Septuagesima, 2023
Rev. Thomas Van Hemert
St. Matthew 20:1-16
Septuagesima
February 5, 2023
In the name of the Father and of the +Son and of the Holy Spirit.
One of the axioms that came out of the Reformation, which has been claimed by us Lutherans, is that we are saved by grace alone, through faith alone, on account of Christ alone. This wasn’t necessarily one of the sayings that the Reformers used themselves, however, it is a good summary of what they taught during the time when they were engaged in fighting for the truth of what the Bible teaches. We are saved by God’s gracious good will—by His grace—because we have faith, that is, because we believe that Jesus has reconciled us to His Father solely out of His love for us sinners.
All of you know the phrase, “Grace alone; Faith alone: Christ alone.” You all would probably do well if you were to explain its meaning to anyone who asked you about it. This phrase, this axiom, is taught by Holy Scripture in various places. For example, immediately after the Fall into sin in Genesis, we have the promise that God gives to Adam and Eve and the curse He pronounces on Satan, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel.”
The Psalms are rich in this kind of language. Really, though, the Psalms are rich in various language that describe whatever human beings go through, such as sorrow, lament, and even anger. But the Psalms are especially rich when it comes to talking about and describing the grace of God and our response to that grace. For example, and you all know Psalm 23. The Lord is our Shepherd who makes us lie down in good green pastures and leads us beside still waters. He is the one who restores our souls. He is the one who leads us, who prepares a table for us because we are sheep who cannot take care of ourselves. God does for us out of His grace and mercy.
Consider also Psalm 51, King David’s great Psalm of repentance after he committed adultery with Bathsheba and also murdered her husband Uriah the Hittite. David pours out his heart before the Lord. He knows he is a sinner deserving of damnation. Yet, at the same time, he knows that the Lord is gracious—that his Lord and his God will pardon his iniquities. Thus, David sings, “Have mercy upon me, O God, according to Your lovingkindness; according to the multitude of Your tender mercies, blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. Against You, You only, have I sinned, and done this evil in Your sight—that You may be found just when You speak, and blameless when You judge. Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me. Behold, You desire truth in the inward parts, and in the hidden part You will make me to know wisdom. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Make me hear joy and gladness, that the bones You have broken may rejoice. Hide Your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me away from Your presence, and do not take Your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, and uphold me by Your generous Spirit. Then I will teach transgressors Your ways, and sinners shall be converted to You. Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God, the God of my salvation, and my tongue shall sing aloud of Your righteousness. O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth shall show forth Your praise. For You do not desire sacrifice, or else I would give it; You do not delight in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart—these, O God, You will not despise. Do good in Your good pleasure to Zion; build the walls of Jerusalem. Then You shall be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness, with burnt offering and whole burnt offering; then they shall offer bulls on Your altar.” David knows he does not deserve God’s pardon, His mercy, or His grace. But David is confident because of the promises of God, he will receive it.
So also, the Introit appointed for today, speaks in a similar manner. It comes from Psalm 18, “The cords of Sheol entangled me; the snares of death confronted me. In my distress I called upon the Lord. From His temple He heard my voice. I love you, O Lord, my strength. The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer. For you save a humble people, but the haughty eyes You bring down. You have equipped me with strength and made my way blameless. For this I will praise You, O Lord, among the nations, and sing to your name.”
Finally, the tract, which comes from Psalm 130, one of the penitential Psalms, we hear the prayer being prayed, “Out of the depths I cry to You, O Lord! O Lord, hear my voice! Let your ears be attentive to the voice of my pleas for mercy! If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? But with You, there is forgiveness, that You may be feared.”
Of course, also, the prophets are concerned with this message of grace, faith, and the coming of the promised Messiah. This message that is so clearly taught throughout all of the Bible is very familiar to us because we as Lutherans actually read our Bibles. We study the Bible. We hold the Bible in high esteem and reverence, because the Bible—Holy Scripture—is the source and norm of all our doctrine. This is how we know of the love that God has for us in Christ Jesus—we read about it in God’s Word. For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword. We believe all of Holy Scripture—the entire Bible—is, in fact the word of God. It doesn’t just contain the word of God, but it is in itself, in its entirety, the word of God. And all of Holy Writ is so clear on this point. We are saved by God’s grace, through faith, on account of what Jesus has accomplished for us by His sacrificial death on the cross.
But because of this, because this has been so engrained into our minds, because we hear preaching that proclaims Christ Crucified every Sunday and even in Bible class, even from the beginning, in Sunday school, I fear that because we know this and because it’s so familiar, parables like the one appointed for today have lost their shock value. This parable is meant to shock us; to appall us. Certainly, hearing this parable of Jesus would have shocked His hearers. The faithful during the time of the New Testament had been told so often and so much for so long that the main focus of their worship and the most necessary thing was the keeping of the Law. The more they kept the Law, according to the Pharisees and Sadducees, the better off they were. Now of course this is true. We are all better off when we keep the Ten Commandments. However, the religious officials of the day had made the Divine Service of the Old Testament into a business and economic scheme, by which, those who did more, would benefit more and profit more.
We understand business and economics and commerce in the same manner. Of course, those who work more should get paid more money. If you put in more effort, you should benefit more. That’s the backbone of our own country and of a free market system. But the parable isn’t a blueprint of how to operate a restaurant or how to run a business or a farm. The Parable shows us how the Kingdom of Heaven works and operates.
The point of the parable is that God’s grace is undeserved. This grace is given to us for free and this often offends people. Mainly, of course, because we don’t do anything to earn it. So for those who have been here, laboring the vineyard of the Church longer, we may feel as though we have been cheated; that we are owed something more. After all, that’s exactly how the workers who labored in the vineyard the longest react at the end of the day.
The Kingdom of Heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. Notice right away that the parable is not actually about the vineyard or the laborers. It’s about a landowner. Other translations call this man a “master of the house.” The parable is primarily about the landowner and his generosity. The landowner goes out five different times throughout the day to hire workers for his vineyard. He goes out early in the morning, the third hour, the sixth hour, the ninth hour, and the eleventh hour. To those he hired early in the morning, he agrees to pay them a denarius. He tells the rest of them as he hires them, “Whatever is right I will give you.” Then comes quitting time and the owner said to his foreman, “Call the laborers and give them their wages, beginning with the first to the last.” Lo and behold, they all receive the same wage: a denarius. A denarius is a full day’s pay for a full day’s work. So it is that those who worked the full day get a full day’s wages. But the surprise comes before that moment when those who were hired at the eleventh hour—at the end of the day—also get paid a full wage for a full day of work. Of course, those hired at the beginning of the day complain! Because of our fallen flesh, this parable might not make complete sense. What employer, in his right mind, would pay people who did not work? God does. For He gives the same grace to recent converts who just now came into the Church by faith and by Baptism as He does who have been life-long members of the Lutheran Church. “I’ve been an LCMS Lutheran my entire life.” Well guess what? God doesn’t care. That is why many of us chafe at this. We think that because we have been here longer, God owes us more for being good little boys and girls; for being good little Christians longer than others. But that’s the very nature of the Kingdom of Heaven: God does not care what we have done or where we have been or how terrible our sins are. The same undeserved grace is given to all, equally, without distinction.
God’s grace is given to all for free on account of Christ because of what He is going to Jerusalem and to His cross to accomplish. Just as a few weeks ago, we heard about how Jesus gives wine to those who are already drunk, so also He gives us grace for free. He gives us, people who do not understand it, who may not always desire it, and who may at times abuse it, He gives us grace for nothing even though we did not work and perfectly keep His Law. For He is the landowner in the parable. And Jesus is allowed to do what He wants with His own things. Thank goodness for that! Otherwise, we would have nothing. We would only have our sins. The cords of Sheol would entangle us and the snares of death would confront us but no longer. We are given a wage for which, we did not work.
And more than that, we are not told to leave the vineyard—to take what is ours and go. We are allowed to stay in the vineyard; to stay in God’s good graces in His Church, in His home. For it is our vineyard, our Church, our home.
In +Jesus’ name
