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Septuagesima - 2001
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Our text for this morning is the Gospel lesson just read from Matthew chapter 20, the parable of the workers in the vineyard.
This morning we begin three Sundays that may be a little unfamiliar to us here at Messiah. They are called the Gesima Sundays. This refers to the title of the Sunday. Septuagesima, today, means about 70 days until Easter. Next Sunday is about sixty days, and the Sunday after that is about fifty days. These three Sundays for Lutherans give us the opportunity to reflect for a bit on God’s gifts and mercy in coming to earth and redeeming us. They act as a sort of boot camp for Lent. This morning we are focusing on God’s grace, or undeserved love.
At first glance, reading the parable of the workers in the vineyard kind of raises your hackles, doesn’t it? I mean, what kind of union rep did these workers have? One works eleven hours, one 9, one six, one three and one simply and hour. But they all get paid the same wages! What kind of a system is that? It’s not fair. That’s not how things are supposed to work, are they?
Well, in the world, they don’t. In the world, you are paid what you’re worth, or at least you should be. Even Saint Paul recognized this when he said that a laborer is worthy of his hire. According to the world, we operate under a simple system. You do this, and this is the consequence. You work this hard or this long, and you get paid so much. Maybe this is why everyone can understand how wrong it is to pay someone less than they’re worth. I mean, they have to feed their families! How can they be paid so poorly? It’s not fair, we might say. Organize! Make something happen! Fight the injustice! Make it work right. And this is good, for in the world we have an obligation to care for our families and ourselves. I need to be able to eat, and so do you.
So the question is this: what does this have to do with the kingdom of heaven? It’s about 70 days before Easter, and so we reflect on wages and how God pays them out. So what have we worked for? What do I deserve from God for all my good deeds and works? That is the question Peter the disciple wanted answer. “Lord, we have forsaken all and followed you.” What do I get in return? So Jesus is going to tell him.
The answer, of course, is that what you deserve is death. Saint Paul writes in Romans three that the wages of sin is death. All of us like to think that we are good people. I am moral, I am upright. I haven’t killed anyone or stolen from anyone. And yet what is abundantly clear from God’s perspective is that because of your sinfulness, because you are riddled with evil and impurity from start to finish, what you deserve is death, eternal death. That’s fair. That’s the Law, and the Law makes no exceptions, it doesn’t care about extenuating circumstances or what kind of childhood you had or who your parents are or what you do at church. You are defined by your sinfulness. So if we were to be fair, we would all die eternally. For remember, James in his epistle says that whoever has kept the Law at every turn but failed in one point is guilty of it all.
My own good works all came to naught, No grace or merit gaining;
Free will against God’s judgment fought, Dead to all good remaining.
My fears increased till sheer despair Left only death to be my share;
The pangs of hell I suffered. (LW 353:3)
But thank God that God is not fair! If God were fair we would all die forever. He isn’t fair; He is merciful. God operates by grace, not by Law. So what does this word, grace, actually mean? It means God’s undeserved love toward sinners. It means that even though you deserve punishment, God doesn’t give you what you deserve. He gives you love and mercy and forgiveness.
Our Old Testament lesson for today is a perfect example of God’s grace. The people of Israel had been wandering in the wilderness for some time. They come to Rephidim, and lo and behold, there is no water for them to drink. Now God had provided them with everything they need since He took them up out of Egypt and delivered them from Pharaoh. He had been with them in the pillar of fire and the pillar of cloud every step of the way. But they still didn’t trust him, so they tempted the Lord by complaining to Moses, give us something to drink! Did God blast away at them? No. Did he punish them for their unbelief? No. He had mercy on them. He gave them something to drink. In other words, God’s Law is always followed by His Gospel of mercy and grace. As the prophet Hosea wrote, Come, let us return to the Lord. He has torn us to pieces but he will heal us; he has injured us be he will bind up our wounds (Hosea 6:1).
That is how God works, my friends. He works by destroying with the Law so that He may heal with the Gospel. He gives wages not according to what we deserve, but according to his mercy. He washes us with holy waters and presents us new and spotless with His righteousness.
So lets’ get back to our parable. The point of the parable is that the wages we receive from God are not based on our works, but on His grace. God will give abundantly from His mercy and grace. He will save you and hold you together when you know that you do not deserve His mercy. But that is the whole point. You don’t deserve it, but He gives it to you anyway, just because He can. That is God’s true character.
So where do we see this grace of God? We see it most clearly in the cross of Jesus Christ. We see it in the agony and death of Jesus for our sins. You see, Jesus did pay the wages for our sins. The wages of sin is death, and that death was paid for in Jesus Christ. But He rose again from the dead, so that we, too, might rise from the dead with Him forever. So your wage, your undeserved payment, is eternal life. You didn’t earn it, but it is yours because of God’s great mercy and love.
This is why we run and work and strive in the Church. This is why we do battle with our bodies and our own flesh to suppress the sin that is within us. Saint Paul speaks of this in the Epistle lesson. The prize we strive for is not simply money to buy more stuff that we don’t need. Rather the prize that God gives is eternal life. It is an inheritance that cannot be shaken, cannot be brought down. So we strive, not to earn the wage and the prize. No, we strive because God has given us the prize.
Hard to understand? Maybe a little. But this is the wonderful, backwards way of the Gospel. God gives and we receive. He makes things happens. He forgives your sins, recreates you in his image, and gives you the gift of eternal life. God doesn’t pay you what you have earned, He pays you with what Jesus earned on the cross. That wage of death is paid, and so you receive the gift of eternal life.
And where does He give this gift? Right here, at His holy meal. It is in this place that God gives you a foretaste of the feast to come. And like the Israelites many years before, He feeds you with manna from heaven. But this bread from heaven doesn’t decay and fade away, no. This bread from heaven is eternal; it is the Rock and foundation that our faith is built upon.
So come to the table of the Lord and receive the gift of eternal life, which He gave in His son Jesus Christ. In His holy name. Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all human understanding, keep your hearts and minds in true faith, unto life everlasting. Amen.
This page was created on 01/15/2007 and last edited on: 01/15/2007