IF
GOD WERE FAIR
MATTHEW
20.1-16
SEPTEMBER
21, 2008
WESLEY
UNITED METHODIST CHURCH
Douglas
Norris
If
God were fair, where would you be? In Jesus’ parable, a grower
hired grape pickers all day long, at 6AM, 9AM, 12 noon, 3PM, and 5
PM. When they finished their work at 6PM, and came in for their pay,
they discovered to their amazement that they all were paid the same.
Even those hired at 5PM were paid the same as those who began working
at 6AM. Some worked for 12 hours and, guess what! They didn’t
think it was fair. They complained, “These last have worked only
one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the
burden of the day and the scorching heat.”
How
many of you think it was not fair of the grower to pay all the
workers the same wage? I don’t think it was fair either. However,
God’s grace is not fair. That’s why it’s called grace. But,
deep down many of us prefer fairness to grace. Especially if we are
the workers who slaved in the hot sun picking grapes for 12 hours, we
prefer fairness to grace.
But,
turn it around. If you have ever stood in a labor line or hung
outside Home Depot, hoping, praying for a contractor or a homeowner
to give you a job, worrying about where you were going to get money
to feed your family, pay the rent, buy them clothes; if you were
among those who came from Oklahoma in the 1930s to escape the
drought, and would do any kind of work, migrating from farm to farm,
looking, asking, praying, hoping for something; if you were one of
those who slip across the border trying to scrape a few dollars
together to send back home to your family in Mexico to buy food,
medicine, any kind of hope; then, I suspect, you prefer grace to
fairness. After you hung around the labor hall all day long hoping
against hope, and unbelievably were hired at 5:00 to pick grapes, how
would you have felt if a gracious, generous grower paid you a full
days wage! What rejoicing, gratitude and tears of joy you would have
shed! It depends where you are coming from whether you prefer
fairness to grace, or grace to fairness.
Those
who worked 12 hours preferred fairness to grace, but they missed out
on the joy. They were unable to rejoice and celebrate the good
fortune of those who had worked one hour and got paid for all day.
After all, they were paid what they had been promised; they had no
cause to gripe. Yet, they were unable to rejoice and celebrate the
generosity of the grower. They complained, sulked, dressed in their
garments of righteousness of what they considered to be fair.
The
point of Jesus’ parable is that if those who consider themselves
righteous look at their own hearts, they will see they are not so
perfect after all, and can be thankful that God doesn’t judge by
ledgers but by grace. A mother who had raised a large number of
children successfully as a single mother was asked how she did it.
Did she love them equally and treat them equally? The wise mother
replied, “I loved all of them, loved them greatly, but I never
wanted to love them equally. I loved the one that was down until he
got up. I loved the one who was weak until she was strong. I loved
the one that was hurt until he was healed. I loved the one who was
lost until she was found.” That’s grace, not loving equally, not
loving fairly, but loving extravagantly when they need it.
What
happens when we demand that everyone be treated fairly, that they get
what they deserve, is that we forget how grace has operated in our
lives. Where would you be if you only got what you deserved, got
what was fair? What about the people who loved you more than you
deserved? What about the teacher who went out of the way for you?
What about the second chances you were given when you goofed? What
about your first employer who took a chance on you, who hired you
without references or previous experience? What about the
opportunity you were given because you knew someone who knew someone?
How about those raised in poverty who try to find jobs, but they
don't know someone who knows someone? What about the love of Christ
who treats you not on the basis of what you deserve, but generously,
even extravagantly?
Jesus
told this parable as an example of the kingdom of heaven. When it
comes to heaven, thank God, entrance is not determined by accountants
keeping track of what is fair, or none of us would make it. Entrance
into God’s kingdom is not based on fairness, or what we deserve, or
what we have earned, because if it were, none of us would make it.
As Paul concluded, Romans 3.10, “No one is righteous, no not even
one.” Thank God, entrance into God’s kingdom is based on grace,
not fairness. God quit keeping score long ago.
The
way to enter heaven, the way to get saved, is to let go of our own
righteousness. Don't trust in your righteousness, but trust in God's
grace. Quit worrying about what is fair and let God be as reckless
and indiscreet as God wants. Let God pay the workers whatever God’s
generosity lavishes.
Praise
God! Open your hearts to God’s grace, receive the gift of
salvation, and be thankful. Where would you be if God were fair?
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