Grace, mercy, and peace from God our Father in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.
I'd say the height of my youth coaching career probably came with my oldest son as a ten-year-old
playing soccer. For whatever reason, I really enjoyed coaching that age. I didn't know much
about soccer, so I had to retire after that as they needed a coach that knew something.
But ten-year-olds, you can get away with not knowing everything. But one of the challenge
of ten-year-olds in soccer is that the referees assigned to ref ten-year-old soccer matches
tend to be young teens. Tend to be young teens with other things on their mind than actually
refereeing the soccer match, and inevitably they would make multiple bad calls. If you know anything
about ten-year-olds, they have a heightened sense of justice. They quickly pick up on what's not
fair. This proved to be a huge distraction during the games. And so what I would do during practice,
we would scrimmage and I would play the referee and I would purposely make bad call after bad call
after bad call. And we went several weeks with a lot of cries of not fair, not fair, not fair.
But eventually they learned that it wasn't fair and there was nothing they could do about it.
Jesus tells a story that includes some men who make the same cry, not fair.
It's a pretty straightforward story. It's not one of those we scratch our heads and wonder what it
means. We're actually a little bothered because we do know what it means. Early in the morning,
the master goes out and hires workers to work in his vineyard. He comes to an agreement on the
employment terms and they get to work. But then the master throughout the rest of the day, even
up to 5 p.m., continues to hire more workers, telling them to go to work and he'll take care
of them. Of course, the twist comes at the end when the master pays those who worked an hour
the same amount as he agreed to pay those who worked all day. And those all-day workers cry,
not fair. And they have a point. It doesn't seem fair that the guy who only worked an hour
would be paid the same as the guy who worked all day. If the master in the story represents God,
and often in Jesus' parables the master does represent God, it does raise an uncomfortable
question. Is God unfair? Jesus tells this story in response to a question that Peter asked.
Peter says, we have left everything and followed you. What then will we have? Peter's just watched
the rich young ruler decide not to give up everything and not to follow Jesus. As he
watches him walk away, he's beginning to wonder, he gets to keep his wealth. I gave up everything.
Jesus, what's for me? Is this going to be fair? Let's take a closer look at the master and see
what he's like. If, in fact, he is fair or not. Two things immediately stand out about the master.
One is his hiring practices. We understand going and getting workers early in the morning for the
day, perhaps even getting more workers at 9 a.m. as you recognize the work isn't progressing as
quickly as you would like. But he continues, noon, 3, up to 5 p.m. It hardly seems worth the effort
to go to the marketplace to find workers who will work only an hour before the quitting time comes.
But it seems that perhaps the master isn't merely hiring to get work done. He's hiring because there are workers waiting for work. He sees guys standing around. And he wants to know why they are not working. And their answer is very straightforward. No one has hired us. I suspect you can imagine why. Imagine if you went early in the day to choose some workers, who are you going to hire?
Who are you going to choose? I'm choosing the young guys. I'm choosing the strong guys. I'm choosing the guys that look like they're used to working. The guys remaining at 5 p.m., the leftovers, those are the too old, the too out of shape, the too weak, the too unkept, the too smelly.
It's the group that they're used to getting passed over. They're used to falling short, not measuring up, always picked last when the captains pick teams for the kickball game. But this master went and found them in the very last hour. He called them, put them to work.
Like I said, the first guys, he had come to an agreement and said, I'll pay you this much for a day's work. And the later guys, he just told them to get to work, that he would do them right.
The second thing that stands out about this master is obviously his pay scale. He doesn't just give these later workers a tip or a bonus. He pays them an extravagant amount.
Let's assume for a moment that those early workers agree to work for $10 an hour for 12 hours of work, and the math's easy, it's $120 for the day. But then when he pays those guys who worked one hour $120, he's paying them at a rate of $120 an hour.
Imagine the shock and the joy of those guys who barely did anything getting a full day's worth of pay. And since the master pays the last guys hired first, everyone saw what happened.
The rest could have rejoiced with these guys. Instead, they do the math. If the one-hour guys get a full day's worth of pay, imagine what we're getting, we who have worked the whole day.
They work their way to the front of the line for those hired first or paid last. I imagine the foreman counting out the cash, and he gets to $120, and he stops. Just like the guys that worked less.
And so these all-day laborers grumble. They say, these last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat.
They have a scorecard. They've marked every one of their hours, 1, 2, 3, 4, 9, 10, 11, 12. But they also have a scorecard for the other guys. He only worked nine, he worked six. Those guys, they just got one hour. One hour.
It's not fair. The guys that work all day deserve more. They come after the master, scorecard in hand. The master responds, friend, I'm doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius, a day's wages? Take what belongs to you and go.
And notice these all-day laborers weren't cheated. They got exactly what they agreed to. And they didn't have a problem with it until they saw others get more than what they deserved.
It's as if the master is saying, you want to live by a scorecard? Okay. We had a contract, and you'll get exactly what you've earned. And the door.
Well, perhaps you, like me, have worked on far too many group projects in which the group got an A, but you did 90% of the work.
If so, when I point out that the 5 o'clock hires got paid $120 an hour, something in you likely bristled. It seems completely unfair that they would get paid 12 times the rate of the all-day workers.
That's the scorecard mindset. You see it all the time. You know, I observed my 10-year-olds on the soccer field. They never yelled not fair when the bad call went their way.
I suspect many of you watched a football game yesterday, and it's not unusual that fans of each team playing in the same game will conclude the refs were against us.
We note the unfairness when it goes against us, but not when it's for us.
The 60-year-old man who indulges in all the pleasures that the world has to offer, and yet later in life he comes to church, he hears the gospel, he believes.
And the church community surrounds him, giving thanks to God, encouraging him in his new faith.
And though you'd never say it out loud, you might think, well, where's the appreciation for me and others who have served faithfully for decades?
It's the prodigal son's older brother standing outside the party who tells his father, all these years I've served you and you've never thrown me a party.
It's Peter proclaiming, we have left everything. It's the scorecard again and again and again.
The master called the grumbler friend. He says, friend, you begrudge my generosity.
That phrase literally means, is your eye evil because I am good?
That's the problem with the scorecard. Keeping a scorecard makes generosity look evil.
It turns another person's grace into my loss.
Even though the master's generosity didn't cost those scorekeepers anything at all.
The all-day guys went fair. But before we demand fair, let's consider what fair looks like. Is God fair?
Yes. And that's the problem. If you come to God holding up your scorecard, demanding fairness,
he will pay you exactly what you deserve.
But your scorecard tracks your deservedness compared to others.
But God doesn't grade on the curve. He doesn't grade you on how you compare to others. He's not
impressed with your scorecard. He grades based upon his law. It's a law which requires perfect
obedience. And Romans 3 declares that all of us have fallen short. What an apt phrase for the life
we experience of never quite being enough. Romans 6 makes the news even worse. That the wages we
earn from our falling short, the wages of our sin, is death. But in Christ we have one who's
better than fair. He's generous. He keeps the promise he made to those later workers, I'll do you right.
And he does so in a most surprising way. When Peter asked Jesus, we've given up everything.
What do we get? Jesus promises him, you'll get a hundredfold more than you gave up.
But then he gives him a warning. He says, and many who are first will be last in the last first.
Peter don't trust that in being the first to give up all to follow me,
you have a special position. For you may very well experience a great reversal.
For many who are first will be last in the last first. We've already seen that reversal
in the story. The last are paid first. The first are paid last and shown the door.
And now Jesus, having concluded the story, makes the point again, the last will be first
and the first last. That is, in fact, how Jesus deals with the problem of his fairness and us
receiving exactly what we deserve in death. For Jesus goes on and he tells the disciples again
that he's going to Jerusalem and in Jerusalem he will be mocked and flogged and crucified.
The son of God, the king of kings, the preeminent Lord of all,
first in every way makes himself last of all. And last of all, he alone bears the burden of the day
and the scorching heat of God's judgment. Jesus is paid in full the wages that we have earned.
He pays in death and receives the sentence that we have deserved.
Here's the one place we ought to shout not fair. The innocent one receives the judgment.
The guilty receive the reward of life and forgiveness.
It's the thief on the cross, the ultimate 5 p.m. higher, even the 559 p.m. higher for the thief
with his hands nailed to the cross can do no work. And yet Jesus tells him today you will be with me
in paradise for though Jesus has made himself last, the first has become last. In the resurrection,
the last becomes first forever. That Jesus will be exalted above every name and every tongue will
confess that Jesus is Lord. This is the hope for all who are passed over, left behind, not good
enough, always falling short, never picked until last. Jesus has come for you. Jesus has chosen you.
And this is the hope for those still clinging to their scorecards.
Jesus calls you friend in calling you friend. He extends an invitation to you
to put down the scorecard, to leave the contract behind and to live on the promise
that he will take care of you, that more than fair, he's generous. And there's a cross behind it.
The ledger is settled. The invitation is to come into the party, to come celebrate the extravagant
generosity of our God who pours out in abundance his grace for us.
If we'll only put down that scorecard and rejoice in the grace that's been given,
we'll find a new freedom, a new freedom to rejoice with others as they too receive God's
extravagant grace in God's wise timing, being fully assured that he has grace enough for us
as well. And so we turn to him who's more than fair, better than fair. He's abundantly generous.
Amen. Father, forgive us for our scorekeeping.
Forgive us, Lord, for that self-justifying move to lift ourselves up while we push others down,
to judge others while asking for your grace. Lord, you have grace in abundance,
grace beyond grace, grace enough to fill us to overflowing. And Lord, that's what we ask.
Lord, that our hands might be emptied of all scorekeeping, that we might receive what you
desire to give, that we might be filled to the fullness of grace upon grace, that we might
overflow and become your conduit to delivering your grace to others as well. We pray in the
name of Jesus. Amen. I invite you to please rise.