When Grace Feels Unfair
Focus text: Matthew 20:1-16

Presented to Warners Bay Uniting Church and Boolaroo Uniting Church 20.9.2026

 

You can probably relate to more than one time in your life, standing in a really long grocery store queue. You have waited your turn after carefully assessing how full the competing trolleys were and how new to the job the cashier seemed and made your decision based on the information in front of you and you make the decision to commit to your queue. After a few minutes wait, another cashier starts marching toward an empty register with a focus you know so well. They turn on the screen, the light comes on atop their heads and they call out, “I can help someone over here.”

 

Before you can make a move, someone who has only just arrived glides into first place and is greeted warmly by the cashier who has already begun to scan their items. “How did they get served first? I’ve been here for 10 minutes waiting next to a screaming baby, how could God let this happen to me?”

 

Now, it’s not a big deal in the grand scheme of things. You figure God probably has more pressing matters than adjudicating grocery lines, and that after all, your life probably won’t fall apart as a result, but still a sense of frustration arises within you, “That’s so not fair, I was here first….I hope they back into a pole on the way out”….or words to that effect.

 

What happens for you when you’re in this or a similar kind of situation? What are the unwritten rules of what fairness is and how you believe it should be measured out? And what are we to do with those unwritten rules when we worship a God who reminds us that in the kingdom of heaven, the first shall be last and the last shall be first? What does that do to our grocery store Olympics version of how fairness and justice should be administered?

 

Well, as usual, Jesus has a parable for that which is found in today’s Gospel:

 

“For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire labourers for his vineyard. After agreeing with the labourers for the usual daily wage, he sent them into his vineyard. At nine o’clock, three o’clock and five o’clock that same day he finds more workers in need of work and sends them into the vineyard also to start work for much shorter shifts throughout the day. When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his manager, ‘Call the labourers and give them their pay, beginning with the last and then going to the first.’ When those hired about five o’clock came, each of them received the usual daily wage. Now when the first came, they thought they would receive more; but each of them also received the usual daily wage. And when they received it, they grumbled against the landowner, saying, ‘These last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat.’ But he replied to one of them, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong; did you not agree with me for the usual daily wage? Take what belongs to you and go…”

 

For Jesus, it’s clear the “I was here first” argument doesn’t really cut it and completely misses the point. The kingdom of heaven offers abundant nourishment for all, no matter what time they clocked in. This is echoed in the Old Testament reading we have before us today where the Israelites are grumbling even though God is providing for them along the way in unexpected ways. The manna in the wilderness is one such example of this. What’s interesting is that manna cannot be hoarded. It falls on everyone evenly, despite how much they deserve it. When people try to gather more than they need the extra manna becomes rotten. The manna is another way God upturns the expectation that in the kingdom of heaven some deserve more than others. The leaders and the servants receive the same amount for their journey. Those who have provided more muscle throughout the day are fed just as generously as those who aren’t able to contribute in such an obvious, practical way.

Back to the parable:

 

Warren Carter writes,

“Instead of maintaining differentiation among the labourers based on performance, instead of reinforcing the superiority of some at the expense of the rest, the householder [landowner] has evened out the distinctions and treated them in solidarity as equals. Instead of using wages to reinforce distinctions, he uses them to express equality and solidarity.”

 

This reminds me of the same theme coming through in another one of Jesus parables, the parable of the Prodigal son where the elder brother is irate to learn that his younger brother who had squandered everything he had been given was welcomed home to lavish, underserved feast with family and friends – he protests to his Father, “it’s not fair! All of this time I’ve been by your side and stayed while my brother went out and partied and lost everything you entrusted to him, and so why now after all of these years do you welcome him home with such graciousness, sparing no expense when you’ve never given me even a goat and a few potatoes to celebrate with my friends?”

 

I mean…the older brother kind of does have a point, right? He’s very easy to empathise with. But the Father says something which cuts to the very heart of that and this parable when he says, “Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours.” The older brother hadn’t actually lost anything in the process, even if you account for the portion given to the Prodigal which would have been the prodigals anyway. The older son hadn’t actually been penalised for that. His portion was always secure.

 

I think the worker’s in the vineyard were keeping a similar kind of tab as the elder brother. They were arguing, “we arrived first!, we’ve done the hard yards!, we’ve done the bulk of the day’s work, we deserve more!”

 

But the landowner simply replies to them, “Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for the usual daily wage? I chose to give to this last the same as I give to you. Are you envious because I am generous?”

 

We can often be grateful for grace when we’re on the receiving end of it, but as soon as it’s applied to someone we think is undeserving, it’s a little harder to accept. We can often be grateful for forgiveness when it’s applied to us, but as soon as it’s applied to someone who is in our view “beyond redemption” it can be a different story. We do the same kind of thing with those we say are welcome, until someone walks through our church doors who’s presence unsettles us, then we can look for biblical passages to justify our not accepting them, and let’s be honest, it would be a very lonely life if we applied that same principle to all of our relationships, much less ourselves.

 

This morning, Jesus reveals a kingdom that turns on its head this kind of worldly logic and prejudice. The wages given to the workers in today’s parable are given in equal measure to all because each are worthy not based on what they’ve accomplished in a day, but because of who they are as beloved of God. The landowner demonstrates today just what amazing grace actually looks like. It’s not about what we’ve done, but it’s about who we are. Instead of asking himself, “what does this worker deserve?”, he asks, “what does this worker need in order to live and provide for his family tonight?” and the reality is, they all needed the same amount.

 

It’s like that line in the Lord’s Prayer, “give us today our daily bread, it’s not “my daily bread”, but ours. The landowner doesn’t take bread away from those who started early in the morning, he just refuses to send those who started later home without more than enough to meet their needs.

 

This morning, the Gospel invites us to consider what are we withholding from others based on our perception of their worthiness? What are the grudges that prevent us from offering unconditional grace and goodwill to those who may not have had the same opportunities as we have had? Where do we notice those in our society today who have still not been chosen? Who still wait to be noticed and have their humanity and their dignity affirmed and lifted up?

 

May we recognise the inherent dignity in all people. May we lay our judgements aside long enough to notice the presence of God within them, and allow grace to soften our hearts and open our minds to full width, breadth, and depth of God’s great love for all.