2026-09-20 Pentecost 17
Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen!
You might have noticed that we live now in a day and age that is ripe with ripoffs, scams and corruption. To be sure, there have always been con artists out there trying to scam you out of your hard earned shekels. Remember when people had fax machines?! There was always that same old fax from that Nigerian Prince who had millions and millions of dollars for you if you could simply secure a $5,000.00 payment with your credit card. A ponzi scheme here, a pyramid scam there. Now you have the nice guy from India calling to warn you that your computer is full of viruses and running slow. Fortunately he can clean it and make it fast again for you for the low, low price of $400.00! Also the Canada Revenue Agency calls you urging that unless you pay a bunch of money, right now, they will foreclose on your house and you’ll goto jail! And now, with the invention of AI, you can get a phone call from your loved one, likewise asking you for money. It’s our Grandson Steve, he’s shipwrecked in Jamaica and needs us to send him some gift cards! It’s all just a big fat scam and we have to constantly be on guard against these unscrupulous characters. And this is a public service announcement, if you are 75 years old or older, these bad dudes are trying to prey on your old-world kindly and trusting nature. Don’t give out your credit card information. Don’t send anyone in India any money. And remember, the CRA will never phone you. They only send snail mail letters!
Thanks for the heads up, Pastor! Where are you going with this?? I’m glad you asked! Today we have a parable before us that seems like another big scam. The Laborers in the Vineyard. On the outset it really seems like a big ripoff - perhaps even a Divine Ripoff. But fortunately for us, it’s more of a lesson about God’s wild and crazy grace and loving kindness.
I doubt this is a new parable for you. But the gist, if you recall, is that there is a land owner. He goes out and hires scab labour to come and work for him in the field. He’s got a vineyard, and its harvest time. Time to pick the grapes and make some wine. So he goes around and finds some guys looking for work and makes a deal. Work for me for a denarius a day. It’s the day’s wage for a common labourer. We would say minimum wage. $15.35 per hour but it jumps up to $15.70 on October 1st! Yay! Now people can afford the gourmet version of Ichiban noodles at the Dollar Store. If you work a 12 hour day, that’s roughly $184 a day before taxes. The master in our parable agrees to pay the guys this amount. But then he goes out later in the day and he hires more guys. The third hour, the sixth hour, the eleventh hour - 9AM, Noon and 5PM. He hires a few more scabs to work his fields.
At long last, the workday is done. Everyone comes in from the fields to get paid. They line up and starting with the last guys hired, the 11th hour 5PM guys who worked a whopping one hour get paid … a denarius. The dudes hired at Noon and 9AM and those who started way back in the beginning at 6AM, they all get paid … a denarius. They all get paid the same amount. The guys who were sweatin’ to the oldies all day in the heat are a little bit, how shall we say, livid about this! Why on earth should these 5PM lackeys get paid the full $184 bucks!? They only worked one hour while the other guys roasted in the sweltering sun for the full 12 hours! What gives?? This is an utterly-unfair ripoff!
When we hear this parable, truly it offends our deeply ingrained sense of justice. It’s like watching two youngsters scrap over who gets to sleep on the top bunk. Or kids in school, if one kid gets her test answer wrong and the other kid gets his answer right and they both wrote the same answer, the whinge is on! “It’s not fair!” we scream and wail and grumble. Our whole society has become one giant cry-baby-fest over stuff like this. This group over here is crying about what bathrooms to use, that group over there is raging about people eating red meat, the hippies are protesting the pipelines and on and on and on it goes. It seems like all of western civilization has become just a big group of whiners and grievance collectors! And the people in this parable are no different! Gripe and moan all the way home!
But did the master in this parable really rip anyone off? Did he scam anyone out of their money? Did he launch some unscrupulous scheme?? The answer is no, he didn’t. “‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius? Take what belongs to you and go. I choose to give to this last worker as I give to you. Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or do you begrudge my generosity?’” (MT 20:13-15). The 12 hour workers are ticked off that the lackeys got the same amount as they did. But it’s not a rip off or a wrong doing. It’s lavish generosity. It’s wild and crazy grace. It’s loving kindness. It’s going on and above to show someone mercy, benevolence and good will.
Ultimately, this parable is a lesson in how God deals with us. It doesn’t matter if we’ve been faithful to Him since we were infants or converts in our old age or even our deathbed. The same grace and generosity exists for all people. For we are all sinners. We have all fallen short of the glory of God time and time again. It’s the great leveler. It doesn’t matter if we are billionaires or paupers, black, white, purple or green, before God we truly are in the same standing. We are all sinful people in need of a Savior. And Jesus, of course, is that Savior. He is the one who readily chose to shed His blood on the cross for the forgiveness of our sins, our whining and complaining, our grousing and our grievance collecting. And it is here that God shows us His merciful heart. Those who deserve nothing in their sins receive the full day’s compensation, from the last to the first.
God treats us with this kind of lavish grace. He forgives our sins. He helps us from His merciful loving heart. This, we readily accept for ourselves. The challenge that remains is, will we extend this same grace and mercy to those around us? Will we forgive as we have been forgiven? Will we pardon as we have been pardoned. Will we reward others as we have been rewarded by our merciful Lord? It’s a tall order. See, the vineyard owner didn’t have to hire any of the workers. That is to say, God didn’t have to save any of us. But He did. And because of that we see that in this parable, we have become the vineyard owner. How will we show blessing to a world chock full of sin, hatred, rebellion and ripoff?
We show it the same way the Master did—not because anyone earned it, and certainly not because it is “fair.” We show it because the Owner of the vineyard has already given us far more than a denarius. He gave us His Son, crucified and resurrected. We were the eleventh-hour workers, standing around idle, empty-handed, and still He put the full day’s wage in our pocket: forgiveness, life, and salvation. Every last one of us. So when the world screams, “It’s not fair!” we get to answer, “Yep. You’re right and thank God it isn’t!” It’s generosity. It’s grace. It’s kindness. The same Lord who found us at whatever hour He chose now sends us back into His field—not to keep score, but to freely give away the same lavish kindness we ourselves have received. Forgive as you have been forgiven. Welcome the last as the first. Bless the undeserving. Do it not because anyone deserves it, but because Jesus first did it for you. Thanks be to our gracious God now and forever more. Amen!
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