Matthew 20:1-16: That's Not Fair!

"Don't I have the right to do what I want with my own money?

Or are you envious because I am generous?" Matthew 20:15, NIV

This morning we turn our eyes to another parable of our Lord Jesus Christ. The Passion Week is about to begin, but before it does, Christ desires to establish one more fact about his kingdom, and that it this: everyone who enters into the kingdom of God does not deserve to be there.

In our parable for this morning, we find three characters: the master, the early workers, and the late workers. The story starts out like this: the master arises in the morning and hires some workers to work for him in his vineyard. He promises these "early workers" a full denarius, which was a fair price for a full day's labor. The day begins, and the workers start working. Yet three times throughout the day, even towards the very end of the day, the master goes out again to hire more workers for that very same day, telling him that he will pay them what they are due. So these "late workers" start working in the vineyard as well.

At the end of the day, the master decides to pay his servants. Naturally, one would expect that the laborers who had started their work earlier in the day would receive more than the others, but that is not what we see. In fact, each of the laborers, whether early or late, received what the early laborers were promised: a full denarius. In response to this, the early workers were enraged. They thought that they deserved more than the others, but in response to this, the master gently reminded them that he had given them exactly what he had originally promised and that it was his full right to pay the other workers what he willed with his own money. In conclusion, he asked the early workers this: "Are you envious because I am generous?"

Ultimately, this story teaches us a great lesson. First and foremost, this parable shows us that God's kingdom is unlike the kingdoms of this world. In this world, men are given wages because they work to obtain them. They are paid what they are due. Yet in God's economy, let us realize that no one is ultimately due anything. All which God gives us is fully and entirely by his grace and thus is perfectly just for God to bless one with more than another since it is all entirely by grace anyway. Though one of us might "work" for God for his entire life and another one of us come to salvation right before death, we must realize that neither of these men truly deserved that which was given to him, and thus neither of them ought to be envious of the other.

Furthermore, this story encourages us to take our eyes off of ourselves. Oftentimes, when we are "envious" of the Lord's generosity, it is because we think we deserve something from God, as listed above. As we looked at in our last devotional, this simply isn't true. No mortal man deserves anything from God, yet when we think this, we place our eyes solely on ourselves rather than the glory of God. Yet, this is not how God has called us to live our lives. We ought to live for his glory, not ours.

In conclusion, let us thank Christ for all of the marvelous gifts he has given us, though we deserved them not. Ultimately, his greatest gift toward our account is salvation, which he worked for in our stead! Though we could have never obtained salvation on our own account, Christ has done it for us. Amen! Praise the LORD, that he has mercifully granted us full wages for the job that Christ has worked for on our account!