“Is God Fair?”

(Matthew 20:1-16)

Series: God’s Fulfilled Purpose [on screen]

Rev. Matthew C. McCraw, EdD

First Baptist Church, Bartow, Florida

April 19, 2020

The Passage

Matthew 20:1-16

1 “For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard. 2 After agreeing with the workers on one denarius, he sent them into his vineyard for the day. 3 When he went out about nine in the morning, he saw others standing in the marketplace doing nothing. 4 He said to them, ‘You also go into my vineyard, and I’ll give you whatever is right.’ So off they went. 5 About noon and about three, he went out again and did the same thing. 6 Then about five he went and found others standing around and said to them, ‘Why have you been standing here all day doing nothing?’

7 “‘Because no one hired us,’ they said to him. “‘You also go into my vineyard,’ he told them. 8 When evening came, the owner of the vineyard told his foreman, ‘Call the workers and give them their pay, starting with the last and ending with the first.’

9 “When those who were hired about five came, they each received one denarius. 10 So when the first ones came, they assumed they would get more, but they also received a denarius each. 11 When they received it, they began to complain to the landowner: 12 ‘These last men put in one hour, and you made them equal to us who bore the burden of the day’s work and the burning heat.’

13 “He replied to one of them, ‘Friend, I’m doing you no wrong. Didn’t you agree with me on a denarius? 14 Take what’s yours and go. I want to give this last man the same as I gave you. 15 Don’t I have the right to do what I want with what is mine? Are you jealous because I’m generous?’

16 “So the last will be first, and the first last.”

Introductory Comments:

Thank you so much, Dirck, for leading us in worship through music. I’m so thankful that we can sing about God’s amazing grace! Now, let us learn about God’s amazing grace. 

Please turn in your Bibles to Matthew 20. In just a moment, we’ll be starting in verse 1 and we will read through verse 16. Before we do so, let’s pray together.

(prayer)

Have you ever felt like something was unfair? Perhaps you remember when your older sibling got to go out and see a movie and you had to stay home. Perhaps you think about the person that got the job promotion over you. Perhaps you think it’s not fair that you have to stay at home all this time during the coronavirus outbreak. You see, we humans, particularly we Americans like for things to be fair. 

However, we will see in today’s passage that God is not fair. 

In the previous passage that we studied from the book of Matthew, Jesus ended with the idea that the last shall be first and the first shall be last. In today’s passage, Jesus revisits this and teaches us something about the fairness and the grace of God.

This passage is what we refer to as the “Parable of the Vineyard Workers.”

Let’s look at this passage together and discover what God is teaching us. 

Read Matthew 20:1-16

1 “For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard. 2 After agreeing with the workers on one denarius, he sent them into his vineyard for the day. 3 When he went out about nine in the morning, he saw others standing in the marketplace doing nothing. 4 He said to them, ‘You also go into my vineyard, and I’ll give you whatever is right.’ So off they went. 5 About noon and about three, he went out again and did the same thing. 6 Then about five he went and found others standing around and said to them, ‘Why have you been standing here all day doing nothing?’

7 “‘Because no one hired us,’ they said to him. “‘You also go into my vineyard,’ he told them. 8 When evening came, the owner of the vineyard told his foreman, ‘Call the workers and give them their pay, starting with the last and ending with the first.’