Grumbling or Thanksgiving?

Are we characterized by thankfulness? This parable about the workers in God’s vineyard challenges us to examine our hearts and see whether we are prone to thanksgiving or grumbling.

By nature, an unbeliever is characterized by unthankfulness, as Paul states in Romans 1:21. Such a person is always praising himself at every opportunity. He takes credit for everything he does and treats God with contempt. But a believer in God is supposed to be thankful. The New Testament has much to say about it, teaching that a believer is bound to thank the Lord. He is to thank God the Father, because he is the One who planned our salvation from all eternity. Many people do not recognize that because they do not understand theology, but it is the duty of a believer to thank God the Father always for all things, because a believer knows all things work together for good for those who love God and who are called according to his purpose. A believer is to thank God the Father through Jesus Christ because you cannot thank God the Father unless you understand the person and work of Jesus Christ, that eternal God became man, that he who knew no sin became sin for us and died on the cross in our behalf. When we think of this, we consider thanking God always as our most important duty.

Historical Context

There are a few parables in the Bible that are very difficult to interpret. The parable of the shrewd manager is one, and this parable of the laborers in the vineyard is another

What is the context of this parable? It is given as an illustration of a principle Jesus Christ gave in the previous section, in which Jesus dealt with the rich young ruler who wanted to do something to inherit eternal life.He was told to go and sell all his possessions, give to the poor and follow Christ. If he did so, he would have treasure in heaven, meaning eternal life. The young man refused to do so, revealing that he loved money more than God. In his heart he was really a materialist, an idolater, and a hater of God.

The disciples, who thought that riches demonstrated God’s blessing, and that if anyone were going to heaven, it would be the rich, were shocked when Jesus continued, saying, “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.” In desperation they asked, “Who then can be saved?” That was a good question, and the answer is no one. No one! It is impossible for man to be saved unless God causes it to happen by causing that individual to be born again. What is impossible with man is possible with God.

When Peter saw the rich young man refuse to follow Christ, he felt very proud and happy, having left his fishing business to follow Jesus. He said, “We have left everything to follow you! What then will there be for us?” Being very gracious, Jesus Christ, did not shame or rebuke him for his pride and lack of understanding. Rather, he assured the disciples they would become rulers in the kingdom of God, and also receive one hundredfold houses, lands, brothers, sisters, fathers, mothers and children, in this life, with persecution. He was referring to the great fellowship believers have in the church of Jesus Christ.

But then in Matthew 19:30 Jesus gave this warning: “But many who are first will be last, and many who are last will be first.” We find that statement again in Matthew 20:16: “So, the last will be first, and the first will be last.” This tells us that the parable of the laborers in the vineyard is an illustration of the principle he announced in Matthew 19:30. We also know that this parable is a continuation of the previous discussion because the first word is “for,” which connects it with the previous section. The parable itself is very simple, except for certain atypical elements in it.

The Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard

Jesus said that the owner of a vineyard, the oikodespotes in Greek, went out early one morning and hired workers to work in his vineyard for one denarius each. One denarius was the wage of a soldier or a laborer for a day. The owner then went out again at three-hour intervals, hiring more workers each time.

Then Jesus introduced an atypical element. He said that when the owner went out at the eleventh hour, which was almost the end of the usual work day, he saw people standing around idly in the marketplace. He asked them, “Why have you been standing here all day long doing nothing?” and they replied, “Because no one has hired us.” This is an important exchange. God is speaking here about grace. In those days, if a laborer did not get a job for a day, his whole family went without food. So out of great mercy, out of grace, this owner said, “You also go and work in my vineyard.” He did not tell them anything about pay, but these last ones went out to work at once, trusting the landowner to do what was right.

When evening came, it was time to pay the workers. Deuteronomy 24:14-15 speaks of this obligation of an employer: “Do not take advantage of a hired man who is poor and needy, whether he is a brother Israelite or an alien living in one of your towns. Pay him his wages each day before sunset, because he is poor and is counting on it. Otherwise, he may cry to the Lord against you, and you will be guilty of sin.” So at the end of the workday, twelve hours for some, the workers came for their wages. Here we see another atypical element. Despite the fact that they had probably worked less than one hour, the last hired were the first to be called.

These workers probably expected to receive one-twelfth of a denarius for their hour’s work. To them, that would have been fair. The only problem was that one could not support a family with that. But to their astonishment, they received one day’s wages–one denarius. I am sure these workers were surprised. You see, they were not really fit for work, and that was why no one had hired them originally. But now, to everyone’s surprise, each was given one denarius.

Thanksgiving and gratitude welled up in their hearts. They were appreciative of this master who apparently was not concerned about making a profit. In this parable we are being taught a lesson about God, who looks upon us in mercy and grace. This is not talking about wages and work and merit. Everything is mercy.

Imagine the joy of these poor people! I am sure they ran all the way home, and exclaimed, “We are going to eat! We are going to have plenty today because of this man. We were waiting there all day and no one gave us a job, but this man came looking for us at the wrong time–at five o’clock–and hired us to work in his vineyard, and gave a full day’s wages!” That is thanksgiving and praising God. That is loving the oikodespotes, the house master.

This owner had deliberately devised this way of payment so that those hired first could learn how much those hired last had received. If he had given payment to those hired first, they would have gone away without any problem, but God wanted to reveal their true heart attitude. When those hired first found out that the people who only worked one hour received one denarius each, they figured in their heads that they should receive twelve times as much. That is false theology but that is how people think. So they came expectantly to the owner. What did each one receive? One denarius.

Their faces fell. There was grumbling and murmuring, and in the Greek the word for murmuring is in the imperfect tense, which means they kept on murmuring in their hearts. Finally they spoke against the owner. This was supposed to be a time of thanksgiving, but instead of thanking the owner and God, these workers were angry, unhappy, complaining, and murmuring. They were filled with envy as well as hatred for this master.

The master’s reply was simply this: “Don’t I have the right to do what I want with my own money?” He asserted his sovereignty and freedom to do what he wanted to do. These people could not control him, nor could they tell him what to do. In the same way, we need to understand who God, who is represented by the vineyard owner, is.

All Is of Grace

What can we learn from this parable? Those who were hired first had worked all day. They were angry that those who were hired last received the same reward. But the first lesson we need to learn is that salvation is by grace, and serving is by grace. No one serves God unless he or she is saved, and we can do nothing to merit that salvation. The problem of the rich young ruler was that he wanted to do something to earn his salvation. We need to understand that if one is a Christian, he or she was saved by grace, meaning on the basis of what God has done in Jesus Christ, not on the basis of what that person has done. If God dealt with us on the basis of what we had done, we would have been sent to hell. We merited the wrath of God, but God saved us by his grace. We need to appreciate that grace.

In Genesis 1 and 2 you read about the covenant of works. If Adam had obeyed, he would have lived, but he failed to obey, and so sin and death entered the world. In Genesis 3 we are told about the covenant of grace, from which eternal life comes to us on the basis of the seed of the woman, who is Jesus Christ. May we never forget that we are under this covenant of grace!

We need to always remember that all are God’s creatures and therefore all are owned by God. The Creator God owes his creatures nothing, yet all creatures owe God everything. No sinful creature can serve God acceptably until he or she is saved from God’s wrath against human sin. We may boast about our accomplishments, that we did this or that, but we need to remember that we live and move and have our being in God, and are ever-sustained by his grace. Christ died for our sins and was raised for our justification. The spiritually dead now are made alive. Read Ephesians 2:1-10. It tells us how God quickened us, raised us up, made us alive, saved us to be his workmanship to do good works. PGM To entertain the idea that somehow we did something and God owes us something is foolish. God enables us moment by moment to do good works. It is he who causes us to will and to act according to his good purpose. It is the Holy Spirit who continually energizes us. We can never claim credit for that we have done. It was God himself doing it all through us. The Bible says we were bought with a price, the death of Jesus Christ himself. We are not our own. We are redeemed by the Redeemer, Christ, and belong to God. We owe God everything, and should be thankful to God for everything. Even unbeliever owes God everything, but because he is an unbeliever, he responds to God in hatred and enmity.

So the first lesson we need to learn is that all that we are and all that we do is on the basis of grace and mercy. Do not ever think that we are just hired hands who worked hard, with our own strength, and that therefore God owes us something, especially more than others.

God Makes No Distinctions

Secondly, we need to learn that, like those hired first, we like to make distinctions among people, even in the church, but God does not. Can you imagine a society without distinctions? We naturally desire distinctions, but that is not the way God operates in his kingdom.

Why do we make distinctions? Primarily it is because we forget that all believers are merely sinners saved by God’s grace. Now, especially at first in our Christian lives, we appreciated grace and the fact that God chose us from all eternity, set his love upon us, and in time effectually called and saved us. We enjoyed that knowledge at first, but after a while we stopped wanting to hear about grace. We no longer want to hear that we were nothing and still are nothing, and that any good that we do is sheerly by the grace of God. Why don’t we want to hear about grace? God has blessed us with houses, families, jobs, and many other blessings, and we no longer want to hear this idea that we were sinners who had to be saved by grace. We want distinctions, even though the Bible says, “There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:22-23; see also Romans 10:12, Galatians 3:28).

Secondly, we make distinctions because believers are still sinners. We forget that we were saved by grace, like the baby girl who was thrown out and exposed, lying in her own blood and dying (Ezekiel 16). There came one who said, “Live!” and we lived, and grew in beauty and honor and he espoused us to himself. But we do not want to remember that. We do not want to remember from what quarry we were hewn (Isaiah 51). We do not want to be reminded of how far God has brought us, or in what condition he found us. No! We want to think that we have arrived. The problem is, we lose our zeal for God in the midst of his blessings. We become busy, with many things to attend to, and do not like to be reminded of the miserable, wretched condition from which God saved us. Then we make distinctions between Jews and Gentiles, rich and poor, masters and slaves, educated and uneducated, moral people and immoral people, male and female, white and black, first saved and last saved.

Thirdly, we make distinctions because we want to be first. We see this throughout the world. Wherever you go, in any culture, you will find certain distinctions. But with God these kinds of distinctions do not matter. Jesus’ family thought they were distinct because of their relationship to him, but in Mark 3:34-35 Jesus gave the perspective of the kingdom of God. “Here are my mother and my brothers! Whoever does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother,” he said to the people following him. Read Matthew 20:20-28: “Then the mother of Zebedee’s sons came to Jesus with her sons and, kneeling down, asked a favor of him.” If you read the account in Mark 10:35-45., you notice that James and John came first with the same request, but when that did not work, they had their mother come, because she was related to Jesus. What was her request? Power, position. “Grant that one of these two sons of mine may sit at your right and the other at your left in your kingdom” – the places of greatest honor. She did not realize that human distinctions simply do not work in the kingdom of God.

“Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” the disciples asked Jesus in Matthew 18:1. We are all occupied with this idea of position, power and preeminence, and I do not think the disciples ever forgot this idea. Who is going to be first? And in the passage in Mark 10, you notice that the other disciples were upset when James and John made their request. When we introduce distinctions, life is miserable.

We need to understand that the principles in the kingdom of God are exactly contrary to those of the world. In God’s kingdom, the issue is not your physical or cultural ancestry, or how much education or wealth you have accumulated. The issue is whether or not you are loving God with all your heart, mind, soul and strength. That is God’s concern. Jesus told the disciples that to be the greatest, they needed to be the servants of all. He said they had to humble themselves as little children, and in another place, that if they humbled themselves, they would be exalted. The principles of the kingdom are, “Blessed are the poor in spirit . . . Blessed are those who mourn . . . Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness. . . .Blessed are the meek . . .Blessed are those who are persecuted.” God’s principles are different from those of the world.

We Always Need God’s Grace

Thirdly, like these workers, we need to learn that we always need God’s grace. You find this illustrated in Galatians 3:1-3. The Galatians were saved by grace, but they did not want to be reminded of their origins. Paul challenged them: “You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? Before your very eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified. I would like to learn just one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit by observing the law”–that is, through work righteousness–“or by believing what you heard? Are you so foolish? After beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to obtain your goal by human effort?”

That is a problem, isn’t it? In other words, these Galatians were saying, God, we don’t need any more grace. You don’t have to hold our hands anymore–we are able to stand by ourselves. We don’t need to pray or study the Bible or receive daily grace for our lives. We did all that at first, but we are quite capable now to go along without those things. Can’t you see how well we are doing?

Have you ever read the story of Asa in 2 Chronicles 14-16? Asa started out as a good king. Like Asa, many people start out in their Christian lives realizing their weakness and depending on God. As Asa faced a vast army, he asked God for mercy and relied on God alone, and God helped him. But later Asa became strong and arrogant, and began to put God’s prophets in prison. God afflicted him, but he did not come to his senses and he died in his affliction. Have you read about Asa’s son Jehoshaphat? He also started out well, but after a while he felt very powerful and politically-wise. He made alliances with the wicked king Ahab, and God had to rebuke him for that.

This is a problem with believers. As time goes by in our Christian lives, we want distinctions, position, recognition and power. We want to remind God that we have been in the church for a long time. Not only do we no longer want grace, but we want recognition for our longevity in his kingdom. It is as if we want to achieve our salvation by our own efforts, although we started by the Spirit and by grace.

This is not correct thinking. If we are true believers, we will always have grace-consciousness in our lives. Read what Paul said in 1 Timothy 1:12-15: “I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has given me strength, that he considered me faithful, appointing me to his service. Even though I was once a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent man, I was shown mercy because I acted in ignorance and unbelief. The grace of our Lord was poured out on me abundantly, along with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. Here is a trustworthy statement that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the worst.” That is humility. That is grace. That is being last. That is being poor in spirit. That is being meek. That is hungering and thirsting after righteousness. There is no question that God will exalt Paul and and those like him, and consider them first when he comes to judge.

Reward Is Based on Grace

Fourthly, we need to see if we are grumbling. Those hired first kept on grumbling, the text says. Why? They had forgotten all about grace. They were complaining that they had worked twelve hours, borne the burden of the work, and suffered in the heat of the day. The implication was that the owner was unjust in giving them just one denarius, even though they had agreed to that wage. They thought he owed them more, and the text says they spoke against him. They were accusing this owner, who represents God, of being unjust. Then they spoke with contempt about the people who had been hired last. It is very clear in the Greek. They spoke derogatorily, “these last ones.” It was just like the brother of the prodigal son, saying, “this son of yours” about his brother when he came back. And their father corrected him: “this brother of yours.” You see, the older brother was interested more in property rather than in his brother. When you are more interested in money than in people, then you have forgotten grace.

So there was grumbling: ‘We have worked harder than anybody else. We are the superior ones. These last ones–you made them equal to us.’ Do you see the distinctions they were making? We always want distinction. But look at Luke 7, where you find a sinful woman, a town prostitute. God forgave her sin, and she came, weeping and wiping the feet of Jesus with her hair. Then she kissed them and poured perfume on them. She appreciated God’s grace. Because she was forgiven much, what did she do? She loved much.

Whenever we as Christians think that we are somehow superior, distinct, different, or prominent, then corrosion already entered into our theology. This idea of work-righteousness, this denial of grace as the basis of our life from beginning to end, causes us to grumble and murmur, and poison comes out of us. We say, “God is unfair to me. Why didn’t he give me this? Why didn’t he give me that? Why does he give this to these other people?”

But you see, those who grumbled not only forgot about grace, but they also forgot the principle laid down by Jesus Christ in Luke 17:7-10, where he spoke about an owner of a field who had a servant, a slave. This slave worked in the field all day, but when he came home, the master refused to thank him. The slave still needed to cook and feed the master. And when he had done all, Jesus said, he should say, “We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.”

We are unworthy slaves, but as slaves we should be saying, “Thank God for making us his slaves! We were slaves of Satan, as the Israelites were slaves of Pharaoh, but Satan had no interest in us. He wanted to destroy us. Praise God that we have been made the slaves of Jesus Christ! We are glad that we have life, that we are in his household and have food to eat. We are glad to have the great honor of serving this good master.” That is what you say when you are appreciative of grace.

We need to understand that biblically, reward has nothing to do with merit, but it is based on grace. In Ephesians 2 we read that we were dead, but God raised us up. God himself dwells in us and causes us to will and to do his good pleasure. God gives us his own power to do so, and whatever we do that is acceptable to God, we do by his working through us. For us to receive credit for that, therefore, is a denial of grace. The Bible does say that God will reward us, but it is purely from grace. God will reward us for enduring temptation (James 1:12). He will reward us for diligently seeking him (Hebrews 11:6) and for dying for Christ (Revelation 2:10). God will reward us for faithful pastoral work (1 Peter 5:4) and for winning souls (1 Thessalonians 2:19-20). God will reward us for acts of kindness (Galatians 6:10) and for loving his appearance (2 Timothy 4:8). So the idea of reward is in the Bible, but never think that it is because of something we did. We did act, but God worked through us, as it says in Galatians 2:20: “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.”

This Gracious God Does What He Wants

The fifth lesson we learn from this parable comes from verses 14-15. In the Greek text we read, “I will to give to this last one as much as I gave to you. It is my will, my pleasure.” In other words, this speech of the owner is an assertion of the sovereignty of God. How dare we tell him what he should do with what he has? Jesus Christ is sovereign and he does what he wants, without asking our opinion.

Look at Ephesians 1:5: “He predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will.” That is humiliating, isn’t it? Look at verse 11: “In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will. . .” We tend to think that God must consult us, asking, “You who were the first–come over here. What do you think we should give to these people who were hired last?” If God did so, what might we say? “Well, we don’t think you have to give them anything at all. They hardly worked. But if you want to give something, one-twelfth of a denarius be fine.”

Praise God that he does not consult with us! He dispenses mercy and grace according to his sovereign disposition. He does not check our books. He knows the motivations governing our works, and he knows who is first and who is last. His reckoning will be a little different from our own bookkeeping, isn’t that true? And so in Matthew 20:15 this owner said, “Don’t I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?” In other words, he is telling the church not to restrict his freedom. This is a rebuke to those who are interested in distinctions, position, power and preeminence.

Have We Forgotten God’s Grace?

In The Parables of Jesus by James Montgomery Boice, Dr. Boice tells the story about evangelist R. A. Torrey, who was preaching in Australia once. Torrey collected questions from the congregation, and in one of them a man wrote that he had been praying for a specific thing for a long time, but God was not answering. He wrote that he had been a consistent church member for thirty years, a Sunday School superintendent for twenty-five years, an elder for twenty years, and so he could not understand why God did not answer his prayer. Torrey’s answer was very simple: The man had been praying in his own name for all those years. (p. 62) In other words, he was praying on the basis of what he had done, not on the basis of what Jesus Christ had done, which is grace.

Have we forgotten grace? Have we forgotten salvation from eternal wrath? Have we forgotten the cross of Christ? Have we forgotten the quarry from which we have been hewn? Have we begun to speak like the Laodiceans, who said in Revelation 3:17, “I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.” Jesus replied to them, “You do not realize that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind and naked.”

Have we fallen from our first love for God and his church? Have we forgotten kingdom principles that tell us to humble ourselves and he will exalt us, and that if we want to be greatest, we need to be servants of all? Are we grumbling against the sovereign Lord for showing grace to others? Are we envious of them? Are we seeking praise, position and power for ourselves? Are we putting ourselves above others? We must heed this warning given to the disciples who were also afflicted with this self-centeredness. When Jesus detected it, he said, “But many who are first will be last, and many who are last will be first. ” He didn’t say all, but he did say many.

All who are saved are given one denarius. My interpretation is that the one denarius stands for grace in Christ. The reward is Christ. The reward is the Holy Spirit. The reward is God. What more can you have? In Genesis 15:1 God said to Abraham, “Do not be afraid. . . I am your shield, your very great reward.”

The reward was one denarius. The problem is that sinful people cannot appreciate that one denarius, which is inexhaustible. Those who forget the basis of grace cannot appreciate grace. Those who are self-centered will starve to death in the midst of plenty. They will murmur and complain and treat others with contempt. They will even speak against God, against his justice, sovereignty, goodness and freedom. By their behavior they will prove themselves to be the last or, even worse, outside of the kingdom of God.

Who, then, are the first? We read about them in Matthew 25, beginning with verse 34: “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.'” That shows a lot of service. But read what the righteous say: “Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?” They had done all these things, but they themselves had no consciousness of the good things they had done. They did not even write it in the book. They understood that they did it all by grace. Then it says, “The King will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for the least of one of these brothers of mine, you did for me,'” and they were given eternal life.

Let us live by grace. Let us not grumble or complain, but rather be filled with thanksgiving for this great salvation we have been given, and joyfully serve our good and gracious Master.