Foretaste of the Sermon to Come
A little nibble of the Revised Common Lectionary
Sunday’s scriptures are Jonah 3:10-4:11 and Matthew 20:1-16
When we think of unfairness, we often hear or even say it ourselves, “Life is not fair.” We tell this to our kids to help them understand that they are going to have to be resilient and so that they can avoid taking the unfairness they encounter as a personal affront or a sign of their inadequacy. We usually think of it in the negative, when bad circumstances hit us we say, “Well, it’s life, and life is unfair.”
Pastor Jonathan’s sermon title is “God is Unfair. Deal With It!” I have a feeling we are going to hear a little law until he gives us the gospel.
The Law is where Jonah and the workers who have worked all day are going. Jonah thinks it’s unfair that the despicably corrupt city of Nineveh is getting a pass from God’s cleansing wrath, especially after his 3 day ordeal. They deserve destruction! If God were going to save them, he could have just sent them a message to repent from the safety of Joppa and avoided the terror of the storms and time in the slimy dark belly of a fish. The workers who put in their full 8+ hour day are upset because those who worked only the last hour of the day are paid the same full day’s wage they are getting. If our kids were among the full-day laborers, we would try to comfort them by saying something like, “you did your part, and you can’t control how a boss will treat their employees. It’s not fair that you had to work so hard, but that was the bargain and it has nothing to do with you.” Bosses can be arbitrary, but they are the boss. This is the Law’s way of looking at these 2 stories. The Law sets up the rules, and when we obey them and others don’t, and when there are no extra prizes for obedience or punishment for disobedience, we are often more than a little upset.
But my opinion is that these two stories aren’t about the Law at all. They are gospel stories about mercy. It’s funny how we like to focus on the all-day workers in Jesus’ parable because we can understand where they are coming from. We sympathize with them. But what if we focused instead on the 1-hour workers and saw ourselves in them? In fact, we are these 1-hour workers. We don’t deserve God’s mercy, we don’t deserve to be seen as righteous apart from the works of the Law. We can come nowhere close to keeping the whole Law! But that is where God is decidedly not fair. If he were fair, we would receive our just due as sinners. But God is so unfair that he gave his only begotten son to die for us so that we can share in his eternal life. Deal with it!
