Why Grace Doesn't Make Sense? Matthew 20:8-16

8 “When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Call the workers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last ones hired and going on to the first.’

Today we study the second half of the parable, "the workers in the vineyeard".  We will see what happens when the landowner settles up with each man based on what he promised them.  The foreman was charged with paying the workers.  It was customary for the owner to settle up by the end of that day for all those he employed.  

Curiously he begins with the workers who were hired last and had only worked an hour. Jesus will use this detail as one of the main teaching points of this parable. The assumption was he paid each one a denarius, the standard daily wages for a day laborer. 

"The men who were hired at the eleventh hour – who worked only about one hour – were obviously elated about being paid first, and being paid for a full day." (Guzik)

9 “The workers who were hired about five in the afternoon came and each received a denarius. 

Remember there was no promise made by the owner when he hired the later workers. He only told them he would pay them fairly.  

10 So when those came who were hired first, they expected to receive more. But each one of them also received a denarius. 

Then, the ones hired last were brought to be paid.  Their assumption was that since they worked more hours they would receive more money, though they were never promised this.  

"The order of payment was important. If the first workers had been paid first, they would not have had time to develop the expectation of more pay for themselves. “Possibly the first felt their vanity wounded by being paid after the others. They used their waiting time in considering their own superiority to the latecomers.” (Spurgeon)

11 When they received it, they began to grumble against the landowner. 

The early workers, who set their expectation on their own terms, were dismayed when they were paid exactly what they were owed.  

"In the Greek the tense indicates repeated and prolonged murmurs." Ellicott

We might call this "whining", though if we are honest we would probably feel the same way as these guys felt.

12 ‘These who were hired last worked only one hour,’ they said, ‘and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day.’

Obviously the landowner was standing nearby as the men voice their complaint.  Their basic rationale was they had worked a lot more hours.  They were understandably upset.  

13 “But he answered one of them, ‘I am not being unfair to you, friend. Didn’t you agree to work for a denarius? 

"The landowner reminded them that he had been completely fair to them. He did them no wrong, and had broken no promise. I wish to give to this last man the same as to you: The landowner did nothing to explain why he did it, other than simply to say “I wish.” The reasons for the landowner’s generosity were completely in the landowner himself, and not in the ones who received." (Guzik)

Rather than being grateful for getting the work and being paid, they play the comparison game.  The danger with comparing oneself with others is that we usually fall into one of two alternatives.  We either feel superior to others, or less than them.  This is usually the same with our material riches.

When we focus on gratitude for what we have been given, we are less likely to be disappointed by God and others.  

14 Take your pay and go. I want to give the one who was hired last the same as I gave you. 

Though the owner calls him "friend", he wastes not time saying them, "I will give you whatever I judge to be fair."  As in life the owner had a different way measuring reward. He valued quality and willingness to work, as much quantity of hours worked.  

15 Don’t I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?’

The word "envious" is a generous translation.  It is also translated "evil eye".   “An evil eye was a phrase in use, among the ancient Jews, to denote an envious, covetous man or disposition; a man who repined at his neighbour’s prosperity, loved his own money, and would do nothing in the way of charity for God’s sake.” (Clarke)

16 “So the last will be first, and the first will be last.”

Every parable has a punchline and here it is. There is a lot of theological implications to this statement. 

"It is important to see that the landowner did not treat anyone unfairly, though he was more generous to some than to others. We can be assured that God will never, ever be unfair to us, though He may – for His own purpose and pleasure – bestow greater blessing on someone else who seems less deserving. The point isn’t that all have the same reward – though all God’s people do go to the same heaven (where they will have reward in different measure). The point is that God rewards on the principle of grace, and we should therefore expect surprises. He will never be less than fair, but reserves the right to be more than fair as pleases Him. God’s grace always operates righteously. This parable is not a perfect illustration of God’s grace, because the principle of working and deserving is involved. The grace of God does not give us more blessing than we deserve – it gives blessing to us completely apart from the principle of deserving."(Guzik)

In some ways "grace" doesn't make sense.  Though we love it and need it, sometimes we are not so happy when others receive it.  The bottom line is that we often look at things with a very different lens than God.  We often make our judgments from a human point of view.  Jesus is constantly pointing out that man's ways are not God's ways.  We tend to judge things like sexual immorality or other more visible sins as worse than sins like gossiping, coveting, or pride.  The bible says "pride" is the root of all evil.  Pride is thinking more highly of yourself than you ought, and judging others accordingly .  

Where do you get prideful and judge others based on your own standards rather than God's?  Do you have problems with gratitude?  Are you grateful what you have or are you envious of what others have?  If it were not for God's grace in Christ, we would all be bankrupt and accountable for our sins.  We would deserve nothing.  But no matter when we came to Christ early on or the last day of our life, we receive what we do not deserve, which is eternal life!