WHAT IS FAIR?
Matthew
20:1-16
About this time of year, Christmas shopping gets a little crazy! The Friday after Thanksgiving is the biggest shopping day of the year with huge discounts and sales in all the stores. Frankly, we have gotten out of control in many ways in the way we go about giving gifts to others.
What motivates our giving? What is the right thing to give to all those
on our ‘gift list’ each year? And
perhaps the biggest underlying question of all—what is fair in the gifts we
give?
In Gary Chapman’s series of books on love
languages, he notes that one of those languages measures love by the giving of
gifts. “If you love me, you will give
me gifts, and if I love you, the measure of that love is how generous I am in
what I give you,” say those who calculate love in terms of giving.
What we find, then, is parents going to
extreme measures to calculate down to the penny how much they spend on each
child to make sure that there is a ‘fair’ distribution of love. To a certain extent we all do that but is
what is fair always what is right? Is
what is fair always what is good?
In this parable from Matthew 20, Jesus
challenges that idea and presents us with a picture of an all-wise Master who
always does what is right and good, always does what is most loving and just,
but does not concern Himself with the appearance of fairness in how He gives
graciously and perfectly to His own.
Our culture has lost its sense of what
is fair, what is right and how much we have to be grateful for. Life does not
always seem fair, but God is always just and gracious.
THESIS:
Although life is not always fair, the Lord always blesses us with more
abundance than we deserve and wants His people to grow in their gratitude for
His grace.
How does that prove to be true from the
parable we just read?
I. AS AIMLESS PEOPLE, WE…
A. DEPEND ON THE LORD FOR hIS PURPOSE
--The
laborers had no prospects for employment, no direction for their day until the
landowner showed up.
Matt. 20:1-2 “For
the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to
hire laborers for his vineyard. 2“And
when he had agreed with the laborers for a denarius for the day, he sent them
into his vineyard.
Back in my hometown, each
morning several unemployed men would gather around the steps of the courthouse
and wait for day jobs. Employers who
needed unskilled laborers for the day (movers, construction, odd jobs, etc.)
would come by and see who wanted to work, agree on the pay and then take them
to work. It sounds very much like the
situation Jesus described.
--If
no one came by, there was no work and consequently no pay.
--These
laborers hired early in the day would have considered themselves fortunate to
have a job, something to do—a purpose for an otherwise empty day.
B. RELY ON THE LORD FOR HIS PROVISION
--The
landowner in the parable agreed to pay each of the a denarius for their day’s
work, the equivalent of a day’s pay for a Roman soldier—in other words, a
generous wage for a day laborer!
--They
had a choice—to agree to the generous terms and go to work, hold out for more
and risk losing the job, or simply refuse the offer and wait to see if
something else comes along.
--Others
were approached later on—the third hour (9:00), then again at the sixth (noon),
ninth (3:00) and last of all at the eleventh (5:00), each group hired to work
in the vineyard…but only with the promise of payment, no fixed amount.
Matt 20:4 and to
those he said, ‘You too go into the
vineyard, and whatever is right I will
give you.’ And so they went.
-They
chose to rely on the integrity and honesty of the landowner to do for them what
was right.
C. WAIT ON THE LORD FOR HIS GENEROSITY
--Little
did they know how generous the landowner would prove to be to each successive
group!
Matt 20:8 “And
when evening had come, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Call the laborers and pay them their wages,
beginning with the last group to the first.’
9“And when those hired about the eleventh hour came, each one
received a denarius.
--The
Lord of the vineyard was a generous man, paying a day’s wage to each person
hired, the same pay regardless of the time worked.
Does not our Father do the same still?
What gift did He give to you when you received Jesus Christ as your
Savior? Eternal life! The gift is the same whether you have wasted
your years in sin and only late in life have come to Christ or you trusted Him
as a child.
For some, Jesus points out, there
is frustration created by His generosity.
Some cannot find the joy of seeing others find His salvation because
they somehow feel it not fair that they lived faithfully for Christ all along
and receive the same gift that late comers receive. (Just like the older
brother was upset about the blessings given to his prodigal brother when he
repented and returned home in Luke 15)
Why did they get to enjoy sin and
now also eternal life and all we have had is Jesus all along? The very asking of the question shows the
foolishness of such thinking—He is not just about eternal life to come but
about the joy and abundance and contentment of life all along!
--When
we see the hand of the Lord freely giving His good and gracious gifts to all,
we can wait on Him with confidence that His generosity will satisfy all who
trust Him.
II. AS SELF-SERVING INDIVIDUALS, WE...
--On
the surface, I dare say that not one person here heard or read that passage for
the first time without taking the side of those who labored from dawn to dusk.
--We
live in a society which prides itself on trying to make everything fair and
this situation does not seem fair at all.
What
happens is that we as self-serving individuals...
A. FUNCTION WITH UNFOUNDED ASSUMPTIONS ABOUT OURSELVES
In the parable, think about
what these laborers ran into and the conclusions they drew from what they
experienced:
·
Gratitude
to have the work and a higher than average wage (a denarius per day was the
equivalent of a day’s pay for a Roman soldier, as above)
·
Confusion
about having the first hired to be the last paid
·
Momentary
excitement as they watched the one hour workers get paid a denarius (thinking
that perhaps they would receive twelve times as much since they worked twelve
times as long)
·
Frustration
as the same wage was given to those who worked three hours, then six, then
nine.
·
Anger
finally as they received the same wage as all the rest
1. Assumption: “We
deserve more than we’re getting.”
--”My
work is just as valuable as the late-comers and yet I am not being compensated
for the fact that I did so much more than they did. Surely their work was not twelve times better than mine... I
deserve more!”
Have you ever felt that way? At
work, someone else who was hired after you were, had less experience, got the
raise you were expecting, or the promotion you were due.
In sports, the new kid in town
moved into the starting position ahead of you and you don’t think he is better
than you. In school, the transfer
student becomes the valedictorian and you know their school wasn’t as hard as
yours.
In church, how did that person get
to teach a class, sing on Sunday morning or evening, get elected as a deacon or
elder, after all you have done for and given to the church?
Conclusion: “It’s not fair...I deserve better!”
2. Assumption: “We have a right to be treated fairly.”
--Rather
than remembering that they have received just treatment according to the
contract to which they agreed, they were upset that others had gotten the same
remuneration they had.
--In
one sense, everyone was treated fairly since all got exactly the same,
regardless of how long they worked.
As citizens in a democracy, we often protest when we think something
unfair has been done.
Yet in fact, if perfect fairness
were applied, we would have a mess.
Everyone would have to receive exactly the same wages regardless of the
nature of their work, their level of skill, the length of their labors, and so
forth. That would be fair, but we don’t
believe for a moment that that would be right (except for a few with radical
socialistic or communistic views).
Conclusion: “It’s not fair...I deserve more!”
B. EXPRESS UNWARRANTED COMPLAINTS ABOUT GOD’S TREATMENT OF US
--Like
the laborers in the parable, we have a problem with the way we think God is
treating us, or allowing us to be treated.
--A
murmuring spirit and a complaining attitude lead us away from gratitude and
toward a lack of confidence in the faithfulness and trustworthiness of God.
--What
an awful thing to believe that you cannot trust the Lord!
--And
yet that is exactly what happens when we allow gratitude to give way to
grumbling!
--But
the landowner confronted the self-serving attitude with a rebuke of their greed
and ingratitude.
Matthew
20:13-15 “But
he answered and said to one of them,
‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong; did you not agree with me for a
denarius? 14 ‘Take what is yours and go your way, but I wish to give to this
last man the same as to you. 15 ‘Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish
with what is my own? Or is your eye envious because I am generous?
--How does this
situation relate to our relationship to the Lord?
II. AS SOVEREIGN LORD, GOD...
A. CAN DO WHATEVER HE PLEASES
--Have
you ever considered this? Whatever the
Lord wants to do, whatever brings pleasure to Him, He can do!
Psalm
115:1-3 Not to us, O
LORD, not to us, But to Thy name give glory Because of Thy lovingkindness,
because of Thy truth. 2Why
should the nations say, "Where, now, is their God?” 3But our God is in the heavens; He does whatever He pleases.
Psalm
135:6 Whatever the
LORD pleases, He does, In heaven and in earth, in the seas and in all deeps.
·
Sovereign
Freedom
--He
answers to no one and is not ever bound by the dilemma of whether what He wants
is right...it always is and brings pleasure to Him.
--Therefore,
He has the sovereign freedom to act, not to make up for any deficiencies since
He has none, but simply to enjoy the delights and pleasures of being God.
·
Infinite
Power
--Obviously,
just as there is no restraint in what He wants to do, there is no confinement
in His power to do whatever He chooses since all authority and power belong to
Him.
In the parable, the landowner
had more than sufficient resources to give whatever he chose to anyone he hired
to work in the vineyards. He was not
limited by available assets nor constrained to give more or less than he deemed
appropriate.
·
Matchless
Wisdom
--He
alone knows in His wisdom what will bring glory to Himself and does exactly
that!
--Therefore,
we can have confidence that when God is at work, He does not have to answer to
us for what He does.
--From
these considerations and from the parable, we can then agree on these three observations:
1. He Is Always Just, But Not Always Fair.
--That
may sound like a heretical statement to many of you but in fact it is heretical
to demand that God be fair, even when it would mean that He would have to deny
His justice.
--Are
justice and fairness the same thing?
--Fairness
is a developing concept determined by
the circumstances in our lives (therefore, relative),
whereas justice is rooted in the eternal truth and righteousness of God
(therefore, absolute).
Much of the shifting theology about heaven and hell is the result of
modern thinking that makes God act unfairly if He actually condemns someone to
hell and then by grace calls someone to heaven.
Is it fair for unborn children to
have less of a shot at life than certain endangered species in the animal and
plant kingdoms? According to our
cultural biases, it is not fair for a mother who carries an unwanted child to
have to deliver...although her choice to abort is absolutely unjust, fairness
wins the day in a relativistic society without respect for or even
acknowledgement of permanent standards of righteousness.
Clearly justice, based upon what
is right and true, is different from fairness, which is based upon an impartial
application of reason without regard for what is right.
In the parable, the laborers cried
for fairness but the landowner instead pointed out that no wrong had been done,
that they had received everything he had promised and were therefore treated
justly.
--Therefore,
we have to adjust our thinking to understand that God always acts in a just and
righteous manner, but from a human perspective what He does will not always
seem fair to us.
2. He Always Honors His Covenant as Well as His Character.
When the workers were hired
to begin work at 6:00 am, the landowner contracted with them for one denarius
for the day. That was a good wage and
one willingly agreed to by the laborers.
No concern existed that the promise to pay was in jeopardy due to the
untrustworthiness of the landowner. Yet
when others were hired, the agreement was that they would be paid “whatever is
right (20:4).” In each case, he honored
his commitment, each as he chose to do it but without in any way trying to get
away with less than he promised.
--The
Lord never makes a commitment He does not intend to fulfill or a covenant He
intends to break.
--He
is the covenant-making God and cannot lie; it is impossible for Him to do so.
--His
payment to the all-day laborers demonstrated His covenant faithfulness.
--But
the Lord also acts in all circumstances in a manner consistent with His
character.
--His
gracious and generous nature were demonstrated in the way he paid the other
workers at the end of the day.
3. He Is Always More Generous Than We Deserve.
--When
the Lord gives, He gives generously and abundantly and always more than we
deserve.
--The
problem with the laborers was not that they did not get what they deserved, but
that others got more than they deserved!
Matthew
20:15 'Is it not
lawful for me to do what I wish with what is my own? Or is your eye envious
because I am generous?
--They
were envious of His generosity when they felt that others were gaining greater
benefit than they were.
--Regardless
of how we stack up compared to others, we always get better than we deserve
when the Lord is doing the giving.
B. OWES US NO EXPLANATIONS
--Much
as we would like to demand an explanation, on what grounds do we presume to do
so?
--Since
He did not ask for our advice, nor find Himself in a bind where He needed our
counsel, He hardly owes us any explanation for what He does or does not do.
Isaiah
40:13-14 Who has directed the Spirit of
the LORD, Or as His counselor has informed Him? 14 With whom did He
consult and who gave Him understanding? And who taught Him in the path of
justice and taught Him knowledge, And informed Him of the way of understanding?
--He
has no need to explain and does not need either our understanding or approval
to act in a way that glorifies His name!
C. DESERVES OUR GRATITUDE AND TRUST
--Rather
than standing defiantly before the Lord demanding an explanation for His
apparent unfairness, those who know Him find that He is faithful and true, good
and generous.
--He
deserves our thanks and is worthy to be praised, able to be trusted because He
is the Sovereign Lord.
Listen
in on the conversations around you this week and see how often it comes up that
life is really not very fair. Implicit
in such an observation, if we are not careful, is that the present
circumstances of unfairness are directly attributed to God’s problem with being
trusted. When others around you cry
foul and complain about how unfair life is treating them, you do not have to
differ with them to point out that life may not be fair, but the God of life is
always just and can be trusted to do justice in everything He does.
From the study of this parable, then, we
should know some things about the Lord which can alter the way we look at and
approach life when it does not seem fair to us.
1. Don’t compare
what God does for you with what He does for another.
2. Give thanks for
every evidence in your life of His goodness and generosity.
3. Ask yourself how
His actions on your behalf might bring delight to His heart.
4. When you find
that you cannot figure out what He is doing, trust Him to be faithful and good.
Although life is
not always fair, the Lord always blesses us with more abundance than we deserve
and wants His people to grow in their gratitude for His grace.
Ask the Lord to open your eyes to His
goodness and generosity toward you and He will build up in you a heart of
thanksgiving and a willingness to trust Him.
Remember...you have been called and saved by His grace. Give Him praise and thanks for all that He
had done for you and the promises of what He still intends for you. His future graces encourage our hearts to
trust and be thankful because we have witnessed the history of His grace in the
past.
“Give
thanks to the Lord, for He is good, and all He does is good!”
(cf. Psalm 119:68 “You are good and what you do is good…”)
Providence Baptist Church
© David Horner 2003
Sermon outlines are copyrighted
in the event of future publication.
They may be used for teaching and
preaching purposes,
But may not be published or sold.