The Parable of the Vineyard Owner
Don’t look for the world’s justice in God’s kingdom. What passes for justice in this world lacks the grace and mercy of our Lord. God rules by grace and mercy, which the Parable of the Vineyard Owner clearly shows us.
In the parable, God doesn’t understand a day’s pay for a day’s work. He doesn’t seem to want to give what someone deserves. The Lord doesn’t repay according to someone’s deeds. He doesn’t deal with us as we deal with one another. He doesn’t treat us as our sins deserve. He doesn’t add up all our good works and measure out reward in payment.
Most of all, Jesus doesn’t want to us to suffer in eternity for our sins. That’s why our Lord doesn’t show justice in the way the world sees justice. The world wants revenge, but our Lord takes the cross and nails. The world wants the punishment to fit the crime. But our Lord–who has committed no crime–has taken what you deserve, even that of the whole world, in His body on the cross.
Our Lord is generous, forgiving, and kind. He repays what is wicked with what is good. He doesn’t seek the death of a sinner. Instead, our Lord found perfect joy when, on the cross, He showed mercy to a world that hated Him.
So don’t look for worldly justice in God’s kingdom. Heaven is overflowing with His mercy, not justice. In heaven, Jesus Christ has freed murderers, drug dealers, incorrigible children, and even you from all the burdens of your sins. In God’s kingdom is a Savior who has given His life for the world, a Savior who suffered the Father’s rejection because of your sins He took into Himself.
Christ’s death for you on the cross has earned the mercy the Father will lavish on you. Justice for Jesus means mercy for you. Christ has wiped all your sins away by His innocent suffering and death. That’s the only reason you can live God’s eternal presence and bask in your Savior’s love. Beyond the heavenly gates, there is no worldly justice, for the Lord’s mercy fills heaven until heaven can contain no more.
When the Lord sends His Church into the world, He doesn’t send her to dispense worldly justice. There’s no firing range at the baptismal font. Pastors are not police officers or prosecuting attorneys. God does not intend His Church to make and enforce the laws of men.
Instead, the Church is the mouth-house of the Lord’s mercy. The Church is God’s hospital dispensing out the Lord’s mercy. The justice of the world is tit-for-tat. Our justice system is supposed to punish crime and reward virtuous deeds. But God our Father doesn’t want to punish you at all. Why should He? That’s why Jesus became human and died your death.
In heaven, our Lord uses no scales of justice to balance your good deeds against your evil ones, to see if you make the cut into His kingdom. The Lord has sent His Son to the cross to destroy those scales. Jesus went to the cross to forgive your sins and win life and salvation for you. So whenever Jesus gives you anything, He gives you everything: life, salvation, and even His own body and blood.
That’s why earthy wisdom doesn’t overflow from our Lord’s parables. For life under God’s kingly reign is not like life in this world. No earthly king could ever afford to be as generous as your Savior. God ignores the ways of Wall Street and Main Street. Jesus didn’t go to business school. He didn’t worry over profit margins and losses. He didn’t bicker trying to get a bargain in the marketplace. In truth, accounting counted so little to Jesus that He picked a thief named Judas to keep His books.
The Parable of the Vineyard Owner shows us what the kingdom of heaven is like. It’s not like the kingdoms of the world, for the King of Heaven is not like the kings, presidents, or prime ministers of this evil age. The Lord is lavishly generous with His gifts. In the parable, the Lord gives what He promises–and He pays no one according to his deeds. The Lord only gives.
Some of you were baptized while still infants. You entered the vineyard when you were just a few days or weeks old. As God brought you into His vineyard, He promised you eternal life and salvation. You have never known a day outside your Savior’s forgiving love. You’ve always known the comfort of the Gospel. You’ve learned from the time that you could first speak that Jesus has forgiven all your sins.
Some of you came into the vineyard a little later, at the 3rd hour. He found you in the marketplace. You heard the saving Word of the Gospel from a friend, a family member, or a coworker. You came from the marketplace to the vineyard. And the owner of the vineyard promised to give you whatever was right.
Some of you came even later, at the 6th or the 9th hour. And some of you may have come even later, at the 11th hour, when the years left for you are few and meager. And to you, God has said the same word that He has said to the others: “Come and work in my vineyard! I will give you what is right.”
Notice what the Lord doesn’t say. He doesn’t use the word “pay.” Instead, He “gives” to them. He does not “pay” them. He gives to them as He promises. That’s why the Lord does not keep a time card for you. You don’t punch in or out. God allows no such bookkeeping when you are under His kingly reign.
For our Lord isn’t a worldly landowner. He cares little for profit margins. He wants you in the vineyard because that’s where you receive His mercy. For the Lord of Life keeps only one book–and in His Book of Life He only makes entries in the credit column!
God the Father now counts nothing against you because Christ’s blood has blotted out all the debt of your sin. This gift of wiping your debt of sin away was given to you by the Holy Spirit working through Christ’s Word and Sacraments.
People loved by God, hear the Word of the Lord! The vineyard of the Lord is the house of Israel, and you, dear Christians, are His pleasant planting. If you are in His vineyard, He doesn’t eternally reward one child and punish another. He doesn’t keep records to pay an hourly wage. Whether you came in during the 1st hour or the 11th, the Lord gives you exactly what He has said He would give. He gives to you as He has promised. He takes your sin and gives you His holiness on its place.
Yet, sadly, we are often so ungrateful that we still grumble against our Lord. Our grumbling says the generous owner of the vineyard hasn’t been generous enough. Our grumbling insists that we, who deserve nothing, deserve more.
And so we continue to grumble, complain, and whine because we remain dissatisfied, ungrateful, and lazy. For we are like those workers who think the vineyard owner is acting, not from mercy, but from justice. And we want what we feel God owes us. Oh, how much trouble our feelings get us into with God. We demand what we think is fair treatment. We demand that He give us what we think we are owed.
Beware of what you demand from the Lord! Beware of being your own lawyer–especially in the Lord’s vineyard. A vineyard is not where lawyers practice. A church is not a courthouse. Demanding justice and fairness mandates the vineyard owner to set sympathy and mercy aside. Do you realize what you are saying when you grumble in such a way? Think about it.
Beware of turning God into a judge who gives only what you deserve. For He has already pronounced a judgment on your behalf. As the judge, He had already decided to set your sin aside, to sacrifice His Son instead, and to send you His Holy Spirit. As the judge, He has already decided to save your life.
If you know what’s best for you, you don’t want a God who deals with you as He should, who deals with you as you deserve. You want a God who deals with you in mercy. You want the Owner of the vineyard!
The Lord gives what He promises. His gifts are beyond anything we could ever earn or deserve. Although we might earn our wages, we don’t earn gifts. None of us open a birthday present and say, “This is just what I’ve earned and deserved by my hard work!” The gift comes because the giver of the gift cares for you.
Remember, the Parable of the Vineyard Owner. That parable never mentions the vineyard owner paying the workers. That’s because He doesn’t pay. He gives! He gives what He promises. He is generous and loving. You are blessed, indeed, that His way is not the way of the world. His way is far better.
What this world values isn’t even worth comparing to what the Lord has in store for you in the New Creation. There, in His heavenly kingdom, the Lord will raise you and all the dead. And He will give you every gracious gift that His Son has won for you on the cross.
So, people loved by God, rejoice! Don’t begrudge the Lord His generosity. His mercy knows no bounds, and His love is without end. He gives to the last even as He gives to the first–His best, His Son! He keeps His promises to you now, and He will keep them to you even into eternity. Amen.
