“Questioning God’s Generosity”
Matthew 20:1–16
Jonah 3:10–4:11
The
Gospel lesson this morning begins in a way that begs for context. Did Jesus simply start talking about the
Kingdom of Heaven for no reason? You
have to understand that the verses and paragraphs and chapters in our
scriptures are completely artificial.
They don’t appear in the original text, and sometimes in our anxiety to
make the words of scripture appear syntactically correct, we manage to screw up
the flow of the narrative.
Just
prior to this parable of the Kingdom, Jesus has had the conversation with the
rich young man who was despondent when Jesus suggested to him that he needed to
sell all his possessions and give the money away if he would like to fully
complete his righteousness and enter the kingdom. We talk about that encounter a good deal, but
we tend to overlook the fact that it is Jesus own disciples who are every bit
as astonished by this as is the young man.
In fact, it’s at this point that Peter – we can always count on Peter –
steps up to Jesus and essentially says:
“Look! We’ve already given up
everything to follow you. What’s in this
for us?”
Then
the very last verse in chapter 19 actually is the first bracket to the story we
read in chapter 20. Chapter 19, verse 30
says: “But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first.” Then
we move into chapter 20: “For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who
went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard.” The parable ends with Jesus repeating
himself: “So the last will be first, and
the first will be last. [20:16]”
To
begin to understand this parable we need to see those brackets: “the last will be first, and the first will
be last.” This parable is composed of
many layers.
Let
me ask you a question? Does the fact
that God has graciously forgiven you and offered you a role in God’s eternal
realm make you happy? Does it satisfy
you? You know you didn’t earn it, but
deep down don’t you really think that somehow you deserve it? After all, you’ve never killed anyone; you’ve
never stolen anything – major; you’ve controlled your greed – reasonably; you
don’t covet a lot – ok, maybe a little; you go to church – sometimes. You know that God’s grace through the loving
sacrifice of Jesus is what allows you into the new creation, but deep down
don’t you think that – just a little bit – you deserve it?
Here’s
the funny thing about thinking that you deserve it – even just a little
bit: you look at some other people and
think they definitely don’t deserve it.
And that little bit of pride and self-righteousness is precisely what’s
going to get you upset with God.
Yes,
you heard me correctly. As long as you
cling to that little bit of self-righteous pride, you – like Jonah – are going
to get upset with God. You’re going to
get upset with God’s love, God’s mercy, and the extravagant nature of God’s
grace.
I
can absolutely guarantee you that God offer’s God’s grace and forgiveness to
people you don’t like. God offer’s God’s
grace and forgiveness to people you don’t like.
Methodists. Baptists. Episcopalians. Through the grace and love of our Lord Jesus
Christ the grace of God is offered to EVERYONE.
Everyone. It’s offered to atheists. It’s offered to Muslims. It’s offered to Buddhists. It’s even offered
to Lutherans, no matter what initials are attached to their churches.
In
Jesus’ parable, the landowner not only called in laborers all the day long, he
went out of his way to make sure that everyone understood his generosity. He could have paid the workers who came the
earliest first, and sent them on their way.
But he didn’t. He instructed his
manager to pay the ones who came last first; to pay all of them in the reverse
order of their arrival. That meant that
the ones who came first assumed that they were going to get even more than they
had been promised because the owner had paid the workers who had only been
there for a little while the amount that had been promised to them for a full
day’s labor. You can imagine that they
got mad; they got jealous; they got indignant!
The
owner asks, “Are you envious?” Once
again I think the English translation robs us of what was really said. The words translated as “envious” are
actually two words referring to having “evil in your eyes.”
Sisters
and brothers, we have been given a share of God’s grace, totally
undeserved. It’s that undeserved nature
of the gift that makes each of us the equal of each other in God’s eyes. The riches of God’s grace, the depths of
God’s love, the breadth of God’s forgiveness are not for us to debate. They are God’s, to dispense as God sees
fit.
If
you’ve accepted God’s grace and love and forgiveness then you have changed your
life. You will know what it means that
all are invited to feast at the Lord’s table as equals. Not first.
Not last. No hierarchy among
us.
There
is good news for you and for me. God’s
love is so encompassing that it includes you and me. In a few minutes we are going to sing “I then
shall live as one who’s been forgiven… so greatly pardoned, I’ll forgive my
brother. I then shall live as one who’s
learned compassion; I’ve been so loved that I’ll risk loving too.”
Jonah
questioned God’s generosity. We need to
be thankful, grateful with the very moments of our lives, that God’s generosity
has been extended to us. But it’s also
extended to people whose identities may shock us.
God
looked down patiently at Jonah and rebuked him for being angry at the
dispensation of God’s grace. God loves
you and me and then sees a little bit of condescension in our eyes (a little
bit of evil in our eyes) and asks: “Am I not allowed to do what I choose with
my love? Is that evil I see in your eye
because I am so generous with my love?”
When
you hear that Jesus turned the order of the world upside down, this is precisely what that
means. “The last will be first, and the
first will be last.” The only thing
that’s important is that even we are offered the chance to be there.
Amen.
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