+ 17th Sunday after Pentecost – September 20th, 2026 +
Series A: Isaiah 55:6-9; Philippians 1:12-14, 19-30; Matthew 20:1-16
Beautiful Savior Lutheran Church
Milton, WA
In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Equations. Calculations. Transactions.
Rewards. Entitlements. Earnings.
This is the way of life in the kingdoms of this world.
The first-place runner gets the medal. The best in show ribbon goes to the top dog. The player with the most goals gets the golden boot.
We’re so used to the kingdoms of this world working this way that we think the kingdom of heaven ought to work the same way too.
But it doesn’t. Christ’s kingdom is just the opposite. A complete reversal. A life of unexpected, undeserved, unmerited, unconditional grace.
In the kingdom of heaven, God’s economy runs on mercy, not merit. Grace, not entitlement. Forgiveness, not transactions. Compassion, not calculations. In the kingdom of heaven, God is wild. Free. Untamed. Good. Generous. Gracious. Slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
In the Kingdom of heaven, “the last will be first, and the first last.”
For the kingdom of heaven is like the master of the house who goes out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard.
So often our attention in this story is drawn to the workers. The equal pay for the unequal work. But keep your eyes and ears on the abundantly gracious Master
He goes out at the first hour. 6am roughly. A denarius for a day’s wage. Again at 9am he seeks out more workers. I’ll give you whatever is just...righteous. Dikaios is the word here. Whatever is justified. That’s what I’ll give.
Again, the generous Master goes to the marketplace at noon and 3pm. Even up to the 11th hour. 5pm. Seeking laborers to give them what is justified. What is righteous. Delivering them into his vineyard.
Clearly the Master of this parable isn’t interested in his own prestige or profits. He’s full of compassion. Rich in grace. Motivated by mercy.
Finally, evening arrives. Time to get paid. Time to go home. But there’s a twist. There’s always a twist in Jesus’ parables. Call the laborers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last, up to the first.
Imagine yourself in the sandals of the first workers hired early in the morning. You see the 11th hour laborers get a day’s wage. So you start calculating. I’ve been here 12 hours. 12 x a day’s wage. Oh this is going to be a good day!
“But wait, what’s that he said? A lousy denarius? That’s it? You've gotta be kidding. We’ve been here all day. Working our fingers to the bone. Sweating our backsides off. And these 11th hour bums get the same as us?” We all know what those 1st hour workers are going to say next. “That's not fair.”
The problem isn’t that they were underpaid. No one is underpaid. The Master says, “I’ll give you what is right. What’s justified.” Their problem is with the gracious Master and his abundantly gracious giving ways. They’re like the older son in the parable of the prodigal son. Grumbling against the gracious generosity of the Father.
But this is what our old Adam loves to do: treat grace as an entitlement. Forgiveness as a transaction. Mercy according to my own merits. Pride instead of compassion.
Good thing for us that Jesus, the gracious Master, the generous vineyard owner isn’t a miser, but full of mercy. He doesn’t care much for calculations but compassion. There’s only one transaction that matters in God the Father’s book: your name written in the Lamb’s book of life, inked in the blood of Jesus. Jesus isn’t the Lord of the entitled or deserving, but the friend of sinners.
In the Kingdom of heaven, the Master goes into his vineyard to labor on your behalf. Like the 11th hour workers, we live off of the work of another. Jesus our Master doesn’t give us what is fair or what we deserve, but what is right. What is justified.
He bears the scorching heat of the day. The scourging heat of the whip plowing furrows and rows on his back for you. For you he bears the burden of all our self-righteous pride and sin and death. Under the weight of the wood. The weight of our trespasses, he labors in darkness from the 6th to the 9th hour, to seek you out. To deliver you into his vineyard. By the 11th hour Jesus was taken down from the cross and laid in the tomb for you.
This is our life in the Kingdom of heaven, under the gracious rule of the Master. In the Kingdom of heaven, sinners are justified on account of Christ’s suffering and death. The dead are raised in Jesus’ resurrection. Losers win. The lost are found. The last are first.
In Jesus’ kingdom we who were dead last have become first because he who is first became last in our place.
In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
