God was going to do something among men that had never been done before, and Jesus was getting His disciples ready for it. God was going to extend His wonderful grace beyond the Jews who had been God’s people for 1500 years and give the Gentiles who had long turned their backs on their Creator the opportunity for redemption. The benefits of Christ would be offered to Jew and Gentile alike. Both would be treated equally. Both would be offered eternal life. And the Jews were going to be jealous! People get jealous like that today, too.

Please turn in your Bibles to Matthew 20:1-16.

Jesus often told parables with surprise endings. One example is this parable of The Generous Landlord and the Jealous Workers. The setting was the time when the grapes were ripe in Palestine - around September. There would be the annual race against time because the grapes needed to be harvested before the October rains. Since harvest was very labor intensive, nearly every available person in the community would be employed a day or two to help bring in the grapes. Very early in the morning the owner of the vineyard went to the marketplace to find able-bodied workers to help. Those seeking work would line up along the streets in the hope of being hired. The work was hard but this landlord promised to pay his workers very well for their efforts.

He hired some initial people around 6 a.m. (as our time is reckoned) and agreed to pay them a denarius for twelve hours of work. A couple of hours into the day the landowner realized that he needed more help. Time was short. He returned to the marketplace about 9 a.m. (the "third hour" according to Jewish reckoning) and again at 12 noon (the "sixth hour") and hired more workers. He offered them employment and they gladly accepted. "I will pay you whatever is right," he promised them. Glad to be hired, they went right to work. Later he realized he needed still more workers so at 3 p.m. (the "ninth hour") he hired still more. But he still wasn’t going to make it. Even with all the workers hired so far all the grapes would not be harvested. So at around 5 p.m., just an hour before quitting time at 6, he hired yet more workers.

All was fine until the end of the day – sometime after 6 p.m. the workers lined up to receive their pay. Those who were hired just before quitting time who had worked only about an hour during the cool part of the day were paid first and they received a denarius, which was a full day’s wage. As you can imagine, the workers who had worked all day in the hot sun looked on in amazement. Naturally they began to think that if these workers, the ones who had worked only briefly, received a full day’s wage for an hour’s work – well, you do the calculations. Some of them probably expected to receive twelve times as much! Imagine their disappointment and then outrage when they received the same pay as those who had worked only one hour! They felt cheated!

So what did this parable mean? What does it have to do with you and me? Let’s see if we can figure it out. We’ll look first at:

I think it is pretty obvious that Jesus intended the landowner in the parable to represent God. The vineyard was the world and/or perhaps the church. The workers were God’s people – Christians. The denarius – a day’s wage – was eternal life.

Before we go any further it would probably be wise for us to back up and look at the context of this parable. Jesus said these things to His disciples right after his conversation with the Rich Young Ruler who wanted to be His disciple but was too much in love with his money. Jesus’ closing words to this man, recorded in Matthew 19:21, had been, "If you wish to be complete, go and sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you shall have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me." Concluding that such a cost was too great, the young man "went away grieved," Matthew said in verse 22, "for he owned much property."

The disciples were nearby and heard all this. Watching the rich young man’s profile recede in the distance, they were wondering what their reward might be since they had left their possessions to follow Him. It was Peter who put their musings into words in verse 27:

"We’ve done what this Rich Young Ruler was unwilling to do. We’ve left all to follow you. What is in it for us?"

Jesus directed his answer to the twelve. He told them that they would have great rewards in the resurrection that others would not share. Among their personal rewards would be the privilege of sitting on twelve thrones and judging the twelve tribes of Israel.

But apparently Jesus saw something else in Peter’s question – something that needed immediate attention. God was about to extend an uncommon generosity to those who decided to follow Jesus – something these disciples had never seen in their experience.

A Cadillac owner walked to his car and saw a boy about 10 years old standing beside it, staring intently into the window. Wondering what the lad was up to, the man put his hands on the boy’s shoulders, pulled gently, and asked what he was doing. The boy said he was interested in cars and had read a lot about different models. He then told him many details about this particular year and model. After a bit the boy asked, "Mister, how much did you pay for this car?" "Nothing," the man replied. "My brother gave it to me." The boy responded, "I wish…," but he stopped in mid sentence. The man chuckled, "You were going to say, ‘I wish I had a brother like that.’" "No sir," said the boy. "I was going to say, ‘I wish I could be a brother like that.’ You see sir, I have a brother who is crippled and I’d like to do a lot of things for him."

It was bighearted generosity and not self interest that was in this child’s heart. That’s something not often seen even among adults. In fact, if we encountered such a thing ourselves, we’d probably be quite surprised.

In bighearted generosity God was about to bestow on the human race through the offering of His Son something even more rare – so rare that such kindness had never been seen on this planet up to that time. God was going to bestow eternal life upon people who had never done anything to earn it! So different would that be than what people were accustomed to that some of them - ironically, some of the faithfully religious ones, feeling that if anybody deserved eternal life, they did - were going to be upset and jealous when they saw God give it to those with no former record of religious effort. Potential for such jealousy was among the twelve and potential for such jealousy can also be among other disciples of Jesus – even you and me, as I’ll soon explain. That’s what makes this parable relevant to us.

The thing that gives this story its punch is the generosity of the landowner. He clearly was giving these workers more than they deserved. "…Is your eye envious because I am generous?" the landowner said in verse 15.

Bighearted generosity is a characteristic of God. He loves to be generous. The whole scheme of redemption by grace through faith is an evidence of God’s generosity. Paul spoke of it in Ephesians 2:8 when he said, "For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God."

Paul said in Ephesians 1:7-8: "In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace, which He lavished upon us." The verb he used for "lavished" means "to superabound." Our God is generous.

The workers in this parable who received a denarius hadn’t worked long enough to receive that much – and neither have any of us worked long enough to receive eternal life! If you are a Christian looking forward to eternal life, you do so by the merits of God’s generosity toward you, not by your own merits!

We should praise God regularly for His great generosity, privately and when we are together. If you can imagine how those eleventh hour workers felt when they received a full day’s pay for an hour’s work - that is the way you and I should feel about what God has done for us.

Don’t you suppose those who received the landowner’s generosity went out and told their friends what had happened to them? Don’t you suppose that if their friends ever needed work, they were referred to this landowner as the best one to work for? I can imagine them saying, "If you can ever get on with that guy, you’ll be treated very well!" Don’t you suppose that if the landowner in the parable had offered them a more permanent job they would have snapped it up in a second? Who wouldn’t want to work for someone that bighearted and generous?

If you are a Christian, are you impressed by the great generosity of God toward you? If not then you must either be very sick spiritually or very uninformed! You need to give God the praise that is due Him.

"Ascribe to the Lord the glory due to His name!" wrote David in Psalm 29:2.

That’s one of the purposes for our meeting together on the Lord’s Day. We join our hearts and voices together to praise Him. We don’t just come here for ourselves! If we did nothing more than spend a solid hour praising Him it would be time well spent. If "church is a drag" for you, who are you focused on? Are you conscious of God’s great generosity toward you? If you are a Christian, do you realize what you have? Do you understand what He has done for you, or are you just looking for a self-centered religious "high?"

We’ve looked at the bighearted landlord. Let’s look now at:

One of the things that jumped out at me as I studied this passage was the difference in the way the work agreement was made when the workers were first hired. Look again at verse 2. This is the agreement with the first workers:

A denarius for a day’s work – a day’s work, a day’s pay. That’s pretty clear and pretty fair. Actually, it was more than fair because this landlord didn’t have to hire these people. Now look in verses 4-5 at how the deal was struck with the workers hired later:

In this case they were told to go to work and that they would be paid "whatever is right." Notice that they didn’t question that. They didn’t bargain any further. They were willing to trust the landowner to do right by them. No further discussion was needed. They were happy just to be hired because if you look at the reason given for their idleness, it says in verse 7, "because no one hired us." This wasn’t a bunch of loafers standing around the employment office trying not to get hired. These people wanted work and when they got the job they were glad.

By the way, some people use this passage to justify their procrastination about salvation. Such people purposely neglect the call of God until late in life thinking that they will slip in just before quitting time and be no worse off than those who serve the Lord all their lives. While so called "eleventh hour" conversions are possible, it is misuse of this passage to think that it encourages such thinking. These workers weren’t shirkers as some are that strategize that they’ll wait for the last minute. They were idle simply because they had not yet been called. This passage should never be used to encourage procrastination in accepting God’s salvation. If it teaches anything along that line, it is that the call of God should be accepted eagerly, as soon as possible, like all of the workers in the parable accepted the opportunity to work.

I see a contrast in attitude when I compare the intermediate hires and late hires of this parable with the early morning ones. The early morning hires seemed like the kind of people who bargain with God. "I’ll give God a day’s work for a day’s pay. Nothing more, nothing less." To them salvation is an exchange of something valuable that they have for something valuable that God has. Like for like. Later in the parable we see how this affected their attitude.

On the other hand, I see the intermediate and late hires feeling so blessed just to be working that they considered anything they received as a special gift.

That pretty aptly describes two kinds of attitudes of people toward salvation. There are those who come to God believing that they have something special to bargain with. They think, "God really got something special when he got me!" To them, though they are wrong in their understanding, it is a fair exchange proposition. Then there are those who are so blissfully happy to have been picked by God at all to work in His kingdom that they are content with whatever they receive and mindful that whatever it is, they don’t really deserve it. Which one do you think pleases God? One is a hireling, serving God only for what he can get. The other is a happy worker who serves God out of gratitude. One is miserly in his work and his giving. "I’ll give God only what He requires and no more. I don’t want to get cheated." Over at the tithe box he puts in a check for exactly one tenth of his paycheck. Not a penny more. He’s miserly. The other person writes the check for that amount and maybe more. He’s just glad to have the opportunity to give and figures that God is so generous, you can’t out give Him anyway. Which kind of person are you?

We’ve looked at the bighearted landlord and the blissful late hires. Let’s look finally at:

 3. The Begrudging Early Hires.

That was the focus of the parable.

What was the problem of early hires when the foreman began to hand out the checks? Let’s take another look.

They were jealous! "We worked all day in the hot sun and you pay us the same as you paid those hired just before quitting time?" They felt cheated! "We are the only ones who should get the denarius because we’re the ones who have been here all day!" Verse 11 says simply, "they grumbled."

Here’s the meaning. God was going to do something among men that had never been done before, and Jesus was getting His disciples ready for it. God was going to extend His wonderful grace beyond the Jews who had been God’s people for 1500 years and give the Gentiles who had long turned their backs on their Creator the opportunity for redemption. The benefits of Christ would be offered to Jew and Gentile alike. Both would be treated equally. Both would be offered eternal life. And the Jews were going to be jealous! Some of them would even refuse the message of Christ because of their jealousy. They would think that their longevity with God had somehow atoned for their checkerboard record of faithfulness. I won’t rehash their up and down history to make this point. The apostle Paul, a Jew himself, makes it crystal clear in his letter to the Romans. After pronouncing in Romans chapter one that the sins of the Gentiles caused God to give them up to the consequences of their choice to ignore Him, Paul turned to the Jews in chapter two and said that their track record of service to God was really no better. He told them that while they condemned the Gentiles, they "practiced the same things." Then in chapter three of Romans Paul brought down the gavel on all humanity and pronounced, "For all [Jew and Gentile] have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." As to meriting salvation, nobody made the grade! Everybody depended on the generosity of God. In the parable, perhaps the parallel point would be that had it not been for the generosity of the landowner, the early hires would not have been working at all – something they obviously missed!

We’re fairly well removed from that initial Jew/Gentile jealousy, but the issues of comparison and jealousy are not dead. These can still raise their ugly heads today. Perhaps the grumbling early hires represent those in the church today who have been in the faith for many years. They’ve carried the load. They’ve supported the cause. They’ve paid their dues. They’re charter members or, if not, they’ve been around a long time. When others have walked out, they’ve stayed. These are the people you can count on when others let you down. They’re wonderful, dedicated, loyal followers of Christ. And they will be personally rewarded by God for all their effort.

But there is a problem that such believers need to watch out for that this parable points out. If they are not careful to keep their own relationship with God in focus, they can become just like the jealous workers in Jesus’ parable.

Look again at verse 8: "And when evening had come, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, 'Call the laborers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last group to the first.'

That’s an odd way to pass out the paychecks. Pay the newest guys first? What was this strange order all about? Obviously Jesus was setting things up to make a point. Those who work hardest are the most likely to forget that salvation isn’t based on a merit system. All of us, no matter how long or how briefly we’ve been in the faith, will receive the reward of eternal life because of God’s great generosity – not because we have earned it. That’s hard to grasp sometimes because the way things usually work in this world is that the greatest reward goes to the most diligent, the ones among us willing to pay the price. If God, in His great generosity, decides to also reward someone who finds Him later in life, we may find that we are jealous. With the early hires in the parable, we think or say those words in verse 12: "These last men have worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden and the scorching heat of the day." What’s their message? It’s not fair!

That’s exactly right. It’s not fair. But neither is it fair that those of us who have "borne the burden and the scorching heat of the day" receive the denarius of eternal life. We have sinned, too, and no amount of work on our part, no matter how long or how diligent, can atone for that sin. Only one thing can atone for the death penalty of our sin and that is death. Payment must be made and no deed or deeds can make the payment. If God were to demand payment from us on the spot, we wouldn’t be around anymore. We know, though, that this is what Christ’s sacrificial death is all about. He died for all of us because all of us have sinned.

The begrudging early hires in the parable received exactly what the landowner told them they would receive – not a penny less. So why were they complaining? Because that is what comparison and envy does to a person. That’s what happens when you sit around comparing rather than trusting God to make things right. All of us must remember that if things were to revert to a system of human merit, there would not be a single human being who would ever walk the streets of gold.

A beggar by the roadside once asked for alms from Alexander the Great as he passed by. The man was poor and had no claim upon the ruler, no right to even lift a solicitous hand. Yet the Emperor threw him several gold coins. Alexander’s attendant was astonished at his generosity and commented, "Sir, copper coins would adequately meet a beggar’s need. Why give him gold?" Alexander responded in royal fashion, "Copper coins would suit the beggar’s need, but gold coins suit Alexander’s giving."

In giving us eternal life, God has given us gold when we didn’t even deserve copper. In fact, God isn’t a copper coin giver at all. He’s a gold coin giver across the board. He is bighearted and generous – just as we’ve seen in this parable told by the Son of God.

What is the moral of the story?