WHAT ARE WE WORKING FOR?
Posted by: bhfbc <bhfbc@...>
WHAT ARE WE WORKING FOR?
September 2, 2007
Text: Matthew 20:1-16
The combination of a devotional lesson about commitment and tomorrows celebration of Labor Day prompts me to think about the significance of work. It seems a bit funny to declare a national holiday - a day off - and call it "labor" day, but the purpose of the recognition is clear. We celebrate our heritage as a people who respect and admire the useful benefits of work and labor, and we celebrate the strides that have been made to help improve the workplace.
Of course, not everyone has a day off. Many people, indeed, labor on Labor Day and other holidays, which further illustrates that work and occupation are important to us. We depend upon work for income and livelihood. We view work as a way of giving meaning to ourselves; of giving us a sense of identity and purpose. A frequently asked question to someone we're meeting for the first time and getting to know is "what do you do?" or "where do you work?" And how that person responds goes a long way toward our formation of opinion and areas of similarity for conversation and relationship.
Jesus was well aware of the importance of vocation and used illustrations from the lives of working men and women on many occasions. He encountered fishermen and tax collectors and farmers and merchants and others. Jesus was a carpenter's son and so, we assume, had some apprenticeship training with his father and exposure to the various trades around Nazareth. In this parable of the Kingdom of Heaven, Jesus draws into it a story of employer, employees, and employment.
We begin with a landowner who needs to have his vineyard harvested, so he goes out and hires some workers to do this. He offers to pay them a denarius for the day, and they agree. A denarius, by the way, was about twenty cents worth of silver. Doesn't sound like much to us today for a day's wage, but I have read that this was really an above average wage in Jesus' day and would provide adequately for the needs of most families for the day. One of the marks of this landowner is generosity.
Throughout the day, the landowner sees the progress of the work going on, decides to hire more workers, and goes back to the marketplace to find them. The first workers were hired at sunrise, say around five in the morning. His other trips to the marketplace occurred, then, around eight and eleven a.m. and two and five p.m.
The marketplace was an area used for many activities. Trading was one use. It served as the town hall and as the employment office. Those without a job for the day would gather in the marketplace in hopes of being noticed by an employer such as this landowner. He saw some of them in his subsequent trips and asked, "Why have you been standing here all day long doing nothing?" "Because no one has hired us." These people waiting in the marketplace were not lazy, they just had not been hired by anyone; they had not been noticed.
Here is the second mark of the landowner: he provided opportunity. Perhaps Jesus was thinking of the religious state of the people in his day as he told this. He saw a few religious leaders and followers involved in the practice of piety and righteousness, but many more remained on the fringes of an active spiritual life. Jesus saw those waiting in the marketplace - waiting for an opportunity. But the red tape of legalism was like giving these waiting people a twenty page application to fill out - in triplicate, of course. There were just too many hoops to jump through in order to be gainfully employed.
Jesus, though, wants to make it clear that the kingdom of heaven is available to all; that there is more than enough opportunity for any of us to be involved in His kingdom. All of the New Testament writers tell us of opportunities of the harvest, of evangelism, of service, of the use of Spiritual gifts. No one is left out of the opportunities in the kingdom. And no act of service is any more important than the next. All gifts and works of the Spirit are important and valid and equal.
What Jesus needs is a willing response when we hear him telling us, "You also go and work in my vineyard." We need to believe the promise of Christ when he tells us, "Come, follow me, and I will make you fishers of men." We need to believe Christ when he tells us, plainly, that the barriers and obstacles to a life at work in his vineyard are overcome. These are times in which barriers and obstacles to work in Gods vineyard are making a comeback. But this is not the time to succumb to defeatism. We need to keep believing the promises of God. We are Good News people! We participate in the triumphant power of the resurrection! We are still capable of being motivated and encouraged by joyous opportunities of service and by our potential to make a significant difference in the world! Let's leave the doldrums; let's get out of the mentality of survival; let's lay aside burdens of discouragement and get on with God's work. Those waiting in the marketplace took advantage of the opportunity held open for them and accepted the job.
After the days work, it came time for the landowner to pay his laborers. They did their jobs, evening came, they lined up, and, interestingly, those who were hired last were paid first. Everyone saw what they were paid: a denarius. The landowner could have broken the wages down; he could have appropriately paid some one-twelfth of the denarius, and some nine-twelfths, others six-twelfths, and right on up to the full denarius. But he didn't. Each and every worker, regardless of when they started, received the full day's wage.
And here's where the parable gets sticky; here's where it makes us squirm, because a third characteristic of the landowner is revealed: mercy. We who are used to the limited economy of this world look at this parable questionably. "It makes no sense," we say, "and, besides, promotes non-productivity. After all, if I can work for one hour and be paid the same as those working twelve, then I don't have to think long to make my choice." Management and labor can both wriggle uncomfortably at this part of the parable. In fact, Bible scholar F. F. Bruce, in the book The Hard Sayings of Jesus, wrote, "A highly respected trade union leader of our day is said to feel very unhappy when he is asked to read this parable as a scripture lesson in church, because it seems to defend the unacceptable principle of equal pay for unequal work." (p. 196)
But let us move quickly to say that the economy of God is not the economy of this world. In fact, except for the parables of the servants and the talents and the purchasing of the treasure and the pearl, New Testament references to wealth and possessions lead to using them up or giving them away for the sake of the kingdom. "What must I do to inherit eternal life?" the young man asked. "Sell all that you have, give it to the poor, and come, follow me," Jesus replied. "I tell you the truth," Jesus said, "this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything - all she had to live on."
I know of churches that go to extreme lengths to be able to point to themselves and say, "We're a New Testament church!" This means for some no musical instruments in the sanctuary; for others the exclusive use of the King James Version of the Bible; for some the baptism of the Holy Spirit as evidenced through speaking in tongues; still others even handle poisonous snakes and refuse contemporary medical treatment; and for some it means a mechanical view of baptism as a requirement for salvation. They do all of this for the sake of being able to make the claim of being a New Testament church. But in the great lengths they go to for this claim, I don't recall hearing this mark found in Acts 4:32: "All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of his possession was his own, but they shared everything they had." All of which is evidence that the economy of God is not the economy of this world.
Regardless of how peculiar this parable strikes us, we have to believe it as one of the marks of the kingdom of heaven. In other words, if we claim to be part of the Christian heritage and lineage that lays claim to salvation by grace, and "not by works, so that no one can boast," as Paul wrote, then we have to believe without reservation the full meaning of Jesus' story. From the perspective of the kingdom of heaven, God is not interested in whether we think His work to be fair or not. Rather, He is interested in His justice and His mercy, which is different than ours because He is motivated by divine love.
Jesus shows us in this parable that a mark of the kingdom of heaven is mercy. The landowner could have broken down the wages, but in so doing, some families would not have had enough to live on that day; they would have had to go without. But this landowner, who we must presume to be Jesus Christ, acts out divine mercy, not worldly economic policy, and made sure that all of his laborers were cared for. T. W. Manson points out in his treatment of this parable that there was a coin worth one-twelfth of a denarius: "It was called a pondion. But there is no such thing as a twelfth part of the love of God."
Look again at the text in Matthew 20:10-12. "So when those came who were hired first, they expected to receive more. But each of them also received a denarius. When they received it, they began to grumble against the landowner. 'These men who were hired last worked only one hour,' they said, 'and you have made them equal to us who have born the burden of the work and the heat of the day.'"
In light of this part of the story, we need to ask - and investigate - this question: What are we working for? In the systems of this world, rewards seem to be important. We work for reward. We do well in school because our parents promise a dollar for every A on the report card. We do well on the job because of hope of promotions. We even do some extra work, burn some midnight oil, because of the incentive of a bonus. They are all good reasons to be motivated. We understand something of economics and personal gratification and worldliness.
But this will not work in the kingdom of heaven because it leads to exactly what happened here: grumbling and discontent. There is no room in God's kingdom for such attitudes, for He has more important things for us to do. That's why God takes care of us - so that we can do the work He needs done. It's not our field we were hired to harvest; it is God's field.
It will not work in the kingdom of heaven because it is idolatry. To be caught up in the hope of reward is to be enslaved to the reward, not service to the Master. Seeking and longing after reward distorts our perspective of reality. We seek to define the world in terms of the idol instead of the Master. Those who worked all day in the field were disappointed not because they didn't receive what was fair from the landowner's perspective, but because they didn't receive what they had redefined from their perspective. This is the sin from the garden. God had shown His children the way of truth, but the serpent effectively said to Eve, "That's how God sees it. But look through your own eyes. Put yourself ahead of God, and surely you can see that the fruit is good." The eyes of the laborers were on the idols of pride and self-righteousness, the very sins of the garden.
Working for the desire of reward will not work in the kingdom of heaven because it is not joyful, and it breeds contempt and hatred besides. Jesus told another story about a prodigal, or lost, son. There were two sons in the story. Look to Luke 15:28-30. "The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. But he answered his father, 'Look! All these years I've been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fatted calf for him!'"
F. F. Bruce has written: "There are young people who have come up through Sunday School and Bible Class, who join the church and are present week by week at all the meetings - perhaps notice is taken of them, perhaps not. But here is a rank outsider who has been dragged along to a Billy Graham meeting or something of the sort and has gone forward when the appeal was made; and what a fuss is made of him! He is billed at every youth rally, invited to give his testimony at every opportunity (and it must be admitted that his testimony is rather more colourful than that of someone who has never strayed from the straight and narrow) - but if some people feel that it is all really sickening one can understand their point of view."
But the kingdom question is this: what are we working for? What are the faithful believers from childhood working for? What was the faithful brother who stayed with his father working for? What were the twelve hour laborers working for? What are we working for?
The kingdom perspective is this: we are working because of gratitude. We are working because of the grace and promises of God. We are working because of the full pardon and release from the fruits of sin through the shed blood of the Lamb. From the kingdom perspective, working for reward won't cut it. It will always leave us flat and dry. It will lead us down the path of envy, strife, and hatred.
God WANTS us to be joyful, sharing both joys and concerns with others. Has another soul just received salvation through the grace of Christ? Then rejoice with that person as God rejoices, because all of us have been in need of Christ's salvation. All of us have been in need of being restored to communion with God. All of us have been in need of God's continuing sustenance and strength. It matters not if we have been toiling twelve hours or one hour if we have seen the light. Except that those who have been in God's field longer have enjoyed his love and mercy longer. Let us not be counted among those who were accused by Jesus of being envious because of his generosity. Of course God is generous. Of course He does not treat us as we deserve. Of course He loves us beyond all human description. The atonement of Christ has shown us this. "There is no such thing as a twelfth part of the love of God."
What are we working for? According to God's kingdom perspective, we are working "because He first loved us." He has already set the wages of eternal life before us through the work of Jesus. Come, let us joyfully enter into the service of our gracious Lord.
Those who know the salvation of the Lord are exhorted and encouraged to continue on in the many facets of the kingdom work. God has gifted us all. Those who do not yet know the joy of salvation or of kingdom work are called upon to receive Christ now. Those who were called first in the parable unjustly grumbled at the end, but how woeful it would have been had they not been called at all. When God calls to save us, we need to respond, for we know not what the next moment will bring. Paul reminds us that "now is the time of God's favor, now is the day of salvation." (2 Corinthians 6:2) God is not stingy with His love. Let us not be found trying to be stingy for Him. What are we working for? I hope that is simply because we love the Lord our God with all our heart and soul and mind. So the last will be first, and the first will be last. (Matthew 20:16)
Rev. Charles A. Layne
First Baptist Church
PO Box 515
170 W. Broadway
Bunker Hill, IN 46914
765-689-7987
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