Like every passage in the Bible, in today’s Gospel reading, context is king. The first word in our reading is “for” because Jesus intends this parable to explain what he has said moments ago. Our English Bibles put a chapter break here, but that break is artificial. At the start of chapter 20, Jesus is continuing his discourse from the end of chapter 19.

At the end of that chapter, a wealthy young man asks Jesus, “Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life?”

And behold, a man came up to him, saying, “Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life?”

We all know this story, and it ends with Jesus telling the young man to sell all he has and give it to people experiencing poverty. But…

When the young man heard this he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.

​Jesus then tells the disciples that it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of heaven, and the disciples are astonished and ask, “Who then can be saved?”

When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished, saying, “Who then can be saved?”

They ask this question because of how they understand God’s blessing to work in the world, i.e., those whom God favors, he blesses with material wealth. So, if it is as impossible for a divinely blessed, rich person to enter the kingdom of heaven as it is to fit a camel through the eye of a needle, then who possibly could be saved? To be clear, Jesus presumably is referring not to all wealthy people but specifically to those who love their money more than him, like the rich young man.

Jesus then responds to their amazement by saying that with man, it is impossible, but with God, all things are possible. If this were our text for this Sunday, I would probably preach for 15 minutes about God as the initiator of human salvation and waxing eloquently about how the first move is always from God to us and never the other way around. However, I will save that for a different Sunday.

Peter seems to seize on this moment. He just heard Jesus tell the rich young man to sell all he had and give it to the poor, and then he would have treasure in heaven. So, if Jesus values poverty, particularly poverty by choice for the benefit of others, then Peter thinks to himself, “What about us? We must have all kinds of riches heading our way.” So he says to Jesus in verse 27:

Then Peter said in reply, “See, we have left everything and followed you. What then will we have?”

‌Jesus replies:

Jesus said to them, “Truly, I say to you, in the new world, when the Son of Man will sit on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands, for my name’s sake, will receive a hundredfold and will inherit eternal life.”

Peter is probably rubbing his hands. It may not be right now, but Jesus said he will be rich when it matters. And then Jesus says one more thing.

But many who are first will be last, and the last first.

Our parable this morning is intended to explain this last verse. It explains why Jesus, as Peter and the others are already counting in their heads the hundredfold blessing they are going to receive, says, “But many who are first will be last, and the last first.”

I will not rehearse this morning’s parable in detail since we all heard it minutes ago, and it is printed on the insert in your bulletin. Suffice it to say that the master of a house hires laborers at different times of the day to work in his vineyard. When it comes time to pay the workers, the master of the house tells his foreman to pay first those he had hired last. Even though they had not worked the entire day, those hired last received a full day’s payment. Those who had worked the entire day, seeing what those who had only worked part of the day had received, expect to receive even more. They, too, receive a full day’s payment. They are like Peter, looking around at others, like the rich young man who had walked away from Jesus, and they, too, are already counting the extra blessing they will receive. As we might expect, those who had worked the entire day complain, but Jesus replies,

But he 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?’

And then, referring back to the last verse of the previous chapter, he says,

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

I want to make a few points regarding this parable and its context.

First, we are not the arbiters of God’s grace. Some people are called into the church from a very early age. My children were baptized as infants. Some people do not repent and turn to Christ until their deathbed. Some people seem to us like good people, the kind of people we would expect to be recipients of God’s grace, while some people might seem to us to be the wrong kind of people, and while we might never say it out loud, internally, we might wonder if they are the right kind of people to receive God’s grace. Thanks be to God that we do not make these decisions about others or ourselves. God’s grace is for all people, and he is free to dispense it as he pleases without input from you or me. We do not earn it. We do not control it. We have no say in who receives it. God is the one who decides who receives his grace and when they receive it.

Second, God’s grace is divinely equitable. That is to say, we might not think the way God dispenses grace is fair, but it is not up to us. The master in this parable treats everyone the same. The reward, which includes in context at least entrance into the kingdom of God, is not based on how long one has worked for God, how much one has sacrificed, or how much one thinks he or she deserves. Everyone in the story gets the same reward for their work regardless of how much work they have done. From our human perspective, we might question the fairness of an employer who pays everyone the same regardless of how much they work, but the fairness of God’s grace is not measured by our standards but by his.

Third, and as a result of the first two points, therefore, we are not to serve with rewards as our ultimate goal. This is a little tricky, but place yourself in the shoes of the vineyard workers for a moment. Why were they grumbling at the end of the day? They were grumbling because they expected to receive more. The issue wasn’t with the master of the house setting wrong expectations. The issue wasn’t that other people had been blessed beyond what was, by our reckoning, appropriate for the amount of work they had done. The problem was their expectations about what God would do for them because of their hard work, as it was for Peter.

Then Peter said in reply, “See, we have left everything and followed you. What then will we have?”

The call to follow Jesus, as we see in the immediately following scenes, is the call to serve others, even to the point of death. In what follows, Jesus predicts his death for the third time, and then the mother of James and John comes to him, presumably at their behest, and asks for her sons to sit at his right and left hand in his kingdom. You see, the disciples, throughout the beginning of this chapter and the end of the last one, are concerned about what they will get and what their reward will be. That is not what Jesus wants them to be doing.

Jesus does not want them focused on how many treasures they are storing up in heaven, which, in case it is not apparent, is simply another form of the struggle the rich young man had. That does not mean there are no rewards waiting for them just beyond the horizon. Jesus clearly says there are. Nevertheless, we are not the arbiters of God’s grace; despite what we may think, his grace is divinely equitable. When all things are sorted on the last day, we may very well be surprised when we see that the last, by our reckoning, were first by God’s, and vice versa. So, do not focus on what you are going to get. Instead, focus on serving. Focus on being as faithful to the task God has given you as possible, and trust that God will work it out in the end. And no matter what, as Jesus says, do not begrudge his generosity.

Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or do you begrudge my generosity?’

​That generosity is our only hope.

Amen.

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