The sermon for February 4 was based on Matthew 20:1-16.

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

Whenever one reads a story, the reader tends to identify with one of the characters. The same is true when you read the Bible. For example, if you had lived in the days of John the Baptist and you were among the crowds who gathered to hear him preach, where would you have stood? Among the tax collectors, prostitutes, and other sinners? Or among the self–righteous scribes and Pharisees? Or, if you are feeling particularly holy, you might think that, if you had lived back then, you would have been Saint John the Baptist.

A similar temptation has presented itself this morning. You hear the parable of workers in the vineyard, and as a dutiful Lutheran, you begin to apply the Law to yourself: "How am I like those first workers who were hired in the morning? And where have I acted with contempt toward later workers in the vineyard?"

You have probably already come up with some pretty good answers to those painful, probing questions. Sometimes your humble sense of modesty is enough to bring tears to your eyes. Unfortunately, the position of those early workers has already been taken, and it isn't you. To begin with, Saint Peter was called by Jesus to work in the vineyard long before you were born. And, among those born of women, there is none that is greater that Saint John the Baptist. And of course, there was also Moses, who was a faithful servant in God's kingdom. And if you are persecuted for the name of Christ, so were the prophets persecuted long before you were ever standing idle in the marketplace. The fact is, even Saint Paul had to regard himself as one born late, and as the least of the Apostles.

So don't be too quick to extend your penitent pity to those eleventh hour workers as though you had worked all day in the heat of the sun. Do not presume that you have carried the cross, or drained the cup, or suffered the Baptism of Christ with Peter, James and John just yet. It is far better to assume that you are still waiting to be hired and sent.

So, how do you understand this parable and its application to you? If you sometimes find it difficult to understand the Bible, do not despair. Luther once wrote (in fact, it is the last thing he wrote, in February, 1546, two days before his death):
"Nobody can understand Virgil . . . unless he has first been a shepherd or a farmer for five years. Nobody understands Cicero in his letters unless he has been engaged in public affairs . . . for twenty-five years. Let nobody suppose that he has tasted the Holy Scriptures sufficiently unless he has ruled over the churches with the prophets . . ., John the Baptist, Christ, and the Apostles for a hundred years. . . . We are beggars: this is true." [WA 48:421]

Far more important than any of the workers, early or late, is the Landowner. After all, the kingdom of heaven is not like the workers, but like this Man, who is the Lord Jesus Christ. It is for His sake that any and all of the workers are hired and sent to the vineyard of His Church; and it is only by His grace and mercy that any of them receives a denarius.

That is the paradox about the Landowner's pay, which you also shall receive. For no matter how hard or how long you work and sweat, it is still a wage that you cannot earn. But you shall indeed receive it, because the Owner of the vineyard has already agreed to it before He ever chooses you to work. And only because He is good, He wishes to make you equal to the prophets and Apostles, who really bore the heat and burden of the day. "They were stoned; they were sawn asunder; they were tempted and slain with the sword. They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented — of whom the world was not worthy." [Heb. 11:37]

Yet, even the prophets and Apostles, no less than you, receive the denarius of forgiveness and life and salvation only by the goodness of Christ. It is a just and righteous wage—equal for everyone—because the Owner of the vineyard has already borne the burden for all and Himself paid the only wages that everyone has truly earned and deserved, namely, the wages of sin, which is death. For in the early morning, Jesus was hauled before Pilate; and from the third hour until the sixth hour, He suffered in your place upon the cross; and at the eleventh hour He was buried in the tomb, from which He rose unto Life everlasting.

And so, the vineyard of the Church receives the Ministry of His workers—even to the end of the age—because Christ has paid the wage in full, not with a denarius of silver or gold, but with His holy and precious Blood, and His innocent suffering and death.

Now where do you see yourself in this parable? Perhaps it is best to see yourself simply as part of that vineyard, a member of the Church ministered to by the workers whom God has sent, as a branch of the true Vine, and thus to receive the gracious provision of your Lord and Master. But if, in His divine wisdom, which certainly surpasses any human understanding, if He should send you in these waning minutes of the day to be a worker in His vineyard, then you will say with all the faithful: "We are unworthy servants; for we have done only what was our duty to do."
Before God, you are a beggar: this is true! But as a beggar of God, you receive with thanksgiving the denarius from His hand. You are in His vineyard, the Church, being tended to by the workers He has sent. You have been given the living water of Holy Baptism, without which you would wither before you began to grow. You have been pruned by the Law and been given the salve of Absolution, which removes from you the rot of sin. You bask, even now, in the bright, Life-sustaining light of His Word. And you are about to receive the wages of His goodness: the fruit of His vine poured from the chalice, and His very Body, which has borne the entire burden and heat of your sin. By this Sacrament, you are inseparably grafted into the true Vine, as His Body is fused into yours and the sap of His veins flows into you. To Him alone be all glory and honor and praise. Amen.

The peace of God, which passes . . .

Last Updated: 7/15/2008