The Parable of the Workers

One day many years ago, a steamship pulled up to a pier in New York Harbor. Among the passengers on board were two men. One of them was named Theodore Roosevelt, the other was Henry C. Morrison.

The boat was arriving from Africa, where President Roosevelt had enjoyed one of his famous big game hunting safaris. Henry Morrison was returning to America at the end of his career after having lived in Africa for forty years as a missionary.

As the passenger liner pulled up beside the dock, a military band began to play. Crowds began to cheer as President Roosevelt made his way down the gangplank. A great parade of politicians and dignitaries, led by the mayor of New York, greeted him and he was ushered to a reception at City Hall.

Meanwhile, forgotten in the din, was Henry Morrison. After the crowd had dispersed, he made his way down the gangplank to the empty pier. There was no one there to greet him; no band to play in his honor. The years he had spent in Africa had taken a physical toll on him, and his body was weak and frail.

As he limped over to the baggage area to claim his bags, he couldn’t help but think how unfair it all was. Here he had given forty years of his life to serving the Lord in Africa, and there wasn’t so much as a single person to meet him on his return.

“Roosevelt goes to Africa for a few weeks, shoots a few water buffalo, and he gets the red carpet treatment when he comes home.” Morrison thought angrily. “I invest my entire life in bringing the Gospel to Africa, and there isn’t a single word of welcome or thanks on my return.”

But then, in the midst of his mounting resentment, a still, small voice spoke to him and said “But Henry - you’re not home yet.”

Today we want to consider the subject of expectations and rewards in the kingdom of heaven. It isn’t the most spiritual question in the world, but at one time or another, when it comes to following Jesus Christ, we all ask the question: “What’s in it for me?”

Jesus’ disciples were no different. In fact, in Matthew 19:27, Peter (who else?) asks him that very question. He says: “We have left everything to follow you! What then will there be for us?”

Jesus gave them an answer that showed that there will be rewards in the kingdom of heaven. He said “You guys are going to sit on twelve thrones and judge the twelve tribes of Israel. And furthermore, if anyone has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or fields for my sake, he will receive a hundred times back.” There are going to be rewards in the kingdom of heaven.

But then Jesus went on to tell them a parable that shows that we’d better not start thinking about the kingdom of heaven strictly in terms of rewards. If we do, we’re in for a surprise! Let’s look at that parable together: It is found in Matthew 20.

There was a landowner who had a vineyard. It was time for the grape harvest - probably sometime around September - and it was important that the grapes be brought in before the rains began. So the landowner needed laborers to work in his vineyard.

Now in those days, when you wanted to hire someone to work for you, you went to the marketplace in town. There, you would find workmen who would be standing around waiting to be hired for the day. The marketplace was like a labor exchange; kind of a union hall where jobs and workers got matched up.

So that’s what the landowner did. He went to the marketplace first thing in the morning, and he found some men to work in his vineyard for the day. He agreed to pay them a denarius, which was the going rate for one day’s work. So off they went to work in the vineyard.

But then as the day wore on, the landowner went back to the marketplace several more times to find more workers. Perhaps he saw that there was more work to be done, or perhaps the clouds were gathering in the sky and he knew that the rainy season was about to begin at any moment.

The first workers would have been hired at the crack of dawn; about 6 a.m. Jesus said that the landowner went back to the marketplace at the third hour (9 a.m.); the sixth hour (12 noon); the ninth hour (3 p.m.); and even the eleventh hour (5 p.m.) - the end of the day.

Notice that the only people he had promised to pay a denarius were the guys he had hired at dawn. They were the only ones who knew for sure what they were going to get paid. And they were obviously satisfied with that amount, because they went willingly to work. A denarius was a fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work. But to all the other workers, he said “Go and work in my vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right..” So, in a sense, they went to work without a contract. They had to rely on the landowner’s integrity and sense of fair play in a way that the first workers did not. But they went willingly to work, because they were glad to be getting something.

Something was better than nothing! They were living in hard economic times - there was a recession. If you were a day-laborer, and you came home from the marketplace with nothing in your pocket, you and your family weren’t going to eat.

Now Jesus said that the landowner even went out at the end of the day, at five o’clock, when there was only about one more hour of work to be done, and hired some more workers. Don’t think because he uses the word “idle” that these guys were lazy. They were not lazy. They had been idle because no one had hired them yet. But instead of giving up and going home, they stayed at the marketplace in the hope that someone would come along to give them even one hour’s work for a fraction of a denarius.

These guys needed work so bad they were willing to do anything to get it, even if it meant waiting all day. So the landowner had compassion on them and he hired them.

Then, at the end of the day, it was time to get paid. That was the Jewish custom in those days; there was even a law that said you have to pay a laborer at sundown; you can’t hold back his pay overnight. So they all lined up to get paid; and the last hired workers were at the front of the line. And they each received a denarius for one hour’s work.

Well, when the early workers saw this, they rubbed their hands with anticipation. They figured that if this landowner was going to pay one denarius for one hour’s work, he’d pay twelve denarii for twelve hours’ work. But when they got up to the front of the line, and looked in their pay envelope and saw one denarius, they were upset!

You can just hear them. “Man, we’ve been sweating out here in the hot sun all day, and all we get is one lousy denarius.” But wait a minute! Back at 6 a.m. when that was exactly the deal that had been proposed by the landowner, they were only too glad to accept! They went happily to the vineyard whistling “Hi Ho! Hi Ho! It’s off to work we go.”

Why were they so ticked off now, at the end of the day? Were they angry because the latecomers had gotten one denarius? Not really. If the landowner wanted to give them a day’s pay for an hour’s work, that was his business. They were upset that they hadn’t gotten more! The landowner’s generosity toward the late workers had led them to believe that the pay scale was going to be based on merit. They assumed that it was all going to be based on performance. But that was a false assumption and that assumption had caused them to forget the original agreement - a day’s work for a day’s pay.

You see the landowner had been just with the early workers, and generous with the late workers. He hadn’t done anything wrong. He had every right to be generous with his money if he wanted to be.

Do you see what Jesus is saying here? He’s saying to his disciples: “Watch out guys! There’s a danger that you might start thinking like this too. After all, you were the first ones to follow me. You were the first ones to come and work in the vineyard. And you’ve been faithful, you’ve hung in there. You’ve been out here in the hot sun with me all this time. But don’t start thinking that that makes you better than anyone else in the kingdom.”

“There are people who are going to come into the kingdom at the eleventh hour, and I’m going to shower out just as much grace on them as I have on you. They are going to be just as much heirs of eternal life as you are.”

That’s because the blessings of the kingdom of heaven are not based on merit. The kingdom of heaven is not a meritocracy. Eternal life is a gift that God bestows on whomever he wishes, whenever he wishes, and he does it by His grace.

So you have young men like John Mark, or Timothy, who became followers of Jesus early in life and went though much hardship and suffering for the Gospel. But then you have the thief on the cross beside Jesus, who led a life of crime until he accepted Christ at the last possible moment - literally, at the eleventh hour.

The operative principle of the kingdom of heaven is not merit, not performance, but grace - God’s grace. When God looks at the human race, he doesn’t see us distributed along a bell curve of worthiness. No, he sees us as we are - and we are all the same. We are all sinners in desperate need of his grace. And his grace has the effect of putting some, whom we would consider only worthy of last place, in first place.

So there was this implicit warning to the disciples: You are the early birds. Don’t be envious of the latecomers. In the kingdom of heaven, seniority doesn’t mean a thing! There’s no early bird bonus! All people are equally precious to God.

But there’s also an implicit warning in this parable to the Jews. The Jews of Jesus’ day had a tendency to look down their noses spiritually at the Gentiles. They wouldn’t associate with them. They regarded them as spiritually inferior. Jesus said “There are a lot of Gentiles who are going to come into the kingdom of God. They may be latecomers as far as you’re concerned, but as far as I’m concerned, they’re right on time. Treat ‘em well.”

And, I believe, there is a lesson for us today in the church. Some of us have been Christians for a long time. We’ve been “laboring in God’s vineyard” for many years. And it’s only natural for us to begin to get a little possessive about our little section of that vineyard. We begin to think about the church as being “our” church. We make the decisions, we hold the reins of power, we’ve made it what it is today. We’ve been there through the good years and the bad years, and so our opinion holds just a little more weight than others.

I know of a church where one man has been the treasurer for forty years. He is a very honest man, and I’m sure he has done a fine job of keeping the financial books in order. No complaint there. But his long tenure has given him an authority he really shouldn’t have over how money is spent in that church.

This man has a very cautious and conservative personality, and whenever projects are proposed that might cost money, he tends to veto them. It’s almost as though they’re spending his money. And because he has been there so long and is so revered and respected in the church, his veto sticks. Many fine and godly people have come and gone through that church frustrated by their inability to get things moving.

When new people come into a church, it’s very hard for the already established members to want to share their authority and influence with them. The oldtimers unconsciously think “Look, when they’ve been here as long as I have, then I’ll be willing to listen to their opinion.”

Imagine if you went to Disney World - the Magic Kingdom. You woke up early and got to the park right at opening time. In fact, you were one of the first people through the gate. But as the day wore on, and the park got crowded, the lines got longer and longer at the individual attractions. There was a 45 min. wait at Pirates of the Caribbean, and a 75 min. wait at Space Mountain, and so on.

Would you have the right, because you arrived early at Disney World, to go in ahead of all those people standing in line? Would you deserve the best seats at the restaurants or the shows? Of course not. Once you’re in the park, you’re all the same. It doesn’t matter when you get there. You’re all equals.

It’s the same way with the church. We must never forget that this is God’s church, not ours. It’s his kingdom, not ours. It’s his vineyard, not ours. Every person who becomes part of the kingdom of heaven comes in because Jesus Christ paid his admission. Every one of them is important. We’re all here because of God’s grace. Grace is the great equalizer. So let’s not fall prey to that devastating tendency to compare our worth with others in the Body of Christ.

Sure there will be rewards in heaven, but the greatest reward of all will be simply to be there.