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Jesus says, “For the kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for His vineyard….(13) But [the Master] replied to one of them, “Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius? Take what belongs to you and go. I choose to give to this last worker as I give to you. Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or do you begrudge my generosity?” So the last will be first, and the first last.”
Why do you do good things?
In what we just sung, “as the branch is to the vine, I am His and He is mine,”
According to what our Lord says, “I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in Me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing,”
The Christian makes a very simple confession: I do good things, not because I’m good, but because the One who lives for, in, and through me, is good.
Our parable today of the laborers called into the vineyard is trying to root out anything that remains in us that too often thinks otherwise.
One of the primary Christian confessions is this: God makes the first move.
I love because He first loved and continues to love me.
I provide because He first provided and continues to provide for me.
I’m the in vineyard because the master of the house went out early in the morning to bring laborers into the vineyard. Without Him coming to me, I wouldn’t be in, I wouldn’t be a Christian, I wouldn’t know what He thinks of me and thus wouldn’t want do anything good for Him, apart from Him I can do nothing.
Our Lord is often calling His Christians and His Christian Church a vineyard. You’re called to work as a Christian – not just for and in this building, this pastor, this people – but as a Christian you’re called to work in the places that God has put you in – closest is family, then broadening out to friends, workplaces community.
It’s beautiful and marvelous.
But in speaking about vineyards, our Lord also reveals something ugly and horrifying that was true for His people of old and we of course, without looking too hard, can see truth in us, too.
It’s a vineyard that our Lord planted on a very fertile hill. He dug it, and cleared it of stones. He planted it with choice vine. He defended it against enemies and intruders. He did everything for it to produce and produce. And produce it did – but it was a bad crop. (Isaiah 5)
The picture is clear – what has our Lord done for you and given to you so that you can produce fruit of faith in God and love for others. And yet, too often, the fruit tastes bad.
Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, faithfulness, self-control – that’s the fruit of the Spirit and that doesn’t always describe us.
We consider this question in what I perceive to be one of the most horrifying judgments against our sin in what’s known as the reproaches on Good Friday. It’s in this that our Lord asks, “What more could I have done, O my people?”
It is these confessions of sin that our Lord is trying to produce in us in our parable today. A parable that tells of a group who were called, by grace, to work. But then get mad at the master of the house for not rewarding them as they thought they deserved.
Get mad at others for receiving a merciful and gracious payment.
Good works are done according to the Ten Commandments. He isn’t secret about what we should be doing.
But it’s more than that – it’s produced out of the love for God and love for neighbor.
The angry workers at the end of the parable are as far from loving the master of the house and loving their fellow workers as far as they possibly could.
And they did through one of the best and most obvious symptoms of sin: a complete focus on self.
What they thought they should get.
What they worked hard for.
The sufferings they endured.
(You shall have your rewards)
And the only answer to this constant pull to be curved in ourselves, it to be pulled out of ourselves to see the generosity of the master of the house, the kindness and richness our Lord has and continues to pour out on us,
to be reminded that He made the first move,
And that He continues to make move in the 3rd hour of our life,
the 6th hour of our life,
the 9th hour of our life,
and that He is moving, and inviting, and calling, and loving, and forgiving, and connecting branches to vines all the way through the 11th hour of our life.
And He does the same for our family and friends. If they have not yet been drawn into the vineyard, please be reminded that our Lord continues to call throughout the world, and throughout lives, and we ought never be angry is someone, quite undeservedly, comes in the last hour.
But don’t you plan, and do warn against that. Because that type of thinking shows a pride and arrogance and a selfishness that this parable is precisely warning us.
What the Christians needs to plan to do to be reminded that they are but branches, and they ought stay and abide as close to the vine as possible.
Through His Word, His body and blood, His Spirit, He is continually working in you and for you.
And as vine branches need to be tied to a pole, so you need to be tied and re-tied again in remembrance of Your baptism to His life-giving cross.
For there, as branches are to the vine, I am His and He is mine.