e184 When I amJealous of a Just God (parable of the workers in the vineyard)

This is Faith to Witness 99, motivating us to hear God and share the Shepherd. 

Season 3 e184.  When I am Jealous of a Just God (parable of the workers in the vineyard)

Here’s the gist, human. When Jesus takes the time to tell a story, he stops the general conversation to focus on an element that teaches us more about following him. When Jesus pauses to share a parable, does his pause hold something more than a little moral weight, does his focus transcend our finite understanding of, let’s say, an attribute like “justice”? Does his nature overtake our nature through his metaphorical story? Does what appears to be a simple lesson become a powerful principle that runs through our bones? An enduring principle that prompts us to spiritually grow through his nature?

I’m Kathryn Bise, your host.

A vineyard in ancient Biblical times was a common metaphor. A vineyard symbolizes  Israel through God’s covenant relationship with His people. 

A vineyard in ancient Biblical times was a common workplace scenario. Many laborers worked in them, preparing the earth, stomping grapes, watering the vines, harvesting the grapes in the steamy heat of Israel’s summers.

A vineyard in ancient Biblical times became the spiritual dwelling of redemption and rebirth. 

John 15:1-4

The Vine and the Branches

15 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. 2 He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. 3 You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. 4 Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.

God’s Justice in the Vineyard

Jesus stopped and took the time to tell his followers the parable of the workers in the vineyard. Yes, it is about God’s grace for everyone, and the kingdom premise that “the last will be first.” It starts with Jesus saying “the kingdom of heaven is like…”

Yet this parable also reflects the confluence of the generous, yet just heart of Jesus (the landlord) versus the prideful posture of men (us): an early morning wage negotiation; a divine wage of “what is right”; and, the just payout of a sovereign God.

Matthew 20:1-2

The Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard

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

These early rising workers were not strangers to following the law, and the exacting Roman measure of wages paid for a day’s work. One denarius for a day’s work was considered fair pay. The workers believed they had been treated justly. So they entered the vineyard and began to work. 

Justice Through a Divine Wage

Matthew 20:3-7

3 “About nine in the morning he went out and saw others standing in the marketplace doing nothing. 4 He told them, ‘You also go and work in my vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.’ 5 So they went.

“He went out again about noon and about three in the afternoon and did the same thing. 6 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?’

7 “‘Because no one has hired us,’ they answered.

“He said to them, ‘You also go and work in my vineyard.’

So at 9:00am, the landlord tells the workers he will pay them “whatever is right” and they agreed. Not a specific amount, but a wage that is just. He did the same at noon, and 3:00pm. At 5:00pm he asks those standing around why they weren’t working. And he immediately met the need before him. It would be easy to assume that the agreement was on a wage of one denarius since this was a standard fair wage. But this also speaks to the sovereignty of a God who approaches us as a just God. We are called to trust how he will define “whatever is right” and that the wage will be right for all the workers that join the early morning crew throughout the day.

A Just Payout of Our Sovereign God

Let’s continue.

Matthew 20:8-16

8 “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.’

9 “The workers who were hired about five in the afternoon came and each received a denarius. 10 So when those came who were hired first, they expected to receive more. But each one of them also received a denarius. 11 When they received it, they began to grumble against the landowner. 12 ‘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.’

13 “But he answered one of them, ‘I am not being unfair to you, friend. Didn’t you agree to work for a denarius? 14 Take your pay and go. I want to give the one 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?’

16 “So the last will be first, and the first will be last.”

So the moment comes when the early workers complained to the landlord, saying, “You have made them equal to us.” The landlord quickly returned to that early negotiation when he had dealt with them one on one. They are not the judge of all workers. They each have their own right to agree to the relationship with the landlord, or not. For that day.

We learn a lot about whose decision the wages are. And divinely so with our Lord. Because when the workers tried to apply their own rationale based on the law they lived by, and the logic of the Roman work place, they were immediately separated from their assumption.

What separated them? The sovereignty of God. A recognition of who determines what is fair, and who alone is sovereign. But as important, is the point Jesus makes about generosity. 

Through the landowner Jesus is teaching how we become discerning about our motives. First, he appeals to justice with verse 15, “Don’t I have right to do what I want with my own money” but then he goes deeper, that this landlord has the power to be however generous he wants.  

Being generous was not new. It runs throughout God’s story in the Old Testament. The Israelites were very familiar with generosity. Consider this.

Leviticus 19:10 

“Do not go over your vineyard a second time or pick up the grapes that have fallen. Leave them for the poor and the foreigner. I am the Lord your God.”

Our efforts should benefit others beyond our own immediate needs. 

We serve a greater good through a God who gives. Generosity is not new. It’s just hard for our flesh.

When We are Jealous of Our Just God

It is easy for me to grasp being jealous of God. My pride does this all the time. When I try to take the reins. Get sassy in my own self-interest. But he is sovereign, and only his nature is just.

We do not have the power to define and administer a fair wage or reward others. Justice belongs to Jesus, if indeed he is Lord of our lives. Divine wage belongs to him. (The wage we all deserve for sin is death – Romans 6:23)

Generosity belongs to him. 

Because he is the vine. 

Yet our prideful flesh grooms us to seek an earthly advantage that puts us in the place of the landowner. Like those early morning workers once they saw his relationship to others. They challenged him. It’s so telling that the landlord inquires if they are envious of his generosity, of his power to decide the wage for each of the workers. 

This parable illustrates laying down our perceived advantage, the central premise of the book I am working on. Jesus laid down his divine advantage when he came to earth. We follow him. So until we realize, and accept that we do not own any land, that we are not the landowner, our pride will jump into the earthly fight for temporary justice—a better wage for our earthly grind.

We must leave our earthly advantage behind for a personal relationship with our Savior, our Lord, a relationship that requires us to yield justice to him. It is not ours to compare the value of what he gives us to the value of what he gives someone else. Justice is not ours to commandeer.

We seek justice through his nature, his generosity of Spirit. We look for opportunities to lay down our advantage. Toil, sweat and work when we rise in early morning and go to our field to work for him. He pays us a fair spiritual wage, “whatever is right”, because he has purposed our day in his vineyard. 

Early morning. 9:00am. Noon. 3pm. 5:00pm.