Not fair, but offensively generous - 9/24 Sermon

Not fair, but offensively generous

Matthew 20:1-16

- Life’s not fair! We’re aware of this at every stage in life

- Her cookie is bigger than mine. His parents have more money, so he has better clothes. She got the promotion because she has connections.

- When this happens to someone else, it’s easy to say, “Life’s not fair,” But when it happens to us, it’s a tough pill to swallow. When it’s my house, my family, my job, it’s easy to say, “Life’s just not fair.”

- A rich, young man said much the same thing when he asked Jesus, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” “Sell everything.”

- The young man was sad. He had great wealth. “You mean to say, Jesus, that I can’t buy my salvation, even if I had all the wealth in the world?”

- The disciples were quick to make the connection. “Jesus, we’ve given up so much to follow up. What have we earned? What is the fair wage for our service to you, God?” That’s a dangerous, soul-crushing question.

- So Jesus tells a story.

- Tell the story of Matthew 20:1-16. Important facts

- All agreed to work for a denarius, a day’s wage.

- He goes out periodically at each watch of the day.

- Each works for a denarius.

- He pays the last first, so the first think they’ll get more.

- When they get what they agreed on, they are angry.

- “they expected to receive more,” and “they began to grumble.”

- Master: 1) don’t whine, it’s what you agreed to. 2) It’s my money. 3) Can’t I be generous?

- Here is what Jesus tells the disciples, and us:

- Life’s not fair. We get that.

- Jesus saves us by grace alone, through faith, without any of our works.

- We know we will receive “one denarius,” that we will be saved.

- We believe that. It’s simple. But is it really so simple?

- We start to compare ourselves to others, and we want control.

- We compare and introduce the dangerous “I/he” into our thoughts.

- “I… give X%, attend church, believed my whole life, etc. Not bad!

- “He… doesn’t do what I did. I am better than him!”

- We feel that we’ve done more faithful, diligent work than others.

- We begin to look down on others! We think we deserve more.

- We want control.

- It’s curious. The master says, “Don’t I have a right to my own money?”

- The workers thought they owned the master! They had rights over him!

- Imagine thinking that because you work a 9-5 job, you suddenly own the whole factory.

- Yet that is our attitude often with God, long-time Christians especially fall into this.

- We put in the work, we’re good people, and that means we deserve special recognition, right?

- When troubles comes, when problems come, we question, “Why me, God? I’ve been such a good Christian?”

- We confess, “I’m saved by grace alone, through faith alone,” but we think that we do something, and we deserve something special. We see our salvation and say, “this is mine.” That’s not how anything works!

- That is not how the master of the house worked. That is not how Jesus works. He’s not fair. Oh no. Thank goodness. Jesus, the master of the house in the parable, it not fair, but offensively generous.

- He has mercy, and grace. Let me explain.

- God has MERCY. He does not give us what our sins deserve. He is not fair. Thank goodness God is not fair. We’d be in hell.

- We’re all in the same boat, all terrible sinners. We all deserve hell.

- We’re not the people who worked all day; we’re the people who worked one hour!

- To be told all our work is useless is terribly offensive. Our prideful hearts detest the thought. But it’s the truth. But God’s mercy is also truth.

- God has GRACE, he gives us what we don’t deserve. That’s the difference between MERCY and GRACE.

- Jesus is like the worker who worked the whole day. He earned denarius. Jesus was perfect. He earned eternal life. The perfect worker, the perfect person, is Jesus.

- We are the workers who worked 10 minutes. We deserve a pittance. We deserve to still be starving on the street.

- But do you know what happened? God gives us what Jesus did. Our wage is the same as Jesus’ wage.

- Not because of our efforts! Because of MERCY and GRACE.

- Jesus perfect life, his innocent death, his resurrection, is given to us!

- We are perfect in God’s eyes. To him, it’s as if we worked the whole day, as if we lived a perfect life, through Jesus. 

- Not fair, bur offensively generous. That’s our God.

- What did the workers in the field do? they complained. They whined. They demanded more from their master. They were offended at his generosity.

- What will you do at this wonderful, offensive generosity? What is our response to God’s mercy and grace shown in Jesus?

1) Don’t look sideways. It’s easy to play the comparison game. It’s easiest to play it with the people you know.

- The workers who were hired at the start of the day were happy to work all day, in the heat of the sun, for a denarius. They were happy to! But, what turned their joy into anger and bitterness? They compared.

- We can spend all our time looking at what others have, comparing our blessings. We’ll be anger and bitter. Or we can thank God for what he has given us, salvation, all our earthly blessings, we can look at those, and be filled with joy.

2)  Don’t look at yourself. It’s easy to navel gaze, to focus on what we’ve done, to think we’ve somehow accomplished something great.

- Soon enough, we sound like those workers. “We’ve worked in the heat of the day, we’ve done the hard work, we deserve more.”

- We will never be enough. Focusing on ourselves will leave us exhausted, grumbling, hopeless. Instead, do this….

3) Look to the promises of Jesus. Look at what he’s done.

- What could you have said to those grumpy workers in the field? “You are getting a denarius, a day’s wage, for your work. Be content in that!”

- What can we say to ourselves to restore joy and hope? Look in a mirror and say this, “Come on, you poor, wretched, selfish sinner. Don’t look at others. Don’t look at yourself. Look at Jesus. No matter what our circumstance, no matter what happens to us, in Jesus we have forgiveness, we have an eternal paradise,  we are perfect in God’s eyes, we have hope, joy, peace.”

- Those are our “wages”, but we didn’t have to work for them. Jesus worked for them, and gives them to us.

- God’s not fair. That’s called mercy. He doesn’t give us what we deserve. Thank goodness God isn’t fair.

- God is offensively generous. That’s called grace. He gives us what we don’t deserve. Jesus was perfect in our place, and God gives us Jesus’ wages. We have life and salvation.