What Would Jesus Do? - Week Five: Radical Grace

 What Would Jesus Do? Reclaiming a Christ-centered Faith 

This series will help us rediscover what it means to follow Jesus—not the Jesus we’ve created in our image, but the Jesus revealed in Scripture. 

Today we’re going to study a strange parable Jesus told that reflects God's unfair grace.  

“That’s Not Fair!”  - The phrase every parent loves to hear… 

Kids are all about fairness, at least as it relates to them.  Siblings will use this phrase ad nauseam if they think they're being treated differently.  

I used to be pretty cold-blooded with my kids when they let loose with "That's not fair!"  I'd tell them, "The fair only comes to town once a year."  And then I'd follow up with a solid "life's not fair, get used to it."  

Admittedly, that was kind of harsh.  True, but harsh.  

It doesn't really go away, though, the whole "That's not fair" thing.  We get older, and we don't say it as much, but we still feel it.  

What’s behind our issue over fairness?  

We don’t see the whole picture.  When we're dealing with our kids, and they're spouting off about fairness, we know better.  We can see the whole picture.  

We know there were plenty of moments when we made decisions about our kids that favored the one standing in front of us, and the other grieved that things weren't fair right now.  

We know that we want all our kids to thrive, and everything we do is an attempt to make that into a reality for all of them.  Sometimes, the decisions we make might seem unfair to them, but we're playing the long game.  We see the whole picture.  

Not surprisingly, Jesus taught that God does the same.  In fact, God's radical grace to us is an unfair kind of grace, and thank God it is, because if it were fair, most of us wouldn't receive it.  

So today we're asking "What would Jesus do?" when it comes to showing grace. 

JESUS WOULD ALWAYS CHOOSE GRACE OVER FAIRNESS

Matthew 20:1-16

“For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. 2 After agreeing with the laborers for a denarius for the day, he sent them into his vineyard. 

• The characters in the parable are not too hard to identify.  

The landowner is obviously God; the laborers are those who do God's work.  Matthew is speaking to a Jewish Christian audience, so this shouldn't be interpreted as Jews vs. Christians as it has in the past.  If anything, this is for early Christians and later converts. 

• This story is about God’s radical grace, and how it extends to all.  

As we will see, the way the landowner operates doesn't make a lot of sense in the world's economy, but in the economy of God's kingdom is a way of being.  

• The denarius—a day’s wage.  What you need to survive.  

This would have been enough to feed a family for one day.  It was subsistence living, but it was enough.  

3 When he went out about nine o’clock, he saw others standing idle in the marketplace, 4 and he said to them, ‘You also go into the vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.’ So they went. 5 When he went out again about noon and about three o’clock, he did the same. 6 And about five o’clock he went out and found others standing around, and he said to them, ‘Why are you standing here idle all day?’ 7 They said to him, ‘Because no one has hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You also go into the vineyard.’ 8 When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his manager, ‘Call the laborers and give them their pay, beginning with the last and then going to the first.’ 9 When those hired about five o’clock came, each of them received a denarius. 10 Now when the first came, they thought they would receive more; but each of them also received a denarius. 11 And when they received it, they grumbled against the landowner, 12 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.’ 13 But he replied to one of them, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong; did you not agree with me for a denarius? 14 Take what belongs to you and go; I choose to give to this last the same as I give to you. 15 Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or are you envious because I am generous?’ 

• The landowner cares more about people surviving than about fairness. 

The story shows how the landowner seeks out those without work to give them a chance to live.  

• The story's unfairness doesn’t sit well with us.  

We have the benefit of historical and literary distance, so we kind of get the point, but if we moved this story into our own reality, we'd be ticked off if we worked all day long and got the same wage as someone who worked for an hour.  

16 So the last will be first, and the first will be last.”

The last shall be first, and the first shall be last.  An upside-down way of seeing the world.  Radical grace is unfair.  

Jesus wants his followers to know that God's grace doesn't operate the way we think it should.  It's not about what we do; it's about who God is.  

So let me bring this parable into our time and space.  

Let's say that you are working on a project at work with a team.  One member of your team shows up late every other day.  They don't pull their weight on the project.  They seem to spend more time on their phone than actually working.  You have to pick up their slack and shoulder most of the burden of getting the project done.  They contribute very little to the project, but when it's done, and your boss comes in to congratulate the team, they single out that feckless co-worker, tell them what an amazing job they did, and gush on and on about what an asset to the company they are.   

Let's apply that same kind of thing to a spouse or partner who becomes withdrawn, and isn't fully participating in your relationship or the life of your family.  They spend more time watching TV or sleeping than helping you take care of the kids, make dinner, and keep the house going... 

You see an unhoused person standing at an intersection panhandling for money, and you begin to feel uncomfortable as your car inches toward them.  You don't feel like rolling down your window and giving them something, and you start to resent the people in front of you who hand them some money.   "They should get a job," you mutter.  "No one is handing me money; I have to work for it."

At some point, in the middle of it all, you could easily begin to say to God, "That's not fair!"  And you would be right.  

The fact is, we don't see the whole picture, so it's easy for us to dwell on fairness.  

Some Questions

• How do we practice unfair grace in the workplace?

What about our co-worker who didn't contribute to our project and still got the praise?  You could look at them and think they are lazy, self-absorbed, and unworthy.  But maybe if you practiced radical grace and sat down with them, you would discover that they are a single mom with three kids who went through a painful divorce, and is also caring for her mother who has dementia.  Radical grace means listening, caring, being present, setting aside petty jealousies to hear someone's story.  

• How do we practice unfair grace in our relationships?

Instead of growing bitter over a spouse who seems disconnected, you show radical grace and lovingly work to find out that they are struggling with depression, and were afraid to talk about it.  

Radical grace in our relationships means leading with love, living heart-forward, and being willing to be a non-anxious presence to a loved one who needs a safe place to be. 

• How do we practice unfair grace in our faith community?

We see the unhoused person, and we find a way to look past all our judgements and uneasiness and see a person in need.  We practice radical grace, give them something to help, and maybe we find a way to learn their name, hear their story, or simply give them a blessing and tell them they are loved by God.  

And we live that way in our community of faith--showing radical grace to each other. 

We assume the best of one another.  We do everything we can to seek out those in need of radical grace, and we offer it in whatever ways we can.  We do our best to love God, Love Everybody as a community, even when we may disagree with others, and they with us.  

This doesn't always work out neatly.  Sometimes that co-worker really is lazy.  Your partner just might be a selfish jerk. The unhoused person could turn out to be aggressive and nasty.  

But we are called to show radical grace anyway.  Because the same radical grace is often what we have received.  

What Would Jesus Do? - Trust that even when things are unfair, God sees the whole picture—so practice unfair grace.  

JESUS WOULD ALWAYS CHOOSE GRACE OVER FAIRNESS