ENTITLED LABOURERS IN THE VINEYARD

ENTITLED LABOURERS IN THE VINEYARD 

We are looking at the parable of the labourers in the vineyard who all get a full day’s wages whether or not they worked a full day or just a part of the day. This caused some workers to get offended because they felt entitled to receive more than they were given.
We will study this parable of Jesus in a moment in Matthew Ch.20 that shines a light on today’s culture of entitlement.

We live in a world where many suffer at the hands of selfish and entitled power brokers. Disillusionment runs deep as political and corporate leaders make promises then fail to deliver. And while some leaders genuinely seek solutions, the complexity of societal issues and political manoeuvring leaves people uncertain about who they can trust.
Take Argentina as a present-day example. Years of soaring inflation (up to 100%) and massive government spending on healthcare, education, energy, and food led to a bankrupt nation with 40% poverty and unemployment. The new government responded with austerity—cutting subsidies and cash payouts—but now police are cracking down on raging riots as properties get burned and destroyed. Once entitlements are given, they are difficult to revoke.

Entitlement funding is not right or wrong – it’s a matter of how appropriate and how wisely they are applied. In many Western democracies also, governments pour billions of public dollars into entitlement programs, often seen as tools to secure votes yet these expenditures are unsustainable. Too many power-hungry factions and empty promises can end up causing cycles of corruption and overcorrection. And when drastic corrections are made, they trigger chaos, and amid the turmoil, loud voices clash, but real dialogue is rare, and solutions seem elusive.

To break this spiral, we need honesty, transparency, sound policies, and competent leadership—especially at local levels—to restore order and trust. The politics of the world respond to power - not logic, so follow the logic. If logic is being applied things will work wisely and problems will get solved and there will not be the waste of billions of dollars of public money. Power not only corrupts, it also creates confusion. 
In the Bible Jesus is called the logos - the logic - and when he is given the rule in our personal lives, things can get done wisely and caringly and effectively.

And therefore people who know their God can pray for the power of the Kingdom of God to be seen in the earth to reorder the chaos of a self-serving global culture. The Bible says Pray for one another and for rulers and all others who are in authority over us, or are in places of high responsibility, so that we can live in peace and quiet, spending our time in godly living and dignity (semnot??s) (2 Timothy 1:7). 
Our faith in this prayer can bring God’s grace into action for us and allows God to reorder our lives personally. Everything starts with us and God’s grace.

So let us read the parable of the labourers in the vineyard in Matthew Ch.20. 
Matthew 20:1 For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire labourers for his vineyard. He agreed to pay them one denarius a day and sent them out to work. A couple of hours later he was passing a hiring hall and saw some men standing around waiting for work, so he sent them also into his fields, telling them he would pay them whatever was right at the end of the day. At noon and again around three o’clock in the afternoon he did the same thing.
At five o’clock that evening he was in town again and saw some more men standing around and asked them, ‘Why haven’t you been working today?’ Because no one hired us,’ they replied. ‘Then go on out and join the others in my fields,’ he told them.
That evening he told the paymaster to call the men in and pay them, beginning with the last men first. When the men hired at five o’clock were paid, each received a denarius. So when the men hired earlier came to get theirs, they assumed they would receive much more. But they, too, were paid a denarius also.
“They protested, ‘Those fellows worked only one hour, and yet you’ve paid them just as much as those of us who worked all day in the scorching heat.’
‘Friend,’ he answered one of them, ‘I did you no wrong! Didn’t you agree to work all day for a denarius? Take it and go. It is my desire to pay all the same; is it against the law to give away my money if I want to? Is your heart evil because I am good?’ That is why those who put themselves last end up being first and those who put themselves first end up being last. I desire to include everybody, but not everybody desires to be included.
What he is saying here that he wants to give his goodness and grace to everybody but not everybody wants to receive it. 
His response to the complaints of the early workers in the parable is to address their sense of injustice and entitlement. This parable of Jesus also speaks into the kind of self-serving confusion we see all around us today. His answer reveals the simple but deep eternal truths about God’s grace, and sovereignty, and the nature of his Kingdom.

Jesus forgave sinners and healed the sick and fed the poor in the name of his generous and sovereign Father. The leaders of Israel were resentful of this and felt entitled as having special claim on God and his kingdom because they had been performing and outperforming one another in the outward works of the Law for centuries. Who was this Jesus person to be so gracious to non-performers or even outsiders?
Jesus was preparing Israel and the world to receive the magnificent sovereign grace of God and become partners with him in his vineyard. And his word and his kingdom were about to come to everyone as a free gift. In Jesus, all has been accomplished, and we can confidently expect all good things from him. 

This parable teaches us that God speaks to us and makes faith and grace available as his gift, but it is our task to listen, and the word heard becomes the word received and then faith allows that word to be lived through us by God’s enabling grace. Grace is the power of God at work in our partnership with him, where God works far more powerfully and competently and productively within us than we could ever do on our own and we are entitled to receive his grace - Come confidently to the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace in time of need Hebrews 4.16. We are actually the entitled labourers in the vineyard – what a twist that is – it is God’s Divine logic!

Jesus said to the complainers Take what is yours and go your way. I wish to give to this last man the same as to you.” The early workers were not upset because they were treated unfairly, but because others received generosity that they didn’t think was deserved, and this exposes a deeper issue - resentment towards God for extending his grace to others. 
Jesus said Is your eye (heart) evil because I am good?’. H is saying here ‘is your eye - your view or perspective of God - hateful because God is good and generous to everybody whether they deserve it or not. We can all tend to limit God’s goodness and grace.

Whoever receives the gift of grace spends time working together with a loving Jesus and not making comparisons or complaining about it. When we know that this grace is on offer from God through Jesus for everyone then we begin to rejoice and pray for it to abound everywhere. Where grace abounds in people there is more wisdom in the way they work and more agreement about how they work together. In the parable the workers received exactly what they were promised and so do we. God is fair and just, and his grace overcomes our human tendency to compare ourselves with others and makes us grateful to be working together with him. Our greatest reward comes from trusting in the goodness of what we have received and from trusting in the one who gives it to us. Be courageous and bold - we have an entitlement because we come under the title of our Lords name. We are entitled to work together with him. People might ask ‘what's your privilege in life? Our privilege is to work through the strength of Jesus. That may not sound logical to many people, but I don't believe that deserving it makes any difference to God. It is about believing it and asking. It is confidently saying Lord I need to know your mercy because I know I'm not I'm not there yet but your mercy is covering my insufficiency - but one thing I know that I can have from a heart that is as true as it can be to you Lord is your enabling power within - your life to do a thing that only you can do through me that I can enjoy doing. And not comparing - even compared to my own aspirations. We have a great and loving God, so never never limit that entitlement to his grace. Amen