“God is more than fair—he’s generous!”
Some time ago I read about the owner of a truck company in Chicago, Bob Schwartz. One year Bob’s company had been particularly successful, so Bob decided to give everyone an especially generous bonus at the company Christmas party. The bonus would be more than in previous years and everyone would receive the same. When the envelopes were first opened at the Christmas party there were beaming faces and rejoicing all round. But gradually people began to compare cheques. It wasn’t long before rejoicing turned to disappointment…and then, resentment by those who had worked at the company longer. Despite Bob’s generosity, his workers claimed he had acted unfairly. “I couldn’t believe it,” Bob said in frustration. “I tried to do something good for everybody and now I get angry phone calls at home from people who got larger bonuses than they ever got before.”
In today’s Gospel reading, Jesus tells a story using the exact same scenario that Bob Schwartz was faced with: employees who resented the generosity of their boss when they realised everyone got the same.
Jesus gives us the picture of a landowner who goes out in the morning to hire workers to work in his vineyard. He promises to pay them a day’s wage—a denarius. At different intervals in the day the owner of the vineyard goes out into the marketplace and calls others to work for him, promising to pay them “what is right”. He even goes out “in the eleventh hour” which is equivalent to an hour before knocking off and finds men standing around and calls them to work in his vineyard. At the end of the day the owner of the vineyard said to his steward: “Call the workers and give them their wages. Begin with the last and go on until you have paid the first.”
Just imagine yourself in the story for a moment. You’re one of the workers who have been there since 9am. You’ve worked hard all day, in the heat of the day. Your shirt is damp and forehead beaded with perspiration. Your back is sore and you have a dull headache and parched lips from dehydration. As you wait in the queue for your pay your attention drifts off to imagining just how much you’re going to enjoy the comforts of home after knock off. But you snap out of your daydreaming when you notice that the workers in the queue ahead of you are given a day’s wage. You wonder what’s going on because you remember seeing them arrive just an hour ago. So as the line moves closer to the steward and you hold out your hand to receive your wages, you might think: “I’m going to get a bit more—a bonus”. But the payroll officer places in your hand the same amount as those who came at the end of the day: one denarius! What gives??!! That’s not fair—right!?!? And you might even feel like grumbling against the owner just like the workers in the parable: “These who came last only worked one hour and you have made them equal to us who endured the burden and the scorching heat of the day”.
We are taught from a young age that if our performance is good, we will be rewarded. Children who behave well will get the treat. Students who study hard will get better grades. Athletes who train harder will perform better. Those who study at university instead of slacking off and partying succeed in their career pathway. Those who work hard in the corporate world win the promotion in the company.
This philosophy is often appropriate. If we want to do well in life, we need to do well in life! We expect that if others have not worked as hard as us, they should get less and we should get more. We should get what we deserve because that’s only fair.
The workers in the vineyard in Jesus’ parable, and those in Bob Schwartz’s company thought they had been treated unfairly. But they had not been treated unfairly, because they all received the same—a day’s wage. What sits underneath their objection is something deeper than the amount of their pay cheque. It’s recognition. As people we attach our sense of self work to our performance; to the work that we do. We like to be recognised and approved for what we have done. They believe they had not been appropriately recognised for the work that they had put in.
The purpose of Jesus’ parable is not to teach us about business management practices, but to teach us what the Kingdom of Heaven is like. Jesus teaches us that the Kingdom of Heaven does not work the way of the world; the way of human expectation. God is like the landowner who goes out to gather workers for his vineyard. God calls and gathers his people into his church in the world around us. God doesn’t bring us to faith and gather us into his church at the same time. Some have been in his church for decades. Others come to faith in their final dying days. Like each of the workers in the vineyard received the same denarius from the landowner, we each receive the same from God who owns all things, even us.
We need to be very careful with this parable. Jesus is not teaching us that God pays us for our service to him, as if we deserve what he gives us. One of the temptations the devil constantly puts before us is to think that we deserve more from God according to our dedication and service. We are tempted to covet God’s authority and determine who is blessed according to what standards and when.
The point Jesus was making is that all who believe in him receive the same. In the life of faith we all receive the same denarius—the same Jesus, the same Holy Spirit, the same baptism, the same righteousness, the same grace, the same forgiveness, the same blessing, the same heaven. In fact, God does not give us what we deserve. God does not reward people for their performance or effort. God does not give us what we deserve.
That’s actually good news. For if God rewarded us according to what we deserve, we would be driven away from him forever. Scripture tells us that we have all sinned and fallen short of God’s glory and the fair wages due to us are not a denarius, but death. If we actually got what was fair, none of us would go to heaven. None of us would have the favour of God upon us. We deserve nothing from the Landowner—nothing, that is, except punishment, as Luther points out with his explanation to the 5th petition of the Lord’s prayer (“Forgive us our sins as we also forgive those who sin against us”):
“We ask in this prayer that our Father in heaven would not hold our sins against us and because of them refuse to hear our prayer. And we pray that he would give us everything by grace, for we sin every day and deserve nothing but punishment.”
But because God so loved the world, he sent his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him would not perish but have eternal life. It was while we were sinners—while we did not deserve God’s goodness to us—that Christ died for us, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
How might this parable help us in the church today? There are two ways. The first is for those who think they have a right to blessing from God or even have a right to the work they do in his church. We must always remember that we do not deserve anything. Our life with God is not based on how well we perform, and the work that we do, but on how well Jesus has performed and the work that he does for us. We have to be careful that the way the world thinks—that our effort results in reward—could ever be the case in the church. There can be no room for a spirit of entitlement—one which expects God to submit to us and do our will, instead of us submitting to God as the Landowner, before whom all is uncovered and laid bare, to whom we must give account. We do not deserve anything from God and do not have a right to anything from him—only the right to be called the children of God through faith in Jesus.
The second way is for those who are overwhelmed with grief and believe that God is not fair because of what has happened in their life. They may think that God is punishing them for what has happened in their life. They may carry great hurt, sin and shame. They know that they have not measured up to God’s commandments in the past. Those who think that their sin and shame is too great for God to ever want to use them in his service. Those who are so troubled by their conscience they think that God would never grant them a place in his kingdom. How can we help people in this situation? By helping them listen to the word, not the world. We are so conditioned by the world to believe that our identity and worth is defined by the work we do, and how much of it we do—that if we perform well, we will be blessed. But the good news is that your relationship with God, your identity, value and worth, your dignity and purpose, your righteousness and holiness is not based on your performance, your efforts, achievements or failings. Your worth, identity, and your standing before your Father in Heaven is simply bound up in Christ, who has ransomed you with his holy and precious blood to belong to him. All of the benefits of his saving work on the Cross for the world he has brought to you at the font, where the heavens opened and the Father said of you: “You are my son, you are my daughter with whom I am well pleased. Ben and Fiona, this is what God says of you at your baptism this morning.
We do not do good works so that God will show us his grace and favour. He has already shown us the fullness of his grace and favour to us in Christ, in whom we have been saved to do the good works God has prepared for us. In Ephesians 2 Paul says: “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” (Ephesians 2:8-10). God doesn’t love us any more after our good works than before them.
Though we struggle with sin, doubts, burdens and anxieties, Jesus teaches with today’s parable that God doesn’t give us what is fair. He is more than fair—he is generous! He gives us his love and grace instead! That is the message of the Cross. By his death, Jesus has brought life to the world Jesus said: “I have come that they might have life—and have it to the full!” Through his Son’s arms outstretched wide on the Cross, God the Father gathers all his children to himself, so that everyone who believes in him has a place in his kingdom.
The landowner and his dealings with his workers are a picture of our Heavenly Father’s grace, who didn’t trust anyone else to purchase you from your sins but he went out into the market place for you; he came into our world in Jesus, paid for your sin on the Cross and sought you out and found you through baptism, and made you his workers simply because he loves you.
All who trust in him receive their denarius. Their Heavenly Father has placed in their hand the same Christ, the same forgiveness, full and complete. The same washing away of sins, the same pardon, the same freedom, the same degree of holiness: 100%. The same peace, the same crown of righteousness, the same heavenly inheritance, the same right to be called children of God.
Thank God that he is more than fair—he is generous. He doesn’t give us what we deserve—but his love, grace, mercy, righteousness, holiness, favour, protection, and peace in Christ instead! Amen.
Pastor Tim Ebbs
St Paul’s Lutheran Church, Glenelg
Ordinary Time, 2025
Application points: how could this parable help you respond to someone who feels like God is not fair, and there could never be a place for them in his kingdom?
Note: this is not intended to be an exhaustive list or a perfect step-by-step instruction of how to get results, but just ideas and suggestions as a guide only that needs to be adapted to each context
Pray for an opportunity to share your faith and tell this parable with someone who needs to hear it!
Study this parable and know it. You won’t be able to help someone else engage with the Good News of this parable if you don’t know it and how it applies to you yourself!
Work on building positive relationships with those around you—those you are friends with, your neighbours, work colleagues, the retail attendant who you recognize serves you regularly. Ask them how they are. Be intentional about showing care and concern for them. This kind of relationship building takes years, but it is worth it!
Keep praying!
Look for openings to share the practical aspects of your faith when the opportunity presents itself—for example, when those you talk with ask if you have a busy week, tell them what you’ll be doing in your volunteering capacity at St Paul’s. If they ask if you’re doing anything on the weekend, tell them that you’ll be going to church, and explain where St Paul’s (or whatever your local congregation) is.
Invite them to come with you to one of the activities of the congregation. Note: one of the main reasons people feel uncomfortable in coming to worship on Sundays is that it is a completely foreign environment to them, in which they know no one else. We would feel the same about going to a new facility on our own for the first time without anyone with us!
Of course, invite them to come with you to worship, but inviting them to come to one of the activities of the congregation (e.g Music nite, Latte Ladies, Wednesday community meal) might be a more appropriate first step of connecting with a church for them, where the goal is to meet some more people from the congregation without the added pressure of navigating through an entire worship service.
If they share a difficult situation in their life with you, welcome this! Be patient and non-judgmental with them. Give them permission to share further with you, if they are comfortable doing so.
If the person bears some kind of great guilt and/or shame, it is crucial that you validate what they feel! To not do so would make you just another person in their life they feel they cannot trust. They may likely assert that God is not fair, and/or he has no place for them in his kingdom (this would most likely come to the surface somewhere between points 6-8 above). They may feel ‘unclean’ because of the great shame they try to hide. They may likely express deep hurt and anger. At this point, seek to reflect back to them what they feel! (“I’m so sorry to hear what has happened and that you feel like that…”). Avoid moralizing (“You should forgive and forget…you shouldn’t feel that way…you just need to…”).
Many people in these circumstances have a mental image of the church only heaping more condemnation and judgment upon them, and the thought of coming is unbearable.
Ask if you may share the hope you have—that we have a God who is more than fair—he’s generous. Note that if God was fair and gave us what we deserved, we would be lost and condemned forever!!!
- Jesus told a story about that once—about a landowner who called workers into his vineyard at different times of the day.
- At the end of the day, those who came in the last hours were paid the same as those who worked from the beginning.
- This is a story about God and you too.
- God did not spare his own Son Jesus, but gave his own life up for us all on the Cross. Jesus was crucified, and his shed blood is the price to ransom us and restore us to God so that we have a place in his kingdom. It was not fair that Jesus was crucified—but God did this because he wants you to be in his kingdom.
- So in Jesus, God gives us the same—the same forgiveness, the same grace, the same place in his kingdom. He makes us equals.
