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The Sermon for Sunday, September 20th, 2026, the Sixteenth Sunday after Trinity
The Lessons: Jonah 3:10 – 4:11; Psalm 145:14-21; Philippians 1:21-27; Matthew 20:1-16
The Text: Matthew 20:1-16
INTRODUCTION
When the telegraph was the fastest means of long-distance communication, a young man applied for a job as a Morse code operator. Answering an ad in the newspaper, he went to the address that was listed. When he arrived, he entered a large, noisy office. In the background a telegraph clacked away. A sign on the receptionist’s counter instructed job applicants to fill out a form and wait until they were summoned to enter the inner office.
The young man completed his form and sat down with seven other applicants. After a few minutes, the young man stood up, crossed the room to the door of the inner office, and walked right in. The other applicants perked up, wondering what was going on. Why had this man been so bold? They muttered among themselves that they hadn’t heard any summons yet. They took more than a little satisfaction in assuming the young man who went into the office would be reprimanded for his presumption and summarily disqualified for the job.
Within a few minutes the young man emerged from the inner office escorted by the interviewer, who announced to the other applicants, “Gentlemen, thank you very much for coming, but the job has been filled by this young man.”
The other applicants began grumbling. Then one spoke up saying, “Wait a minute — I don’t understand something. He was the last one to come in, and we never even got a chance to be interviewed. Yet he got the job. That’s not fair.”
The employer said, “I’m sorry, but all the time you’ve been sitting here, the telegraph has been ticking out the following message in Morse code: ‘If you understand this message, then come right in. The job is yours.’ None of you heard it or understood it. This young man did. So, the job is his.”
God uses many means to demonstrate his care — not only through his Word, his Spirit, and the ministry of Christian friends, but also through more unconventional methods — like burning bushes, talking donkeys, hungry creatures of the sea, visiting angels, or a bright star in the darkened sky. We need only to be alert to these signs.[1]
THE PARABLE OF THE WORKERS IN THE VINEYARD
One of the important ways in which God speaks to us is through the parables of the Lord Jesus Christ. Today’s Gospel Lesson, the Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard, is one of these parables. It appears puzzling at first, until we realize that the Lord is teaching spiritual truths about his kingdom through it. In Jewish parables, the householder generally represents God, and this is the main key to interpreting this parable. The householder goes out into the marketplace at various times in the day to hire laborers to work in his vineyard. The denarius on which each of the laborers agreed was the pay for one day of work by a laborer. Normally, the owner of the vineyard would not have gone out later in the day to find workers, since he would want workers to work for a whole day, but this might have been an abundant harvest needing many laborers to harvest it. Also, the parable represents the spiritual reality of work to bring in an abundant harvest of souls. More laborers are needed to gather in the harvest, the nearer the dawn of God’s kingdom approaches. Laborers are hired not only early in the morning, but at the third, sixth, the ninth, and the eleventh hours. At these times, the householder agrees to pay each laborer “whatever is right” (Matthew 20:4 & 7), which turns out to be a denarius.
When the end of the day comes, all the laborers are paid a denarius each, even those who only worked for three hours or one hour. In today’s world, this would look like unfair pay, since some worked longer than others. This parable, however, does not really deal with ordinary work for which laborers are paid by the hour. The parable shows the generosity of God in giving to some more than others for the work they have done for his kingdom. The intention of God and his discernment of evil thinking is revealed in this quotation:
But he answered one of them, and said, Friend, I do thee no wrong: didst not thou agree with me for a penny? Take that thine is, and go thy way: I will give unto this last, even as unto thee. Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine own? Is thine eye evil, because I am good?
(Matthew 20:13-15, KJV)
The wage was agreed upon, but to those who worked the least amount of time, God still chose to give more, in the sense of the full wage for less work. After this, Jesus adds his saying, “So the last shall be first, and the first last: for many be called, but few chosen” Matthew 20:16, KJV). We cannot translate earthly values of time and money in assessing the value of anyone’s work in God’s kingdom. For example, those who have worked many years laboring in God’s kingdom, doing the work He has called them to do, must not expect more rewards in God’s kingdom than those who only started doing God’s will in his kingdom in the last few years of their life. God calls people to work in his kingdom at different stages of life, and they answer at different stages of life. We must be thankful to be in God’s kingdom and doing his work. It is not for us to turn “an evil eye” on Christians who come late into God’s kingdom to fulfill the ministries to which God has called them. For all we know, those who come “last” into God’s kingdom may have more work to do to bring in the spiritual harvest than those who answered the call earlier in life. In God’s kingdom, there is a divine rehearsal. Those who have high status in this world or even in the visible Church now, will be found to be quite unimportant in God’s eternal kingdom, whereas some of those who are poor and have low status in this life will be found to have a high position or status in the age to come.
AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO’S INTERPRETATION OF THE DENARIUS AS ETERNAL LIFE AND THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN
St. Augustine of Hippo interpreted the denarius, the day’s wage paid to each laborer as God’s gift of eternal life to all, the gift of the kingdom of heaven, and the “many mansions” of John 14:2 as the different degrees of honor believers will receive in God’s kingdom.[2]
We ourselves do not know, and cannot now judge, who will receive greater honor in heaven, for this is the mystery of God’s great reversal expressed in Matthew 20:16.
CONCLUSION
How, then, are we to view those in positions of prominence in the world and in the Church militant here on earth?
Firstly, we must shun bad examples and follow good examples of living the Christian life.
Secondly, we must not be jealous of church leaders or others’ high status or position in life, for we do not know whether they will ultimately be in God’s kingdom, or if they are, what degree of honor they will hold.
Thirdly, we must continue laboring in the ministries God has given us to fulfill, believing that we will receive our reward from God in the end, no matter if we have served God from childhood or have come later into his kingdom and answered his call. St. Paul exhorts us in these words at the end of his great chapter on the resurrection:
Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.
(1 Corinthians 15:58, KJV)
Fourthly, we must expect the first to be last, and the last to be first in God’s kingdom, for God’s thoughts and purposes are higher than ours and all his wisdom and knowledge far beyond our comprehension.
[1] p. 351, p. 159, Craig Brian Larson & Phyllis Ten Elshof (General Editors): 1001 Illustrations that Connect. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan, Christianity Today International, 2008.
[2] Par. 26, Augustine of Hippo, De Virginitate