In September of 2023, California had passed AB 1228, a new law in California, which did two main things. First, it increased the minimum wage for “fast food restaurant employees.” Second, it establishes a “Fast Food Council”, which is empowered both to make future increases to the minimum wage and to adopt other minimum employment standards for fast food restaurants. They established $20/hr. as the starting point which went into effect April 1, 2024. The purpose was to make wages “more fair and equitable” for fast food employees. Why the government targeted fast food employees for the increase but other laborers remain at a $16.50/hr. minimum wage, and undocumented field laborers are only given $6 an hour and get $2.15 per box when picking strawberries is a matter beyond the scope of this sermon.
Regardless of what you think about this law and legislation, the idea of a fair wage seems reasonable, and it would seem especially reasonable if you are one of the workers.
But how does this translate to spiritual matters? How does it relate to the kingdom of God and those who are called to work in God’s vineyard?
That is the theme in the parable in this morning’s Gospel lesson. What is a fair wage? What does the master owe His workers? The kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. After agreeing with the laborers for a denarius a day, he sent them into his vineyard. The master went out to the market place 4 more times: at the third, sixth, ninth, and finally the eleventh hours, each time finding and hiring more laborers saying: “whatever is right I will give you.” At the end of the day, the master had the foreman pay out the wages starting with those who started working at the 11th hour. Work days at this time were 12-hour work days, so that means this last group of laborers worked only an hour in the vineyard. What were they paid? A denarius. And so likewise all the laborers who had been hired at the various times were given a denarius. When it got to those who were hired first, who had worked in the vineyard the longest amount of time, they thought it would only be fair if they were paid more than those who worked a shorter time. They expected more. They reasoned that it would only be fair. They worked longer than the others. So, when the master through the foreman gave them only a denarius, they grumbled and complained. In fact, the text says, they grumbled AT the master of the house, saying, ‘These last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat.’
Were they wrong? It is true that they had worked longer, they had worked the longer hours, working and contributing more even during the hottest parts of the day. Where did they go wrong? Well, they judged and begrudged the master for His generosity to the other laborers. It wasn’t their wage to give, and as the master points out, they had agreed to the one denarius. They received exactly what was agreed upon no more, no less. The master asked them: “Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me?” He gave them the denarius and dismissed them. And Jesus said: “So, the last will be first, and the first last.”
Quite often we are like those laborers hired at the beginning of the day. In fact, this is how people are in general. People generally think too highly of themselves. They believe that God owes them more than whatever it is they are given. People in the church and people outside the church have this same notion with respect to God. “He owes me”. When the heat of the day in this sin-filled life strikes people and troubles come upon us, it is tempting to say: “I can’t believe this is happening to me: it’s not fair.” People in the world will even use that as an excuse for rejecting the Word of God in Jesus Christ. They will ask: “How can a ‘loving’ God allow such evil or this event or that tragedy?” They do not look to the cause of the trouble in this world: the wickedness of the hearts of mankind, including their own, and the curse of sin in general. They do not focus upon but instead reject the generosity that is offered by God, not only in a Savior, but in acknowledging His constant caretaking of the world. Indeed, God is constantly creating and continuing His creation providing life for billions of people, most of whom do not believe in Him, who actively sneer at God, and often even persecute His laborers in the field of the Church. Then within the Church, people will often judge God and inwardly begrudge Him giving the promise of Grace to those who were hired/called at various times of their life from the idleness and wickedness of this world and their own behavior. Despite their wickedness, they were called and repented later in their life, but a long time or lifelong Christian may be tempted to think “they enjoyed their idleness, their wickedness in the flesh in this life, but then they repented, and now they also receive the same eternal life? It isn’t fair!”
Yes, the whole thing isn’t fair. None of it is fair. The real question regarding fairness is this: Does God owe humanity anything? Does God owe you and me anything? What are fair wages, especially with regard to sin? What are the wages of sin? Death! Not just death of the bodies, but eternal torment forever in hell. That is the wages of sin. The wages of missing the mark of God’s Law of not doing the established labor properly. The Law established by the master and creator of the universe. It is His right as the One who created all people and things to demand obedience and labor in return for His caretaking and giving of life.
So, what does God owe sinful, lazy, jealous, people the world over? What does He owe you and me? Nothing. We, on the other hand, owe Him everything. Everything that is ours in this world and life, great or small, we owe to Him.
If we are honest, what would be fair: because we have sinned against Him and against our neighbor? Because we have even judged God in various ways at differing times, because we owe Him so much? What would be fair would be for God to leave us in the marketplace of a dying sin filled corrupt world to inherit and receive the wages due our sin: death and judgement.
But God has called you by the Gospel, yes, to repent of your sin, but also to enter into His vineyard and His special presence and bask in His grace and hope. We have not been the laborers that we should have been, but in His generosity and love, He provides even more than what we need for our daily needs and life. Knowing that we are incapable of keeping the Law perfectly, He sent another laborer to do and complete the work that we could not do. He sent Jesus, His own Son into the work fields, to suffer the true heat of the day. He kept the Law perfectly and then received in His Holy and perfect flesh the wages which you and I deserve: God’s wrath, hell, and suffering upon the cross. He even received scorn and hate from those whom He came to redeem. Was this fair? No, but it was gracious. It was and is the great testament to the Love and generosity of God.
He gives us more than we deserve. Giving us the free gift of redemption and salvation and payment for our sins in Jesus Christ. He has called by His Word, redeemed us by the blood of His Son in Baptism, and called us already in this life to the joy, safety, and comfort of His presence. So, we believe, and we receive from Him here, refreshment, life, comfort by the forgiveness of sin and strengthening of faith as we hear His Word. His grace is proclaimed in Jesus Christ, but then He feeds us and gives us His water of life in the Sacrament of the Altar as we rest in the shade of God Almighty, as Psalm 121 says: The Lord is Your keeper, the Lord is the shade at your right hand”. As we work in the “heat of the day” of this life and become exhausted, frustrated, hurt and anguished, He comes to us here and He takes our anger, our frustrations, our hurts, our pain unto Himself. He gives us rest from our labors here. Then He sends us out, led by the good news of Jesus Christ, by His cross as soldiers, to speak and do battle against the devil, the world, and our flesh. To run the race that He has given us to run and overcome it all and finish by His Holy Spirit and receive the wage that Christ has earned for us.
We do this in joy. We have been redeemed. We do not beat the air meaninglessly in our labor. We know that the victory for us is already won in Jesus Christ. The harvest is His, and He shares generously with us the fruit of His labor: even eternal life.
He knows your earthly pain and suffering. He gives you all that you need for comfort and strength in Himself, in Jesus Christ. He gives you all the instruments of His gracious presence and love in His Word and Sacraments. Pray and be comforted. He hears you, He answers you in grace, love, and mercy in Jesus Christ. His generosity is never ending. He is more than fair, He is gracious because He views you as more than a laborer and servant, but as His child whom He loves. And at the last day, He will give you the crown of life everlasting, the promised redemption for the sake of Jesus Christ, to you and all who have believed and in faith have served, witnessed, confessed, and hoped in Him. Then all believers will rest from their labors in the eternal joy and perfect presence of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The Lord keep you in that hope and faith through the generosity and love of Jesus Christ. Amen.
Pr. Aaron Kangas