Category: Septuagesima

Working in the Vineyard by Grace

2/6/2023

Johann Christian Brand, "Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard," 1769. Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna.

Septuagesima
Matthew 20:1-16
Pastor James Preus
Trinity Lutheran Church
February 5, 2023

Jesus’ parable for this Sunday teaches us of the first conflict in the Christian Church. As you know, God chose Abraham, Isaac, and Israel out of all the people in the world to make for Himself a special nation, which would be called by His name. God made a covenant with Abraham and gave him and his descendants after him the sign of circumcision. God called Moses and the children of Israel out of Egypt and brought them to Mount Sinai, where He gave them His Law. God sent Israel into His vineyard, so to speak, with Sabbaths and Festivals to observe, plus 613 commandments. Israel labored hard in God’s vineyard, bearing a heavy load and at times scorching heat. Many of them were killed for transgressing God’s Law. Their temple was destroyed. Their people were taken exile. God accused them of producing wild grapes, when He had given them the choicest vines (Isaiah 5)!

Yet, Israel kept laboring. She bore the history of her exile with pride. The more the nations hated her, the more proudly she labored under the sun in the vineyard. When her sons were hated for their mark of circumcision, they became even prouder of it. When the nations stuck up their noses at their sacrifices and mocked their restricted diet, she became more zealous in offering up sacrifices to the Lord and abstaining from unclean meats. And all this Israel did, waiting for the Messiah to come and give to her her wages.

Yet, when the Messiah came, He invited those of the nations to join them in the vineyard in the last hour! The people of the nations, who sat idle in the market place all day, refusing hire and mocking and ridiculing Israel as she labored in the hot sun, came in the last moment. What is worse, they were paid the same wage as Israel, who labored in the hot sun!

This is the first conflict in the Christian Church. Christ made the Gentile Christians, who came at the last hour, equal with the Jewish Christians, who had borne the burden of God’s Law. So, Judaizing Christians begrudged Christ’s generosity. They insisted that Gentile Christians needed to be circumcised, and to abstain from eating unclean meat, and to observe the Sabbath and the festivals, and the entire book of Moses. In short, they wanted the Gentiles to labor as hard as they did before they could be paid the same wage.

But that’s not the way Christ pays His laborers. The fact of the matter is, Christ does not pay His laborers according to their works, but according to His own mercy; that is to say, Christ deals with us by grace. Grace is God’s undeserved love for us. Grace is a free gift. St. Paul, a former Pharisee, wrote by inspiration of the Holy Spirit, “For there is no distinction (that is, there is no distinction between Jew and Gentile): for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by His grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.” (Romans 3:22b-24)

This grace is received through faith alone. St. Paul further writes in Romans 4, “Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due. And to the one who does not work but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness.”
Therefore, when the Judaizing Christians tried to force the Gentile Christians to submit to the Law of Moses, St. Peter responded, “Brothers, you know that in the early days God made a choice among you, that by my mouth the Gentiles should hear the word of the gospel and believe. And God, who knows the heart, bore witness to them, by giving them the Holy Spirit just as He did to us, and He made no distinction between us and them, having cleansed their hearts by faith. Now, therefore, why are you putting God to the test by placing a yoke on the neck of the disciples that neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear? But we believe that we will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they will.” (Acts 15:7-11) This again is why St. Paul says in Romans 10, “For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all.” (Romans 10:12) and “There is neither Jew nor Greek, … for we are all one in Christ Jesus (Galatians 3:28)

Yet, the importance of this lesson goes beyond the relationship between Jewish and Gentile Christians. This concerns all Christians, everywhere. We are not saved by our works. In fact, our works in and of themselves are always riddled with sin. So, what do we deserve according to our sins? Scripture tells us that the wages of sin is death! But the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus (Romans 6:23). So, we do not earn eternal life by working in the vineyard, rather we are place in the vineyard, because Christ has earned that eternal life for us.

And we should not ever grumble about others in the vineyard. Jesus tells us that we should simply answer, “We are but unprofitable servants, we have only done what was our duty.” (Luke 17:10) We should simply be grateful that we are permitted to labor in the vineyard.

St. Paul warns the Gentile Christians that if the Jews, who were the natural branches, were cut off to make room for them, the wild branches, so too the wild branches could be cut off! (Romans 11:20-21) He who thinks he stands, take heed, lest he fall! (1 Corinthians 10:12) It is by grace that we enter the vineyard. It is by grace that we receive a reward. If others prove unfaithful, we should not boast in ourselves, because it is only by the grace of God that we remain faithful. And if others should join the work in the vineyard at the last hour, we should not begrudge the grace God shows to them, but rejoice in the generosity of our Master.

The reason salvation is by grace as a free gift is for two reasons. First, you are incapable of earning your salvation. Scripture says, “Those who are of the flesh cannot please God.” (Romans 8:8). Yet, you are born according to the flesh! (John 3:6; Ephesians 2:3) A sinner can do nothing of himself to please God. To put it bluntly, a sinner can only sin. So, if all your works are stained with sin, how can you please God with your sin? It is like a child trying to wipe the mud off his mother’s clean Sunday dress with hands covered in mud. He can only make the muddy mess worse! So, we cannot remove our sins by sinning more.

Second, only Jesus can take our sins away. Only Jesus is true God and true man, anointed by God to make satisfaction for all sins. Only the blood of Jesus can wash our sins away. This is why everyone in the vineyard gets paid the same. They all receive the same Christ. My Jesus cannot be greater or lesser than your Jesus. So, my Baptism cannot be greater or lesser than your Baptism, nor can the body of Christ I eat in the Supper be holier or mightier or closer to God’s right hand than the body of Christ you eat in the Supper, nor can the blood I drink cleanse less sins than the blood you drink. We all receive the one and the same Jesus. There is one Lord, one faith, one Baptism, one God and Father over all, who is over all and through all and in all. (Ephesians 4:5-6)

This is why God makes all the workers in the vineyard equal, because they are not getting paid according to their own works, but according to the work of Christ, who is one and the same for everyone.

Yet, if Jesus has done all the work necessary to save us, so that our works do not earn for us salvation, then why work at all? Why not do as we please and enjoy life? Because one who lives such a way is a slave of sin and will not receive a reward from the Good Master. As clearly as Scripture teaches that our works do not save us, so clearly does Scripture teach us that our work is still necessary. St. Paul writes in Ephesians 2:8-10, “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”

If you have faith in Christ, you will do good works. If you have faith in Christ, you will labor in the vineyard. But if you remain outside the vineyard, you will not receive the wage Christ earned for you..

As Christians, we should be happy laborers. The paradise we will inherit was prefigured by the paradise once lost in the fall of Adam and Eve. Before the fall, what did Adam do? God put him in the garden to work (Genesis 2:15). Work, before sin or death or suffering entered the world. Adam worked in paradise. Work does not equal pain and suffering. This is why St. John tells us that God’s commandments are not burdensome (1 John 5:3). God’s commandments are that we believe in Christ Jesus His Son and that we love one another (1 John 3:23). Our faith in Christ is a gift from God. And the love we show to one another is a fruit produced by that faith.

Our works serve our neighbor and supply the proof that faith is living. And God then uses the good works he harvests from us to strengthen our faith, because the love we have for our neighbors combats the temptation of the devil and our sinful flesh. And the love we have for God draws us to continue to receive His grace by hearing His Word and receiving Christ’s body and blood for the forgiveness of our sins. And through faith our good works are pleasing to God. For one thing, they are produced by the Holy Spirit who dwells in us. And, God looks over our faults and sins for the sake of Christ’s shed blood for us.

Scripture uses those who fell before us as examples to us. We should not desire evil as some of them did, nor grumble, nor commit sexual immorality. They were destroyed by God for their apostasy, that is, for their falling away, but this was recorded in Scripture to teach us! Why did they fall? Because they did not have faith (Romans 9:32). They did not trust in God to provide for them and instead trusted in their own works and ideas. Above all, this is what we must guard against. Without faith, even the grace God gives us becomes labor, as we see with so many who find it too much of a chore to come to church to receive God’s grace and forgiveness. Yet, when faith is strong, even the labor in the vineyard is like Adam working in Eden in the cool of the day.

So, when the work in the Lord’s vineyard does become burdensome, turn your eyes to Jesus who labored for you on His cross. See the grace God shows you for Christ’s sake. This alone will give you the strength to labor joyfully. This alone grants you an eternal reward. Amen.

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The Last Will Be First

2/15/2022

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Salomon Koninck, Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard, 1647-49. Public Domain.

Septuagesima
Matthew 20:1-16
Pastor James Preus
February 13, 2022

In this parable, our Lord Jesus simply teaches us how God rewards his laborers in the kingdom of heaven. You shouldn’t get hung up trying to figure out what the denarius symbolizes, but simply recognize that God does not save us based on our works. Those who worked for twelve hours under the hot sun and those who worked just an hour in the cool of the evening received the same wage, because the master was not paying them according to their work, but according to his own generosity.

This is how the kingdom of heaven operates. In Luke 17, Jesus teaches his disciples, “When you have done all that you were commanded, say, ‘We are unprofitable servants; we have only done what was our duty.’” Unprofitable servants. That is what we are. That is, we are not earning our keep. Those who labored longer or harder should not begrudge those who labored fewer hours, because they got paid the same as if the master is taking from the hard workers to pay the lazy ones. No, everyone is getting paid according to the master’s generosity, from the master’s purse. They are not making a profit for the master. The late-comers are not stealing from the early-comers. Everyone receives a gift that he doesn’t deserve.

Those who made a deal with the master at the beginning of the day grumbled, because they thought they had earned more than the others. That is how the works-righteous think. The works-righteous are those who think they can become righteous before God by their own works. Yet, Scripture says in Romans chapter 3, “For by works of the law no human being will be justified in God’s sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.”, and “For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Scripture makes clear that no one will save himself by his own works, because everyone is a sinner.

The works-righteous want to make a deal with God. They’ll do their part if God does his part. But this places them under the law. And this causes them to reject God’s generosity in the Gospel. St. Paul says that Israel did not succeed in reaching a righteousness by the law, because they did not pursue it by faith, but as if it were based on works (Romans 9:30-32). Again, St. Paul teaches us that whatever does not proceed from faith is sin (Romans 14:23). So, the works-righteous proceeding without faith can only sin. And the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23). So, by insisting on be rewarded by their works, they lose the gift. But what does Scripture say, “Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due. And to the one who does not work, but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness.” (Romans 4:4-5)

Now this does not mean that Christians should not do good works. St. Paul does not mean that the one who believes in him who justifies the ungodly does not also do good works, but rather, he does not trust in his works to save him, but in God alone, who forgives the ungodly apart from their works. Even those who went into the vineyard in the eleventh hour worked. But their work did not contribute to their salvation. Christians do good works, because God commands them to and by doing good works, they give glory to God, their generous master (Matthew 5:16). Christians do good works to help their neighbor, because, having been loved by God, they also love one another.

And Christians do good works to confirm their calling. St. Peter writes, “For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins. Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to make your calling and election sure, for if you practice these qualities, you will never fall.” (2 Peter 1:5-10) So, good works do not earn your salvation, but you can lose your salvation if you continue in sin without repenting. So, being busy in good works and learning God’s Word can keep you from backsliding into wicked sins, which lead to unbelief. As the saying goes, “Idol hands are the devil’s workshop.”

But your good works do not earn your salvation. Salvation is a free gift earned for you by the merits of Christ Jesus. This is God’s generosity! That he sent his only begotten Son to die for our sins. The generous master says, “Whatever is right, I will give you.” What he is saying is, “I will give to you for the sake of the holy, innocent, bitter sufferings and death of my beloved Son. So rich is my generosity.”

This is why, in the parable, each laborer received the same denarius. Although, working in the Lord’s Vineyard, we have various tasks. There are pastors, teachers, elders, trustees, and musicians; there are husbands and wives, fathers and mothers. Some have the task of teaching and preaching God’s Word, others in caring for the elderly, others in caring for children, others in supplying for the needs of the church. Some work is noticed by all, while other work is often ignored. The labor of the vineyard includes the caring for souls and the changing of diapers, the labor of fathers and mothers, and the chores of even little children. Yet, all of these workers in the Lord’s Vineyard receive the same Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:11)! They worship one Lord, hold on to one faith, have been washed in one Baptism (Ephesians 4:4-6). All laborers in the Lord’s Vineyard receive their prize by the merits of the one and only Christ Jesus, so none can receive a greater Christ than the other, as Scripture declares, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” (Galatians 3:28) We all put on the same Christ Jesus in our Baptism; that’s why we each receive the same denarius.

So, Jesus concludes this parable by saying, “So the last will be first, and the first last.” Here again, Jesus teaches that we receive our eternal reward through faith and not by our works. The last are those who consider themselves last, who acknowledge that they are unprofitable servants. For this reason, the last trust not in their own works or how much they’ve earned, but rather they trust solely in the generosity of the Good Master found in the sacred suffering and death of Jesus Christ. St. Paul summarizes this perfectly in his letter to the Philippians in chapter three, “But whatever gain I had, I count as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith.” (vss. 7-9)

So, it is not that the last have done no good works, or that they have worked less than the first, but that they do not consider their works worth mentioning. They do not trust in an award based on their works. They trust solely in the Lord’s generosity.

The first are those who consider themselves worthy of a reward from God and who do not trust in God’s generosity through Christ. They often grumble and despise those whom they consider last. As with the last, to be first is the condition of your heart. How do you consider yourself? Are you better than others? Are your works better? Do you deserve your seat in heaven? It’s easy to feign humility and claim that you don’t think you’re better than others, but unless you hold Christ alone as your righteousness, you consider yourself first.

But the last will be first. Those who repent of their own sins and trust in Christ alone for their salvation will be saved. They will receive a reward not equal to their work. And the first will be last. Those who refuse to acknowledge their own sins and repent, who trust in their own goodness and works, they will be put last, that is, they will be condemned. They’ll receive whatever earthly reward they get, and will be forever shut out of the Lord’s good Vineyard.

We are unprofitable servants. We cannot earn our way to salvation. We don’t make a profit for our master. In this world, that is a precarious situation to be in! No one wants to be unprofitable! But in the kingdom of heaven, this is the best situation to be in, because it means that you depend on Christ. If you found an owner of a vineyard here on earth, who would pay you a day’s wage for showing up for an hour, that might be a pretty sweet situation. Until the foolish man ran out of money. But our God will never run out of his generosity, because he pays us by the merits of Jesus’ precious blood. The man who died for our sins is our God. In his blood is infinite forgiveness, endless grace and mercy. There is no more certain ground you can stand on than on God’s promise for Christ’s sake.

Those who consider themselves first in their hearts live in a delusion. They are confident that rubbish is worth its weight in gold. Their situation is dire, unless they can be convinced to let go of their own vanity and rejoice in the generosity of God. But those, who place themselves last, who trust not in their own works, but rely solely on God’s generosity for Christ’s sake, they cannot lose. Jesus cannot fail them. He will never run out of his grace and forgiveness. And, you will find, and it may surprise you on the last day, that those who were last actually did produce more beautiful fruit by their labors than those prized by the world. Amen.

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Equality under the Law; Equality under the Gospel

2/1/2021

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Lucas Cranach the Younger, The Vineyard of the Lord, 1569, Public Domain.

Septuagesima
Matthew 20:1-16
January 31, 2021

The first thing we need to realize about this parable of our Lord Jesus is that he is not teaching us what a master of a vineyard is like or how a vineyard is run. Rather, he is teaching us what the kingdom of heaven is like by comparing it to a master and vineyard unlike any you would find on earth. No employer would pay his workers, who worked one hour the same as his workers, who worked all day in the hot sun. In fact, no employer would go out in the last hour of the day to hire workers for that day! Yet, this is the way God works. The grumbling of those workers who worked all hours of the day is the grumbling of the works-righteous against God and his kingdom.

The laborers who agreed to a denarius a day grumbled when those who worked just an hour got paid the same as them, who bore the burden of the day and the scorching heat. “He made us equal,” they complained. And this of course, teaches us about the kingdom of God. It makes us equal. There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, no male and female, but we are all one in Christ Jesus (Galatians 3:28). The reason we are all equal, is because we all receive the same gift: the same Jesus, the same Baptism, the same Lord’s Supper, the same forgiveness and salvation. This greatly upsets those who are proud of their great labor and think they deserve more than others. Instead of seeing the master’s generosity as a sign of great love, they resent him for it.

The term works-righteous refers to people who think that they are righteous before God by their own works. In other words, they think they deserve a reward from God. In several places, Jesus preaches against works-righteousness. In Luke chapter 17, he says, “So you also, when you have done all that you were commanded, say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our duty.’” Would that we could say that! Would that we had done our duty! Yet, we know that we have not even done that. We have not done what was commanded of us. It was commanded of us that we love the Lord God with all our heart, soul, and mind. None of us has done that. It was commanded of us that we love our neighbor as ourselves. None of us can claim to have reached such a level of selflessness. This is why St. Paul writes in Galatians 3, “For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, ‘Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them.’”

So, while the works-righteous grumble against God, because they see that God’s grace makes everyone equal, they fail to realize that God’s Law has already made everyone equal, by condemning one and all as a sinner! Again, Scripture declares, “None is righteous, no not one;” and “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:10, 23) Yet, if you do not realize that the Law has condemned us all, then you will not recognize how wonderful it is that the Gospel saves us all. Again, Scripture says in Romans 11:32, “For God has consigned all to disobedience, that he may have mercy on all.” In other words, God has convicted everyone of sin, so that he might save them by his grace, as a gift. Just as all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, all “are justified by God’s grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith.” (Romans 3:24-25)

The Law condemns everyone. No one can be saved by his own works. No one can claim to be righteous before God by his own works. No matter how good you think you are or how much better you think you are than others, the Law condemns you the same. Everyone deserves to go to hell.

The Gospel saves everyone. There is no one that the Gospel does not offer free forgiveness of sins and salvation. No matter how bad your sins are, how undeserving you are of the kingdom of heaven, the Gospel offers it to you freely for Christ’s sake.

Although the Gospel offers salvation to everyone freely, not everyone receives it. This is because it can only be received through faith. Faith is how the gift of eternal life is received. What is faith? Believing and trusting in the promise. When you believe that God is gracious to you and forgives all your sins for Christ’s sake, then you receive his grace and forgiveness. And nothing, not your sins or Satan himself can take that grace and forgiveness away from you. That it is by faith makes it clear that it does not depend on your works. Your works are riddled with sin. Your works put your salvation into doubt. But faith clings to Jesus alone, which makes your salvation trustworthy and sure.

“Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due. And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness.” (Romans 4:4-5) It can’t possibly get any clearer than that. Your works do not earn for you righteousness. Faith makes you righteous before God by trusting in him who declares the ungodly righteous. Just so, the master of the vineyard gave a full day’s wage to those who had hardly gotten to the vineyard, because they trusted in him.

Some might accuse this of cheap grace. There is nothing cheap about it. The master didn’t hand out counterfeit money. He paid those who worked for an hour a full day’s wage, just as he paid all the works for a whole day. He gave away his money to those who trusted in him. This is how the kingdom of heaven is like. Christ Jesus paid the debt for our sins. “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree’—so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith.” (Galatians 3:13-14)

Grace is not cheap. It is given to us at the cost of the precious blood and innocent suffering and death of God’s own Son Jesus Christ. There literally is no price higher, no treasure more precious. The fact that it is given away freely to those who do not deserve it does not make it any less valuable. The denarius the last workers received was worth just as much as the denarius the first workers received. It bought just as much food and clothing. Yet, if someone were to treat faith as a cheap thing, as if the grace it receives is not expensively wrought, then that would not be faith. If a sinner were to interpret faith as a license to sin, he would not have true faith. It would be like someone hearing the call to come to the vineyard, but not entering the vineyard at all. He would not receive the denarius.

The vineyard is the Holy Christian Church on earth. One enters the Holy Christian Church through faith. Yet, in order to have faith, you must be called, just as the workers did not enter the vineyard until the master went out and invited them in. “Faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the Word of Christ.” (Romans 10:17). This is how this free forgiveness and salvation is given: through the proclamation of the Gospel, so that it can be received through faith.

Because it is a matter of faith and not works, the master will not stop calling until the very end. Think of it. Who calls day laborers at the very last hour of the day? They hardly have any time to work! Yet, God calls until the sun goes down. Christ may return this afternoon for all we know. Yet, until then God will still be calling. He continues to send out his ministers to preach the free forgiveness of sins for Christ’s sake. And so, this parable not only teaches us that we will receive our reward from our heavenly Father by grace through faith and not on account of our works. But this parable teaches us that God is still calling more people to come to his vineyard and see that he is good and generous. Today there are people outside the vineyard we are currently laboring in. They are outside, but God wants them inside. He doesn’t want them standing around idol. He calls them as he calls you. He desires their salvation, even as Christ Jesus poured his blood for them. And this should be our desire too. We should not be ashamed of the Gospel, but desire all to believe it as we do, because it is the power of salvation to all who believe.

Jesus uses a parable about workers to teach us about grace, which is salvation without work. We are not saved by our work, but we are called to work. Yet, the work we are called to do is not like the work, which weighs down the works-righteous. Jesus calls to us, “Come to me, all 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.” (Matthew 11:28-30). This might sound strange, when we recollect the great labors Christians bear for the sake of the kingdom: persecution, mockery, hatred, and the like. Yet, Jesus calls these yokes easy. Why? Because we bear them through faith in Christ. We do not labor under a heavy-handed master, who wants to make sure that he gets what he pays for. We labor freely under him, who desires to give his kingdom to us as a gift. We do not box as one beating the air. We do not labor in vain. We know we have a reward stored up for us, because Christ Jesus has earned it for us. If the world lays on persecution and hatred, this cannot take away our reward from Christ, rather, it gives us greater confidence that we bear his name!

Yet, those who think they must earn their way resent every pound they must carry and every minute they must labor. They resent those who get paid the same as them, because they think they have earned more. So, in their act of proving to themselves that they are righteous, they prove to God that they are not by hating their neighbor whom God loves. The Law lays on a heavy burden and only God’s grace and forgiveness can lift its weight from your back.

Those who wanted to be paid the wages of their labors were told to take their payment and go. And they left the vineyard. It is like the hymnist puts it,

“But they who have always resisted His grace

And on their own virtue depended

Shall then be condemned at cast out from His Face,

Eternally lost and unfriended.

Have mercy upon us, O Jesus! (Magnus Landstad, Lo, Many Shall Come from the East and the West, TLH 415:2)

But those who received the gift through faith remained with the kind master. This is how we remain in the vineyard of our Lord: through faith in his grace and forgiveness for Christ’s sake. And through faith in God’s grace, we will be content to labor in his vineyard until we are welcomed into the heavenly eternal vineyard. Because, through faith in Christ we know our labor is not in vain. Amen.

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February 10th, 2020

2/10/2020

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Dietrich, Workers in the Vineyard, 1750s, Public Domain. Commons.wikimedia.org

Septuagesima 2020
Saved by Grace through Faith in Jesus Christ Alone
Matthew 20:1-16
Pastor James Preus
Trinity Lutheran Church
February 9, 2020

The kingdom of heaven is like a master paying those who worked twelve hours in his vineyard the same as those who worked an hour. It’s obvious that the payment did not depend on the work, otherwise the payment would have varied with the number of hours each laborer worked. Rather, the payment is given based on the generosity of the master. This parable of Jesus teaches us that the kingdom of heaven is not like any place of employment you know here on earth, whether it is a vineyard or an office building. Rather, our Lord Jesus teaches us today that in the kingdom of heaven one is saved by grace.
The consistent teaching throughout all of Scripture is that sinners are saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone. And these three: Grace, Faith, and Jesus must not be separated.
To be saved by grace means to be saved apart from your works. Scripture states in Romans chapter 3 that all are justified God’s grace as a gift. And in Romans 11 Scripture clarifies what is meant by grace by saying, “But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works; otherwise grace would no longer be grace.” (vs. 6) Grace excludes works. If you are saved by grace then you are not saved by your works, otherwise grace would stop being grace. Grace is a gift from God. Grace is God’s undeserved love for you. Once what you deserve enters the equation, grace ceases to be grace. The workers received their denarius independent of how much they worked. They received by grace. And so too do we receive by grace alone.
If we receive salvation by grace, then we must receive salvation through faith. Scripture again says, “That is why it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace...” (Romans 4:16) This is because faith is not your work. Faith is a gift from God, as Ephesians 2 states, “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is a gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” (vss. 8-9)
Faith is given to you by God by the power of the Holy Spirit, who works through the Gospel. Many people think that faith is some work that you do that makes you a better person, but that is not the case. Faith is simply believing and trusting in the promise of God to forgive your sins for Christ’s sake. Faith is not your work. Holy Scripture consistently opposes faith and works. Romans 4 states, “Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due. And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness.” And again, Romans chapter 3 says, “For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law.” And yet again in Galatians 2, “Yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified.”
To be saved by grace means to be saved apart from your works. This means to be saved by grace, you need to be saved through faith. If you are saved through faith, you are not saved by your works. Grace and faith are inextricably joined, just as salvation by grace through faith is necessarily separated from your works. Yet, there is another detail that must be included otherwise both grace and faith fall apart. That detail is Jesus Christ. Faith in yourself does not save you. Faith in the American dream does not save you. Faith in faith does not save you. Rather, only faith in Jesus Christ saves. This is because only Jesus has won for you eternal life.
Only Jesus is God, who became man by being conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary. Only Jesus fulfilled the whole Law and withstood every temptation of Satan. Only Jesus went to the cross laden with the sins of the whole world and died for all sins. Only Jesus rose from the dead on the third day and later ascended to the right hand of God the Father Almighty from thence he will come to judge the living and the dead. Only Jesus has done this for us. Only Jesus has the gift of eternal life. So, there is no grace apart from Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection. And faith in anyone else is a false faith.
And because Jesus has done all things necessary to save us, we can only be saved by grace. Grace excludes our works. Jesus has done all the work for us. And because Jesus has made our works unnecessary by himself completing the work of salvation for us, all that is left is for us to believe on him, as Jesus himself says, “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:14-16)
And this is why everyone in the kingdom of heaven gets paid the same. Grace makes everyone equal. Grace gives everyone the same faith. True faith centers on the same person and work: Jesus Christ. The Jesus you trust in is not greater or worse than the Jesus I trust in, because he is the same Jesus. Your Baptism is not greater than the Baptism of the person sitting next to you, because there is only one Baptism. It doesn’t matter how long you have been a member of the Church, how much you have labored; we all receive by grace. We all receive Jesus through faith.
And just as in Jesus’ parable, people grumble against this. You can understand why someone would get upset if he worked twelve hours, laboring in the sweltering heat, forming callouses on his fingers and cuts on his hands and feet and those who worked only one hour got paid the same. A similar envy developed among the Jewish Christians in the early Christian Church. They had to be circumcised on the eighth day. They needed to offer sacrifices over and over and over again, traveling to Jerusalem year after year. They observed the Law: don’t eat this, don’t touch that. And then these Greeks and Romans were welcomed into the Church and given the inheritance of Abraham their father without circumcision or refraining from any foods or even attending a Passover. The Apostles struggled with the task of showing the Jewish Christians that they should rejoice that God welcomes the Gentiles into his heavenly kingdom.
And such struggles happen today; resentment among Christians. Pride. Christians thinking they are better than other Christians, because they have been Christian longer, because they’re more faithful, work harder, volunteer more, have greater knowledge. Yet, what does Jesus teach us about our labor in the Church? What should we say when we have finished our work? Jesus says, “So you also, when you have done all that you were commanded, say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our duty.’” (Luke 17:10)
There is indeed a great danger in focusing on your own works and accomplishments and comparing others with yourself. There is a danger in desiring to be rewarded for your own works. There is no greater reward that you can receive than that which you receive by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. He is the one who gives you eternal life in the kingdom of God as a free gift. Yet, if you, like those grumblers in the parable, would rather be paid according to your works, what reward can you expect?
Scripture warns, “For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, ‘Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them.’” (Galatians 3:10). If you seek to be saved by your own works instead of by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, you will fail. Again, Scripture clearly says, “For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.” (Romans 3:20) Yes, indeed, the law shows us our sin. When we seek a better reward based on our works, we do not get a better reward, but rather, we get our just reward, which is punishment. We’re sinners. Scripture says, “The wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus.” (Romans 6:23)
So, let Jesus’ parable be a warning to you not to try to get a better reward by your own works. You can only receive heaven by grace, as a gift of God through faith in Jesus. We’re all sinners. We deserve hell. And you’re not better than the sinners you despise. You need God’s grace as much as they do. So, do not despise those whom you think are less worthy of God’s grace than you. Rather, rejoice that God is so gracious to forgive even our worst sins through the blood of Jesus Christ.
The vineyard is the Church of God. Those who spend their lives in the vineyard should not begrudge those who come late. It’s not like those who were outside the vineyard, standing idle in the market place, enjoyed their life any more than those who labored in the vineyard. Those who labored in the vineyard had the promise from the master that they would get paid a generous wage. Those who stood aimlessly in the market place feared that their family would go hungry. Those outside the Christian Church do not have it better than those inside the Church. Those outside the Church are in a very precarious situation. They have no certainty of eternal life. It is much better to labor in the vineyard, to do the work of a Christian with the certain knowledge of your heavenly inheritance. And the work we do as Christians is not difficult. We do not labor in order to earn salvation. We labor as those who already know our salvation is secure. Our labor is a labor of love. God so loved us, so we love one another. So, let us labor cheerfully. And let us thank God for every soul our Master brings in, who will receive the same reward of everlasting life as we will. Amen.

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Septuagesima 2018:Equality in Christ's Kingdom

1/29/2018

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Matthew 20:1-17

January 28, 2018

The laborers agreed with the master for a denarius a day. Yet, at the end of the day, the laborers grumbled against the master for only paying them a denarius. They were upset, because the master paid even those who only worked the last hour the same as them, who labored all day in the scorching heat. They thought that because they worked more, they should get paid more. They deserved more than those who hardly got their hands dirty. They thought this way, because they were striving after a perishable wreath.

These laborers wanted the master to judge them according to the law. According to the law they should get paid more, because they worked more. But if you want to be judged according to the law, that is, according to your own works, then you better be prepared to be judged to the full extent of the law.  Galatians 3 states, "For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse: for it is written, 'Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them.'" (vs. 10) And so theses laborers were told to take their wages and go. And so, it will be for everyone, who wants to be paid according to their own works and not by God's grace. And Scripture is clear what their wages will be, "The wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 6:23)

The Johnny-come-lately laborers, on the other hand, didn't agree on a set price with the master. Rather the master said to them, "Whatever is right I will give you." Well, what is right? Does right mean fair, as most would expect? Does the master promise to pay them a fair wage, that is, a wage equal to the amount of work they put in? Evidently not, as we see they get paid more than a fair wage! So, what does the master mean by, "Whatever is right"?

To learn the meaning of a word it can be helpful to follow the etymology of the word. The noun righteousness is related to the adjective right. Right usually means lawful or just. But a more helpful way of understanding the meaning of a word is to look at how the word is used. In Scripture God will often tell us what a word means by paralleling it with another word. For example, Psalm 89:14 states, "Righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne; steadfast love and faithfulness go before you." And again Psalm 103:17 states, "But the steadfast love of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him, and his righteousness to children's children." And God speaks to Israel in Hosea chapter 2, "I will betroth you to me forever. I will betroth you to me in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love and in mercy." (vs. 19)

In Scripture God frequently parallels the word righteousness with steadfast love. This means that what is right according to God does not depend solely on what is fair, but rather, what is right depends on God's steadfast love. When the master told the laborers, he was going to pay them what was right, he was not saying he would pay them based on how much they worked. He was saying he would pay them based on his own steadfast love.

This is why all the laborers got paid the same. They weren't getting paid according to their work, but according to the master's generosity. And this is how it works in the kingdom of heaven. We are not rewarded by God based on how much we work, but based on God's steadfast love and mercy. In other words, God saves us by grace through faith apart from our works.

This is not the way it works in this world. An employer who pays all his employees the same no matter how much work they do or don't do will soon go out of business. This is why communism consistently fails as an economic policy. People need to be paid according to how much they work or else the work won't get done.

Likewise, not everyone can be equal. A student cannot be equal to his teacher. Otherwise the student would not submit to the teacher's instruction. An employee must do what the employer says, not the other way around. There is much talk these days about equality. But unless we are talking about equal justice under the law there can't really be complete equality. Because we're all different! Not everyone is going to have the same station in life. A father can't be a mother and a mother can't be a father. Children must submit to their parents. Not everyone can be a pastor, or a mayor, or a judge. And this is good. God has ordered the world, so that there are structures of authority and each person has his own different obligations, skills, and interests.

Yet, in Christ's kingdom there is no inequality. We all get paid the same. In the kingdom of heaven kings and paupers, students and teachers, mothers and daughters, they all are the same. Why? Because they all have the same Christ, as it is written in Ephesians chapter 4, "one Lord, one faith, one baptism." We all believe in the same Jesus. Is your Jesus better than my Jesus? What a ridiculous question! There is only one true Christian faith. This is why we confess together as a congregation the Nicene Creed and why we are all baptized into the faith of the Apostles' Creed. We confess together one unified faith. Is my faith better than your faith? How can this be, if we confess the same faith? And we should all confess the same faith, because we have the same Lord, who teaches the same thing. We should all have personal faith, that is, faith which dwells in each of our hearts, but our personal faith is no good if it is not the same common faith shared by Christ's church.

Kendall is a few years older than her sister Aria. Did Kendall get baptized better than Aria? Of course not! Or for an even more extreme example, did St. Paul receive a better Baptism than us? How could that be? There is only one Baptism into which we are all baptized. No one could have a better baptism or get baptized better than another, because Baptism is not our work, but God's, as St. Paul writes in Titus 3, "He saved us, not by works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior."

Baptism is grace, that is, a gift. In Baptism the same God put his name on Kendall and Aria, who put his name on all of us in our Baptism. They received the same Holy Spirit. All their sins were washed away, just as ours were. They are joined to the same body of Christ as we are and they are our equals in the kingdom of heaven, as St. Paul writes again in Galatians chapter 3, "For in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male or female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus." (vss. 26-28)

We are all equal in the kingdom of heaven, because we all receive the same Christ through faith. But what would happen if we were paid according to our work? Well, we certainly would fall short of the glory of God. Examine yourself according to the Ten Commandments. Have you loved the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind? Have you truly loved your neighbor as yourself, even in your thoughts, in your very heart? You know the answer. So, if we were not dealt with according to God's grace, we would not be able to live in God's kingdom.

Now, God is not unrighteous or unlawful. Our payment was earned, just not by us. Our wages were earned by Christ Jesus, who sacrificed his life, so that he could give us eternal life. When God tells us that whatever is right he will give to us, he is saying that he will give us forgiveness of our sins, because Jesus rightly took them away from us and disposed of them on the cross. So, when we want to see God's righteousness, we don't look to the Ten Commandments, which we have not kept, but we look to the cross where Christ made it right between us and God.

We do not receive the kingdom of heaven based on our works. Yet, it is still necessary for us to work. The master still sent the lazy loafers into the vineyard to work. Ephesians 2:10 states, "For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them." Before the foundation of the world God not only chose you to be saved through faith, but he also appointed good works for you to do in honor of him. These works do not save you, but God still intends for you to do them. Yet, how we do them is much different than those laborers, who sweat and bled in the hot sun for twelve hours. They labored, because they felt compelled to earn their reward. We, however, feel no coercion. Rather, we work with the freedom of knowing that God will pay us what is right based on the sacrifice of Christ on the cross.

It is as Jesus says in Matthew 11, "Come to me, all 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." (vss. 28-30) Our burden is light, because we work as those who know our place in God's kingdom based on his promise of undeserved grace.

Whether you are a husband or wife, parent or child, CEO or hourly worker, in the kingdom of heaven through faith in Jesus Christ you are all equal. You receive the same forgiveness of sins. You are baptized into the same name. You receive the same body and blood for your forgiveness. And this should give you confidence to work in the station of life God has placed you. The mother, who nurses her baby, cleans up messes all day, and says prayers with her children at bedtime does good work in God's vineyard. The husband, who sacrifices his time and energy to feed his family and provide for them does good work. The child, who clears the table after supper and does her homework works well in God's vineyard. The student, who studies, the teacher, who teaches, the musician, who plays, and on and on, they do good work well pleasing to the generous master of the vineyard. And because they are assured of being given what is right, they do not fear that their work is not enough, because Christ's work is enough.

Whatever your station in life is, God wants you to work joyfully out of love for him and to help and serve your neighbor. Yet, your reward has already been secured by the death and resurrection of Christ Jesus. And no matter how lowly you might consider your station in life, through faith in Christ you should know that you have a royal rank in the kingdom of heaven. Amen.

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"For faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ." ~ Romans 10:17

Working in the Vineyard by Grace

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Equality under the Law; Equality under the Gospel

February 10th, 2020

Septuagesima 2018:Equality in Christ's Kingdom

Rev. James Preus

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