Latest / Reformed Thinking / Divine Generosity and Human Envy in the Kingdom (Matthew 20:8–16)

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Divine Generosity and Human Envy in the Kingdom (Matthew 20:8–16) · Reformed Thinking

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  You know, if you really stop to think about how we operate in
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  our daily lives, almost everything is built on this
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  expectation of, well, mathematical precision.
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  Yeah, that is so true, especially, especially when it
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  comes to a standard employment contract.
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  Right. It operates like a very clean,
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  very logical spreadsheet. You clock in at a specific time,
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  you perform your duties, you clock out, and then the math
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  just takes over. Your hourly rate is multiplied
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  by your time and the payroll department cuts the check.
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  Yeah, and it is safe. It is predictable.
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  Worked or not worked, it is totally clean.
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  Right, because it operates on a binary system.
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  You work the required hours or you did not.
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  The Ledger reflects reality. Look at the math point to the
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  bottom line and say there it is. That is what I am owed.
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  And honestly, that is incredibly comforting for.
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  Us, It really is. We like things to be visible.
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  We want our lives to be categorized by, you know,
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  measurable effort. Absolutely.
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  There is this psychological safety in having a Ledger that
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  proves we earned our standing in the world.
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  Yeah, we want a receipt for our worth.
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  We want to be able to hold up our resume or our time card or
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  our list of good deeds and prove that we are entitled to our
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  compensation. That is the baseline of human
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  commerce right there. And I mean it is the baseline of
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  human religion too. But then you step into the world
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  of sovereign grace. Specifically, you step into the
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  biblical landscape of the Kingdom of heaven as Jesus
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  describes. It and suddenly that safe,
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  predictable spreadsheet is completely broken.
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  Torn to pieces, We are looking at a theological reality today
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  that is, well, if we are being completely honest, highly
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  offensive to our natural sense of fairness.
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  That really is. Welcome to Reformed thinking.
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  Today we have this massive stack of theological and pastoral
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  commentaries sitting in front of us.
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  We really do. It is a tall stack today.
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  Yeah. And our mission in this deep
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  dive is to unpack Matthew chapter 20, verses 8 through 16.
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  This is the parable of the laborers in the vineyard.
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  It is a massive text. It is we are taking all these
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  sources and distilling them to give give you a clear shortcut
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  to being well informed on this passage.
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  We are going to examine sovereign grace and the absolute
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  death of human merit. That is the absolute core of
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  this text, and I want to state clearly right from the jump that
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  this is not a lesson in ancient agricultural economics.
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  Right. Definitely not.
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  We are not looking at secular Labor Relations in 1st century
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  Palestine and we are not getting a master class in how to run a
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  farming business. No, this parable is a direct,
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  calculated confrontation of the human instinct to measure
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  fairness by comparison and visible sacrifice.
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  Precisely. Jesus is intentionally
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  dismantling the way sinners think about God, the way they
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  think about grace, and the way they calculate their own
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  standing in the Kingdom. I think we can all relate to the
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  feeling Jesus is targeting here. Just think about being at your
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  job, or maybe go back in time to being in school during one of
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  those dreaded group projects. Oh man, the group project.
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  You know the scenario. You pull all the weight, you
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  stay up late, you do the research, you format the
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  citations, you build the slide deck.
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  You are sweating the details. Yeah, you're doing everything
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  right. Then there is that one person in
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  the group who ghosts everyone for three weeks, shows up 5
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  minutes before the deadline, barely contributes a single
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  poorly formatted slide. I have lived this.
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  We all have, and then the professor gives you both the
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  identical grade, or in a work setting, the identical bonus.
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  The sting of that perceived unfairness is universal.
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  It is. You feel it right in your chest.
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  Your blood pressure spikes. You think I did 90% of the work?
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  How in the world do they get the same reward?
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  That visceral reaction, that spike in blood pressure you were
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  describing is spot on. That is what Jesus wants to draw
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  out of his listeners. He wants us to feel that.
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  He does. He tells a story that intensely
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  offends our natural mathematical sense of justice.
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  He wants you to feel that indignation.
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  That is fascinating. But to understand why he does
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  this, we cannot just start in chapter 20.
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  We have to look at the catalyst for the parable.
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  Right, the setup. Yeah, we need to step back
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  slightly into Matthew chapter 19 and look at the conversation
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  that provokes this entire story. OK, let's unpack that context
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  because it is crucial. This parable does not just drop
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  out of the sky into a vacuum. No, not at all.
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  It is a direct pointed answer to a specific question from the
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  Apostle Peter. In Matthew 19 verse 27, Peter
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  looks at Jesus and says, see we have left everything and
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  followed you. What then will we have?
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  That question from Peter is the hinge for everything that
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  follows. And, you know, we have to
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  remember what Peter just witnessed.
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  Right, the rich young ruler. Yes, Jesus had just interacted
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  with the rich young ruler. That was a man who came to
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  Jesus, heard the demands of discipleship, and walked away
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  sad because he had great possessions.
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  He refused to liquidate his wealth to follow Christ.
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  Exactly. Well, precisely.
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  Peter watches that wealthy man walk away, and Peter's immediate
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  reaction is to look down at his own spiritual Ledger.
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  He is checking his own math. He is, he essentially says,
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  Lord, that guy kept his wealth. He protected his spreadsheet.
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  We did not. We left the boats, the Nets, the
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  family business. We made the massive sacrifice.
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  What is our compensation going to be for that?
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  And we should acknowledge that Peter really did make a massive
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  sacrifice. He walked away from a lucrative
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  fishing business on the Sea of Galilee.
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  Absolutely. He is not just some destitute
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  guy with nothing to lose. He gave up a solid livelihood.
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  He absolutely did. But the problem is not the
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  sacrifice itself. The problem is the calculation
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  happening in Peter's head. The Ledger again.
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  Yes, it is the the birth of the mercenary spirit in the
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  disciples. A mercenary spirit, meaning I am
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  doing this job for the payout and I want to make sure the
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  payout matches my specific level of suffering.
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  Spot on. Jesus responds by promising a
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  massive reward. He tells the disciples they will
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  sit on 12 Thrones judging the 12 tribes of Israel.
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  So he honors the sacrifice. He does.
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  He assures them that their sacrifices will be honored, but
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  he immediately issues a piercing severe warning right on the
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  heels of that promise. What does he says?
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  He says many who are first will be last, and the last first.
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  This phrase functions as a literary inclusio.
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  Like bookends? Yes, it acts as a set of
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  bookends, wrapping the entire parable of the vineyard in the
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  theme of Kingdom reversal. Peter's question reveals a
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  dangerous, subtle shift in his heart.
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  How so? He is starting to view his
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  relationship with Christ through the lens of compensation, rank,
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  and a purely transactional mindset.
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  Wow. It is terrifying when you see
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  how easily religious devotion morphs into a Ledger book.
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  It really is. Believers start tracking their
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  moral output. They subconsciously expect God
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  to compensate them for their sacrifices, their time, their
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  giving. They want that receipt.
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  Yeah, it makes me think of an analogy.
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  Imagine an employee at a massive corporation who meticulously
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  tracks every single minute of overtime.
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  OK, I can picture that. They keep a little black
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  notebook in their pocket. They log every weekend e-mail
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  they send every skipped lunch break, every time they covered
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  for a sick Co worker. Doing the math.
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  Right. They do this because they expect
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  superior status over the newer hires.
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  They were aiming for the coroner office and they believe they're
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  accumulated hours legally guarantee them that spot.
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  But then what happens? Well, then they find out the CEO
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  operates on a completely different system of generosity,
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  one that doesn't care at all about their little black
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  notebook. That is a highly accurate
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  picture of the legalistic heart. The danger in your analogy is
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  not that the employee works hard.
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  Right, hard work is a good thing.
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  Hard work is commanded. The danger is the notebook.
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  The danger is the quiet, ongoing calculation of personal worth
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  based on human endurance. I do want to play devil's
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  advocate and push back slightly on this though.
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  Go for it. Can you really blame Peter for
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  asking the question? Like we just said, he left his
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  Nets on the shore. He walked away from financial
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  security to follow an itinerant rabbi who had no place to lay
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  his head. It is a fairpoint.
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  Why is Jesus so quick to crush this mindset?
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  It seems like a perfectly logical question for a guy who
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  just abandoned his entire career to ask about his retirement.
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  It is entirely natural from a worldly standpoint.
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  In fact, it is the only way the natural mind knows how to
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  operate. We are wired for it.
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  We are, and that is why Jesus has to crush it so decisively.
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  The Kingdom of Heaven cannot be understood or handled through a
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  commercial framework. Because it ruins the
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  relationship. It does.
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  If you bring a merit based system into your relationship
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  with God, two things will inevitably happen.
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  First, you will become incredibly proud of your own
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  sacrifices, looking down on those who haven't suffered as
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  much as you. And the second thing.
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  Second, you will eventually resent the grace God gives to
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  other people. Wow, that is sobering.
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  It is to crush this transactional mindset before it
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  destroys the disciples. Jesus constructs a highly
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  specific scenario in a vineyard. Taking it from theory to
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  reality. Right, he brings us out of the
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  theoretical and into the dirt to the actual hiring of the
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  laborers in the marketplace, which happens in the 1st 7
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  verses of chapter 20. Let's set that scene.
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  The master of the house goes out early in the morning, right at
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  dawn to hire workers for his vineyard.
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  At 6:00. Right.
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  The text tells us he makes a specific agreement with this
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  first group of workers. The Greek word used here is
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  symphonio. Symphonio, yes.
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  It is a bilateral binding legal contract.
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  They agreed to work for one denarius, which was the standard
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  daily living wage at the time. It was enough to feed a typical
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  family for one day. We really need to pause on that
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  word, symphonio. It establishes the baseline of
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  strict justice. A firm handshake agreement.
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  Exactly. The master and the laborers look
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  at each other, agree on the terms of the labor, and
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  essentially shake hands. A legal binding obligation is
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  created. The master now owes them a debt.
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  He does. He owes them a debt and they owe
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  him their sweat. But then, as the day progresses,
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  the master goes back to the marketplace.
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  He keeps going back. Yeah, he hires more people at
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  the third hour, at the 6th hour, the 9th hour, and finally the
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  11th hour. Our last group is hired at 5:00
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  in the afternoon. Right, with only one single hour
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  of daylight left before the work day ends.
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  Here is where the distinction in the text becomes fascinating.
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  For all those later groups, the master does not offer a strict
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  contract. He doesn't.
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  He does not use the word symphonio.
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  He does not guarantee a denarius.
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  He simply tells them to go into the vineyard, promising to pay
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  them whatever is right. The Greek word there is.
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  Decayon. Decayon, right?
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  Let's breakdown the massive theological distinction
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  happening right there in the dust of the marketplace.
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  It is a huge shift. It is the first group operates
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  on a strict agreement. They have the psychological
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  security of a contract. They know precisely what they're
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  getting. The comfort of the spreadsheet.
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  Yes. The later groups operate
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  entirely on faith in the Masters character.
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  They have no guarantee of a specific amount.
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  They just have to trust him. In the progress of redemptive
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  history, this mirrors a monumental biblical shift.
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  The first workers represent national Israel under the heavy
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  yoke of the Mosaic Law, functioning under the Old
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  Covenant. They viewed their relationship
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  with God largely through the lens of a works contract.
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  Right. Do this and you will live.
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  Obey the law, get the blessing. And the late comers, the 11th
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  hour workers, represent the church, largely made-up of
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  Gentiles brought into the vineyard very late in the day of
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  redemptive history under the covenant of grace.
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  Put yourself in the psychological state of those
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  11th hour workers for a moment. They have been standing idle in
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  the marketplace all day long. Just waiting.
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  In that agrarian culture, if you didn't get hired for the day as
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  a day laborer, you didn't get paid.
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  There was no social safety net. There was no unemployment
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  office. None at all.
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  If you didn't work, your family literally did not eat that
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  night. Standing there at 5:00 in the
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  afternoon, watching the sun start to dip, the anxiety must
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  have been crushing. It would have been unbearable.
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  When the master finally walks up, hires them, and simply says
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  I will pay you whatever is right, their reliance on his
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  unspecified goodness is an act of complete and total
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  vulnerability. They have absolutely no
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  leverage. They have 0 leverage.
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  They are beggars who are thrilled just to be allowed in
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  the gate. Just happy to be there.
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  Right. This highlights the massive
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  difference between a covenant of works and a covenant of grace,
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  which the Westminster Confession of Faith details beautifully in
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  Chapter 7. Let's talk about that
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  confession. Well, under a covenant of works,
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  you have a legal claim based on your own obedience.
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  If you do the work perfectly, the reward is owed to you as a
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  debt. Because of the contract, yes.
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  But under a covenant of grace, you are entirely dependent on
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  the unmerited favor of the sovereign.
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  You have no legal standing to demand anything.
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  It is the difference between going into a brutal salary
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  negotiation with a union representative by your side
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  demanding your exact wage be written in ink in a contract,
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  versus the terrifying prospect of looking at a powerful boss
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  having 0 leverage and hearing them say just trust my goodness,
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  I will take care of you. That is a brilliant way to
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  phrase it. For the natural human heart,
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  trusting someone's goodness without a contract is
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  terrifying. We want the paperwork.
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  It is terrifying because we know our own corrupt hearts and we
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  naturally project our own stinginess and our own
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  conditional love onto God. We think he is like us.
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  We assume God is a harsh taskmaster who will shortchange
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  us the moment we let our guard down.
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  But the master in this parable is inherently good.
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  He is not like us. Thank goodness he isn't.
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  So the work day eventually ends, the sun goes down, and that sets
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  the stage for the most provocative, tension filled
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  moment of the entire parable. We arrive at the payment line in
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  verses 8 through 10. Evening falls, and in biblical
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  literature, evening is often the symbol for final accounting, for
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  the end of the age, and for judgement.
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  The work day is over. The master, the Oiko dispotez,
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  commands his foreman, the Epitropose, to pay the workers,
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  but he gives a highly specific, very unusual instruction.
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  What does he tell the foreman? He says call the laborers and
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  pay them their wages, beginning with the last up to the first.
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  We cannot gloss over that instruction beginning with the
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  last to the first. This reversal of the payment
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  line is not some administrative quirk.
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  No, the master didn't just happen to bump into the 11th
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  hour guys first on his way to the payroll tent.
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  It is a calculated theological provocation.
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  A massive provocation. By instructing the foreman to
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  pay the last workers first, the master forces the 12 hour
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  workers to stand there and watch.
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  Oh, that is brutal. They have to witness the
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  staggering generosity given to the idlers before they receive
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  their own pay. The suspense of the parable
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  rests entirely on this moment. You can feel the tension in the
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  air. The 11th hour workers step up.
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  They've only worked 60 minutes. They haven't even broken a
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  sweat, and the foreman reaches into the bag and hands them a
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  full denarius. A whole day's wage for a single
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  hour of work. Imagine being one of the first
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  workers standing at the back of that.
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  Line I would be losing my mind. You see that silver coin drop
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  into the hands of the 11th hour guys and your mind immediately
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  starts calculating. The spreadsheet opens up in your
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  head. Of course it does.
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  You think if the guys who worked one hour got a full denarius,
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  then we who worked 12 brutal hours in the sun are going to
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  get a fortune, we are going to get 12 denarii, We're going to
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  be rich. But think about the alternative
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  scenario for a second. What if the master had just told
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  the foreman to pay the first workers early in the morning?
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  That changes everything. What if he just handed them
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  their denarius at 6:00 AM, right after they signed the symphonio
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  and sent them home? They would have been thrilled.
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  They would have walked home celebrating.
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  I got what they asked. For they got what they needed to
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  feed their families and they secured it early in the day.
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  They would have praised the master for his reliability.
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  Right. Their massive dissatisfaction
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  later that evening is entirely manufactured by observing the
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  blessing given to others. That is the whole point.
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  It goes back to that test score analogy we started with.
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  You get your final exam back, you see a bee at the top of the
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  page and you are thrilled. You studied hard.
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  A bee is a solid grade and you are perfectly happy.
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  Until you look around. Exactly.
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  Then you glance over at the student sitting next to you.
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  You know for an absolute fact they slept through every single
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  lecture. They never took a single note.
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  They didn't even buy the textbook.
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  We all know that student. And you see the professor also
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  gave them AB Suddenly your B feels like a slap in the face.
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  It feels like an insult. The grade didn't change, your
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  objective standing didn't change, but your joy evaporates
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  instantly because of comparison. That analogy captures the
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  mechanics of envy perfectly. You are completely joyful and
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  content until you are forced to look at someone else receiving
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  unearned favor. It is a sickness.
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  It is your happiness is tied to your relative superiority over
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  the person next to you. I have to ask the critical
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  question here though, and I think anyone listening to this
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  is probably wondering the same thing.
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  What is that? If the Master is so good, if his
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  character is perfect and he is full of grace, why deliberately
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  provoke the first workers? Why intentionally line them up
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  in reverse order just to rub this in their faces?
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  It is a tough question. Isn't he just setting them up to
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  be angry and bitter it feels. Manipulative.
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  It looks manipulative only if you misunderstand the masters
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  goal. The Master is not creating the
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  anger, he is drawing out the hidden corruption that is
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  already festering in their heart.
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  He was already there. Right.
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  The law represented by the strict contract exposes their
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  mercenary spirit. If he had paid them first and
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  sent them away, they would have remained entirely blind to their
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  own legalism. They would have thought they
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  were fine. They would have gone home
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  thinking they were righteous because they earned their keep
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  by forcing them to watch grace being applied to someone else.
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  The Master pulls the curtain back on their self
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  righteousness. He exposes the disease.
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  He forces them to see how ugly their hearts truly are, and this
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  leads us to the devastating reaction in the next verses
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  where we see the true anatomy of envy.
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  The tension breaks in verses 11 and 12.
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  The first laborers finally step up to the foreman.
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  They put their hands out expecting a huge payout.
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  They are ready to be rich. And the foreman hands them one
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  denarius, the exact amount they agreed to in their binding
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  contract. Nothing more, nothing less.
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  And how do they react? They immediately begin to
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  grumble against the master. The text uses a very specific
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  Greek word here, Egan gaison. That specific verb, Egan gaison,
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  carries immense theological weight.
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  Let's break that. Down.
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  It is the precise word used in the Septuagint, the Greek
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  translation of the Old Testament, to describe the
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  children of Israel rebelling and murmuring against God in the
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  wilderness. Oh wow, so it is not a minor
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  complaint. Not at all.
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  When you hear that word, you are supposed to think of the
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  Israelites complaining about the manna wishing they were back in
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  Egypt. A serious rebellion.
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  Yes, it denotes A continuous buzzing low level revolt.
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  They're not just experiencing A fleeting moment of
• 19:18
  disappointment, they're lodging a formal, sustained theological
• 19:22
  complaint against the master of the vineyard.
• 19:25
  Let's look closely at their actual complaint.
• 19:27
  In verse 12. They say these last worked only
• 19:30
  one hour and you've made them equal to us who have borne the
• 19:33
  burden of the day and the scorching heat.
• 19:35
  Notice very carefully what they're not saying.
• 19:37
  What are they missing? They do not claim they were
• 19:39
  shortchanged. They do not say the master
• 19:42
  violated the contract. They do not say you promised us
• 19:45
  a denarius and only gave us half.
• 19:47
  Right, they know the contract was fulfilled.
• 19:49
  They know the Master fulfilled his legal obligation perfectly.
• 19:52
  Their core offense is equality. That is the issue.
• 19:56
  Their primary grievance is centered on the word ISO's
• 19:59
  equal. They hate being equal.
• 20:02
  They are absolutely furious that the Master elevated the
• 20:05
  latecomers to their level. They genuinely believed that
• 20:09
  their superior stamina, their 12 hours of sweat, the blisters on
• 20:12
  their hands legally obligated the Master to recognize their
• 20:16
  superiority. They wanted a trophy.
• 20:18
  They wanted a visible distinction.
• 20:20
  They wanted the master to validate their massive effort by
• 20:23
  placing them on a pedestal above the others.
• 20:25
  You know, from a Reformed perspective, this text
• 20:28
  thoroughly dismantle some major theological errors that have
• 20:32
  plagued the church for centuries.
• 20:33
  It really does. Which ones stand out to you?
• 20:36
  We have to look at the Roman Catholic doctrine of condigned
• 20:39
  merit. This is the idea that human
• 20:41
  labor, empowered by grace, eventually creates A genuine
• 20:45
  legal claim on God. Yeah.
• 20:47
  That is a big one. It teaches that if you do enough
• 20:49
  good works, God is actually obligated by his own justice to
• 20:53
  grant you eternal life as a fitting reward.
• 20:56
  And these workers are the perfect example of that mindset.
• 20:58
  The grumblers in this parable are the absolute poster children
• 21:02
  for condigned merit. They are holding up their sweaty
• 21:05
  tunics, pointing to their exhaustion and saying look at
• 21:08
  the burden we bore. You owe us more than them.
• 21:10
  Your justice demands you pay us more.
• 21:14
  It also completely shatters the Armenian idea of foresight.
• 21:17
  Let's talk about foresight. That is the teaching that God
• 21:21
  chooses people for salvation based on his foreknowledge of
• 21:25
  their future faith or their future good works.
• 21:28
  Looking down the timeline. Right.
• 21:30
  If the master in this parable operated on the principle of
• 21:32
  foresight, he would have looked at the 11th hour workers and
• 21:35
  said I am paying you a full denarius because I look down the
• 21:38
  corridor of time and I foresaw that you would work really,
• 21:42
  really hard in that single hour matching the output of the 12
• 21:45
  hour guys. But he doesn't say that at all.
• 21:47
  The text says absolutely no such thing.
• 21:49
  They are paid equally simply because the Master decrees it.
• 21:53
  Grace is intensely offensive to the natural man precisely
• 21:56
  because it destroys human meritocracies.
• 21:59
  It levels the playing field in a way that our human pride simply
• 22:02
  cannot stomach. The master listens to this
• 22:05
  complaint and he later describes their reaction with a very
• 22:09
  specific, vivid phrase. He asks if they have an evil
• 22:13
  eye. The evil eye is oftalmos poneros
• 22:17
  in the Greek. It is a well known Hebrew idiom
• 22:20
  for envy, stinginess, and a begrudging, bitter spirit.
• 22:24
  A diseased way of looking at things.
• 22:26
  The workers eyes are literally diseased with jealousy.
• 22:29
  They cannot look at the generosity shown to another
• 22:31
  person without feeling personally robbed.
• 22:33
  Their vision is entirely distorted by their pride.
• 22:36
  The. Tragedy here is just so thick.
• 22:39
  These workers were perfectly content with the denarius at
• 22:41
  6:00 AM. They agreed to it gladly.
• 22:43
  It was a fair wage. It would feed their families.
• 22:46
  They were ready to work for it. But then comparison ruined it.
• 22:49
  The moment they started comparing themselves to the
• 22:51
  idlers, that completely fair wage turned into an insult.
• 22:54
  Comparison takes a massive blessing and twists it into a
• 22:57
  curse. Faced with this open rebellion
• 22:59
  and this diseased way of looking at grace, the Master has to
• 23:02
  respond. He doesn't back down.
• 23:04
  What does he do? In verses 13 through 15, he
• 23:07
  delivers a definitive, towering defense of his own absolute
• 23:11
  sovereignty. The master addresses one of the
• 23:13
  primary grumblers directly. He calls him friend.
• 23:17
  The Greek word there is heter. Heter.
• 23:20
  In Matthew's Gospel, that specific word is used in some
• 23:23
  very dark contexts. It is often used for someone who
• 23:27
  is physically close but spiritually estranged.
• 23:29
  Is a scary word. Jesus uses this exact word for
• 23:33
  Judas in the Garden of Gethsemane when Judas comes to
• 23:36
  betray him. It is a chilling detail to
• 23:39
  include here. It is a massive warning, yeah.
• 23:41
  It shows that mere proximity to the Kingdom does not equal a
• 23:44
  heart for the Kingdom. You can be close but still lost.
• 23:47
  Yeah, you can be inside the vineyard, you can do the heavy
• 23:49
  labor, you can be called friend by the master, and you can still
• 23:52
  be a complete stranger to the grace of the master.
• 23:54
  Your heart can still be entirely mercenary.
• 23:56
  The master defends his justice. First, he says to the grumbler,
• 24:00
  I am doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a
• 24:03
  denarius? He points right back to the
• 24:05
  symphonio. Right back to the contract.
• 24:06
  He fulfilled it perfectly. He met every single legal
• 24:10
  requirement. He establishes unequivocally
• 24:12
  that he is entirely righteous. No one can ever accuse God of
• 24:16
  injustice. He pays his debts.
• 24:18
  And then he pivots. Then he pivots and defends his
• 24:21
  grace. He asks 2 rhetorical questions
• 24:24
  that form the theological bedrock of this entire passage.
• 24:27
  Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me?
• 24:31
  Or is is your eye evil because I am good?
• 24:35
  Here is where our discussion must center heavily on Reformed
• 24:37
  theology. The Master is establishing
• 24:40
  absolute divine sovereignty. God is a debtor to no man.
• 24:43
  He owes us nothing but justice. We have to bring in the
• 24:45
  Westminster Confession of faith here to fully grasp what is
• 24:48
  happening. Chapter 3, right?
• 24:49
  Yes. Chapter 3 deals with God's
• 24:51
  eternal decree, stating the God freely and unchangeably ordains
• 24:55
  whatsoever comes to pass, and then chapter 5 deals with His
• 24:59
  Providence. How does the parable demonstrate
• 25:02
  that? The master in this parable is
• 25:04
  practically demonstrating those chapters.
• 25:06
  He is showing that God distributes mercy according to
• 25:09
  His own wise and holy will, not according to human metrics of
• 25:12
  deserving. The workers just don't get it.
• 25:14
  The grumbling workers are making a massive, fatal category error.
• 25:19
  They're conflating justice, which is getting spot on what is
• 25:22
  owed, with generosity, which is giving a wildly beyond what is
• 25:25
  owed. They want strict justice.
• 25:27
  They want justice plus a bonus, and they demand that the master
• 25:31
  restrict his generosity toward others.
• 25:33
  They want to run the books they. Want to dictate how the?
• 25:35
  Master spends his own money if you ask for strict.
• 25:38
  Justice from a holy God. You will receive it, but it will
• 25:42
  eternally condemn you. That is a terrifying.
• 25:45
  Thought the first workers. Got strict justice.
• 25:48
  They got exactly what they asked for in the contract and it left
• 25:52
  them bitter, angry and estranged from the master Our modern
• 25:55
  culture struggles. With this too modern secular
• 25:58
  philosophies. Operate the exact same way.
• 26:00
  They demand a specific type of social fairness and equity based
• 26:04
  strictly on visible input and output.
• 26:06
  But the Kingdom of Heaven operates on a completely
• 26:08
  different economy. Thank goodness it does.
• 26:11
  If God were strictly. Fair.
• 26:12
  According to our ledgers, no one would receive the denarius of
• 26:16
  eternal life. We would all perish in the
• 26:19
  marketplace of our own sin. Let me raise an analogy.
• 26:21
  Regarding charity to help ground this, OK, let's hear it if I.
• 26:25
  Am walking down the. Street and I see someone who is
• 26:27
  unhoused sitting on the corner and out of the sheer goodness of
• 26:31
  my heart, I reach into my wallet and hand that person a crisp
• 26:36
  $100 bill. OK, it is a sheer gift.
• 26:39
  Now, am I legally obligated to give $100 to every single person
• 26:43
  on that street? Of course not.
• 26:45
  Does my spontaneous generosity to one person create a binding
• 26:50
  legal debt to everyone else in the city?
• 26:52
  If the next guy asks for $100 and I say no, have I been
• 26:55
  unjust? Absolutely not.
• 26:57
  The prerogative of the giver is absolute. the IT belongs to you,
• 27:01
  and you have the absolute right to distribute it as you see fit.
• 27:04
  It is my money. Right, Your Grace.
• 27:07
  To one person does not create a law of entitlement for another.
• 27:10
  The master says that right? In the text, am I not allowed to
• 27:13
  do what I choose with what belongs to me?
• 27:15
  The contrast here is between the Master's inherent goodness, the
• 27:18
  Greek word agathos, and the worker's evil eye, the Master's
• 27:22
  grace. Is never unfair, it is simply
• 27:24
  more than fair. That is a crucial.
• 27:26
  Theological distinction it is. God's grace is never a violation
• 27:31
  of justice. It transcends justice.
• 27:33
  The cross of Christ is where justice and grace meet
• 27:37
  perfectly. That is beautiful.
• 27:39
  Christ pays the penalty. Fully satisfying the demands of
• 27:42
  justice so that grace can be freely and lavishly given to
• 27:45
  those who haven't earned it. This defense of sovereignty
• 27:49
  leads directly into the concluding backsum in verse 16,
• 27:53
  which brings the entire parable full circle.
• 27:55
  Jesus finishes the story. By looking at his disciples and
• 27:58
  saying so the last will be 1st and the 1st last.
• 28:02
  The inclusio we talked about. Earlier is now complete.
• 28:04
  He started with this. Phrase in chapter 19 after
• 28:07
  peter's question and he locks the teaching in place with it
• 28:10
  right here this is the moral and spiritual order of the Kingdom
• 28:13
  to really grasp the. Weight of this conclusion we
• 28:16
  need to apply the classic Reformed law gospel distinction.
• 28:19
  This is a vital framework for understanding how God speaks to
• 28:23
  us throughout Scripture. Unpack that distinction.
• 28:25
  For us, the law commands demands.
• 28:27
  And exposes our total inability to save ourselves.
• 28:30
  The gospel, however, announces what Christ has already done for
• 28:33
  us. How does that framework?
• 28:35
  Apply to the workers in the vineyard.
• 28:37
  The law is represented. By the strict contract, the
• 28:40
  symphonio and the grueling heat of the day, it exposes the
• 28:44
  mercenary heart of the first workers.
• 28:46
  It shows them their true colors. It proves that anyone.
• 28:49
  Relying on their own works, their own endurance, their own
• 28:52
  sweating through the scorching heat of moral performance, will
• 28:55
  be left bitter and condemned. They will look at God as an
• 28:59
  unfair taskmaster who never pays them enough and the gospel.
• 29:03
  Side the gospel, on the other hand.
• 29:05
  Announces that the denarius is not actually a wage you can earn
• 29:08
  through sweat. The denarius represents the
• 29:11
  imputed righteousness of Christ. It is given freely to the idlers
• 29:16
  who have absolutely nothing to offer, no leverage and no
• 29:19
  resume. Christ is the true first.
• 29:21
  Who voluntarily became last Yes, that is the heart of the.
• 29:24
  Gospel Christ bore the literal scorching heat of God's wrath on
• 29:28
  the cross. He accomplished A grueling labor
• 29:30
  that we could never finish. He did the work.
• 29:32
  He. Became the ultimate.
• 29:34
  Last forsaken, crushed, treated as a criminal so that we who are
• 29:39
  spiritually bankrupt and standing idle in the marketplace
• 29:43
  of sin could be brought in and treated as if we were.
• 29:46
  First, he earned the wage, and he hands it to us as a gift.
• 29:53
  Think about how this. Applies to the church today
• 29:55
  there are different types of people sitting in the pews
• 29:58
  listening to this parable right now there really are you have
• 30:01
  the. Weary St.
• 30:02
  Who has served on the Elder board for 30 years, taught
• 30:04
  Sunday school every single week, set up the folding chairs and
• 30:08
  never missed a tithe? They have borne the heat of the.
• 30:10
  Day. This parable is a.
• 30:12
  Loving but severe warning to them.
• 30:14
  It warns against the elder brother syndrome.
• 30:16
  You cannot look at the teenager who just got saved out of a life
• 30:19
  of terrible rebellion and think you deserve a better seat at the
• 30:22
  heavenly banquet than they do your 30 years of service.
• 30:25
  Do not obligate God to love you more and on the other side of
• 30:28
  the aisle. It addresses the late Comer, the
• 30:30
  person who gets converted on their deathbed, or the person
• 30:33
  who spent 40 years actively destroying their life, ruining
• 30:36
  their family before finally finding grace at the very end
• 30:39
  this text offers them. Immense, overwhelming comfort.
• 30:42
  There are no second class. Citizens in the Kingdom of
• 30:45
  heaven none the. Thief on the cross is the
• 30:48
  ultimate biblical illustration of the 11th hour worker.
• 30:52
  The thief on the cross is the. Perfect example to bring up.
• 30:54
  He performed 0 deeds. He bore no heat of the day.
• 30:59
  He couldn't even get his hands free from the nails to do a good
• 31:02
  work. If he tried, he was completely.
• 31:05
  Helpless, he had minutes left to live.
• 31:06
  He was a criminal, yet he received the full reward of
• 31:09
  paradise solely through the King's goodness.
• 31:12
  He received the exact same denarius as the Apostle Paul who
• 31:15
  suffered for decades that reality.
• 31:18
  Entirely shatters human pride. It forces us to admit that our
• 31:22
  standing before God is entirely dependent on his mercy, not our
• 31:26
  religious resumes. It humbles us all if the.
• 31:29
  Thief on the Cross gets the. Same paradise as Paul then human
• 31:32
  merit is completely dead. But I know someone listening to
• 31:34
  this right? Now is asking a very logical
• 31:36
  question. I'm sure they are.
• 31:37
  Let's hear it. If the wage is the exact.
• 31:39
  Same if the denarius is given to the one hour worker and the 12
• 31:42
  hour worker alike. How are we supposed to view our
• 31:45
  own work? Then why bother working at?
• 31:48
  All right, why not just show up? At the 11th hour, why endure the
• 31:51
  heat of the day at all? Why fight sin?
• 31:54
  Why serve the church if the payout is identical regardless
• 31:57
  of effort? That is the natural.
• 31:59
  Objection of a heart that still thinks like a mercenary.
• 32:03
  It is the question Peter was asking.
• 32:04
  So how do we answer it to? Answer that we turn to the. 3rd
• 32:07
  Use of the Law, which is detailed thoroughly in
• 32:09
  Westminster Confession, Chapter 19.
• 32:12
  Let's review the uses. OK, the three uses the 1st.
• 32:15
  Use of the law. Acts as a mirror to expose our
• 32:17
  sin and drive us to Christ. The second use acts as a bridal
• 32:21
  to restrain evil in civil society.
• 32:23
  And the third? The third use is specifically
• 32:26
  for the believer. It is the rule of life for those
• 32:29
  who are already justified by grace.
• 32:31
  Explain how that third. Use changes the motivation for
• 32:34
  the labor. How does it change the way we
• 32:36
  swing the hammer in the vineyard?
• 32:37
  Believers do not labor. In the vineyard to earn the
• 32:40
  denarius, they labor out of staggering gratitude because
• 32:44
  they already have the denarius secured for them by Christ.
• 32:47
  The motive changes. Completely, we work from a place
• 32:49
  of. Justification.
• 32:51
  Not for a place of justification.
• 32:53
  If you truly understand what you have been saved from, the
• 32:56
  eternal destruction you rightfully deserved, you do not
• 33:00
  look for the bare minimum you can do to get by.
• 33:02
  You don't just do the bare. Minimum, you run into the
• 33:05
  vineyard. With Joy.
• 33:06
  I'm absolutely thrilled that the Master allows you to participate
• 33:10
  in his work at all. You don't check your watch, you
• 33:13
  don't look at the other workers with an evil eye.
• 33:16
  You are just grateful to. Be there.
• 33:17
  You are simply amazed. That you are no longer standing
• 33:20
  idle in the marketplace of death.
• 33:21
  So the entire mindset. Shifts from I have to do this to
• 33:25
  get paid to I get to do this because I have been rescued.
• 33:28
  That is the shift that. Changes everything.
• 33:30
  About how we view ministry, how we view suffering, and how we
• 33:34
  view serving others. We are not building a Ledger.
• 33:37
  We are writing a thank you note with our lives.
• 33:39
  It changes the entire. Atmosphere of a local church, A
• 33:43
  congregation that truly understands this parable will be
• 33:46
  a place of immense humility and shared rejoicing.
• 33:49
  No more comparing. Resumes when a latecomer
• 33:52
  arrives. When someone with a messy past
• 33:54
  walks at the doors and receives grace, the mature Saints do not
• 33:58
  view them with suspicion or jealousy.
• 34:00
  They throw a party. They celebrate.
• 34:02
  They celebrate. The Master's.
• 34:03
  Generosity because they realize they are entirely dependent on
• 34:07
  that same generosity. We are coming to the.
• 34:09
  End of our deep dive into this text and I want to summarize the
• 34:13
  weight of what we have seen today.
• 34:15
  It is a heavy text. This parable is.
• 34:17
  The absolute, uncompromising demolition of human merit.
• 34:21
  The Kingdom of Heaven operates on sovereign grace.
• 34:24
  It is an economy where the King has the absolute prerogative to
• 34:28
  do what he wishes with what belongs to him.
• 34:30
  And what he wishes to do is pour out staggering, unmerited favor
• 34:34
  on people who deserve absolutely nothing.
• 34:36
  It forces every single one. Of us to lay down our ledgers.
• 34:39
  We cannot negotiate with God based on our stamina.
• 34:42
  We have no leverage. We cannot point to our.
• 34:44
  Overtime hours we can only stand with empty hands and receive the
• 34:48
  finished work of Christ. I want to leave you with a.
• 34:51
  Final provocative thought to Mull over as you go about your
• 34:54
  day, take a very close look at your own spiritual Ledger right
• 34:58
  now look at the notebook are. You secretly keeping?
• 35:01
  Track of your sacrifices, waiting for God to balance the
• 35:05
  scales and pay you back for your obedience.
• 35:07
  Are you keeping a little black notebook of your good deeds or
• 35:11
  can you celebrate? Grace or can you look at the?
• 35:13
  11th hour Sinner. The person you think is the
• 35:15
  least deserving of grace in your entire community, the person
• 35:19
  whose life is a total mess and genuinely rejoice when the
• 35:22
  Master hands them the exact same reward as you.
• 35:25
  That is the real test. Because if you cannot rejoice.
• 35:27
  In that, you might need to ask yourself the most penetrating
• 35:30
  question in this text. Is your eye evil because the
• 35:34
  master is good? You know, we started by talking
• 35:37
  about that spreadsheet, that safe mathematical calculation of
• 35:40
  fairness, the spreadsheet that ruins.
• 35:42
  Us it is time to delete the. Spreadsheet You do not want God
• 35:46
  to be fair with you. You want him to be gracious.
• 35:48
  You want the. Unmerited favor of the master.
• 35:51
  That is the only thing that saves us.
• 35:53
  We will see you next time. On reformed thinking.