Sermonette: Should we get what we deserve?

Grumbling seems to be a part of our human nature. We see it way back in the Old Testament, when the Israelites grumbled, telling Moses they would have been better off if they had stayed slaves in Egypt. In chapter 20 of Matthew’s gospel, Jesus tells the parable of the vineyard workers and there is lots of grumbling there too! They grumble because they are convinced that they are not getting what they deserve. Their gripe is made clear in verse 10, where we read, “They thought they would receive more.”

Clint Eastwood was in a movie back in the early 90s called "Unforgiven." Eastwood plays a gun-slinging loner who rides into a Western town to settle some scores. Those of you familiar with Clint Eastwood’s westerns won’t be surprised that the film ends up in a violent confrontation, this time between his character and a wayward sheriff played by Gene Hackman.

At the climax of the film, when Eastwood has the sheriff cornered, Hackman’s character says, “I don’t deserve this.”

Yeah, maybe he’s a bit crooked, but for the most part he’s worked hard, he’s done a decent job, he’s built a good life. He just doesn’t deserve to have things end this way. Clint Eastwood replies, in a voice as dry as a sun-scorched desert, “Deserving’s got nothing to do with it.”

Maybe Clint Eastwood’s character knows something of Jesus’ parable lesson!

This parable of the vineyard workers is one of the strangest and hardest and, I think, most important of all the parables Jesus tells. Jesus and Clint Eastwood are inviting us to ask – Should we get what we deserve?

But before we go there, let’s unpack the key details of the story.

The first character is the person who owns the vineyard. We don’t know much about him, but we can assume that since he is a landowner, he’s probably doing pretty well in life. The other characters are the day laborers, and they live at pretty much the other end of the economic ladder. They are not destitute, but they are close.

When the parable starts, the owner of the vineyard needs some help. So, he goes into town at dawn to hire some workers, agreeing with them on a daily wage of one denarius, about the amount it takes to feed a family for a day.

As the day goes on, it turns out that the landowner needs more help, so he goes out again at nine in the morning and tells some more laborers that if they work, he’ll pay them what is right. And then he goes out again at noon, and then once more at 3:00 in the afternoon, and finally one last time at 5 p.m. And then, at 6:00 in the evening, he tells his manager to settle up with all the workers, and the ones who started at 5 p.m. are to be first in line to be paid. And when the 5 p.m. workers show up, they receive a full day’s wage. That’s right. They’ve worked just one hour but get paid for 12. We can imagine they are not just surprised but overjoyed.

And maybe the only people happier than them are those workers at the back of the line who were hired first. They worked 12 hours and just saw the dudes who only worked one hour get a full day’s wage. But when they show up to be paid, they also get a single denarius. And that doesn’t seem fair. They worked for twelve hours, enduring, as they understandably grumble, the scorch of the sun all day long. The Scripture says – they thought they would receive more.

Now, I mentioned earlier that I think this parable is one of the strangest, hardest and most important of Jesus’ parables. It’s strange because we naturally, almost instantly, identify with the characters that seemingly come out on the short end of the stick. I mean, I get why they’re angry. Don’t you?

And yet when they complain, the vineyard owner pretty much puts them in their place. “Friend, I am doing you no wrong. I’m paying you exactly what we agreed to. If I want to pay someone else more, what is that to you?” He then goes a little further, questioning their motives, even their character, “Or are you envious because I am generous?”

Ouch. Ugh. Dang. Yes. I guess so.

OK – fine. The landowner is right. But here’s the thing: no matter what the landowner says, no matter that we know technically that he’s right, it is his money and he has a right to do with it as he pleases. It still bothers me. Does it bother you?

Yah, and that’s why this parable isn’t just strange, but also hard. It’s hard because everything we know about life in this world tells us this isn’t fair. Whatever the contract was, the ones who worked all day deserve more.

So, it’s hard, but maybe this is why this parable is so important because it illustrates for us that God’s ways are not our ways; God’s standard is way, way, way higher than ours. Thank God. Clearly, Jesus isn’t telling us a parable about this world as it is, he’s telling us a parable of the kingdom of God, that is, of the world as God intends it to be. The workers who showed up first had judged themselves more worthy than those who came at 5 p.m. God’s standard is a kingdom where we don’t earn our reward. God’s kingdom is one of extravagant generosity, completely apart from worthiness.

In this parable, the master upends all our norms, and we are left so baffled by such generosity that we end up grumbling, thinking we think we should receive more. We don’t know what to do when the normal earthly comparisons of worthiness are not in play.

But God’s kingdom is not ours. It is one of grace though Jesus, it is beyond us. From our earthly perspective, grace confuses the system, upends the worthiness measure. We want to get what we deserve. We want to see others get what they deserve. We like to be able to measure all of it. But Jesus tells us that in God’s infinite mercy, that’s not at all how it works. It is not about us and what we do. It is about Jesus and what he has done. It is all about the generosity, mercy and grace of our God.

Should we get what we deserve? Maybe. Probably. Do we get what we deserve? No, thank God.