How Are We Sustained?

Matthew 20:1-16

“How Are We Sustained?”

What is the reward of faithfulness? In today’s parable of the landowner paying all the workers the same wage regardless of effort angers the ones who done the most?

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SPEAKER_00 0:04

September 20th, 2026. Our primary reading is Matt, chapter 20, verses 1 through 16. One thing I will absolutely pay money for is Scott brand toilet paper. It costs more than other brands, and for me, it is worth it. I like the quality, and a roll lasts forever. You pay more up front, but it's totally worth it for me. Now, some people think Scott is thin and overpriced, a total waste of money. And you are welcome to enjoy your fluffy toilet paper that you have to replace every five minutes. Similarly, while I enjoy expensive kitchen trash bags, like with the handles and the ties, I will not spend money on them. I have no problem using a grocery sack for my rubbish. My mom was a nice quality plastic drawstring trash bag person, and it was worth it to her to avoid ripped bags and more power to her. I honor that choice. But not for me. And over the protests of family and friends, the offer for our house in paradise was the full asking price without quibbles, negotiation, or strings attached. Could we have gotten it for a little less money? Yep. But we explained to all those folks that the sellers lived next door to the house. Also, it's a retired contractor and post office clerk. And that this was the last rental they still owned. And also, the price was fair. It wasn't a great deal, but it certainly wasn't a bad one. So, based on all this info, we offered full price out of the gate. We were getting a far better deal than the numbers indicated. And our friends and family stared at us blankly. But look at the bigger picture. We were buying a solid house, one that we could afford and at a fair price, and we were ensuring we had a good relationship with our new neighbors. Today's scripture we hear the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard. The scripture readings I will share with you over the next few months relate to vineyards. Jesus tells stories about spending down budget allocations for harvest labor, dealing with kids with various levels of interest in the family business, and tenancy issues with commercial agricultural leases. You will also hear the story of all the people on the streets called into a wedding reception because the guests themselves couldn't be bothered to show up. Mostly, though, you're going to be hearing about vineyards. Now, Jewish teachers at the time of Jesus often compared God to a landowner or a king. Thanks to the gospel writers and many, many kings who have enjoyed this implied equivalence to God, we also get to enjoy this tradition. So the figure of the landlord is easy to understand. The landlord represents God. And we, as people listening to this, are hopefully people who are tending to God's business. We're putting in the work as soon as we're ready and as long as we can. And God gives us all the same reward. Those who have spent their entire lives working in the vineyard and those who come late, the same reward. Jesus tells us the kingdom of heaven is like an unfair system where the difficulty or ease of our workday is in no way related to our pay. Well, that's a challenging understanding, but let's put it out there because it reads like that, right? It makes this parable of the vineyard worker similar to the parable of the prodigal son, who, despite squandering his inheritance, is welcomed home with a party. It's similar, not the same, because in the prodigal son story, the older son who was there putting in all those days of hard work is assured by his father, the landowner, that he will inherit all that remains. Similar, not the same. Not the same because here, despite working a fraction of a day, or the day in its entirety, the workers are paid the same. And the landowner sets it up so the people who busted all day long know they got the same pay as the people who came last. So not only is this story unfair, it's also cruel too. And then there's the kicker. But he replied to one of them, Friend, I did you no wrong. Didn't I agree to pay you a denarian? Take what belongs to you and go. I want to give to this one who was hired last the same as I give to you. Don't I have the right to do what I want with what belongs to me? Or are you resentful because I'm generous? Work your butt off? Or roll in at the final hour? The reward will be the same. Unfair? Maybe even cruel? But also generous? This is a challenging parable. Why is Jesus telling us this story? Why is Jesus using agricultural economics generally and vineyard operations specifically as a jumping-off point for larger thinking about the kingdom of heaven and the nature of God? Why? Why a vineyard? Today the story is about a vineyard owner hiring people to help with the harvest. And next week it's the story of two children of a vineyard owner who are asked to work. And one says yes but never turns up, the other says no, but ends up heading out to work in the vineyard anyway. A month from now we'll have this story of a vineyard owner trying to collect rent from some tenants. So I want to know why a vineyard? Why not harvesting fields of wheat? Why not a commercial fishing operation? Many of the disciples were fishermen. They would understand about fishing. Heck, Jesus had a carpentry background. Why do we not get a parable about hiring day laborers to frame up a large building? Why a vineyard? It could be Jesus uses a vineyard because in the Hebrew Bible, wine is a symbol of joy. First Chronicles 12 40, Nehemiah 8 10, Isaiah 22 13, Isaiah 24 11, Jeremiah 48 33, Ecclesiastes 9 7, also 3 Maccabees 6.30. The kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who uses his resources, his land, to cultivate the raw material of joy. And he can't do it alone. He needs many, many workers to get that harvest in. We are invited to be those workers. We are invited to cultivate the raw materials of joy, the fruits of the Spirit, love, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. But in today's scripture, the payment for that work cultivating joy on behalf of God leads to a lot of hard feelings, no? Laborers bristle against the unfairness of the wages unrelated to effort. In today's scripture, the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who is so generous with wages that the people who work the longest and the hardest in his fields through the heat of the day end up feeling shortchanged and angry. Most of us feel angry on their behalf. Because most of us have seen others get so easily what we worked so long and hard for. It's not fair. God should be fair. At least the prodigal's son's brother got his full inheritance. This is a challenging parable. A vineyard can be beautiful. It can provide jobs. But the point of a vineyard is the wine, not the work needed to make it. What matters to the landowner in this parable isn't our worthiness, but our willingness to show up and work. God is not transactional. When we were younger and way, way broker, so broke that the car I drove got towed off the lot at work because somebody thought it was abandoned. Well I was at work. When we were that broke, we bought a house for full asking price without quibbles, negotiation, or strings attached. We could have paid less. But look at the life that came with that house. We looked at the sellers. The sellers lived next door to the house. The sellers were a retired contractor and a post office worker. This was the last rental they owned. The price was fair. We looked at that and we said, ah, these are fair people who don't play games. These are deliberate people who planned. Serious about selling, but not desperate. This is a contractor who has maintained this property for decades. It was a rental, it was beat up, but structurally it was sound. Because these were fair and deliberate people. Finally, we knew these were people who cared about the quality of their life. They were willing to suffer a late night knock on the door to fix a toilet in order to choose their own neighbors. You know what? In my life, I strive to be fair, straightforward, and deliberate. To value structural integrity over cosmetics. And be someone willing to be put out in order to live in a peaceful place with good neighbors. We didn't just pick a place to live, we picked a way to live. We picked our neighbors, people who shared our values. Bob and Sandy ended up being the best neighbors we ever had. And I have wondered how differently our relationship would have developed if we had lowballed that offer. If we'd squeezed the landowner for every penny we thought we could get. Payment for the work of the kingdom of heaven was never about the wage. It is in the fruit. We are sustained by the fruit. How will you savor it this week? How will you share it? Amen.