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What are you jealous about? A sermon on Matthew 21:1-16a
What Are You Jealous About?
Matt 21:1-16a
† I.H.S.†
As you see the grace of God our Father and the Lord Jesus revealed in your life, may it cause great joy, such joy that you are completely content with all God has provided!!
Jealousy, the hidden beast
I can’t remember whose party it was, or the names of the guilty or innocent, but today’s parable of the vineyard brought it back to my memory.
There were two boys, about the same age, maybe somewhere between 3 and 5. One came from a richer family and had all the stuff. The other one, from a much poorer family. They were at the same gathering and were opening up gifts. Maybe it was Christmas, I don’t remember.
I just remember the richer kid taking the presents of the poorer kid because he wasn’t satisfied with his own. So the poorer child, using his imagination, began to play with the boxes the gifts came in, turning them into magical toys with his imagination. The rich kid came along again and took the boxes to play with. So, the poor kid used the wrapping paper out of the trash bag. Again, the rich kid, seeing the poor kid having more fun, tried to take the wrapping paper away.
Jealousy is an ugly thing. We recognize it with other terms, those like envy, and coveting.
We see it in the parable of the vineyard, where a merciful landowner decides to bless those who hadn’t found a day’s worth of work with a day’s pay. Even though the people who worked all day got the amount they negotiated for, the amount they worked hard all day expecting to get, they cried out, “it’s not fair!”
Like the rich kid never satisfied as long as the poor kid had fun, they couldn’t find satisfaction with the blessings of another person.
And they aren’t the only ones!
Could we be jealous of a baptism? They why lesser providence?
Last week, we got to witness David Herrera III’s baptism.
Can you imagine someone grumbling about that? Someone saying, hey, why is that child getting baptized, we should save that act, those moments in the service for someone who deserves those blessings! Can we imagine someone saying, no let’s never baptized anyone else, no one who isn’t baptized deserves to be!
Why in the world would anyone be jealous of God blessing another person? Of Him calling another person to be one of His very own people?
Can jealousy be that consuming? Can envy be so evil as to even demand that someone not is blessed by God? The Jewish people would be that way, ignoring all the promises of how us Gentiles would be saved by God.
That is what jealousy does, and if we shouldn’t be jealous of something as incredible as salvation, should we be envious of the little things God blesses us with in life?
What is it in us that makes us want to be blessed more than our neighbor? What is it that thinks they challenges aren’t as tough, that somehow, we would be more content with their lives, rather than the lives God has gifted us with?
**Can’t we find contentment with our salvation, and then realize that with that comes not only more than we deserve, but more than we desire?
You see that is the ultimate question, can we be content with our salvation, and simply trust God’s sense of what is just and right for the rest?
The deal is enough
As you look at the discontentment of these people that think they deserved what they earned, we need to see the work of the Lord, of the Landowner.
The first thing we see is that he went out to seek out these people. We hear the word hire and then the word sent, but the words have a bit more than that to them.
The word for hire comes from the word engage, to embrace these people. When he sends them out to work – he doesn’t send out hirelings, the word there is apostello – he sends them out with responsibility, with a mission.
We begin to see that more clearly, as all day long he recruits and engages these workers, giving them hope and a reason for the day, even when there wasn’t a hope when all around them seemed worthless when they seemed worthless.
The Landowner’s/Lord’s mission was not about hiring these people, it was about providing for them.
It was about benevolence, about grace, about caring for people.
That’s why the Landowner went into town, it is why the Lord comes to earth, and why He will never abandon us but always, always be with us.
When Pastor Mark, and deacons Bob and Mike and I study passages like this together, one of the questions we ask is, where in this passage is Christ crucified? Where does the relationship get restored between God and man.
Sometimes it is easy to see in a passage, sometimes it takes some time to think through.
In this passage, the cross is seen in this phrase,: 1 “For the Kingdom of Heaven is like the landowner who went out. The cross is seen in his engaging, in his embrace of the people he hires, whether they are those that believe and work hard from the beginning or those that spend the last moments of the day called by Him. It is in His relentless pursuit of hiring people, of calling them to receive the wage of His day, the wage they didn’t really have a right to, unless He called them.
This is the deepest lesson of grace, the greatest of entitlements that God determines we all should receive. That we would know His love, that we could share with Him eternity.
One last thought, for years I thought the good kid was the poor one, the one who found joy no matter what. I think, as I look at this passage, the child was wrong as well. What he had, no matter how seemingly inconsequential, he needed to share with his cousin. For what he had was joy, and that was what his cousin wanted more than anything.
May we share our joy, the joy that comes from knowing the peace of God because we are found engaged, embraced by Jesus. And no one can steal that joy away. For He keeps, He guards, our hearts, and souls, for they are His, bought with the price of His blood.
AMEN!!!
That’s Not FAIR! Part II of “Backseat conversations on the way to Heaven”
Backseat Conversations on the Way to Heaven
That’s not FAIR!!
Matthew 20:1-16
† IHS †
As we journey together, may we know the guiding presence of the Holy Spirit, the peace of Jesus Christ, and look forward to the feast with our Heavenly Father.
Two Candy Bars and some Chuckles
Last week we started on this path, a sermon series that will explore the journey of our lives. It is a parable of sorts, comparing that journey, where we will end up in heaven, with our journey as children, on the way to an Aunt’s house for Thanksgiving dinner, or maybe our Grandfather’s for the party on Christmas Eve.
Last week we looked a little at the squabbles that can happen, as you jam three young children in the backseat of a 1970 Dodge Dart, and heard the conversation that would ensue when my dad would tell us to “get along back there.”
Well, today we continue that journey, hearing another conversation.
My dad had a lot of common sense. He knew that If we were eating something, our mouths couldn’t open. And on so many of these trips he had stashed our favorite candies in the car. A Chocolate Charleston Chew for one of my siblings, a Chunky chocolate bar for the other, and because I was allergic to chocolate, I got a pack of chuckles.
This worked until one day, when one looked at other’s candy bar, and saw a long narrow bar – nearly 10 inches long! She looked at my Chuckles and saw six pieces of candy, each about an inch long. And she looked at her chunky bar, 3 inches by 3 inches and proceeded to yell out,
“It’s not fair!”
She didn’t see the weight of the candy bars as equal, or that hers was three times as thick and wide, or that all of the candy cost the same amount. Explaining that to her, well, anyone ever try to point out such logic to an upset young child.
It wasn’t fair as she saw it, and when two brothers have to share and sacrifice their favorite candy, and they do understand the logic, well, now the journey becomes more complicated!
But we are often like little children, complaining that life isn’t fair.
We end up just like the crew who sweated all day in the hot sun, and didn’t get a larger payday than the guys who put in an hour.
We need to realize the blessing in that… we need to see God’s view of this, so we can rejoice in how God cares for His people.
Why did they cry it wasn’t fair?
If Jesus’ parable were told today, a number of us would probably be telling the employees who broke their back all day long to contact a lawyer, or to call Handel on the Law. Certainly there is a law out there, that demands the same exact hourly wage for all employees.
Some of us might take the Master’s side, saying that he can do whatever he wants, after all it is his money.
The story might even go viral on Facebook, and there would be interviews on Youtube, and maybe even an appearance on some daytime talk show like Dr. Phil, or Dr. Oz, or Judge Judy.
After all, it’s not like it’s fair, what this employer did.
Unless…..
What did our Old Testament reading say?
His Ways aren’t our ways
8 “My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the LORD. “And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine. 9 For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.
Could it be that this Master’s goal wasn’t about getting the vineyard harvested?
Could it be that he was more concerned about the people in his life, the people of his community, than he was about making money?
Think about this, he started at 6 am, then returned to hire workers at 9, 12, and 3 o’clock, each time he saw workers standing around, doing nothing. The first time – he negotiated a wage that was fair and equitable – after that, the scriptures tell us he simply promised to be fair.
It is that last time, at five o’clock, which he didn’t just see some workers, the Greek word there is the root word from where we get heuristics. Anybody here watch CSI, or NCIS? Heuristics is the science of finding that which was hidden, not in sight. He went to them, found them, and hear again the description of His action,
“6 “At five o’clock that afternoon he was in town again and saw some more people standing around. He asked them, ‘Why haven’t you been working today?’ 7 “They replied, ‘Because no one hired us.’ “The landowner told them, ‘Then go out and join the others in my vineyard.’ “
It was his desire, not to gain a harvest, but to provide for the people what they needed, to be part of His work, His life.
And so it is, with the kingdom of heaven.
God would provide for us what we need.
As a pastor, I’m often approached with the question of who will be in heaven. What about the people that come to know God’s love on their death bed, minutes before they pass away. Do they get into heaven, or does God punish them for all the years they refused to follow Him, and they don’t get to go into heaven?
Usually the question involves the people most people would consider beyond any chance to be saved. Would God let them into heaven, if they repented at the last moment?
If I answer in the affirmative, knowing that the power of God is so incredible to transform us, sometimes I hear those words, “But that’s not fair pastor!”
You mean that mass murdered could get the same blessing that those of us who’ve been in church every Sunday… ok one Sunday a month get? They get the same size mansion as those of us who served as preschool teachers, or elders, or deacons?
Yes, and that is the incredible blessing of your working alongside God in His harvest. They are blessed to come into our family, to have the grace and mercy and peace that God has desired for all of us.
Remember again – what the Old Testament said,
7 Let the wicked change their ways and banish the very thought of doing wrong. Let them turn to the LORD that he may have mercy on them. Yes, turn to our God, for he will forgive generously. 8 “My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the LORD. “And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine.
There is God’s goal, to take all of us, who struggle with doing what is loving, what is merciful, what is right, and can’t. There is His love, for He finds us, this Father/master who will bring us into His marvelous life’s work.
That is better than just being fair from a human perspective, it God being extravagant in his love. This is what we call justification – God making us right, forgiving our sins, and sanctification, God setting us apart making us His co-workers in His work. If God were fair, would He share with us His desires, His life? Would He trust us enough to serve alongside Him?
God is more than just fair; He is extravagant beyond all measure.
God, bringing us into His ministry to the world, making us part of the family.
All this because Jesus Christ, true God, true man, didn’t give a rip about what was fair, and died that we could all become the children of God.
That’s what the kingdom of God is about; His love for us, making it known and seeing it transform us.
This is a love that brings mercy and peace into our lives, a peace beyond measure, the peace we know and celebrate here, together. For we are His people. AMEN?
