people were almost exclusively illegal aliens from Mexico. They had a certain look about them, I think because the people in so many cars would stare at them as they drove by, and everyone knew they were here illegally. 

Anyway, something similar was going on here in this parable. Both the employers and the workers knew where to go, and so an employer, either a landowner (probably less common), or a hired or slave manager (probably more common), would go there and pick people out from the group. To go early meant you would have the best to choose from, and you could also work them longer. 

Commentators disagree about the value of a denarius. Everyone agrees it represented a day’s wage, but some say it was like a minimum wage whereas others say it was a nice sum, equal to what a Roman soldier would receive in a day. Both are right in that denarius can have either meaning, but ultimately the true value is not that important. The important thing is that day laborers were poor people dependent on whatever they could get to literally get them through the day. 

In many ways, day laborers had it worse than slaves, because they would go hungry if no one hired them, and they became unemployable if they were injured or sick. In contrast, a slave owner had already invested a lot into their slaves, and so it was in their interest to keep them fed and healthy, and to let them rest so they could heal from injuries.

This landowner needed day laborers for his vineyard.  Note that the laborers were told in advance what their pay would be. Almost certainly they were also told the nature of the job. Working in a vineyard was generally strenuous work, whether the task at hand was planting, maintaining or harvesting. So the laborers knew what they were getting into and knew what they would be paid. Again, because of their poverty, they weren’t likely able to pick and choose between jobs.

“About nine in the morning he went out and saw others standing in the marketplace doing nothing. He told them, ‘You also go and work in my vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.’ So they went. – Matt. 20:3-5a

So now it is about 3 hours later, and the landowner again goes to the marketplace. Now when it says he some them doing nothing, what it means is that it was clear they were day laborers who had not been picked up that day for work; that is, they were unemployed but seeking work. This time he doesn’t tell them exactly what they will be paid, but only that they will be paid what is “right.” This is good enough for these workers. Understand that there were probably reasons they weren’t picked early in the morning, whether by this employer or by any other – maybe they didn’t look as strong, maybe too skinny or too overweight, or maybe too young or too old – in any case, they had probably resigned themselves to going hungry that day and were happy to find a job at all. 

“He went out again about noon and about three in the afternoon and did the same thing. About five in the afternoon he went out and found still others standing around. He asked them, ‘Why have you been standing here all day long doing nothing?’ ‘Because no one has hired us,’ they answered. He said to them, ‘You also go and work in my vineyard.’ – Matt. 20:5b-7

Two more times the landowner comes back to the marketplace. Each time we would expect the “quality” of the workers to go down. For someone in New Testament times listening in, this story is getting very curious. Why bother to hire someone so late in the day? Why bother with such poor quality workers? 

When the landowner does it again at 5 o’clock, Jesus’ listeners probably thought “You’ve got to be kidding.” By the time you get them to the job site (remember you probably have to walk, certainly not take a car), you might only get an hour’s worth of work out of them, at most two. Possibly these people were normally beggars, unable to work because of poor health or other reasons. Possibly they only got work when there was such high demand in the morning that every single available person was hired. 

So now we have the vineyard full of workers, hired at five different times, likely of increasingly less ability to work, but all now working. 

“When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Call the workers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last ones hired and going on to the first.’ – Matt. 29:8

Now paying them at the end of the day would have made perfect sense to Jesus’ listeners, because this was required by Old Testament law: 

Do not take advantage of a hired worker who is poor and needy, whether that worker is a fellow Israelite or a foreigner residing in one of your towns. Pay them their wages each day before sunset, because they are poor and are counting on it. Otherwise they may cry to the Lord against you, and you will be guilty of sin. – Deut. 24:14-15

This is also stated in Leviticus:

Do not hold back the wages of a hired worker overnight. – Lev. 19:13b

But the paying the last workers first probably seemed odd to Jesus’ listeners. Perhaps they remembered what Jesus said about the last being first and the first being last, and thought this was somehow the point of the parable. But no, the main point of the parable was yet to come. 

“The workers who were hired about five in the afternoon came and each received a denarius. So when those came who were hired first, they expected to receive more. – Matt. 20:9-10a

Now when the group that hardly worked received a whole denarius, that would have shocked the others groups. “Wow, this guy is really generous,” they would have thought. They probably were running the math: pay of about 1 denarius an hour. The first workers probably worked about 12 hours, so they thought they might actually be paid 12 denarii! That would be fantastic – 12 days’ wage for one day’s work! 

But each one of them also received a denarius. When they received it, they began to grumble against the landowner. ‘These 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.’ – Matt. 20:10b-12

So suddenly their dreams of 12 denarii turned into the reality of one lonely denarius. How did they respond? Like the Israelites of old under Moses: by grumbling. What was their complaint? In effect, “That’s not fair!” 

It’s fascinating how important fairness is to us, isn’t it? Actually, when children are really young, there is no concept of fairness – as far as they are concerned, the entire world belongs to them, and everyone exists to serve them; they are king. But when they get a little older, their parents teach them the concepts of sharing and fairness. This is generally not received well – after all, it is quite a letdown to realize the whole world doesn’t serve you after all. So the next thought the young child has – and this isn’t taught to them; they figure this out themselves – is that if I have to share, then so does everyone else! If a cookie is to be divided into two, then the other person’s cookie cannot be one microgram more than mine! (If mine is a little bigger, that’s OK, because it’s just rounding error.) 

But this isn’t just how toddlers think, is it? It’s how we all think. We all get bugged when people cut in front of us in line. If we pay taxes, we are all bugged to think that there are others who owe taxes, don’t pay them, and don’t get caught. As a professor, I can tell you that the single biggest complaint a professor can ever get is that he or she has been unfair in grading. This is the unforgivable sin of our profession. And so these workers who have been there all day are more than bugged – they are angry enough to mutter their complaints knowing that the employer may hear – but they don’t really care. Notice too that they aren’t just upset about the duration of work, but also the conditions. Those who came at 5 pm didn’t have the sun beating down on their heads; they got to work in the shade! If you have done hard physical labor in the summer, you know how huge a difference this can make. 

So what do you think? How would you feel if you were one of those 6 a.m. workers? I will confess to you that I would be bothered too. It just doesn’t seem right. It’s not, well, fair. Wait – this is a parable about the kingdom of God? Does this mean God’s not fair? What exactly is this kingdom going to be like, then? Isn’t this a valid question?

“But he answered one of them, ‘I am not being unfair to you, friend. Didn’t you agree to work for a denarius? Take your pay and go. I want to give the one who was hired last the same as I gave you. Don’t I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?’ – Matt. 20:13-15

Did they agree to work for a denarius? Yes! This was exactly what they agreed to. It is amazing how we choose to forget when it is beneficial to us. Our sense of “unfair!” obliterates our sense of honoring our own agreements. This parable is very true to life. 

Did the landowner have the right to give to the one who was hired last the same pay? Yes. What is going on is that he is being generous. Do people have the right to be generous? These days, I’m not sure that our culture as a whole would say yes. We Americans have an extremely strong sense of entitlement, we are extremely pushy in our demand for fairness, so much so that much of the world sees us as rude, demanding, pushy people. 

Was the landowner wrong to do this? Wouldn’t it have been a lot simpler if he had just given each person a portion of a denarius that corresponded to how much they actually worked? It would have been simpler, yes, but what he did was kinder. He knew these were poor people. He knew that the ones he hired late in the day had the greatest disadvantages in finding work. He knew that, because of this, they had the greatest financial need. It was his compassion that motivated him to greatly overpay them for the little work they did. This was a good act! This was the kind of thing a George Bailey would do.  

Let’s talk about what the workers who worked all day did wrong. The first thing they did wrong was to compare themselves with others. If you constantly compare yourself to others you will be consumed by the internal cry of unfairness and become unable to see or accept grace. Comparing yourselves to others only leads to pride if you think you are better than them or depression if you think you are worse. Don’t do it!

The second thing they did wrong was set unfounded expectations. Their expectations of higher pay were unfounded because they had already been told exactly what they would be paid. We do this too, all the time. We set unfounded expectations on the quality of our lives. We expect our lives to be pain-free and trial-free. This is unfounded because Jesus promises us that in this world we will have … trouble (John 16:33). But, He says, take heart, because who has overcome the world? Not us, but Jesus. We shouldn’t expect only gloom and doom, like Eeyore, but we should expect good days and bad. Our attitude should be that every day is a new gift, and that there is joy to be found in that day, if we draw near to Christ, and find our joy in Him rather than to look for it in our circumstances.

The third thing they did wrong was grumble. Now you might argue that their grumbling was just a natural response to their comparing themselves to the others and setting unfounded expectations. Those things certainly contributed to it, but I think grumbling makes it worse. Grumbling causes us to dwell on our negative thoughts, and it also causes our negative thoughts to become contagious. I Corinthians 10:10 starts with “Do not grumble…” you cannot be much clearer than that. I Corinthians 10 also shows the consequences of grumbling on the Israelites. It’s quite clear that God was quite displeased with their grumbling. Within grumbling I would include complaining, even the kind of complaining that some people might call witty cynicism. From what I see, students both at college and in high school do this so much that most don’t even realize that they are doing it. It’s just seen as being funny, or even just the thing you do to stay popular. People who are actually encouraged about school and talk about their excitement are seen as about as uncool as you can get. I used to do this all the time myself. When you do this all the time, it actually affects the muscles around your mouth – you tighten something in your jaw. I wouldn’t be surprised that over time it creates frown lines that you are stuck with for the rest of your life – but I’m no doctor, so don’t quote me on that. All I know is that when I am in that grumbling mode, I can feel it. Don’t do it. 

What would the mature thing be for the workers who worked all day to do? It would be to graciously accept their pay, and to “rejoice with those who rejoice,” Romans 12:15. It would be to praise the landowner for his good and kind heart. It would be to become friends with those who were more unfortunate, who got work less often, and even share their food (meager though it might be) with them. This is what the kingdom is like, God’s kingdom, the kingdom of heaven, the kingdom we are a part of now and the kingdom that we will go to forever. This is how we should be, loving God and loving our neighbors as ourselves. We should rejoice because we have a good king, and because He is kind, because He is merciful, He is not always “fair.” 

Fairness is about what we deserve. We honestly don’t want to go there – to talk about what we really “deserve” from God. Grace is about God’s giving to those who don’t deserve it. The truth is that we are not the guys hired at 6 am; we were hired at 5:59 pm, and work stopped at 6. We don’t deserve anything at all, and yet Christ has paid us with His own blood, so that we can forever eat at the King’s table. We haven’t been paid a denarius; we have been paid more than all of the riches of this entire world. That is what our King is like, and we should praise Him.

I do have one additional application of this parable, and that is to serve the Lord as you can. You may be one of those laborers who gets picked first thing in the morning because you have various gifts and can work all day, or you may be one of those laborers who is picked last and can only work a little – no matter, God appreciates you equally, just as in the parable the two workers are paid equally. Don’t feel bad that you can’t do what others do – only be faithful to pray to be used and then to do what the Lord shows you to do. Along these lines, let me quote from Spurgeon:

“My last word to God's children is this: what does it matter, after all, whether we are first or whether we are last? Do not let us dwell too much upon it, for we all share the honor given to each. When we are converted, we become members of Christ's living body; and as we grow in grace, and get the true spirit that permeates that body, we shall say, when any member of it is honored, ‘This is honor for us.’ If any brother shall be greatly honored of God, I feel honored in his honor. If God shall bless your brother, and make him ten times more useful than you are, then you see that He is blessing you—not only blessing him, but you. If my hand has something in it, my foot does not say, ‘Oh, I have not got it!’ No, for if my hand has it, my foot has it; it belongs to the whole of my body. If my mouth alone eats, yet it does not eat for my mouth alone; but it eats for my brain, my hand, my backbone, for every part of me. So, when you get to feel your oneness with Christ, and your oneness with His people, your only thought will be, ‘Let God be glorified; let Him be magnified. It does not matter whether I am first or last.’ You will stand up and say, ‘That brother, who was converted only a week or two ago, got his penny, and I am glad of it.’ Here is another, who has done very poor work; but you will thank God that he has got his penny. He is one of the family. It all comes from the same hand, and it will all come home to the same house. We are something like men in a great shop, where there are different people serving. One young man has a counter where ladies come, and he serves them, and he takes a lot of money in the day; another counterman, at the back, sells goods that take a deal of trouble to dispose of, and upon which there is but a trifling profit. Does the master praise the men of the shop according to the quantity of money each takes? The one who is put in the back place, and sells poor goods, is just as diligent and just as worthy in his master's sight as the others. Suppose that they are all members of one family, when they meet at night, one will say, ‘I took so much.’ Another will say, ‘I took ten times as much as that;’ but they are all glad, because it all goes into the firm; it is all a part of the same concern. Go then, dear brothers and sisters, and work away for Christ, and do not envy one another, but all be glad to be permitted, in this work of grace, to take any part or any portion for your Lord.”--Charles Spurgeon

“So the last will be first, and the first will be last.” – Matt. 20:16

Hallelujah!