Rev. Charles Lehmann + Matthew 20:1-16 + Pentecost 18
In the Name of + Jesus. Amen.
Don't look for the world's justice in the kingdom of heaven. What passes
for justice in this world is nonsense in where the Lord rules by mercy and
love. God doesn't understand a day's pay for a day's work, and He certainly
doesn't want to give us what we deserve. The Lord doesn't repay us according
to our deeds. He doesn't count up all our good works and measure out His grace
in payment. Most of all, Jesus doesn't want to punish us for our sins. The
Lord is simply not just in the way the world measures justice. The world wants
an eye for an eye, but the Lord takes the nails. The world wants the
punishment to fit the crime, but the Lord who has committed no crime has borne
your punishment, mine, and that of the whole world in his body on the cross.
The Lord is generous, forgiving, and kind. He repays evil with good. He does
not seek the death of a sinner. Instead, your Lord found perfect joy when on
the cross He showed mercy to the world
that hated him.
So don't look for worldly justice in the kingdom of heaven. Heaven is
filled with mercy. In heaven drug dealers, murderers, rapists, and even
disobedient children have been freed from all the burdens of their sin. In
heaven is a Savior who has been slain by those whom He loves and who has
suffered all the wrath of His Father. The mercy you will receive in heaven was
accomplished by the Father's just punishment of Christ on the cross. Justice
for Jesus means mercy for you. Christ has wiped all your sins away by His
innocent suffering and death, and in heaven you will abide for all eternity in
your Savior's love. There is no worldly justice beyond the pearly gates.
Heaven is filled with the Lord's mercy.
But there is a place where perfect worldly justice will reign forever.
There is a place that is filled with all the pain and misery that our sins
truly deserve. It is a place of absolute implacable judgment and wrath. In
that place each person will receive in their body the just reward for every lie
they've uttered, every slander they've spoken, every adulterous thought that
has stained their mind, every idol they've secretly worshiped, and every vain
work they've done. In that place the fire is never quenched and the worm never
dies. In that place eternal pain and torment are each man's portion. In that
place each sin is punished eternally. Satan is not like the Lord. The Lord
finds His joy in mercy, but Satan delights in what in the world passes for
justice. The evil one wants the chance to repay your evil with evil of his
own. Satan is a roaring lion seeking someone to devour. He is a liar, and a
murderer and has been one from the
beginning. Satan knows no mercy. He only knows God's perfect wrath against
him and all those who live and die in the sins of idolatry and unbelief.
When the Lord sends His church out into the world, He does not send it to
dispense the world's justice. There's no firing range at the seminary.
Pastors are not police officers or prosecuting attorneys. The church does not
train us to enforce the laws of men. Instead, we are heralds of the Lord's
mercy. The justice of the world is tit for tat. Crimes are punished, and good
deeds are rewarded. But the Lord doesn't want to punish you at all. His
punishment of His Son has won forgiveness for you. There are no scales in
heaven that the Lord uses to weigh your good deeds against your evil ones. The
Lord has sent His Son to the cross to destroy the scales. Jesus has gone there
to forgive your sins and to win life and salvation for you.
Hell is filled with people who the Lord went to the cross to save. They
are there because of their sin. They are there because they have rejected the
gift which the Lord earnestly desires to give them. But as for you, surely God
is your help, and the Lord is the One who sustains you. When the Lord went to
the cross to bear your sin, He forgave them all. Jesus doesn't just give what
you need for the moment. Whenever Jesus gives you anything He gives you
everything: life, salvation, and even His own body and blood.
There is no worldly wisdom in our Lord's parables. Last week we heard
Jesus say that the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle
accounts with his servants. The first servant owed him ten thousand talents.
It would have taken a day laborer two hundred thousand years to repay this
debt. It was absolutely impossible for the servant to pay the king, so he
threw himself at his feet and begged the king for mercy. The servant said,
“Have patience with me and I will pay you everything.” As good as the
servant's words may have sounded, the king knew there was no way the servant
could ever have raised anything close to that much money.
But things don't work in the kingdom of heaven the way they work in the
kingdoms of this world. The Heavenly King is gracious and merciful. He does
not delight in the death of a sinner. The Heavenly King doesn't want to give
His servants what they truly deserve. That is why the Heavenly King forgave
his servant.
No earthly king could ever afford to be as generous as your Savior is. The
ways of Wall Street are ignored in the kingdom of heaven. Jesus didn't go to
business school. He never learned the art of buying low and selling high. The
Lord didn't know how to get a good deal in the marketplace. In fact, Jesus was
so bad at accounting that he picked a thief named Judas to keep the disciples'
books.
The parables show that the kingdom of heaven is truly a heavenly kingdom
that is ruled by the heavenly King. It is not at all like the kingdoms of the
world because the King of Heaven is not at all like the kings, presidents, or
prime ministers of this evil age. The Lord is ridiculously generous with His
gifts. In today's parable, the Lord gives just what He promises. He pays no
one according to their deeds.
Some of you were baptized as infants. You entered the vineyard when you
were just a few days or weeks old. As you were brought into the vineyard, the
Lord promised you eternal life and salvation. You have never known a day
outside of your Savior's forgiving love. You've always known the comfort of
the Gospel. You've learned from the time that you could first speak that Jesus
has forgiven all your sins.
Some of you came into the vineyard a little later, at the third hour. He
found you in the marketplace. You heard the saving word of the Gospel from a
friend, a family member, or a co-worker. You came from the marketplace to the
vineyard. And the master of the vineyard promised to give you whatever was
right.
Some of you came even later, at the sixth or the ninth hour. And some of
you may have come even later, at the eleventh hour of your life, when you don't
have many years left. And to you God has said the same word that He said to
the others. Come, work in my vineyard! I will give you what is right.
It is worth noticing that the Lord does not say that He pays the vineyard
workers. He gives to them. He gives to them according to His promise. The
Lord does not keep a time card for you. You do not punch in or out. No
bookkeeping is allowed in the kingdom of heaven. The Lord is not a worldly
landowner, and He's not paying any attention to his bottom line. He wants you
in the vineyard because it is where all the good stuff is. The Lord of Life
only keeps one book, and in the Book of Life there are entries only in the
credit column. Nothing is ever counted against you, because Christ's blood has
blotted away all the debt of your sin.
Hear the word of the Lord, people loved by God! The vineyard of the Lord
of hosts is the house of Israel. And you, dear Christians, are His pleasant
planting. He does not reward one child and punish another. He does not
compare your righteous deeds with those of your neighbor. He does not keep
payroll records and give an hourly wage. Whether you came at the first hour or
the eleventh, the Lord gives you exactly what He has said He would give. He
gives to you according to His promise. He gives you the righteousness He won
for you on the cross.
You can't win a gift. You can't earn a present. You don't get stuff on
your birthday because you ran a marathon, and you don't get a Valentine because
your pie won best of show at the Garrett County Fair. That's not the way gifts
work. Gifts are gifts. Wages are wages. Hard work gets good pay. Wages are
the way of the world, but gifts are the way of heaven. If any word is in
Christ it is a new creation, and so, with the Lord, the wage becomes a gift.
The Lord gives what He promises. His gifts are beyond anything we could ever
desire or deserve. Though we might earn our wages, we don't earn gifts. None
of us open a birthday present from our moms and say, “This is just what I've
always deserved!” The gift comes because of the love of the giver. Your mom
loves you.
But as much as your mom loves you, the Lord loves you more. The parable
never talks about the master of the vineyard paying the workers. He doesn't
pay. He gives. He gives them what He promises. He is generous and loving.
His ways are above our ways. His thoughts are above our thoughts. His way is
not the way of the world. It is far better. What is good in this world is not
even worth comparing to what the Lord has in store for you in the New Creation.
There, in His heavenly kingdom, the Lord will raise you and all the dead. He
will give you every good gift He has won for you on the cross.
Rejoice, people loved by God. Do not begrudge the Lord his generosity.
His mercy knows no bounds, and his love never ceases. He gives to the last
even as He gives to the first. He loves you. He keeps His promises to you
now, and He will keep them to you in eternity.
In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
And the peace of God which surpasses all understanding keep your hearts and
your minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
Rev. Charles R. Lehmann
Pastor, Saint John's Lutheran Church, Accident, MD
http://chaz-lehmann.livejournal.com
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