Septuagesima February 9, 2020 The Sunday of the Workers in the Vineyard

Septuagesima
Matthew 20:1-16
February 9, 2020

“God’s Generosity”

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

I have a short object lesson to start today. These used to be quite popular so I’m assuming most of you have seen one before. I forgot I even had this until Kane and Lydia asked what it was in Confirmation class earlier this year. If you haven’t seen one before, your eyes naturally focus in on the light colored pieces of wood in the front and it looks like a bunch of random, crazy symbols. But from father away it’s much easier, you see that actually you’re supposed to focus on the letters in between and it’s the name of Jesus.

Now it’s very easy for us, who are sinners, to focus in on all the things in the world we don’t like. We can focus on what we don’t have, what we think we should have, the bad things we don’t think should’ve happened to us, the stupid mistakes we’ve made, the evil and suffering in the world, and all the things we don’t like about ourselves. This is easy to do and it comes naturally for sinners like us. And when we focus on the wrong thing, we’re never happy or content or joyful. But today’s readings remind us to see something else. To not see everything you don’t have but everything you do have. To not focus on the bad, but focus on the good. To see just how incredibly good and generous God is to you. And, most of all, to see Jesus.

The Israelites in the Old Testament reading today are a perfect example. Look at all that they have. All God has done for them. He has just brought them out of Egypt where they were slaves. Out of a miserable life. And not only that, but when they left they didn’t leave empty handed. Remember that they plundered the Egyptians. God made it so that the Egyptians wanted them to leave so badly that they handed over much of their gold and silver and other wealth.

Then, of course, He had done a great miracle in parting the Red Sea so they walked through safely and the Egyptians drowned after them. They ought to be happy, content, and thankful. God has done very well by them. But instead, the minute they get to a spot where they don’t have enough water they start to grumble and quarrel and complain. This isn’t unlike when God has blessed us all day long and we sit down for supper and complain that it’s not what we wanted. Or we go out to eat and complain it wasn’t to our satisfaction.

They were ready to stone Moses. That’s how angry they were. How easy it is to forget all that God has given us and instead focus on the one thing we don’t have at the moment. Now, of course, water’s pretty important. But they should’ve simply prayed and known God would take care of it. Did they really think God would go through all that work bringing them out to then let them die of dehydration?

Now this is also why Jesus tells our main parable today of the workers in the vineyard. But I have to set this up for you and remind you why He told the parable.

What happens is that a young man comes up to Jesus who is very rich. He has it all. And he wants to know what he must do to be saved. Of course he thinks he’s already saved but he wants to see what Jesus says about it. In the end Jesus turns him on his head. He tells him he needs to sell everything that he has and give it to the poor. And he goes away sad because he doesn’t want to do that.

Then Jesus says, “See how hard it is to get into heaven if you’re rich.” To which the disciples are astonished and think, “If the rich don’t get in, then how does anyone get in?” And Jesus said, “With God all things are possible.” Then Peter says, “Hey, look at us! We left everything behind to follow you.” And Jesus responds, “Yes, you did. But let’s not compare, Peter. Many who are first will be last, and many last will be first.”

Then He tells this parable. And the point of the parable is that God is extremely generous and gives a full day’s pay to everyone at the end, even to those who only worked an hour. Hopefully you see then where all this is going now. We’d like to sit here and compare what we have and don’t have and how much we’ve given and worked for God—but we’re focusing on the wrong things. What we should realize is how much God has already given to every single one of us. He’s given us a denarius more valuable than anything the richest person in the world has—He’s given us Jesus.

Yet we would grumble. We grumble about unimportant things like who has more green papers and who gets to eat fancier food and who wears nicer clothes and who has a better looking body and who’s smarter and who received a bigger inheritance. When Jesus gets to the end of the parable, the people who worked all day are furious that they didn’t receive more money even though they worked much longer than the others. And the master asks them, literally from the Greek, “Is your eye evil because I am good?”

Of course our eyes are often evil. We see all the wrong things just like I told you at the start of the sermon today. We have evil eyes that see everything so-and-so has that I don’t have. We have evil eyes that look at others and say, “They don’t deserve all that money.” We have evil eyes that say, “Why is God so good to that person? They’re worthless.” We have evil eyes that only see all the bad, evil, pain, and suffering which we would never even know was bad if it weren’t for all the good that God gives us the rest of the time.

Most of all, though, we have evil eyes that don’t see the most important gift of God—which we should see all the time—Jesus. So refocus your eyes this morning. Repent and make your eyes good. See this morning how generous God is to you and how much you have to be thankful for. When God looked down at you He didn’t ask questions like, “Let’s see, how much does he deserve? Well, I think he’s worth about middle class. I can already see he’s going to blow it a number of times. I think I’ll put some cancer in his future.”

No, when God looked down at you, he saw your unformed substance, and He said, “I love this one so much that I’m going to give everything for him. I’m going to give My most precious gift—My own Son.” Do you see it? Just like with that object lesson I started with. Do you see it in there? The name of Jesus?

There isn’t a person in this room that cannot say, “God has been extremely generous to me and given me far more in this world than I have ever deserved.” He’s given you His Son. He’s given you life. He’s given you family and friends. He’s given you the waters of Holy Baptism where you were given the Holy Spirit. He’s given you food and drink. He’s given you the food and drink of the Lord’s Supper to forgive your sins. He’s given you a Church. He’s given you a free nation.

Would we rather stare at what others have and compare and make our eyes evil because God is good? Or would we rejoice in Jesus and be content with God has given us.

So to close there are two others gifts that God wants to give to you besides all that He has given you in Jesus already. The first one is self-control. We must be able to control our desires. Otherwise, we’ll never be content or happy and we’ll always think we need more and more and more. Self-control is a gift of the Spirit and something we all can work on. It’s in the Epistle today. Paul says, “Every athlete exercises self-control in all things.” He says, “I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.”

Athletes know this. If you want to win, you need self-control. Christians needs it too. Self-control is a gift that comes with Jesus. You learn that you already have everything you need in Jesus. You will be okay if you don’t get that money or that food or that drink or that house or that sex or whatever the case is. You have everything you need in Jesus. So you focus on that and exercise self-control over the rest.

Secondly, God gives us contentment. The ability to look at what we have right now and say, “It’s enough. I have everything I need to be happy and full of joy.” Because you do. Can you imagine a glorious day going by when you didn’t think, “Ugh, I wish I had that. Ugh, why did this happen? Ugh, I can’t wait until….”?  What if we just enjoyed today for today and thanked God for all that He has given us?

So are you with me? See how good God is to you. See the gifts and grace He has abundantly bestowed upon you. He has given you Jesus—a gift you certainly don’t deserve. He has given you forgiveness, life, and salvation. And He has given you self-control and contentment. Rejoice in these gifts. Be content. God is good.

In Jesus’ name. Amen.