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September 21, 2008
“An Outrageous Parable and More”
Matthew 19: 27 – 20:16
preached on September 21st, 2008
As a new resident of the State of Indiana, I am trying to observe and understand unique Hoosier customs. But I am not always finding this to be an easy task.
Last night seems to have been “party night” in my neighborhood. Across the street there was a birthday party for a little girl. As part of the festivities, there was a Piñata. Having lived in a place with lots of Hispanic folks, a piñata was not new to me, but the way it was suspended was. The Piñata was suspended from a clothesline, but each end of the clothesline was held by a person standing on the roof of an SUV. Is this the standard method of suspending piñatas in Indiana?
The people who live in the house behind mine were hosting a party for several teenaged girls. After a while the girls spilled out the back door and they began to play baseball. At least that’s what I thought it was. But they were playing with a length of PCV pipe and water balloons. Is this a Hoosier version of baseball?
You see, it is very important that we understand the customs of the people we are living with, or whom we are reading about.
All of Jesus parables are based on the customs and ordinary practices of the his day and place. They were based on the way shepherds and farmers and others generally operated. Some parables used these practices and customs to describe ordinary events and then said that these ordinary events were like the kingdom of God in some way. The parable of the Sower is one of these ordinary stories. It described the normal actions of a planter and the normal growth process of a normal crop in Palestine.
The parable we have before us this morning is what I would call an extraordinary or outrageous parable. In this parable of the hiring farmer we see many of the ordinary practices of farmers of Jesus’ day as they would hire extra help to bring in the crops.
Those who needed day jobs would rise early in the morning and go to the marketplace before the sun came up. Those needing to hire workers would also go and hire the people they needed. The work day began at sunrise.
Sometimes the hiring farmers would return to the marketplace as the day progressed if they needed more workers, and sometimes there would still be people there waiting to be hired.
We see these ordinary customs setting the stage for this parable. In this parable, a farmer went to the marketplace before sunrise and hired a group of laborers to work the entire day in his vineyard. He agreed to pay them a denarius for their day’s work. As our translation informs us, the Roman coin called a denarius was the “usual daily wage” for a day’s worth of labor.
As sometimes happened, the farmer in Jesus parable went back to the marketplace throughout the day to hire more workers. He went at 9:00 and again at noon and hired more people. He did not promise to pay them any specified amount for their nine hours our six hours of labor. He simply said he would pay them “whatever is right”.
This is where the story begins to get unusual. The farmer went again to the marketplace at 3:00 in the afternoon to hire some more workers for the 3 hours that remained of the working day. To hire people at this hour was not unheard of, but it was not the normal practice.
He went again and hired more people at 5:00, when there was only one more hour to work. This would have been unheard of. The people who were hired at 3 and 5 are only promised to be paid “whatever is right”.
Now the parable returns to normalcy for a while. It was customary and even necessary to pay all day laborers at the end of the day. Jewish law required this because some of the workers would need that money to buy food for their families to eat that evening.
But the way in which the payments took place is outrageous. In this parable, the last hired are paid first. I think it would be normal to pay the all day workers first, and the latecomers last.
But in this parable, the latecomers are paid first. And they are paid outrageously. They are paid the full amount that had been promised to the all day workers. So are the 3 hour workers, the 6 hour workers and the 9 hour workers. The all day laborers are paid the same amount, the amount that the farmer had promised to pay them at the beginning of the day. They are outraged. Surely their all day labors should be worth more than the few hours of those who were paid the same.
The all day laborers began to complain. They probably would not be the only ones. I can imagine that once the word of these payments got out the other farmers and others who hired day laborers would also be complaining. After all, if this guy continued this practice, what would motivate the workers to be ready to work all day at sunrise? Who wouldn’t wait till 5pm and get the full day’s wage? This farmer could ruin the entire economy of the village.
But the vinyard owner had an explanation. He had decided to mix his generosity in with his just payments. The all day workers where not cheated. They were paid a good wage. The owner decided to be generous with the others and pay them more than they deserved. The all day workers couldn’t really protest an act of injustice. They had been fairly paid for their labors. Their problem was jealousy. They were jealous of those who were paid the same as they were for much less work. Which kinda makes you wonder if at least some of the times we yell about injustices in this world we are really just jealous.
Jesus had started this outrageous story by saying that this story was like the kingdom of heaven. He also started and ended the parable with the line “The first will be last and the last will be first”.
These statements and this parable describe the outrageous generosity of God that is planned into the kingdom of God. It is a kingdom that in one sense gives all its citizens the greatest gift of all. All of its citizens receive full forgiveness for all our sins. Now for some of us that is a larger account than for others of us. But for all of us this is way more than we could have expected. The Son of God died to give us entrance into heaven. And that is the gift God gives to all believers regardless of how long they served him in this life.
This is really good news for those who have not yet believed. And it is really good news for those who love someone who has not yet believed. As long as they are alive, it is not too late to believe and be full beneficiaries of the kingdom of God. Keep after them and keep praying for them.
But as outrageously as this parable portrays the kingdom of God, it only tells half the story. Before Jesus told this story he had an en encounter with a rich young man who asked Jesus what he must do to enter eternal life. Jesus told him to obey the 10 commandments. He said he had. Then Jesus told him to sell all he had and give the proceeds to the poor. He couldn’t, so as he walked away, Jesus told the apostles that it was more difficult for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God than for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle. Then he said that though this is impossible, it is possible with God’s help.
Then Peter raised the issue that begins our scripture reading. Since the subject was wealth and those who couldn’t give it up, Peter wanted to know about those who like himself had given up much to follow Jesus. Peter said “Look, we have left everything and followed you. What then will we have?”
Jesus said they will get their reward “at the renewal of all things” which means “in the kingdom”. The final stage of the kingdom of God IS the renewal of all things; The re-creation of heaven and earth; The reestablishment of the Garden of Eden on a much grander scale.
Jesus said that when that final kingdom comes, there will be in it a throne for each one of the 12 apostles.
He also said that as to Peters sacrificing his “everything” for Jesus, “everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or fields, for my name’s sake will receive a hundredfold, and will inherit eternal life.
Let me just pause here a moment and call your attention to that verse and ask you to read it to yourself before you fill out the pledge card that Faith Church sent you recently. At 100 times eventual return, your gifts to God’s church are not really gifts, they are probably the best investments you will ever make.
Now lets get back to the main message. We already observed God’s generosity in making latecomers full participants in the kingdom and even making some of them of first priority in the kingdom. Then we looked at Jesus’ response to Peter and saw that he promised a 100 fold reimbursement on all that we give up to serve him.
What an outrageously generous God we have! He rewards those who sacrifice for him and he makes a first priority of those who come last. God is so generous to us that none of us should be jealous of any others.
Let us pray,
Almighty God, help us to appreciate, enjoy, and look forward to your marvelous, outrageous generosity. Amen
Pastor David Horner
Faith Presbyterian Church
West Lafayette, IN 47906
Posted by faithpres at September 21, 2008 03:21 PM