Our Beliefs : Sermons : Sermon Archive - 2005 : September 18, 2005

Theme: God's Grace Alone Makes the Last First

Church year occasion: Pentecost 18

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to be paralyzed -- from the neck down? I don't think we could understand what it would be like completely unless it actually happened to us. Just think of all the things you take for granted that you wouldn't be able to do. Play sports, play the piano, run, walk, even crawl, even lift a finger -- all those things would be completely impossible. If you became paralyzed, your life would change completely.

But now imagine that you have been paralyzed for 40 years from a rare disease. But then out of the blue the feeling comes back to you. But you know that the paralysis could come back at any time, any minute, without warning. What would you do with that uncertain length of time? Would you travel the world? Would you visit your family and friends? Would you join as many sporting events that you can get signed up for? Or would you go to work at a thankless job day after day after day?

Maybe before you answer, we should look at Jesus' parable of the workers in the vineyard because that might change the whole way you look at working at a thankless job day in and day out. Just before Jesus told this parable, he said a curious thing that doesn't seem to make much sense to us. He said, "Many who are first will be last, and many who are last will be first." (Matthew 19:30) Then after Jesus told the parable, he summed it up by saying the same thing: "The last will be first, and the first will be last" (Matthew 20:16) So what did he mean by that? It's almost like a sandwich -- Jesus just gave you the pieces of bread, but now he wants to fill in the meat in the middle with his parable. And this is the meat of Jesus' words: God's Grace Alone Makes the Last First. Keep that in mind as we look at Jesus' parable of the workers in the vineyard.

The first thing we see from Jesus' parable is that God does not base his grace on the work we have done. You've heard Jesus' parable in its entirety. But let's put Jesus' parable in today's language. Pete, the head custodian here at Rose Glen, needs workers to help him take care of the school. So he goes to the Waukesha unemployment office and hires a group of workers. He tells them that for a full day's work -- 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., a 12-hour day -- he'll pay them $100. The workers are happy with the pay, and they go to work. But Pete hires more workers throughout the day -- in Jesus' parable, at the third hour, the sixth hour, the ninth hour, or in our way of reckoning, at 9 a.m., noon and at 3 p.m. (To change Jewish reckoning of time, take the hour of the day, like the third hour, and go straight across the clock to the opposite side, and then you will get the time according to how we figure time. So, the 3rd hour would be 9 a.m.) But notice this: Pete didn't say that he would pay them a certain amount, but he said that he would pay them "whatever is right." No contract was signed; no signing bonus was agreed upon. But the men went to work. Then, when the workday was almost over, he still has work to be done, so he goes back to the local unemployment office and finds still more people, so he hires them at 5 p.m., only one hour from quitting time.

Finally 6 p.m. arrives and to the astonishment of those who were hired first, the owner pays everyone $100. Those who were hired first are angry because they did most of the work and worked for 12 hours, but some guy who only put in one hour of work gets $100 also. They worked for $8/hr, but the ones who worked just one hour were paid $100/hr. They had a legitimate argument, don't you think? Sure they did -- if we're using human logic and basing it on human greed. That's the second thing about God's grace that he wants to teach us this morning: God does not base his grace on human logic, but on God logic. In God logic, God bases his grace only on his generosity.

Our Old Testament lesson points us to that very fact. Isaiah says,

"For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways,"
declares the LORD.

"As the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts."
(Isaiah 55:8-9)

Elsewhere in Scripture God tells us about his ways being impossible to trace out.

That's why the workers in Jesus' parable didn't get it -- it was God logic, not human logic. In the parable, God the Father is the owner of the vineyard. And the vineyard represents the kingdom of God's grace -- those who are believers. God calls them into his kingdom at every time in people's lives, even some "eleventh hour converts" like the thief on the cross, or in our day we might think of a Jeffrey Dahmer. You've probably heard that Jeffrey Dahmer, who murdered over a dozen people, confessed his faith in Jesus before he was killed in prison. Should such a person be able to go to heaven even after doing such horrible things? God says, "Yes!" It shows that getting to heaven can't be based on what a person does -- instead, getting to heaven is based solely on God loving even the vilest of sinners. Heaven is available to the worst sinner.

The workers grumbled against the landowner because they didn't think he was fair. We can get jealous of God's grace to someone else. If I work all the time at church by doing this, that and the other thing, but then see no one else doing anything except come to church on a Sunday morning, and sometimes not even that, I might get angry. That's the devil sitting right next to us and saying, "It's not fair. God's not fair." People should be doing more. And you're right. But that's not the way to get them to do it. The right way to get them to work in God's kingdom is the way God sets down -- the way of grace, not of works.

You see, God makes the last first, and those who are first make themselves last. And this is how we need to understand Jesus' words: Those who are first are believers; those who are last are unbelievers. If we have a problem about God being gracious to a Jeffrey Dahmer because he's so evil, we have missed the whole point. We are evil just as much as Jeffrey Dahmer! If a small hornet were stinging you and a big hornet were stinging you, which one would you swat at to get it off of you? Both, right? Both stings hurt. It's the same with sinning against God. Every sin hurts God, and he should swat every single sinner into hell because of it. Every sinner is "last" when it comes to God's demand of perfection. But it is God's grace alone that makes the last first. When I start thinking that I'm better than some other person in what I do, I have to start thinking like God, not me. I'm not supposed to compare my works to the works of others. Sure, I can always find others who are more sinful than me. But I can find a whole lot more people that are much more righteous than I. I look at Abraham who left everything he had known to go to a land he didn't even know of, all because he trusted completely in God. Joseph, who was sold into slavery but still served God his whole life. Moses, who served God faithfully as the greatest prophet that ever lived in the Old Testament. The apostles, most of whom gave up their lives for Christ. But I don't even have go that far. I look at my grandparents, my parents, my own family, and you in this family of believers -- you put me to shame when I think of the sins that I know I've done. That brings my own self-righteous pride down a bit. But I still am not supposed to compare my works to others -- I am to compare my works to God himself -- the holy God who punishes sin. There are sins that only I know I've committed -- terrible sins that make me scream inwardly every time my conscience accuses me of doing them. But there is one person who also knows those sins: God himself. What hope can I have of eternal life based on those works that I have done? I have to say with Paul that I am the chief of sinners. Heaven is closed to me.

So, we should be able to answer this question: Do we get to heaven based on works? Yes or no? I set you up. You probably said, "No." But actually we do get to heaven based on works -- not ours, but Jesus' works. The gospel that Jesus proclaimed says that we get to heaven based on his works. His works were flawless. Where we might be tempted to think that we are better than some murderer or rapist, Jesus, who was better than everyone, came to serve even murderers and rapists. He earned heaven for himself because he was perfect. But instead he chose to stand before God covered with all your and my and the world's shameful sins. And his righteous life was credited to the account of every sinner. So Jesus was put to death instead of us. And instead of us spending eternity away from God, through faith in Jesus we get to spend it with God.

We now live under God's grace. We now understand by faith how God is thinking, and we love it. Instead of complaining over the work that we have done and others have failed to do, we joyfully work in God's kingdom before that day comes when no one can work because Jesus will come again and take us to himself. We are no longer the worst of sinners in God's eyes; we are forgiven saints of God and called to work with God as his co-workers in Christ, as 2 Corinthians 6 says, "As God's fellow workers we urge you not to receive God's grace in vain. Rather, as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: in great endurance; in troubles, hardships and distresses; in beatings, imprisonments and riots; in hard work, sleepless nights and hunger; in purity, understanding, patience and kindness; in the Holy Spirit and in sincere love." Why do we want to work without a regard for what we are paid? Because God has chosen to give us "whatever is right" -- and he chose to give us eternal life and every blessing right here on earth. God's grace alone has made you and me, who were last, first, as if we were first in line for heaven.

That grace now enables us to do the work to which he has called us: 1) living our life a redeemed child of God, and 2) telling others about Christ. That's your "job" as a Christian. Living the Christian life and telling others about Jesus is often a very thankless endeavor. But what else would we want to do now that we have been freed from our paralysis of sin and have heaven waiting for us? How many friends of yours don't know Jesus? If you can't think of a single one, do you know what you need to do? Make more friends! And share with them the amazing grace of God that has made the last first. What a great job to have until Jesus comes again! It's often work that goes unnoticed. But the benefits are out of this world. So until Jesus does come again, I'll see you at work. Amen.