1. Grace, mercy, and peace from God our heavenly Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen. The text is the Gospel from Matthew 20, which you can follow along in your bulletin below the sermon title: “For the kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard” (Matt. 20:1). The message is entitled, “Denarius and the Evil Eye,” dear brothers and sisters in Christ.
2. “For the kingdom”? What triggered this parable? Well, that whole episode of the rich young man, who couldn’t get into the kingdom because he wasn’t free enough to turn his back on his money and importance. He had Jesus right in front of him with open arms, and that didn’t free him up to leave it all and run with Jesus!
3. Then Peter said in reply [to Jesus], “See, we have left everything and followed you. What then will we have?” Jesus said to them, “Truly [Amen], I say to you, in the new world [regeneration], when the Son of Man will sit on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands, for my name’s sake, will receive a hundredfold and will inherit eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last first.” (Matthew 19:27–30)
4. What does this mean? So then comes the parable: That certain householder 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.” “And going out about the third hour he [the landowner] saw others standing idle in the marketplace, and to them he said, ‘You go into the vineyard too, and whatever is right I will give you.’ So they went. Going out again about the sixth hour and the ninth hour, he did the same.” (Matthew 20:2–5)
5. Now the householder is starting to sound a little impractical. Where’s he going with this? “And about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing. And he said to them, ‘Why do you stand here idle all day?’ They said to him, ‘Because no one has hired us.’ ” Ever get picked last for a sandlot baseball game? They were still hanging out where day-rate workers hung out because no one saw any use for them. “He said to them, ‘You go into the vineyard too.’ ” (Matt. 20:6–7)
6. One hour to quitting time. By the time the guy punches in and gets his apron and tools it’s going to be time to quit! The householder was either stupid or was intentionally out to make a point, and we know he’s not stupid. So here it comes. “When evening came, the owner [lord] of the vineyard said to his foreman [steward], ‘Call the laborers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last, up to the first’ ” (Matt. 20:8). Notice how the lingo changes all of a sudden? What happened to the “master of a house”? Now he’s “the ‘owner’ of the vineyard.”
7. By changing the title of the employer, Jesus is telling us what the parable is about. He’s not pushing communism. This isn’t a parable about how we’re supposed to run our vineyards. It’s a parable answering Peter’s question: “What do we get?” “Pay them their wages, beginning with the last, up to the first.” The lord of the vineyard wanted the 6-a.m. guys (the “Peters”) to see what the latecomers got paid. “And when those hired about the eleventh hour came, each of them received a denarius” (Matt. 20:9). A denarius!
8. “Now when those hired first came, they thought they would receive more” (Matt. 20:10a). Look at what he gave those guys! They just got here! This guy is generous! If that “lie-about” got a denarius, can you imagine what we’re gonna get? “But each of them also received a denarius” (Matt. 20:10b). A denarius! They were insulted! I’m no Wall Street whiz, but at 6 a.m. they were thrilled to work for a denarius, and now at 6 p.m. the denarius had devaluated significantly. And once you hear their complaint, you know the Lord Jesus is talking about religion. He’s talking about being a Christian. Because it sounds so familiar! “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” (Matt. 20:12).
9. In an effort to avoid the point, the Talmud retells the story with the owner commending the laborer for doing more work in two hours than the others did in a full day. But that’s not part of the parable. The householder called the unwanted near the end of the day. That’s the point. They somehow got this idea that he came seeking them because he needed them! We may also assume the householder profited from the workers working in his vineyard. But that’s not part of the parable either. My dad started me out in his Tobacco shop when I was 18. He didn’t do that for himself. Things were harder for him with me there, not easier. It took longer to show me how to do it than just to do it himself. None of that was for him. It was for me, so I wouldn’t stand idle all day, like those day-rate workers in the parable. And I understand that now.
10. There was once a sign in my Grandpa Taggatz’s workshop: Shop rates: $30/hour $50/hour if you want to watch $75/hour if you want to help. But it’s true! You, young Christians, you sit here today as 6-a.m. disciples of Jesus not because he needs your help. This is all for you, so that you can know him here, you bear the heat of the day, not idle, but with the Lord of the vineyard, hearing his words, which are spirit and life, speak to you, so you can live the life of the world to come with him, here and now, and go into the marketplace with him to rescue those who are idle. The lord of the vineyard didn’t raise up the 5-p.m. guys to be equal to the 6-a.m. guys. He raised up the 6-a.m. guys to be equal to the 5-p.m. guys! “The last will be first, and the first last” (Matt. 20:16).
11. The denarius was a gift! But they were insulted. So he answered one of them and said, “Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius?” (Matt. 20:13). He calls him friend, but it’s so sad here. Because the Greek word used here for “friend” is not the regular word translated “friend.” This word occurs only two other sad times in the New Testament. “And he [a king giving a wedding banquet] said to him [a guest], ‘Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding garment?’ And he was speechless. Then the king said to the attendants, ‘Bind him hand and foot and cast him into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth’ ” (Mt 22:12–13). The other: “And he [Judas] came up to Jesus at once and said, ‘Greetings, Rabbi!’ And he kissed him. Jesus said to him, ‘Friend, do what you came to do’ ” (Mt 26:49–50). “Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius?” You were fine with that until you saw me being good to someone else.
12. So he told the 6-a.m. guys, “Take yours and leave. I wish to give to the 5-p.m. guys as I give you.” I don’t ever want to hear my Lord say, “Take what belongs to you and go,” like being thrown out of the wedding. Or to Judas. Sad and scary! Then he said, “Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me?” (Matt. 20:15). And, we can translate, “Or is your eye evil because I am good?” Remember the prodigal son’s older brother? He had that same evil eye. He didn’t believe in grace. A party? For him? You’re kidding me, right?
13. This isn’t the first time Jesus talked about an evil eye. “The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy [sincere], your whole body will be full of light, but if your eye is bad [evil], your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!” (Mt 6:22–23). And here’s the worst part of having an evil eye. All the blessing of God goes right by your eye and you don’t even see it. The lord of the vineyard says, “Friend, all that time it was you and me—you and me in church, you and me in the Word, I in you, you in me, you and me loving others. Was it all nothing to you?”
14. St. Luke’s account of the thief on the cross illustrates this parable. “Today you will be with me in paradise” (Lk 23:43). If anyone ever punched in right before quitting time, it was this guy. He lived out his own disaster, right up to that moment, and he winds up with the big denarius! And I know that theologians like to call this a unique gift of salvation. But they all miss the point. The salvation of the dying thief isn’t unique at all. It’s just shows so clearly how it really is for everybody—that everybody who goes to heaven steals heaven on her or his deathbed. We’re all 5-p.m.ers! The denarius was a gift! Jesus died on his cross for the privilege of giving it. Jesus bore the heat of the day, the day that the Lord had made and earned that denarius, that gift.
15. And those of us who have been so blessed that we’ve gotten to spend more time in the Lord’s Vineyard, not alone, not careening toward hell all our lives, not lost and without hope and without God in the world (Eph 2:12) but Christians all our lives, like you kids, disciples all our lives, not only workers in his vineyard but also branches in him who is the vine, kids, Being with Jesus Is the Denarius!
16. Coming into his vineyard at 6 a.m. isn’t an insult. It’s a blessing! And we won’t bear the heat of the day forever. There’s a day coming when Jesus will remake all things. When he began answering Peter’s question before the parable, “Amen I tell you, that in the regeneration,” there’s this beautiful word: regeneration. It literally means “Genesis again,” beginning again, the new creation. When the Son of Man sits on his throne in glory, the twelve will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. “And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands, for [Jesus’] name’s sake, will receive a hundredfold and will inherit eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last first” (Mt 19:29–30).
17. We will live to see the Son of Man sitting on the throne of his glory. And we won’t care about first or last, because we’ll be so glad to be remade as we were meant to be in him. And we’ll be so glad for every hour, every minute we spent in this vineyard with him while the day was still hot, this vineyard right here, burdens and all, while so many still stand idle in the marketplace, waiting for us, on behalf of the Lord of the Vineyard, to call them to joy. Amen. Now the peace of God that passes all understanding, guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus until life everlasting. Amen.
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