The Last Will Be First

Matthew 20:1-16

In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Matthew 20:15-16 “’Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with my own things?  Or is your eye evil because I am good?’  So the last will be first, and the first last.  For many are called, but few chosen.”

Dear fellow redeemed in Christ our Lord… “So the last will be first, and the first last.  For many are called, but few chosen.”  Surprise, surprise!  The kingdom of God is not about fairness!  Surprise, surprise; the kingdom of God is not about equity, it is not even about normal common sense.

The fair thing, the obvious thing, the decent thing is “First come, first served.”  The world in which we live today is so overly concerned with being “fair” that we don’t want to leave anyone out; we don’t want to favor any one particular person or group over another, not even if that person is the best qualified for the job, not even if that particular group (be it a construction company or whatever) is the best qualified for the job.  No.  We must have quotas; we must hire this many minorities; we must have a cabinet that looks like America (whatever that is supposed to mean).

So also in the church.  We must not speak harshly about the gross errors and false doctrines that are running rampant in many Christian circles today; that’s not being nice, that’s not being “fair, for all roads lead to heaven, you know.”  And worst of all, we must not turn anyone away from the Lord’s Table if that person really believes in Jesus, let alone the fact that the person’s public confession of faith may be aligned with a belief system that denies the real presence of Christ in the Lord’s Supper.  No, we’ve got to be inclusive and fair.

The cold, hard truth is that fairness is not a Godly thing.  The kingdom of God is not the kingdom of fairness.  The kingdom of fairness is ruled with an iron fist by Satan.  It is the kingdom of Hell which is ruled by the exact science of Newton’s principles of retribution: for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.  For every sin there is a punishment.  The fair wages of sin is death.  In Hell it is always “First come, first served.”

And yet, our constant complaint has been against the lack of fairness in this world; never mind the fact that this chaos and turmoil in which we live is the product of our own sin.  For when you get right down to it, we are not complaining day in and day out about truly great injustices and tragedies in our world.  Instead we grumble and complain because other people seem to be having more fun, other people seem to  have nicer stuff, other people are better looking and more talented than we.  We daydream about being suddenly and extravagantly rich – and you can be if you throw your money away by playing the lottery and winning it, or if you can answer 15 simple questions on “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?”

We are certain that if we were rich and powerful, we would use our money and power for good.  OK, Fine.  But what happens when other people prosper?  Why, that’s not fair!  We act like children on Halloween with their goody bags strewn all over the floor and fighting over a single piece of candy.  And, of course, you know the mother’s trick for precisely dividing treats – one child divides, the other picks, and not even NASA can cut with laser beams any more precise than that!

Fairness is a big hairy monster; it causes us to grumble and complain to and about God.  We want to be better looking, we want to be stronger, we want to be smarter, and we want to be richer.  We want to have more stuff and more money than we do.  But all of that is really our own dissatisfaction with what God, in His ultimate and eternal wisdom, has given to us.  We are not content with what God wants us to have and what He has already given us.

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They show us ourselves.  And as we see ourselves in them we also must come to understand that God does know what He is doing!  He is God, we are not!  And the sooner we come to grips with that, the happier we will be.  We need a refresher course in the Small Catechism reviewing the meaning to the First Article of the Creed where we confess that we “believe that God has made me and all creatures, that He has given me my body and soul, eyes, ears, and all my members, my reason and all my senses, and still takes care of them.  He also gives me clothing and shoes, food and drink, house and home, wife and children, land, animals, and all I have.  He richly and daily provides me with all that I need to support this body and life.  He defends me against all danger and guards and protects me from all evil.  All this He does only out of Fatherly, divine goodness and mercy, without any merit or worthiness in me.  For all this is it my duty to thank and praise, serve and obey Him.  This is most certainly true.”

Thanks be to God that he is NOT fair!  His kingdom does NOT run on fairness!  Instead, it is first come, last served.  Jesus Christ, the First-born, the One by whom all things came to be, “did not come to be served but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many.”  It is not fair that He should serve us; it is not fair that He should suffer and die for our sins in our place, but He did.  His kingdom is not about fairness.  His kingdom is about grace.  And the greatest injustice of all time – the execution of our innocent Lord Jesus Christ – is how He gives His undeserved love.  It is not fair.  It is grace.

And that is ultimately the simple but profound point of today’s parable.  The vineyard owner overpays; he pays more than his employees deserve.  It is hard for us to imagine any employer every paying his workers so foolishly, but that is exactly the case in this parable.

It is typical for the characters in our Lord’s parable, especially the ones who represent Him and His Father, to behave in a seemingly outrageous and foolish manner.  That is because the wisdom of God confounds man’s wisdom.  However foolish he may appear, the vineyard owner is not stupid; he knows exactly what he is doing.  It is not stupidity that causes him to overpay, it is generosity.

The lesson or point of comparison of the parable then is that God is gracious and extravagantly generous.  He gives us His own Son whom we did not deserve and had no right to demand.  Though He is the Father’s beloved Son and His most precious possession, He gives Him over to death that we might live.  God is not stupid; He knows full well the cost of our salvation; and He paid it willingly.  Indeed, this is His good and gracious will – He pays us not according to the work we have performed but according to the abundance of His mercy.

And so consider pay day.  We go to the line and there we see a crowd gathered together.  God is recklessly bestowing great things on these people.  Some who are gathered there are notorious and terrible sinners; they are the worst: adulterers, murderers, drunkards, blasphemers.  Rejoice, O sinner, that you are counted as one of them!  Rejoice and give thanks for this great mystery, that God is merciful, He is loving, He is kind, He is patient, He is steadfast, He is faithful.  He loves to forgive!  He gives His Son’s righteousness to you.

Therefore do not look to your own works; do not look to the sins of others.  Look to the mercy of Almighty God who comes to you in the flesh of His Son Jesus Christ.  Rejoice that you are not alone but in the company of great and terrible people, sinners like you – sinners who have been brought out of that terrible bondage and into life!  Rejoice that it is NOT fair.  Rejoice that the wages paid are NOT what you have earned nor are they a reward for what you have done.  Rejoice that you receive what God chooses willingly to give to you, His lavish and unfailing love.

Come this day to His Table and receive what He desires to give to you – His very body and blood given and shed for you for the forgiveness of all your sins.  Come as a beggar, for you have no right to make demands here.  Come and receive what your Lord desires you to have.  He treats you not as a hired hand but as a beloved son.  He pays with life and salvation, He pays with forgiveness of sins, He pays with unity and peace in Him.  It is the wages He has determined for you from eternity.  It is the inheritance of the baptized.

That, dearly beloved, is Grace.  Come; it is what He wants to give you.

In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.