September 21st. 2008
Lectionary Reading: Matthew 20.1-16
Reading:“I want to give the man who was hired last the same as I gave you” Matthew 20.14 (NIV)
The feeing market
it was called. This was where servants and farm workers were hired, and feeing markets
were very common in the North East of Scotland. Those of you whose family came
from the North East will have had grandfathers, or great grandfathers who stood
waiting for work at the feeing market. Away back in 1845, the Rev. John Welsh tells
us about his parish, New Deer in Aberdeenshire. He tells us that the population
is 3621, he tells us his Church needs repair, and he
tells us that along with cattle, horse and sheep fairs in the village, there is
a feeing market twice a year in May and November. Servants came here to look
for work, and stood waiting for the man from the big house to come and hire
them.
And further along
the street, in May in the spring sunshine, or in November, in the raw cold
wind, farm workers came, stood waiting for the farmers to hire them. The Rev.
John Welsh tells us that the farm labourers got 1/6d a day, which including a
square meal.
There were feeing
markets in Israel in the time of Jesus. In the month of
September waited in the village square to be hired for the day, for the grape harvest.
Because it was a real race against time to get the harvest in, the workers were
in demand during these few weeks of the year. However, as the work went on
through the day, the owner of the vineyard
might suddenly need more hands - and go back to the village square to get
more workers.
What Jesus is
speaking about in here in Matthew’s gospel is a feeing market. The men stand
round waiting for the farmers and vineyard owners to come. The owner would
choose some, but the rest would be left waiting. So, these workers would be
getting more and more desperate as the day went on - to be without work meant
that your family
went hungry.
In the story that
Jesus tells, the owner of the vineyard comes at the beginning of the normal
Jewish working day - at 6 in the morning to 6. He hires one group of workers.Then
another, then another, right throughout the day. Then comes the surprise at the
end of the long day’s work - each worker gets exactly the same, a good wage, no matter when he
started.
for, says the owner
I want to give the man who was hired last the same
as I gave you all...........
This parable has
been called one of the greatest and most glorious of all the parables, and
has been part of the church’s meditation for age upon age.
Why is that ?
Well, you see, this
is really a story about God’s grace, God who in His kindness gives equally to
all
What does that mean ?
Well first it means
this:
It means that no matter when we enter
God’s kingdom, soon or late, no matter when, at the
early dawn of life, in our young days, in the strength of the midday or when
the shadows are lengthening. we are equally precious
to God. Professor William Barclay reminds us that in the book of Revelation there are twelve gates to the Holy City. There are gates on
the East which is
the direction of the
dawn, where we may enter in the glad morning of our days: there are gates
on the West the
direction of the setting sun,
where we may enter in old age. No
matter when we come to Jesus Christ, we are equally precious to Him.So, we see someone who comes to
Jesus Christ in childhood, like Timothy, who works in the service of God for
forty or fifty years; we see another like the thief on the cross called by
Jesus Christ at the last moment. Both equally precious
to the living God.
This is God’s grace, God who in His kindness gives equally to us all
but there is a wider landscape to God’s grace, a wider
vision of God’s grace
as Paul declares in the letter to the Romans
What is that wider
landscape, that wider vision of God’s grace ?
Well you see, Paul declares in the letter to
the Romans,
to see God’s grace in
all it’s wonderful reach and depth and power,
We begin here......... that
in the light of God,
in the light of the
glory of God,
in the light of the
glory of the holiness of God - all are sinners.
There are not two groups in the world,
the wonderfully
righteous, and then all the rest. There are only sinners. Now that’s a stunning
message !
none of us come close
to the light of the
glory of God,
to the perfect holiness
of God
in that light, all of us
are sinners. That’s where Romans begins.
Where the living God should have been life for
us, at the very centre of life, where we should have lived life loving God with
all our heart soul mind and strength, we had
turned our backs on Him, rejected full, and abundant life.
But the New Testament proclaims
that God has sent His own Son among us,
that Jesus Christ has come among us:
and that God did not send His Son into
the world to condemn the world but to save the world through Him… says John
3.17
All all the way through the gospels we see Jesus, pure in heart, the sinless
One among men and women.
He sees all the secrets of the human heart, He knows the hypocrisy, the wickedness,
the sinfulness of those whose company He keeps, he
knows that all are sinners, but says Jesus:
I have
not come to call the righteous, but sinners.
All the way through the gospels – we see Jesus
in the company of sinners, those who never bother with the law, those outside
of religious life - Zacchaeus, the woman at the well, Mary Magdalene.
All the way through
the gospels, not far away or at a distance, here is
here is Jesus among
the outcasts, among the friendless,
sinners, Here is Jesus present among them. What, said John Calvin, a wonderful picture of God's grace is here, heaven
has come to earth, God has sent His Son, Jesus.
But the New Testament also proclaims this, the gospel goes on announce this,
that God has acted
decisively to save sinners, to redeem us,
at the cross. There the sin and guilt that burdens our hearts is dealt with
once and for all. Because, at the Cross, our sin was laid on Jesus Christ,
Christ Jesus has taken the sin of the human
heart, all human hearts, the sin of the world upon Himself,
and has taken it away once and for all.
He is the very Lamb of God who takes away the
sin of the world, He has taken away our sin And so we are forgiven, brought into
the presence of the Holy God - we are redeemed.
This is
God’s grace in action............
Christ
died for sins, once for all to bring you to God.......... says Peter.
Christ Jesus
came into the world to save sinners, says Paul
here once again is God who in His kindness gives
equally to all !
What does He give ? He gives us Jesus - and in Jesus are all the
treasures of life, new life,
redeemed,
restored life.
And who is this for ? this is for all equally
whether you have known Jesus Christ from your mother’s
arms,
or have come to know Him now, in these minutes,
He is the gift of
God to us all,
to us, He is the gift of God’s grace.
He is God’s grace.
AMEN.