Matthew 19:30—20:16
The Rev. Dr. Robert S. Langworthy, preaching
January 11, 2026
The Bible tells us to trust God. But we can only trust God if we can believe He’ll treat us fairly.
We might well wonder whether we can. For there is little justice in this world that belongs to God, and many in it who suffer unfair treatment.
This parable whose Landowner clearly symbolizes God doesn’t help matters. For it initially looks like the Owner acted unfairly because He paid those who had, working from dawn to dusk, “borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat” the same as He paid those who worked a far shorter time in the cooler weather of early evening. Is it not unfair that those who worked longer and harder got no more than those who worked less hours and under less stressful conditions?
When the first hired “grumbled against the landowner”, charging Him with shorting them and making the last hired “equal to us”, as the complainers put it, the Owner insisted He’d done them no wrong. For He’d paid them “the usual daily wage”, the going rate to which they had just that morning agreed was a fair amount of pay. What had changed since then? Had they worked any harder or longer as a result of the hiring of the late arrivers? Or had their work increased the value of their own work? And why would gratuitous generosity to others make their previously fair deal unfair?
In responding to the complaint of the first hired, the Owner reminded them that no part of His money “belongs” to them except what He’d promised them, and He had completely fulfilled that promise. Therefore, they had no right to any of the rest of His money. It’s entirely His own and He may dole it out however He wants. “Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me?” He asked them. It is in fact, He told them, no business of theirs if “I choose to give to this last the same as I give to you” – that is, treat them “better than fair”. His gratuitous, unmerited generosity didn’t deprive the first hired of anything they had a right to, and didn’t (for all it upset them) diminish their take for the day.
And, did it ever occur to them that it also didn’t deny them the chance of getting “better than fair” themselves?
It is worth noting that, though the first hired complained about not getting more, they never asked for more. They focused, not on their getting more, but on others getting as much as they – as if they were “equal to us”. They saw themselves as the more deserving and wanted the position of privilege and advantage. Their attitude was anything but that of Jesus’ obedient disciples whom, in Luke’s Gospel, Jesus praised for their saying, “We are but worthless servants who have only done what we ought to have done.”
The first hired appeared to want only what in their eyes they deserved. But in fact they’d already gotten everything they deserved. But that didn’t mean that they couldn’t, like the last hired, get better than they deserved. They could have gotten it if they had merely humbled themselves and asked for what they had no right to, but might hope to get, not because of their meriting it, but because of their believing in the possibility of extraordinary goodness!
Sure, the first hired wanted to get all they thought they deserved; but they also wanted everyone to get only what they deserved. Yet, the Owner of the earth and all who live in it is a God of grace; and in His grace He seeks to be extravagantly generous to anyone willing to accept a gratuitous, undeserved gift – a gift given, not on the basis of how long and hard someone has worked, but entirely on the basis of how big and loving the Owner’s heart is.
It is significant that the final question the Owner put to His disgruntled workers was, “Are you envious because I am generous?” In other words, were they thinking that there is only so much grace to go around and that, if someone else gets better than fair, it will create a scarcity of it for everyone else and lower their chances of getting as much?
Grace comes, not from a quality in the character or conduct of a human being, but from a quality in the heart of a loving God with infinite resources. Thus, there can be no scarcity but only an endless abundance of generosity. There’s no limit to how much grace anyone may have or how many may have it. That’s why the last hired got grace and why the first hired could have gotten it as well – had they not held out for getting what they thought they deserved. Their demanding fairness caused them to miss out on getting better than fair.
It’s no accident that Jesus bookended this parable with mirrored expressions of a single truth. He led into the parable by saying, “Many who are first will be last, and the last will be first,” and moved on from the parable by repeating its message in reverse, saying, “The last will be first, and the first will be last.”
I love God for His “unfairness”. He offers everyone better than fair, whether they’re first or last by any measurement, including that of moral or spiritual achievement. Gratuitous and thus boundless goodness is there for all if only we’re humble enough to admit we have no right to claim anything from God and still hopeful enough to believe we’re right to expect everything from God thanks to His great gracious generosity.
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