Q3, S08 The Eccentric Employer
Quarter 3, Session 8: The Eccentric Employer
WILL YOU CELEBRATE GRACE?
Passage
Matthew 20:1–16
Concept
This session falls under Jesus’ ninth question: Can you see my kingdom as a farm? Jesus told a parable about workers who were invited to work. Some started earlier, others began work much later. At the end of the day, they were all paid the same. Jesus used this parable to illustrate the nature of grace. It’s not about getting what we deserve, it’s a matter of receiving grace from God. We tend to resist the concept of grace, we tend to grumble when others are blessed. Jesus invites us to reflect on grace as we consider what it means to work within his kingdom.
Key Question
Are there any ways in which you find yourself trying to limit grace? What does that tendency look like?
The Farm Tool
Do you see our Farm tool being played out in Matthew 20:1–16? With whom? How so?
The Eccentric Employer
Have you ever heard a story of God’s grace and thought, “I doubt it”? Maybe it’s discovering that a mean or rough neighbor is part of a church, and you find yourself thinking, “I doubt that guy is a real Christian.” Or maybe it’s hearing that Jeffrey Dahmer became a Christian while on Death Row. The temptation is to think, “Yeah right.”
But why do we think like that? Why would we ever doubt a story of grace? It’s likely because we have a tendency to limit grace. Sure, we believe that God can be gracious to us, to forgive the sins we have committed (though certainly many of us have a hard time even with this). And if we hear stories about God forgiving people like us, it’s easy enough to believe. But there are certain stories that are more difficult for us to believe.
Of course, we never know what’s happening in another person’s heart. We can never say for sure whether another person has a living relationship with God—nor is it our job to try to do this. But the fact that we are sometimes skeptical shows that we underestimate grace. When Jesus told the parable of the eccentric employer (often referred to as the parable of the laborers), he was trying to stretch our understanding of grace. Grace is essential to living in his kingdom. It shapes everything we do as members of his kingdom. So it’s vital that Jesus’ understanding of grace becomes our own.
1. Read Matthew 20:1–16. Right off the bat, what strikes you about this passage? What do you find interesting or challenging or confusing?
An Invitation to Work with God
One important feature of this parable is it portrays God as constantly inviting us. The day begins with a call to work, an invitation to join God in what he is doing. A few hours later, the master is back, inviting more laborers. A few hours later, he’s inviting again. In fact, he’s inviting right up until the end of the day. This is a picture of God’s relentless pursuit of his people. We’ve seen this before: it’s a major theme in the Gospels and in the whole Bible. God wants us to join him, to be with him. So he continually calls us in.
It’s also significant that we are invited to work with him. It’s not just about “getting saved” and receiving a “ticket to heaven.” No, there is a task to be done. The invitation is to join the master in what he’s doing. And what he’s doing is working. He’s pursuing a mission. And we get to join him in that mission. So accepting God’s invitation is accepting an invitation to work alongside him. To work as we experience him working through us. This is the mission God is calling us into: He wants to make us “fishers of men.” He wants us to be “making disciples.” As we accept the invitation, we immediately get the opportunity to join him in reaching out to others with God’s love.
This is an incredibly generous invitation. We get to be with God! We get to work alongside him! We can get frustrated with a parable like this if we get worried about how much each person received. We can begin to worry that some of the workers who started working earlier in the day got a bad deal. But that’s not true. This parable is about generosity, not stinginess. Every person in this parable receives a gracious invitation. Everyone who responds to the invitation is a recipient of grace.
2. This is a question we’ve hit on in a few ways in previous sessions, but it’s good to continue to take stock: How has God been inviting you into his work? How has he been calling you to partner with him?
Grumbling Against Mercy
In this parable, groups of workers get paid the same amount for working different lengths of time. These are hard words for a capitalist to hear. If we’re honest, we’re more oriented toward fairness than we are toward grace. It’s typically easier for us to be law focused. The law is about fairness. The law is about being rewarded for your efforts and punished when you step out of line. But grace is inherently about getting more than you deserve. We like to praise the concept of grace, but it can be a difficult pill to swallow.
If we’re honest, some of us are worried that we’re not getting enough out of following Jesus. There was a time when it used to mean more. We feel like we’re jumping through hoops. Perhaps you set out to follow Jesus in a season of excitement, but over time you’ve begun to wonder if it’s really worth it, after all. This is not unlike those workers who started at the beginning of the day and began to grumble. They had agreed on the price the master set, but now they’re upset: “THIS is all I’m getting out of all my work?”
On the flip side, some of us are worried someone else is getting more than we are. If you’ve ever had the experience of being happy with your salary until you learned someone else was getting more, you know how this works. You might be okay with what you’re getting out of this whole thing, but when you see someone else being rewarded more than you are, you suddenly become discontent.
We’ve said in a previous session that we will certainly be surprised at who we find in God’s kingdom. This parable shows that not only will we be surprised at who we find there, we’ll also be upset about it! The real problem for these workers is this: “You have made them equal to us” (v. 12). There’s an inherent comparison. We can be all for people being treated nicely, but deep down, it’s much more difficult to shake the sense that we’re better than others. It’s hard not to be upset when “they” are made equal to “us.”
But Jesus told this parable to show us that this is the very nature of grace. We all stand as equals before the Lord. It doesn’t matter what you’ve accomplished or failed to accomplish. It doesn’t matter which sins you’ve committed or avoided. When it comes down to the kingdom of God, it’s all and only about grace. Us and them. We’re all equal because God relates to us according to grace.
3. Who would it be difficult for you to learn was part of God’s kingdom (either a specific individual or a type of person)? Why do you think this is?
4. Has God’s grace ever felt unfair to you? Why? How?
A Different Standard
Who would you expect to be rewarded in this life? You can answer that question however you like, but we should know for sure that God doesn’t assess who will be rewarded in the same way we assess it. That’s why this parable begins and ends with this statement: “The first will be last, and the last first.” God’s standard isn’t our standard. Grace functions differently than our natural inclinations. In story after story, we see that Jesus holds up as first those that the world would consider to be last.
Think of the woman who gave her last pennies just after a rich man gave a sack of money (Mark 12:41–44). She is the one who gave more. Think of the thief on the cross (Luke 23:42–43). He had no time to do anything with his devotion to Jesus. Yet he’s just as much part of the kingdom of God as the most flawless person who has ever set out to follow Jesus. Think of the twelve disciples: they weren’t the greatest or the brightest. They were simple guys, yet God used them to change the world. Think of Paul: he was actively trying to destroy Christianity and yet God used him to advance it.
This is simply how grace works. The problem is we tend to draw a box around grace. We want to limit it. But the first will be last. Grace will do what grace does. And so we constantly find God working in ways we wouldn’t expect, being more extravagant than we would dare to be.
5. Are there any ways in which you find yourself trying to limit grace? What does that tendency look like?
6. What factors, realizations, or people have most helped you grow in your appreciation of grace? How so?
7. Spend some time in prayer. Ask God to expand your understanding of grace. Pray that he would transform your heart until you value grace as much as he does. And most of all, ask God to make you a gracious person and a gracious group of people.
Key Question
Are there any ways in which you find yourself trying to limit grace? What does that tendency look like?