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Los Angeles, CA 90053   

TURNING LIFE UPSIDE DOWN #7

You Don’t Get What You Pay For

In the book Craddock Stories, master story-teller Fred Craddock shares a powerful story about his father. Let me read just a little of it to you:

My mother took us to church and Sunday school; [Fred writes] my father didn’t go. . . . Sometimes the preacher would call, and my father would say, “I know what the church wants. Church doesn’t care about me. Church wants another name, another pledge, another name, another pledge.” . . . That’s what he always said. . . .

One time he didn’t say it. He was in the veteran’s hospital, and he was down to seventy-three pounds. They’d taken out his throat, and said, “It’s too late.” . . . I flew in to see him. He couldn’t speak, couldn’t eat. I looked around the room, potted plants and cut flowers on all the windowsills, a stack of cards twenty inches deep beside his bed. . . . [All of them] from the church. . . .

He could not speak, so he took a Kleenex box and wrote on the side of it a line from Shakespeare: . . .: “In this harsh world, draw your breath in pain to tell my story.”

I said, “What is your story, Daddy?” And he wrote, “I was wrong.”

Three simple words, and yet perhaps the hardest words to write or say. “I was wrong.” Wrong about what, Daddy Craddock?

Wrong about the church. . . . If the church doesn’t care, why all these flowers? Why all the cards?

You know what, friend? I love that story because it reassures me that somewhere on this planet there’s a church that understands God’s grace: That in God’s kingdom, you don’t get what you pay for.

Because if they’d given Fred’s father just what he deserved, the room would have been empty and barren. But because the little church understood the meaning of grace, and that you don’t get what you pay for in God’s kingdom, they were able to minister even to one who spurned their love.

When you stop to think about it, who on this earth deserves to be loved?

Who on this earth deserves the gift of life? Is there anything we can do in order to earn this privilege? Is there anything we can do that would make us worthy of eternal life?

I think that’s the question that Jesus is challenging us with in the parable we’re looking at today in Matthew 20. Here’s how it begins: Jesus says, “ ‘For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. After agreeing with the laborers for the usual daily wage, he sent them into his vineyard’ ” ( Matthew 20: 1, 2, NRSV).

Let’s put the story in its context. It comes shortly after Jesus had rebuked His disciples for sending the little children away. “ ‘Let the little children come to me,’ ” Jesus said, “ ‘and do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of heaven belongs’ ” (Matthew 19:14, NRSV). And having said that, He laid His hands on them and blessed them.

Aha! We’re already starting to get a clue as to what this parable is teaching, aren’t we? If even little children are worthy to be part of the kingdom of heaven, then the way to get into the kingdom can’t be through a lifetime of hard labor, can it?

The next person to come to Jesus after He has blessed the little children is a wealthy young man with a question: “ ‘What good deed must I do to have eternal life?’ ” (verse 16).

And you probably remember that after instructing him to keep the commandments, Jesus gave him a very difficult assignment: “ ‘If you wish to be perfect, go, sell your possessions, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me’ ” (verse 21).

Jesus’ message to this man is essentially, if you want to be a part of my kingdom, then take it seriously. Come, work in the vineyard with me.
But the young man is unwilling to do that. Verse 22 tells us that “When the young man heard this word, he went away grieving, for he had many possessions.”

And after the wealthy young man went away, Jesus said, “ ‘Truly I tell you, it will be hard for a rich person to enter the kingdom of heaven’ ” (verse 23). The disciples were astonished at this and asked how anyone could possibly get into the kingdom then, and Jesus responded, “ ‘For mortals it is impossible, but for God all things are possible’ ” (verse 26).

It’s at this point that Peter approaches Jesus with another question about rewards in the kingdom of heaven—What will those of us who have left everything to follow You receive as a reward? And Jesus reassures him that “ ‘Everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or fields, for my name’s sake, will receive a hundred-fold, and will inherit eternal life’ ” (verse 29).

That’s reassuring. But then Jesus adds this little kicker: “ ‘But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first’ ” (verse 30).

And then He goes on to tell the story that we’re studying today.

In the story a landowner goes into the marketplace looking for people to work in his vineyard. He hires a batch of laborers early in the morning, agreeing to pay a day’s wages. Then he finds more workers at nine in the morning and hires them, then hires some more at noon, more yet at three o’clock, and then at five in the evening he hires another batch.

The first group put in a grueling twelve-hour day out in the hot sun, but they’re glad for the work and the promised wages.

But now comes the surprise in Jesus’ story. Remember, just before He started the story, Jesus had warned Peter that the first would be last and the last would be first in the kingdom. Now the landowner begins to put that into practice. He calls those who have labored for the shortest time to get their pay first—the last called are the first paid.

Those who worked all day can’t help but notice the delight on the faces of the men who had worked only an hour. And it must not have taken them long to discover that these one-hour workers had received a full day’s wages for their labor. Wow! What a generous landowner!

You know, if I had been there, I’d have been doing the math in my head very quickly. If these guys got a full day’s wages for one hour’s work, then surely this generous landlord is going to pay those of us who worked all day VERY well. And suddenly that blue silk scarf my wife has been eyeing in the market begins to seem to be within my reach. And I begin to visualize just how happy she’ll be when I come home.

While lost in my reverie, I don’t notice how much the other workers get paid, but when my time with the paymaster comes, my heart sinks right down to my toes! He’s only handed me a day’s wages. There must be some mistake. Maybe he doesn’t realize I was one of those that worked all day.

I look around for the landowner. “Sir?” I say tentatively when I can catch his eye. “ Didn’t you realize I was one of them that worked all day—out in the hot sun?”

“Yes,” he replies.

“Then . . . um . . .”

“Is there some problem?” he asks.

“Well, the people who worked only in the evening—in the cool of the day—for only an hour—they got a whole day’s wages.”

“Is that a problem?” he asks.

“Well, I just thought you would pay those of us who worked all day more than you paid them.”

“I don’t understand,” the landowner says. “What’s the problem? Didn’t you agree to work for a usual day’s wages?”

“Yes but …”

“Take what’s yours and get out of here!” he says. “If you’ve got a problem with my being generous, that’s your problem, not mine!”

And so ends Jesus’ story of the laborers in the vineyard. Justice has not been done—in the strictest sense. You would expect those who worked longer to get paid more. But in reality, there is one wage for all. There’s not one level of heaven for those who devote their entire lives to serving the Savior and another level for those who just squeak in under the wire like the thief on the cross. The rewards are the same for everyone. Because the same gracious God is handing out the rewards to everyone.

In an economy founded on grace, you don’t get what you pay for. You get something better.

How is it with you, friend, are you one of those who has been trying to earn God’s favor? Putting in hours of labor in the hot sun of the day, hoping He will notice and reward you? Don’t give up. Don’t despair. God loves you and appreciates your work in His vineyard.

But what if you’re one of those who haven’t yet accepted the call of God and gone into His vineyard to labor? Don’t you despair either. There’s still a place for you in His kingdom. And even if you’re the last one in the door—you’ll be right up there with the first ones like Peter and James and John who joined Jesus at the beginning of His ministry!

I want to be there with all of those children of God. Frankly, I don’t care if I’m first or last. I just want to be there when that roll call sounds up yonder! Don’t you?