Word of Salvation – Vol. 26 No. 08 – November 1979
The Triumph Of Grace
Sermon by Rev. Keith Moerman on Mat.20:8
Scripture Reading: Mat.19:23-30 and Mat.20:1-16
Psalter Hymnal: 72:1,3 and 5; 55:2 and 4 (Law); 425:all; 380:all; 170:4 (dox)
Congregation of the GREAT PAYMASTER, Jesus Christ,
I do not think that Bob Hawke would have much appreciation for the parable we just read. And do not to talk about the John Halfpennys and the Carmichaels of the labour movements.
The union-man on the job would gladly beat a few drums and make a lot of noise if – what we read – would actually happen in our day and age. Just imagine: the one who works almost 12 long hours (and that means overtime and all), receiving THE SAME MONEY in his pay-packet as the one who just worked ONE measly, small, hour – hardly dirtying his hands. The war cry would go up: INJUSTICE..!
Is there no longer consideration for long hours of work and sweat, is there no remuneration or seniority for the ‘old-timer”? Does faithful service then amount to NOTHING?
Oh, in the climate of industrial relationships our parable doesn’t make any sense whatsoever. It’s probably just good enough FOR A BIG LAUGH.
But… in the SPIRITUAL realm? In our service to God or Church? Does seniority play any role? Does my more-mature Christian faith, or my many long years of service to the Lord give me entitlement (a right) to greater rewards? Do I have an interest-bearing account – so to speak? The more I do for God the higher my credits? And if so, HOW and at WHAT rate is the interest (the reward) calculated?
The disciples of Jesus were greatly interested in knowing these things. “After all”, as Peter their spokesman said, “Lord, we have left EVERYTHING and followed You; is there SOMETHING in this ‘bargain’ for us? What then shall WE have?”
Doesn’t the same question come to our mind at times? Lord, we want to be different from the world, for YOUR Name’s sake. But, really it can be so difficult at times. For the world appeals to us so MUCH: It glitters and it sparkles. It promises ‘tons’ of fun. But for YOUR sake, we don’t. What’s in it for US, Do WE get something in return?”
Or again: “I have faithfully served You, Lord, for many years. I have given up my free evenings. I went out to serve you as an elder, a deacon, a youth-worker. I was busy with the work for the Christian School, or other Kingdom work, Lord, I did NOT put up my feet in front of the T.V. Set… And now, Lord? What’s in it for me?”
Let us look at our parable, using the theme: THE TRIUMPH OF GRACE.
An old retired minister writes in his memoires about a visit he made as a young minister of 24, in his first congregation. He was called to visit a man in his late seventies, and . . . dying. When he came close to the house he could hear through the open windows the old man calling out, “I AM LOST. I AM LOST FOR ETERNITY – TOO LATE FOR ME”. Over and again in monotonous repetition the man was calling out the same: I AM LOST!
The young minister tried his best, but after a while he left in deep despair with that horrible feeling that he was not able to do anything at all. And for many years, he writes, that horrible confession was following me all around: LOST FOR ETERNITY… AND:.. TOO LATE…!
The old man had lived a most sinful life, and resisted God. And now at 5 to 12 he did not dare to plead for forgiveness and hope and grace. TOO LATE FOR HIM, he thought, and he screamed it out.
But then, the minister continues, ‘a man will NEVER be lost because of his sin but… because of his UNBELIEF!’ Never because of sin. For we ALL have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. And that’s precisely WHY once upon a time there was a cross on that lonely hill: TO TAKE SINS AWAY – TO PAY FOR IT. But then even IF at 2 seconds to 12, if he KNEW he was a sinner and REPENTED, “I like to think”, the minister writes, “that the triumph of God’s grace COULD have carried this man HOME.”
The Master-Storyteller comes to us once again with one of His wonderful, but penetrating parables, TO DRIVE HOME the TRUTH of God’s UNLIMITED GRACE. The Biblical truth that the Lord’s pay is not a hire, an entitlement, not a wage of deserving, BUT A GIFT OF BOUNTY and ABUNDANCE.
The parable brings us to the sphere of the labour market. There are workers, an employer, the unemployed and PLENTY of WORK WAITING IN THE VINEYARD. There is talk about award wages and rates of pay.
The Kingdom of Heaven is like a Householder, who went out early in the morning to hire labourers for his vineyard. He agreed with those whom he hired for a denarius a day. A denarius (about 20 cents) and at that time, a good wage for a FULL DAY’S work. It was the usual pay and by BOTH parties accepted.
Just remember that it is THE HOUSEHOLDER, THE OWNER, who went to the labour market to find men. And the men were WAITING there; waiting for WORK; waiting for LIFE. And the day’s wages made ALL the difference for him and his family of being fed, or going hungry. No dole cheques in those days. WAGES or NOTHING. So the HOUSEHOLDER looked for MEN and gave them LIFE, a living…!
And EARLY IN THE MORNING, He came looking. What a wonderful future do ALL young boys and girls have who love the Lord Jesus Christ ALREADY AT AN EARLY AGE. They all have a BLESSED and HAPPY FUTURE ahead of them. They can look forward to a WHOLE LONG DAY of satisfying work and service IN A GOOD PLACE, FOR A GOOD MASTER…. and…. ON GOOD CONDITIONS.
If the Householder has come to the marketplace at an early hour in your life – say as a young boy or girl, a teenager or so – BE THANKFUL TO HIM FOR INVITING YOU TO WORK IN HIS VINEYARD; to give you employment in His Kingdom. And He will give you a good reward. And you do not need to have any anxiety for the rest of your life. WAGES ARE ASSURED.
And He went out to the labour-market at the third hour, and again at the sixth and the ninth. And even when the working day was almost over; at
hour,
the eleventh hour. He went out again ‘and hired some who were standing idle.’ Shall we say that sometimes the Great Householder comes to the labour-market of our life at different times? If we have wasted our youth, and a quarter of the time of our life has gone-by already, then it is grace if the Householder comes back, and invites us again TO START WORKING, TO STOP IDLENESS and LOAFING AROUND…! For some the call may come at the sixth hour (middle-age?), or the ninth. But it is getting later and later. Are you 50 or 60 and still have not responded to the call of the Great Householder? Is it the 11th hour and are you still idle? Come and join Me in the vineyard, and I shall give you what is right.
You know what this parable is teaching me? That GOD is looking for PEOPLE. God walks the labour-market of this world and invites those who are doing nothing. That is, those who are NOT YET SPIRITUALLY COMMITTED. He asks them to come and to work, to be happy, and to be saved. GOD is searching for the LOST, for the STRAYED, for the UNEMPLOYED, for the BROKENHEARTED ones. GOD is looking for that covenant-child who has drifted away and is uncommitted as yet. GOD LOOKS FOR HIM…!
God is looking for people, for labourers. Not because He needs labourers, BUT. because He doesn’t want to see them idle. Because He is so concerned, and filled with compassion for them…. compassion for man, His handiwork.
In another parable it was God searching for people that His House be filled: God sending His messengers to the highways and the byways searching: “Come in Simon, and you too Peter, and Harry what about you, and Mary?? Come, that the great wedding feast may begin.” And here in our parable it is the Great Householder walking the market-places of the world, the labour exchange, the unemployment offices to see whether some might still be idle.
And there ARE. Millions of them. In Asia and in Europe, in Australia and in Africa. IDLE ….DOING NOTHING.
It is amazing that ALL those who are NOT committed yet to Jesus Christ that THEY are looked upon as being IDLE. All their running around, all their hustle and bustle will bring them nowhere. In the sight of God they are IDLE, WASTING their time doing no SPIRITUAL GOOD DOING ‘NOTHING’.
Till we serve God, we are idlers, wasting our time and talents. And it is God’s grace, His infinite pity which makes Him go out to the market places, even at late hours. Not for HIS sake, but for THEIRS…’ – Come into the vineyard, take up your tools and serve Me. And I will give you what is right!
“WHY ARE YOU IDLE? UNCOMMITTED?
Are there some among you here in the church, today?
Are you not employed yet by the Great Householder….? Why? He HAS called you in!
What’s the good of being idle? There is so much to do in the vineyard. Start to prune the vines, or better still let your own life be pruned by the Great Householder. Let the weeds of your life be killed that you may start to bear fruit and IN ABUNDANCE.
“While He proffers peace, (remuneration) and pardon.
Let us hear His voice today.
Lest if we our hearts should harden,
we should perish in the way.”
What time is it on the clock of YOUR life? Is it still early in the morning? You better go in and answer the call to work. A most satisfying labour and a gracious reward will be yours.
What time is it? Have you wasted, maybe a quarter or even half of your life already?
Is it perhaps the 11th hour? Maybe you do not know. But whatever: DO NOT remain idle…. Get to work…. and there is so much to be done. The harvest is plenty…. and the day may soon end.
The day for the labourers came TO A CLOSE. Tools were packed and they lined up for the pay-packet. But…. the Lord of the Vineyard, whose manner of hiring had been so strange – for He hired them at ALL hours of the day – His manner of payment is even more strange. Those who came first and worked a whole long day, they are served last. And the last ones, who’d hardly been in…. are paid FIRST. And then (Oh no, that MUST be wrong), they are ALL paid the SAME: ONE DENARIUS – whether they had worked and laboured for 12 long hours in the heat of the day, or whether they’d just walked in at 5 o’clock – so to speak – to just pick up their pay-packet; they ALL receive the same.
Before we join the rank of the wincers and the grumblers, let us look at one or two points. WHAT would have happened to ALL, if the Householder WOULD NOT have picked them from the market-places? They still would have been idle. Right? They would have suffered hunger, starvation. They would have died with no money to support themselves.
In the spiritual realm. They would have been shabby, poor, miserable, subject to death, ETERNAL death. Not being able to keep themselves for TIME nor for ETERNITY.
BUT the Great Householder decided to ELECT them. O yes, election comes here into the picture. The Great Householder (amazing grace) picked them up from the market-places of the world. The Householder gave them LIFE, WAGES, SECURITY and HAPPINESS…!
And so He does from the abundance of His goodness and mercy to ALL whom He picked up from the market-places. And to ALL He gives the same reward, the same wage: THE ALL-SUFFICIENCY. A wage not based on the rate of merit. But paid on the scale of GRACE, AMAZING grace – Even the GRACE OF ETERNAL LIFE and HAPPINESS. And can there be more than that?
AMAZING GRACE – freely given to that grey-haired man who served the Lord with dedication for many, many long years, sometimes with great troubles and pain. But ‘amazing grace’ also given to that little girl or boy whom the Lord takes to Himself at an age even before the child can say: “I love you, Jesus”. No SCALE of MERIT…. but an abundance of GRACE…! And, therefore, we see one man called to repentance and faith at an early age, like Timothy for instance, and labouring for 40 or 50 years. And we see the thief on the cross, called at the 11th hour, and plucked like a brand out of the fire. BOTH are equally forgiven. BOTH are washed clean in Jesus’ blood. BOTH are justified and ROBED in white apparel, BOTH will be found at Jesus RIGHT hand on that last day, DUE, THANKS to the TRIUMPH OF GOD’S GRACE…!
It leaves the hard-worker, the self-righteous one, the elder with 20 years of service NO ROOM TO BOAST. The church-worker with many years of unselfish service has no case to look down on others.
This parable is a levelling, humbling sort of an experience. ALL IN THE SAME LINE. ALL need grace. ALL can live by grace alone.
ALL are picked up from the labour-market. ALL were shabby, poor, miserable idlers. ALL were in need of LIFE, of FORGIVENESS.
“Call the labourers and pay them their WAGES”.
Please God, do NOT give me my WAGES to which I am entitled. For THE WAGES of SIN IS DEATH….!
Please God, do NOT give me my WAGES, for even in my service to You there was (is) so much of myself….!
Please God, do not give me my WAGES. For I have refused, I have wasted so much time BEFORE I was willing to enter the vineyard and work.
Please God, do NOT give me my WAGES, for I am entitled to NOTHING but DEATH.
But give me GRACE instead – an abundance of Your grace. ALLOW me to enter into Your vineyard, and use me…. use EVEN me, and grant me the thrill, the joy of your service.
Give me GRACE, YOUR GIFT…. (undeserved favour). Let me travel on the triumph of Your Grace.
And then, when the day will have come to an end; ALL the work in the world will have been done; the Kingdom IS established, and the scorching heat of the day is over, then YOU who have come, YOU who answered the call to go into the vineyard, you will stand together with the GREAT PAYMASTER in the coolness of the evening time…!
And you, and you, and you and I, WE ALL shall stand with EMPTY hands, or even with our shabbiness, our sins, our shortcomings, our failures in the service of God.
And now: GOD’S SURPRISE, – Made possible THROUGH JESUS CHRIST.
‘Well done, you good and faithful servant’. Well done? I? You? Well done, and enter into the joy of everlasting life and perfect service. The VINEYARD of our work has turned into a PARADISE. A PARADISE with God, the Light, the Sun, the Joy forever and ever….!
Amen.