GRACE

AUGUST 16, 2009 SUNDAY SCRIPTURE MATTHEW 20

TEXT http://net.bible.org/bible.php?book=Mat&chapter=20

MESSAGE

“The Vineyard Reversal”

Jesus tells his disciples a story illustrating how the first will be last and the last will be first in the Kingdom of Heaven. In the story, in the morning a landowner hires workers for his vineyard and they are sent off to work after agreeing to work for the standard daily wage. Throughout the day the owner goes into the marketplace and finds others without work and sends them into his vineyard telling them he will pay them fairly at the end of the day. He continues to do this right up to the hour before the work day is done. Then when the day is over he tells his manager to call the workers in starting with those who were hired last and that no matter when they began working to pay them the standard daily wage. When the workers hired at the start of the day came in they thought they would receive more but received the same as all the other workers and began complaining to the landowner about how much more work they did than those who were hired later in the day but were made equal in by being paid the same amount. The landowner told the complaining workers that he wasn’t treating them unfairly, that he had paid them what they had agreed to work for, that they seemed to be jealous because he was being generous with his money. Jesus concludes the story with the statement it was illustrating about the Kingdom of Heaven: So the last will be first, and the first last.

“Crucifixion”

Following this, Jesus tells His disciples for the third time what is going to happen to Him in Jerusalem. They are told He will be betrayed and handed over to the chief priests who will condemn him to death after which they will get the Roman soldiers involved who will ridicule, severely flog and then crucify him. Despite this he will be raised from the dead three days later.

“Authority”

Despite Jesus having just told a story that illustrated the meaning of the last being first, and the first last in the Kingdom of Heaven, the mother of James and John asks Jesus that her sons be allowed to sit at His right and left sides in His Kingdom. He tells them they don’t know what they are asking for and then asks them if they can be a part of what he has just told them for the third time is going to happen to him. James and John tell Jesus they can to which Jesus acknowledges that they will but that the positions they are asking Him for in the Kingdom of Heaven aren’t His to give, instead His Father’s.

When the other disciples found out that the mother of James and John had tried to obtain a privileged position for them in the Kingdom of Heaven they were upset with the brothers. Jesus intervened by telling them how the Roman rulers and others in high positions hang their authority over the heads of those beneath them and that they must never use their authority in this way. In contrast to this Jesus tells them that whoever wants to be great must be a servant and whoever wants to be first must be a slave to others. He told them that even as Messiah, he didn’t come to be served by others but to serve them and to give his life as a ransom to pay for the sins of many people.

“Mercy”

Leaving Jericho on the way to Jerusalem with a large crowd at hand, there were two blind men sitting along the road who when they heard Jesus was going by shouted out, calling Him the Son of David, for mercy. Discounting them, the people in the crowd told them to be quiet but they persisted in shouting even louder for mercy which caught Jesus’ attention causing Him to stop and take notice. After calling them over he asked them what they wanted Him to do for them and they told Him they wanted to see again. This moved Jesus to compassion as he touched their eyes resulting in their immediately regaining their sight after which they followed Him.

TEACHING

Jesus’ story written about by Matthew at the beginning of Chapter 20 illustrates the concept that he started at the end of Chapter 19 about some that are first in this world that will be last in the Kingdom of Heaven and some that are last in this world will be first in the Kingdom of Heaven. This story about hiring workers at different times throughout the workday and then paying them the same wage, being generous to those who were hired last but being fair and keeping his word to those hired first illustrates that entrance into the Kingdom is not earned, but received by the grace of God. And, those who were hanging around the marketplace at the end of the day because no one found them acceptable to work represent those who are last in this world, the poor and the outcasts, who become first in the Kingdom of Heaven.
After teaching his disciples about God’s grace through this story, He told His disciples for the third time what was going to happen to Him when they reached Jerusalem, how he would be betrayed into the hands of the religious establishment, how they would turn Him over to the Romans to be crucified and how after this three days later he would rise from the dead.

In spite of the story illustrating God’s grace Jesus had just told His disciples, they didn’t understand the difficult path he was telling them he was following was God’s plan for grace - a plan in which He must suffer and die on the Cross as a ransom for the Sin of many – a plan in which He was going to pay the price for the Sin of many so that they would be set free from and be able to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. He also told them He did not come into the world to use His authority like the Romans do, hanging it over the heads of those they rule, demanding that others serve their every whim, but instead to serve others to the point of giving up His life for them.

And, He defined greatness for His disciples this way – by serving them, by becoming their slave - not by jockeying for privileged positions in the Kingdom of Heaven like James and John had naively done without understanding what this required for them to follow Him down the path He must go. Having previously told them they would hold positions of authority in the Kingdom of Heaven to sit in judgment of the twelve tribes of Israel for not believing He was the Son of God, He told them that beyond being able to tell them this, the call on who would be closest to Him in the Kingdom was not His, but His Father’s.

Leaving Jericho, two blind men stop the excitement of Jesus’ presence in the crowd traveling the road to Jerusalem for to celebrate the Passover by their persistent cries for mercy. Jesus’ compassionate filled question asking what they want was immediately fulfilled when they asked to see again, after which they follow Him.

HEALING

Our Father in Heaven,

Hallowed be Your Name because of Grace in the Name of Your Son who You sent into this world not to be served, but to serve and to give His life as a ransom for our Sin.

Hallowed be Your Name because of Grace in the Name of Your Son who paid the price for our Sin so that we could be set free from death and live eternally in the Kingdom of Heaven with You.

Hallowed be Your Name because of Grace in the Name of Your Son who suffered betrayal, torture, and the merciless death of crucifixion at our hands even though it was for our sake.

Thy Kingdom come on earth as it is in Heaven so that those who today are outcasts will one day be accepted by the world.

Thy Kingdom come on earth as it is in Heaven so that we will serve as Your Son served on earth, as servants, giving our lives to others.

Thy Kingdom come on earth as it is in Heaven so that we will take time, stop what we’re doing, hear the cries of others for mercy, ask them what they want, and help to provide them it in the Name of Your Son.

Give us today our daily bread like the workers wages from the vineyard Owner.

Give us today our daily bread like the disciple’s teachings from following Jesus.

Give us today our daily bread like the blind men’s healings from asking Jesus.

Forgive us our trespasses, like the first hired vineyard workers when we think You aren’t being fair - as we forgive those who trespass against us.

Forgive us our trespasses, like when we seek positions of privilege like James and John - as we forgive those who trespass against us.

Forgive us our trespasses, like the crowd outside of Jericho when we discount the weak of the world - as we forgive those who trespass against us.

And lead us not into temptation, thinking we’re great when we’re not.

And lead us not into temptation, thinking we’re first when we’re not.

And lead us not into temptation, thinking we’re privileged when we’re not.

For Thine is the Kingdom, the Power and the Glory, Forever and Ever,

In Jesus Name, Amen

SONG 'Amazing Grace (My Chains Are Gone) (See ...' by Chris Tomlin @imeem http://x.imeem.com/hdVbU_tpl1