Verse 4: “You also go and work in my vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.”
Returning to the parable today we first recognize that the scenario played out in the market was very familiar to Jesus’ audience. Men hanging around hoping to be hired for seasonal work was the norm. Having people to fill this role was a necessity in their agrarian culture, much as it is today in that sector of our economy.
For those hired earliest, they agree with the owner on the usual daily wage. One denarius was the coin used to pay a Roman soldier and it was enough to feed a family of four for a few days. These day laborers would hope to work 2-3 days a week to provide for their families.
The owner offers a different deal to the rest of the workers. They accept his offer to pay them “whatever is right.” Although it turns out well for these workers, there is some trust required in this open-ended offer. Right is objective. One denarius is not. These workers choose to entrust their lives to the character or reputation of the vineyard owner. He is honest and generous and righteous. This sounds like someone that I’d like to work for. How about you?
Prayer: Lord God, thank you for being kind and generous and righteous with us. You do not demand a strict adherence to an agreed-upon set of rules. As it was impossible to keep the list in Jesus’ day, so too is it in our time. So thank you for your grace and mercy too. Amen.
Verse 13: “But he answered one of them, ‘Friend, I am not being unfair to you. Didn’t you agree to work for a denarius'”?
When the landowner hires the first group, early in the morning, they agree on a denarius for their pay. With each subsequent group the landowner says, “I will pay you whatever is right”. It was an agriculturally based economy and a denarius was the accepted wage for a days labor. The ones hired at noon, for example, would expect a half denarius for their efforts. To have good workers in your vineyard, fair pay was essential. To be able to provide for your family, a fair wage was essential. This remains how the world works.
At the end of the day the foreman is directed to pay the ones who only worked one hour first and to work his way to the ones who worked twelve hours. The story would have a totally different feel, a different impact, if told the other way around. If paid first, the twelve hours crew would go home with their denarius, happy to have earned a whole days wage. Those hired later would be happy about receiving more than they deserved, especially the three and one hour crews. But this is not a story about happiness. It is a parable about God’s grace and love towards us and about God’s sense of fairness and contentment. The parable is aimed at the religious, at those who think it unfair that a lifelong sinner could be suddenly saved and forgiven. The religious disliked how easily and freely Jesus welcomed sinners into the family of God. He was so generous with his time and love. The religious wanted the sinners to live right first – meeting all the requirements, following all the rules, jumping through all the right hoops – before entering the family of God. They wanted the sinners to get all cleaned up before joining the family. Jesus was too much of a “take you as you are” kind of guy for their particular taste.
In verse thirteen the landowner responds to the angry twelfth hour folks by saying, “Friend, I am not being unfair to you. Didn’t you agree to work for a denarius”? There are two things to note here. First, the owner calls the employee “friend”. That would be like God calling you and me ‘friend’. Wait, God does. God does not rule from on high, looking down on us, condemning us if we fail to be perfect. No, God invites us to walk and talk with him, to be his companion, to be our friend – warts and sins and all. Second, the landowner reminds the workers that he is not being unfair. I need to be reminded of this over and over when my inner Pharisee rises up and tried to look down on the humble tax collector over in the corner. God promised us grace (among many other things). God’s grace is not a finite quantity. When another receives God’s grace, there isn’t suddenly less for me. Yet sometimes I begrudge others receiving grace. Because of God’s endless love for all of humanity, there is always more than enough grace for us all. Instead of worrying about what others received, we should be thankful that we are blessed by God’s grace. I always receive way more than I deserve. Today may we each give thanks for God’s abundant grace and for our personal relationship with God, giver of grace.
Prayer: Lord God, this journey is not about happiness or getting my “fair” share relative to others. There’s no earning my way into relationship with you. So turn me from the world’s sense of happiness and from the earthly desire to compare. Help me to simply trust in my relationship with you. You desire to be my all in all. Guide me to live like I believe that and trust into that all of the time. May I rest today in your love and grace. Amen.
Verse 6: “the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye… took some and ate it”.
As we prepare to enter into the season of Lent, we face a decision. Will this just be another six weeks that we go to church on Sundays or will it be a season, a time to really wrestle with our faith? Will these forty days be about preparing our soul to meet Jesus at the empty tomb on Easter morning? Will Lent be about becoming fully ready to die to self as Jesus did on the cross or will self remain on the throne of our hearts?
Ever since the first people walked the earth there has been a battle waged in our hearts. It is a battle between doing God’s will versus allowing our own will to make the decisions and choices. To me the garden scene is like the Last Supper scene. Someone was going to betray Jesus. It did not really matter who. In the garden someone was going to eat from the forbidden tree. In both cases, evil found a way to winnow in and create separation between a person and God. Isn’t that the same way sin works in our lives?
The fruit just hung there. It looked good and had some benefits. A piece was taken and eaten. Eyes that had been innocent now saw themselves and the world around them differently. Selfishness had been elevated over the relationship with God. Humanity’s will had been chosen over God’s will. This is a choice we wrestle with over and over every single day. Our sense of self is engrained in us from an early age. The call of faith to walk this life as a humble servant is constantly at odds with this sense of self.
The journey of Lent is about the lessening the self-will and the increasing of God’s will. It is about looking deep within our souls and seeing that which separates us from God and doing God’s will. What we each see will be vast and varied. Some things will die relatively easily and others will require great effort. May we each resolve to admit that we are fallen and broken and may we seek God’s love and mercy so that we can be made into new creations.
Prayer: Lord God, as I enter the season of repentance and introspection, give me the courage to look deep and grant me the strength to purge those things that separate me from you or that limit my walk with you. Take me and make me fully thine. Amen.
Verse 51: “I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world”.
Jesus speaks words of hope today. Verse 47 reads, “he who believes has everlasting life”. What a promise! Next to speaking before a crowd, the fear of death is our greatest fear. It is the end. It is unknown. It is the loss of connection with those we love. Unless you believe in Jesus Christ. The gift of eternal life removes all these fears. It changes the outlook to joy and even anticipation.
In our passage today Jesus is sharing the path to eternal life. Believe in Jesus. Confess Him as Lord of life and gain eternal life. For the Jews, He contrasts this with their experience with the physical bread that God had sent down. Their ancestors are the manna that God sent in the desert and they were sustained physically, but in the end they died. By contrast, the bread that Jesus offers is spiritual nourishment. Take in this bread and you will not die, Jesus says.
Verse 51 sums it up: “I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world”. This is such a powerful verse. Jesus was sent by God. If we become one with Jesus, if we “eat of this bread”, we will be indwelled by His Spirit. This is a new relationship that not only sustains us in this life but leads to eternal life as well. This bread, His flesh, will indeed be given for the life of the world. We know that the wages of sin is death. Jesus took on the sins of the world on the cross and through His blood we find forgiveness of our sins. His blood washes us clean. Sin is no more and we are once again restored to life. Each time we take communion we remember this gift.
This idea of Jesus being the bread of life that came down from heaven may have been a stumbling block to the Jews, but it is our hope and promise. It is foundational to our faith. It is essential to our life. Thank you God for sending Jesus, the gift of the bread of life.
Verse Seven: “He who does what is right is righteous, just as He is righteous”.
Our passage today from 1st John talks about how we live our lives. In general terms, it is about living in sin or living in Christ. On the surface, John delineates the two, but upon deeper reflection sin is a thing we all struggle with daily in our lives. Once we accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, it is not as if we never sin again. The reality is that we sin less and less as we become more and more like Christ as we grow in our faith. But we are never really sinless in this life.
In verse five John writes, “you know that He appeared so that He might take away our sins”. John is writing of the grace and mercy and forgiveness that we are offered through Jesus. He appeared or became incarnate so that He could go to the cross to take upon Himself the sins of the world. Jesus, who “in Him is no sin”, took on our sins so that we could be forgiven and free.
John goes on in verse six to say that when we live in Jesus Christ we do not keep sinning. When we live in a personal relationship with Jesus, we gain the power and strength to overcome our sins. One by one we are able to cast aside those temptations that lead us to sin. For example, when we look back over our life, we can see things that used to cause us to sin that do not lead us into sin anymore as we have matured in our faith. But Satan is always at work, always trying to find a new angle, a new temptation, a new way to lead us into sin. It is a constant battle that is being waged against the followers of Jesus.
Every day, therefore, brings its challenges. This we know. We also know that God’s love never ends and that His mercies are new every morning. We also know that Jesus will wipe away our sins each and every time we repent and seek forgiveness. As we grow in our faith and in our relationship with Jesus, we more and more mirror verse seven, which reads, “He who does what is right is righteous, just as He is righteous”. May we seek to be like Hesus every day, living as a righteous and holy people in the world. May it be so for me and for you. Amen.
pastorjohnb 