It's Not Fair - Matthew 20:1-16

Once upon a time there was an employer who at 6am gathered people to work for him at 6am telling them they would get $300 for the day’s work, at 9am he realizing that there was much work to be done, he asked more to come work, again at noon, and 2 he brought even more to come and one last time at 4 pm. Then at 6pm he gave all them their wages to each one he gave $300 for their work.

But that’s not fair! Everyone, no matter how many hours they worked got the same wage. The child in us who took the M&M’s and pour them out on the table and carefully dividing them so that each of the four sisters got the same exact number of M&M’s is screaming inside of me, “She got more than me! That’s not fair!” Or more preciously it more like Sunday lunches at my house when all the sisters were required to work together to make lunch and the youngest would go upstairs to change out of her Sunday dress and take 20  minutes, coming into the kitchen just a few minutes before lunch was ready to be put on the table. “Mom, Katrina did hardly any work! It is not fair.”

Everyone should have to work the same amount of hours to get the same pay. We want things to be fair. We want things to be equal. We want everyone to be treated the same. We want things to be right.

Those who work hard should be rewarded for working hard and those who don’t should have to deal with the consequences. We want everything to be just. Everyone should be treated justly. We want justice; we want people to get what they deserve, whatever that means. People should get what they’ve earned.

If you are a bright intelligent student, who strived for excellence in education your whole life, gave back to your community, and did all the things, you should be able to get into a good college, and if you did not, you should not, no matter how much money your mother gives to anyone to buy your way in.

From the outside in we want it to be fair for those people. If we were the people working in this vineyard, we would want everyone to be paid fairly. We all can understand why the workers, who had been there all day, working hard in the hot sun, are indignant. All they want is equal pay for equal work He should pay everyone $25 an hour. That would be fair.  Everyone gets paid based on how much they worked.

But in the end this is the kingdom of Heaven we are talking about, not a day’s wages for a day’s work. In the kingdom of heaven the wage is the same for everyone. There is not a greater Heaven for the holiest of saints, a medium Heaven for those who were simply faithful ‘til end (as if that is something less than amazing anyway) and then the crummy heaven for those who just loved Jesus.  There is not a Heaven entrance system that allows the rich saints to buy their way and their loved ones’ way into the elite Heaven, while everyone else gets into a version of Heaven that is based on the depth of their love for Jesus, and weighted based on how hard they worked for the Kingdom, and each person gets into a different level of Heaven based on their salvation scores.

We are all on Oprah and we all get a car, the same car, no matter where we are sitting, no matter how far we have come, no matter what we look like, no matter how many cars we already have. You get a car, and you get a car, and she gets a car, and he gets a car and I get a car. We all get car.

There is just Heaven, and all those who believe Jesus and live their lives committed to him and his kingdom, get abundant life, here now and for eternity. Abundant, eternal life is the only reward; Heaven, just heaven, no levels, no gradation, no top tier or bottom shelf. Just Heaven that is all there is, and that is enough. Everyone who seeks finds; everyone who knocks the door is open.

We are always worried about people cheating the system. We firmly believe that there are always people out there trying to get more for less, trying to get two for one, trying to take more and leaving less for everyone else. And this is the broken, fallen, world we live in. There are people cheating their way to the top and there are people cheating and stealing to get the scraps at the bottom and there are people everywhere doing everything they can to be one more step up, in a better place in line, doing everything they can to be just in front of the car in front them; even when it does not really. There are people cheating the system in every system, no matter what the system is. And we want them to stop. We want it to be fair. We want them to be nice, to play by the rules. And it is not fair.

We are concerned with fairness. But God is not. God is concerned with love and also with grace, with mercy, with forgiveness. We all get the same love, but we all do not get the same amount of the other three. We all get grace, mercy and forgiveness in the measure we need them. Those who have wrong greatly are forgiven vastly.  More grace, and more mercy is not a greater thing. To be concerned that someone received more than you is to wish you were a greater sinner, more prone to evil. None of us would truly wish to be worse of a person; to have loved less, to have hated more, to give less kindness, and to have hated more.

I have loved Jesus since I can remember. I was six years old, grounded to my room for being disobedient to my parents and asked Jesus to come help me be good. I have lived my whole life trying to be kind of person I believe God is calling me to be. My grandfather was a terrible person. He drank, he belittled his wife. He verbally and physically abused my mother. When my mother was 16 he disowned her for get pregnant and turned her out, when she needed the love and support of her family the most. At the end of his life, when was dying of cancer, when my mother was living with him to take care of him, he had a radical conversion. In the very end, at the last hour he became a Christian. And that is not fair. Both of us get the same reward, the same wage, the same thing. We all get the same thing. In the end I am fine with that. My grandfather is eternally grateful for the love and grace and forgiveness of God.  As am I.

I am one of the first workers.  My grandfather is a latter worker. I could be upset that gain nothing greater for loving Jesus longer, for living my whole life given over to God. My life is rich and full. Much of the beauty and joy and happiness I find in my life is directly or indirectly linked to being a woman deeply committed to God. My grandfather could not say that about his life. He looked back and saw the harm he had done, the hurt he had caused. I am sure as he reflected on it all there were a hundred million things he would change to be a better husband, father, and all around person. His life was full of deep regret. Do I grudge him the small iota of peace or joy that finally come to his Savior brought him at the end of his life? No. His reward is Heaven and that is beautiful.

Is it fair? No. And that is ok. It does me no harm. It does you no harm, when people like grandfather come to know the love, grace, mercy and forgiveness of God in the final chapters of their lives. We all get the same thing. It is not fair, but mercy and forgiveness are anything but fair.

Can you cheat the system? No. Do any of us really think there are people out there who are tricking God into loving them, forgiving them, showing them, mercy, who do not truly love God in return, who do not want to be forgiven. Do we really believe there are people who are pretending to come to Christ late in life, in order to “game the system.” Even if there are, can they really fool God? Does God not see their hearts, their intentions? There is no way to pull the wool over God’s eyes, and “cheat” your way into Heaven. So we if we are worried about this happening, we need to just let that go. Believing it might be so, says more about us than anything else.

Mercy and forgiveness come to people who have done wrong. Only people who have hurt others need to be forgiven. Only people who have committed a grievous offence, who deserve to be punished, are in a place to be able to receive mercy. Those who have failed are the ones get grace. Forgiveness is a gift given to one who has done harm. Mercy to those who deserve a penalty because of what they have done. Grace is given to that which is less than perfect. No one deserves these things. Grace, mercy, or forgiveness but it is given anyway.  In the end we cannot work long and hard for these things. They are just given.

God offers us all the same things. Love, grace, mercy, forgiveness, no matter who we are, no matter where we come from, no matter where we are, no matter what we have done, is offered to us all. And that is what we receive. Some of us get more than others, because we need more. Some of us get it latter than others, because we were late to accept. But in the end all those who accept get the same thing.

It is not fair. But that’s ok.