Opening Prayer
Lord Jesus, speak Your teaching of life to us all!
Text: Matthew 20:1-16
“For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. Now when he had agreed with the laborers for a denarius a day, he sent them into his vineyard. And he went out about the third hour and saw others standing idle in the marketplace, and said to them, ‘You also go into the vineyard, and whatever is right I will give you.’ And they went. Again he went out about the sixth and the ninth hour, and did likewise. And about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing idle, and said to them, ‘Why have you been standing here idle all day?’ They said to him, ‘Because no one hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You also go into the vineyard, and whatever is right you will receive.’ So when evening had come, the owner of the vineyard said to his steward, ‘Call the laborers and give them their wages, beginning with the last to the first.’ And when those came who were hired about the eleventh hour, they each received a denarius. But when the first came, they supposed that they would receive more; and they likewise received each a denarius. And when they had received it, they murmured against the landowner, saying, ‘These last men have worked only one hour, and you made them equal to us who have borne the burden and the heat of the day.’ But he answered one of them and said, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius? Take what is yours and go your way. I wish to give to this last man the same as to you. Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with my own things? Or is your eye evil because I am good?’ So the last will be first, and the first last. For many are called, but few chosen.”
Devotion
Believers live before God and do all their work in the Lord. That’s what it means to labor in His vineyard. Then we seek the Lord’s glory in everything and we are diligent to promote the growth of God’s kingdom: the growth of our own faith, the strengthening of the brethren, and the conversion of unbelievers. Only those who live in this way and work for God’s kingdom labor in the Lord’s vineyard. Others stand idle in the marketplace. Many men and women struggle and strive with all their might, but it is only for this life or in self-righteousness, and despite all their effort they stand idle in the marketplace. The Lord goes out and calls laborers to His vineyard. Some hear the call early: in the morning of their life, so from childhood they live in faith and practice works of charity. Others are converted in youth, others not until later on, and some at the eleventh hour of their life. It is a great privilege to serve the Lord from morning on and to live a life that is rich in true and good works. No one can do this of himself; the call is from God, and the faithfulness is of God. “What do you have that you did not receive” (1Co 4:7)?
But it is not the Lord’s fault that many continue long in sin and waste the day of grace without fearing God. It is a lie that no one hired them; the Lord wanted to employ them early, but they would not listen to His call. Nevertheless He calls them again toward evening and gives them the full day’s wages, if they then accept the call.
If you are still standing idle in the marketplace, if you are not yet working for the Lord of the Church, if you are still living your life for the world, not for Jesus, who lived His whole life only for us and worked for us even until He sweat blood and suffered death on the cross: then hear His call today, and come now and labor in His vineyard. If you are young, it is not too early; the Lord was about His Father’s business from childhood. If you are old, it is not too late; this is still a time of grace, – but it will soon run out.
Besides this invitation to come and labor in the vineyard, our Gospel contains the lesson that the work itself and the wages should be recognized as pure grace. If you begin to think that you earn anything by your work for God, then you are no longer fit for life in the fellowship of His salvation. Then mercy is gone, and you again come under the bondage of the law. No, dear friends, it is all grace; it is a glorious gift from your God that you may labor much for Him. How many, who are converted only later in life, bemoan the fact that they wasted so much of their time and served Satan in the fair days of their youth! The glorious privilege of being able to offer the strength of one’s whole life to the Lord is more than enough reward for your work. The others who now receive full pardon for all their sin and full salvation according to the measure in which they can receive it, you should consider, not with envy, but with sympathy and above all with thanks to the Lord, who is so incredibly rich in grace. In God’s kingdom His gracious will and mercy, which rule all things, are supreme, not human merit, no right of works great or small.
Closing Prayer
Lord God, soon call all who can be called. Preserve all Your people from arrogance, self-righteousness, and envy. Give us meek and loving hearts to the end. Amen.
Hymn
But God who is so rich in grace,
Surpassing ev’ry measure,
The last before the first doth place
To teach us His good pleasure:
That none of us by works can earn
The place in heav’n for which we yearn-
By grace we have this treasure.
O God, what then is all our thought,
Our deeds and all our speaking,
Our conduct, all our heart has wrought,
How poor is all our making!
When us in this light You do see,
How empty must all mammon be,
Of which such boast we’re making.
Kingo: Guds Naade og Aarvaagenhed L 245:6-7 tr. DeGarmeaux;
tune: Ach, Gott, vom Himmel (ELH 440); alternate hymn: Hark! The voice of Jesus crying ELH 191:1