God’s Employees

Mathew 20:1-16

Today is a special Sunday we are calling it Renewal Sunday. We are kicking off our Sunday School programs and restarting some of our weekly-monthly programs. I will call this Sunday Workers’ or Servers’ Sunday. You know how important it is for a church to have volunteer or even paid employees. As I prayed before in the service, MAY GOD BLESS EACH PERSON, TEACHERS, WORKERS, and STUDENTS or PARTICIPANTS.

Jesus tells a parable about an employer who hires employees. Yes, there was this Mr. Grape (Khaghoghian) who hired different workers at different times. At the end of the day, He paid the same amount to all workers. Is Mr. Khaghoghian being fair?

Or, is Jesus being fair?

1. There is no Hierarchy in the Kingdom of God. A person who was graduated from Harvard University and came to God 50 years ago is as important as the criminal who was caught and put in jail where he became a dedicated Christian. The person who comes late is just as important as the one who comes early.

You know this bothers many who are in the church.

In my previous churches that I served I had new young people who joined the church. The elders who had worked for thousands of hours in the church felt strange when new persons suddenly were in the church taking new positions.

Obviously, Jesus is saying to enter the Kingdom of God has nothing to do with how hard or how long one works.

Paul, Peter or any Christian martyr is with the Lord as well as the thief who was crucified next to Jesus. Salvation is by GRACE only. Salvation is a gift, you can not EARN IT. You can not gain God’s favor, because you are in God’s favor; just accept it to receive it.

A judge who was a member in a certain church had a case in his court. He had to give a prison sentence to someone who had stolen something and belonged to the same church.

After some years this person finished his term in jail and was back to the same church. It was Communion Sunday. The judge and former burglar were kneeling next to each other to receive the Communion.

After the service, the pastor walked with the judge to their home. He asked the judge whether he realized who was kneeling next to him this morning. The judge said that he did, and added, “What a marvelous miracle of grace!”

“Yes, indeed”, said the pastor, “what a marvelous grace.”

The judge said: “I was referring to myself”, he continued, “It did not cost that burglar much to get converted when he came out of jail. He had nothing but history of crime behind him. When he saw Jesus his life was transformed.

Look at me. I was raised in a good home like a gentleman. I went to church and Sunday School. I went to Oxford, took my degrees; eventually I became a judge. Pastor, nothing but the grace of God could have caused me to admit that I was a sinner on level with that burglar. It took much more grace to forgive me for all my pride and self-deception, to get me to admit that I was no better in the eyes of GOD than that convict that I sent to prison.”

2. The world teaches us that whatever we deposit, we can withdraw. If you put more, you will receive more. The parable challenges us to not look to the Kingdom of God or to the church service as a business community.

That is the reason Jesus said, “The first shall be last and the last shall be the first.”

Strange! We sing the song Amazing Grace, but when it comes to practical life, we are not comfortable with the concept, as if we did not experience it.

*A sparrow complains to Mother Nature: “You gave beautiful colors to the peacock and a lovely song to the nightingale, but I am plain and unnoticed. Why was I made to suffer?”

“You were not made to suffer,” stated Mother Nature. “You suffer because you make the same foolish mistakes as human beings. You compare yourself with others. Be yourself, for in that there is no comparison and no pain.”

The point of this story is one word, GRACE. The problem is we do not understand Grace.

*My systematic theology professor William Power described Grace through this story:

The Sunday School teacher was trying to explain grace to the students. She was having difficulty. Suddenly she had an idea and said: “Look boys, grace is the break you get when you don’t deserve it. You will not understand it if you do not experience it.”

The early morning employees said it is not fair. Fair or not fair is not the issue.

God is more interested in inviting unwanted children than just the few chosen ones.

Look, who were the ones who came late? The REJECTED ones, the ones who were not employed early in the day.

*I hated the times when my friends tried to divide the group for a football game. You know how they started. The best athletes were the ones chosen first, then at the end the worst ones. I was either chosen or sometimes not chosen at all. Look what did the owner did. He went and found ones who were left behind and brought them in, too. Yes, the ones who worked longer under the sun could feel unfair. But God does what is needed and not what you and I think it is right or wrong. Grace is bigger than what is fair or not fair.

God is not just, he is more than that. GOD IS GENEROUS.

3. Now one thing that bothers me is that the early workers had to be under the sun more than the others and rewarded the same way.

Being more in the service for GOD is JOY and not PUNISHMENT. I do not know how you view your service in the church.

Do you feel you have sung too many years in the choir? You think it’s enough, too much. Let me see how much others can do?

Do you feel you have done too much of Sunday school?

Do you feel you have served tooooooooo many years?

I understand if one is burnt out, but this is the field that GOD selected you to be a worker in. We do not have the luxury of saying let someone else do the work. We can divide the work. If we were serving more in the field, what a joy that we had the opportunity to be in the field. Let us see this as an opportunity or as gain and not loss.

Jesus went to the cross. We should then ask the question: Do we deserve it? Can we pay it back?

NO, NO, NO.

The point of the parable is to bring more to the field to serve. Why?

Because the harvest is much, but the laborers are few.

Let us conclude.

There is no Hierarchy in the Kingdom of God. The person who comes late is just important as the one who comes early.

Salvation is by GRACE only. Salvation is a gift, you can not EARN IT.

God has His ways to bring in the “rejected ones as well”. Grace is bigger than what is fair or not fair.

God is not just, he is more than that; GOD IS GENEROUS.

Being longer in the service for GOD is JOY and not punishment.

Let us start our Renewal Sunday with JOY. Let us also conclude our Renewal Sunday in June with JOY. Why? God gave us the opportunity to serve Him.

AMEN