Septuagesima

Matthew 20:1-16 - Septuagesima - February 16, 2014
The First Shall Be Last

For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.  Ephesians 2:8-10

The fact that we are saved by grace through faith is not of ourselves.  It is not our work; it is God’s.  Our salvation – from God speaking his promise, to the faith that the Holy Spirit creates in our hearts through this promise – is entirely the gift of God.  He is gracious.  The good works that we accomplish as Christians are also gifts of God.  We are his workmanship.  The faith that God creates to trust in his mercy is the same faith that springs forth into action.  The faith that does not produce fruit is a false faith – one that God has not created.  The faith that has no desire to please God is the faith that does not trust God. 

This trust is what God is most concerned about.  Because God beholds his workmanship always in light of what Christ has done.  This means that he regards us as holy not because of what faith produces, but because of what faith lays hold of.  Faith lays hold of the merits of Christ, and God sees us holy and righteous always for Jesus’s sake.  But God’s workmanship is evident to the world in light of the good works that God accomplishes through us.  This means that the world sees us as holy for the sake of the love we have for one another. 

We do not factor good works into the question of how a sinner is justified before God.  But we do factor good works into the question of how the justified sinner presents himself to the world.  God does not call us to do evil.  He calls us to do good.  He calls us to do that which pleases and glorifies our Father in heaven, and which serves and helps our neighbor on earth.  But we don’t do good in order to earn something from God, because that’s not why God requires them.  God has already earned everything for us.  God commands us to do good, because God is good.  We are the workmanship of a good God. 

God gave us His law in the 10 Commandments to show us our sin.  We are sinners.  The law is a mirror that describes the righteousness of God, and in so describing what pleases Him, we see how unpleasing we are.  As Jesus says, “When you have done all those things which you are commanded, say, ‘We are unprofitable servants. We have done what was our duty to do’” (Luke 17:10).  The law is our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ who fulfilled everything that was required of us.  The law cannot not teach us about God’s grace.  It can only prepare us for God grace by showing us our need for His mercy. 

What is the context of the law?  Certainly it is the regular reviewing of what the 10 Commandments teach us.  But it is God’s law.  He will use it as he will.  We do not set our hand to it and say, “OK, now make me feel the sting of my sin so that I might be prepared for the gospel.”  I suppose we can.  But you know as well as I do that this approach is artificial, mechanical, and cold.  If we want the law to make sinners of us, prepared in mind and heart for the comfort that only the gospel can bring, we must set ourselves to the 10 Commandments to do them – to please God as Christians.  We see in God’s law the description of the one with whom God is pleased.  The one who has no other God, who honors God’s name with true prayer and implicit trust, and who meditates on his word day and night.  The one who honors his parents and who seeks his neighbor’s happiness as though it were his own.  This is what we want to be.  Because it describes the righteousness that is already ours by faith in Jesus. 

And this is the context of the law in the life of the Christian.  In our holy desire to do what pleases God, we discover anew – daily in fact – how unholy we are.  Our use of the law to show us our sin is not something extra in a good strong-on-the-law sermon.  It is found in the daily disappointment over failed struggles to do and be what God says we should.  The one who lives by grace is not the one who carefully balances his intake of law and gospel as though it were a protein diet or something.  He is the one who from experience knows the true value of his labor — and so appreciates the true generosity of God. 

The parable that Jesus told that we heard this morning represents the two religions of the world.  The one is a very reasonable religion.  And it is presented from the perspective of one who works very hard.  We can relate to this religion.  He who works hard should receive what he has earned.  He who works less should receive less.  This is how we run our world.  And it isn’t bad to run our businesses and households by this principle of fairness. 

But listen to the parable.  Jesus is not presenting some plan for public policy, or advocating some communist redistribution of wealth.  He did not say, “The world should be like a master of a house…”  No.  He said, “the Kingdom of Heaven is like a house-master who calls laborers at various times of the day to work in his vineyard.” 

It is not by looking at how the world runs its affairs that we learn how God rules His Church.  Those who regard the call of the Gospel as a call to earn wages from God do not understand what it means to live by grace.   And so they work.  They outwardly do the same works that we are also called to do, often out-shining us in charity and kindness (or so it often seems), but they do their works in order to have more than other Christians.  And so their work is hard, and they end up with so much less.  They work without faith and so bear the heat of the sun far away from the shade of the cross.  They work and the only consolation in their labor is the fact that they will get what their labor deserves.  What a man’s labor deserves is a sense of pride for folks – to know that they don’t need to rely on charity — as the long-haired country boy, Charlie Daniels, sang: “I ain’t askin’ nobody for nothin’, if I can’t get it on my own.”  Well this might be fine to hold your head up high in the kingdom of the world where self-respect and self-reliance keep things churning smoothly; but before God, in the kingdom of heaven, we must bow down and seek his mercy.  We must live on charity. 

The other religion that is represented in Jesus’ parable is one that only God can teach.  It is depicted from the perspective of the landowner who does what he wants with what is his.  It is one of grace.  He does not give according to what His laborers have earned.  He rewards them the wealth of His vineyard according to His own kindness.  The wages he distributes are the wages that are promised in His gracious invitation.  He gives what is right, he says.  He does not dole it out according to the work that they do, but gives everyone the same.  He would be a terrible businessman, but he represents a wonderful Lord.  He gives freely and generously to those who have no right to ask for nothin’ – who have no power to get it on their own.

Christians do good works.  Those who don’t do good works are not Christians. But we do not do our good works in order to receive a denarius or anything else from God.  We do not compare our works to the works of others.  To try and earn something from God by showing love for another is not really a good work at all – it is not really love.  Love seeks the advantage of the other.  Our works for others are not done for selfish reasons.  They are done for the benefit of our brothers and sisters in the same way that Christ’s works are done for us.  To try and earn something from God that your brother does not also have by faith is an impossible and endless task that can never bring in anything more than what is offered in the promise of the Gospel. 

But Jesus does not assign a difficult task.  He offers a different kind of work.  He says:

Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.  Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.

The labor of a Christian is light because he himself is set at rest.  There is nothing to earn – no status to make sure of.  He knows where he stands with God.  It is a status that we cannot earn – Christ has earned it for us, and it is most certain.  

As children we are taught that life is not fair.  I suppose at some point we have to resign ourselves to accept this bummer of a lesson.  But I don’t think any of us really ever stops trying to fight against this rule of reality.  “Life should be fair.”  Shouldn’t it?  But this is not what we want from God.  We want mercy, not fairness.  Our text this morning records Jesus asking those who grumbled against His unfairness by saying, “Or do you begrudge my generosity?”  I suppose this is the meaning of it – God is generous – but what the Greek text literally says is, “Or is your eye evil because I am good?”  

God does not look at things the way we do by nature.  Most people think He should.  But they don’t know what they are asking for.  The same evil eye that looks with scorn upon him who receives mercy from God is the evil eye that imagines that he doesn’t need mercy himself.  But our eyes see otherwise.  Through faith in what our God has promised, our eyes see what God sees.  We see Him who knew no sin bear our sin away, bearing the heat and burden of His Father’s disapproval on the cross.  We see our failed labors and spiritual laziness covered by the blood of Christ that makes everything we do acceptable in His sight.  We see our judgments against our fellow Christians, our pride and selfishness, every sin of commission and omission blotted out by the perfect work of Jesus Christ our Savior.  We see nothing left for God to judge in us but the pure works of love that flow from faith in Jesus – works that He so graciously rewards.

When we see what God sees—when we see how God sees us as righteous in His sight—only then can we also gladly do the works that He gives us to do in our different callings.  We do not measure ourselves by what we accomplish.  We identify ourselves by what Jesus has given us.  We don’t compare ourselves to each other, because we are all covered by the same robe of righteousness that covers each one of us by faith. 

We are Christ’s workmanship.  We are built together into one body, the Church.  There are not worthy and unworthy Christians.  All of us are unworthy and all of us have received true worthiness in Christ.  There are not spiritual and carnal Christians.  All of us have the Holy Spirit and all of us must crucify the flesh with its desires every day.  For what other purpose do we stir one another up to do good works than that we might encourage one another to be Christians who rely on the generosity of God?  There is only one kind of Christian: the one who has received God’s mercy and lives by it alone.  He puts himself last.  God puts him first.  He lays claim to nothing but hours of spiritual idleness and his need for God to look past it.  And God does.  He chooses him as His own dear child.  And God will permit no one to question his goodness in being good to us undeserving sinners.  He has purchased eternal life for us all by His bitter suffering and death.  He has forgiveness of sins and eternal life to give.  He has the right to do what He wants with what belongs to Him.  And He exercises this right by giving the treasures of heaven to us. 

In Jesus’ name, Amen.