What is our Commitment Worth? – Matthew 20:1-16

Jesus certainly had a lot of different ways to explain what the kingdom of God is like. And if we were to compile them all and try to get a picture of it, we would no doubt discover that it is a place that values everything that the world in which we live seems to devalue. It is concerned more with relationships than productivity. It is more concerned with what is missing than with what is there. It is concerned more with the smallest of things and the weakest of things. It is a place that so many people want to be in precisely because it speaks to a part of us that the world refuses to acknowledge or value. Our commitment to follow Jesus and seek for the kingdom of heaven and the righteousness of God is something that may have been a part of our lives for a long time while for others it is still a relatively new thing.

As humans – even those redeemed by God – we always want to know where we stand in the pecking order. What is our place in the kingdom of God? Remember James and John who asked to be seated at the sides of Jesus in heaven.  This is just one example of how we can lose sight of why we are committed and become more concerned with how our commitment is rewarded.

In the parable that Jesus talked about the labourers in the vineyard, we recognize that Jesus is talking about God the Father who is the owner of the vineyard and who calls people to be part of the tending and harvesting of that vineyard. The parable relates that the owner needs labourers for the harvest.  People are hired at different times of the day. The first ones hired agree to work for the usual daily wage. The second group are hired later and offered whatever is right with the expectation that their compensation would be based on the hours they worked. Finding people near the end of the workday who still have not found employment, the owner hires them as well.

Then comes the time for wages to be paid. All of the labourers line up, and the owner begins to distribute what he owes them. Imagine the shock on the faces of those who had toiled all day only to see themselves given the same wage as those who only worked for one hour. Union bosses would be going wild! But the owner did nothing wrong.  Those first workers agreed to work for the usual daily wage and that is what they received. The fact that the owner was generous enough to give the same wage to the others who came later was none of their business. They had been given what they had agreed to.

The choice to treat all the workers the same rested with the one who hired them. This went against everything that the first labourers had come to expect.  Even though they were given what they had agreed to, their expectation was that their hard work deserved a bonus.

Jesus emphasizes once again that our expectations of what is fair to God are not what the world considers fair. We have this desire to be thought of as more important, more worthy, more valuable because we made our commitment first. That is what we believe is the fair thing. But what is fair in the eyes of the world is different in the eyes of God and the kingdom.

Another thing Jesus emphasized was that God was adopting us into his family. Think about your own family - some of you were born first and some of you were born last; yet each of us had an expectation that we would be loved and nurtured as much as the others.  Now I know that that doesn’t always happen, but the hope was that our parents would care as much about each of us and treat each of us fairly and equally.  In a family there may be favourites, but the expectation was that we would share together and not count one more important than the other simply because they arrived first.

The love, the grace, the mercy, the forgiveness of God are not doled out in lots where the one who has been a follower from the very beginning receives more than the last one. Each receives the same measure.

Now for sure it is a good thing to have been a long-time follower of God and seeker of his kingdom, but God does not play favourites.  He recognizes that each one of us will come to him when our hearts and minds and spirits are ready and open to receive what he so generously desires to give us. And so the first shall be last and the last shall be first.

When we let the last go ahead of us, we are affirming to them how important their decision is to be part of God’s kingdom and we are showing them that it is not about how long you have been part of this journey that counts but the fact that they are there.  It is about recognizing that being part of God’s kingdom is not about status or pride but that it is about servant hood.

Often people are rewarded and recognized for long service.  We expect to be paid more the longer we stay in a position; we expect to be honoured for our long service and commitment, but in the kingdom of God it is different.  Long service simply means that we have spent more time with God!  The expectations are that we have learned more about what God expects of us as his people and that we are more attuned to the ways of God and better able to handle life as believers in God but that does not mean that we will should expect to be first past the doors of the kingdom.  We need to look around us and see those in our fellowship who have recently come to faith or even think of those who may yet come and be willing to acknowledge them and support them in their journey of faith.

We need to remember that those whom the Christian community have honoured as saints never thought of themselves as persons who should be revered above others. They lived their lives in true devotion to God and in service of others.

I firmly believe that when people come into any community, it is God who has brought them.  Each one of us has a place in the community that we worship and live with and each of us has a place in God’s kingdom.

Remember it is God’s kingdom to which we belong. It is God’s gifts that we receive and that each of us receives the measure that God desires to give.  Let us be joyful as God is joyful and celebrate our life together as believers waiting to be received into the fulness of the kingdom of God!

AMEN