To be Content with God's Gifts

Jesus’ parable of the landowner and the workers reveals a great deal about our common human condition.  It begins with the landowner seeking workers for his harvest.  When he finds some at the beginning of the day, he agrees with them for a good wage, and they get to work.  Throughout the day, he continues to seek out laborers, promising to give them whatever is right for their work, and many come throughout the various hours of the day.  At the end of the day, the landowner settles accounts, beginning with the last called.  To the shock of the first called workers, the landowner gives generously to every worker the same amount he offered to the first.

In disgust, the first workers, who worked longer than the last, grumbled and complained against the landowner, thinking they should get more.  To their grumbling, the landowner simply tells them to take what’s theirs, and to go their way—he will not be held hostage to their expectations, and he will be generous with his gifts according to his own pleasure.

How quickly the laborers forget the grace they were given!  They forget that the vineyard is not theirs, and neither is the right to work in it.  They forget that the harvest is not theirs, and neither is the right to harvest it.  They forget that the work and the labor belong to the landowner, as do the wages he is willing to offer.  They forget, that before the landowner came to them, they were without work and without pay.  They forget, that not only their labor but their rewards are given by the grace and mercy of the landowner.

It is easy to do, is it not?  We, who have received the call of God to labor in the fields of the Lord, often forget our relationship to our God.  The universe is His, as is all the labor within it.  We, on the other hand, have nothing until He comes to us, gives us good labor to do, and promises to us His good grace of forgiveness, eternal life, and salvation through Jesus Christ.  Whether we hear and respond to God’s call early in life, in our adult years, or perhaps even at the sunset of our days, it is God who gives the grace of work, and God who gives the grace of reward.  As individual sinners, lost and condemned in our own corruption, we don’t deserve to be called by God, to be sent into His labors, nor to receive His good gifts of forgiveness and life.  As we keep our eyes upon Him, and the Cross of His Son which calls us into His fellowship, all we can see is His goodness, mercy, and love.

But when we take our eyes off of Jesus our Savior, and begin to look at our neighbor or ourselves, our vision becomes polluted once again by the sin and corruption in our hearts.  Why does my neighbor have that labor, and I have this?  Why does my neighbor, who doesn’t seem to be working as hard as I do, get the same reward of grace?  If I have served the Lord my whole life, shouldn’t I get something above and beyond what my neighbor receives, if he has only served the Lord a short time?  Shouldn’t I, raised in a Christian home and serving the Lord as long as I can remember, be entitled to a better reward than the drunken letch who made a death-bed conversion?  As I take my eyes off myself, I quickly begin to fool myself into thinking that I deserve or am entitled to grace—that my labors demand remittance from my God.  It is as if I were so foolish as to say, “Oh, God, I demand to be given what I deserve!”

May such awful words never pass our lips!  For we deserve nothing but death and hell forever.  All that we have received, we have been given by God’s good grace in Jesus Christ—our lives, our families, our work, and our promise of everlasting life.  Everything we have, we have by grace; every grace we have received, we have received by faith in His Gospel promise.  Whether we labor in this way or that way, for this long or that long, the labor and the reward are all grace.

It is here we perceive the enigmatic statement of our Lord at the end of His parable:  “For many are called, but few are chosen.”  It is absolutely true, that the Most Precious Blood of Jesus Christ is spilled for every soul that has, or shall ever, walk the face of this globe.  It is also most certainly true, that the Gospel of salvation by grace through faith in Jesus Christ is preached to every person under heaven.  But not all will hear Him.  Not all will receive Him.  Not all will enter into His labors.  Not all shall be content with His grace.  Some will choose, even after having spent a lifetime in His service, to stand defiantly before their gracious God, and demand what they deserve according to the Law… thinking they are justified by their own works, only to find that by their works of the Law, no flesh shall be justified in His sight.  Indeed, many are called to salvation by grace through faith in Christ alone; but few will be chosen, who remain standing by grace through faith and not by works, preferring the mercy and love of their Redeemer to the awful justice of their Judge.

Many are called, but few are chosen.  To you, the Word of the Lord calls.  He calls you to repent of your evil and wickedness, and to trust in the grace and mercy of Jesus, who has paid your debt, forgiven your sins, and invites you into the fellowship of His labors.  He calls you to stand in His grace according to His Holy Gospel, and not by your pitiful attempts at works in His Holy Law.  He calls you to live in Him, and not in yourself.  Hear Him.  Believe and live.  Amen.