The Blessed Unfairness: Matthew 20:1-16 - Second Sunday in Lent

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I believe in fairness. I expect others to be fair in their dealings with me, and you’d better believe I demand fairness for the people I care about.

But being fair is a pain in the neck. You will notice if you raised children, or you work in education or some other job in which you’re dealing with the public. 

Fairness is something that is subject to the interpretation of the individual. A person’s idea of fairness is always going to be biased towards their own interests.

That means that You can bend over backwards, trying to be fair with everyone, and yet people will still accuse you of being unfair. And as you try to please them, are you being fair to yourself?

Consider how many accusations of unfairness could be made in the Parable of the Laborers in the Vineyard…

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It begins at dawn, with a landowner visiting the parking lot at Home Depot to hire laborers to work in his vineyard. Their wage will be one denarius, which was the standard for a day’s work. This is about $100 in today’s money. The landowner goes back at 9:00 and sees other laborers waiting for work, and he hires them too. He hires even more workers at noon, 3:00, and even 5:00. At sundown, the landowner instructs his manager to pay the laborers, starting with those who were hired last. Each worker receives one denarius—whether they’d worked one hour, three, six, nine, or twelve. 

Naturally, those who’d worked the whole day were angry with the landowner. If I were in their situation, I would be as well. It had to have been dreadful, waking up every day at the crack of dawn in hopes that someone would hire you for a wage that would barely support you and your family—only to see someone else getting equal pay for unequal work.

I will not condemn these workers for their actions, because their frustration with the landowner was born out of the fact that they were in need. No one who’s willing to work hard should have to wait around every day for work that doesn’t pay a living wage. If human beings were fair towards one another, poverty would not exist. 

But what about the landowner? What’s fair to him? He wasn’t dishonest with any of the laborers he hired. In fact, he cared about his workers—that they needed a full day’s wages, and that it wasn’t their fault that they couldn’t find a day’s work but waited nearly all day to get what they could get. Is it not his right to do what he chooses with what belongs to him? Is that not also fair?

Notice how he refuses to be angry with the laborers who are angry with him. He calls them “friend.” Even though they did not realize it at the time, they were fortunate to have a friend in the landowner.

Wage theft was likely a huge problem back then, as it is today, particularly with undocumented migrant workers laboring in farms, fields, factories, and construction sites all over the world. 

What if these same laborers asked him, “can I come back and work for you tomorrow?” He would have said, “sure, see you tomorrow at dawn. And this time tomorrow, I’ll pay you a denarius.”

If it’s fairness you’re looking for, you’re not going to find it in God. What else can I say about a world so full of suffering, chaos, and evil that is ruled over by loving God? Bad things happen to good people, while others can lie, cheat, and trample their way to the top without consequences.

But remember: I am applying a human standard of fairness to God. How can I accuse God of being unfair when I don’t know everything that God has planned? 

And if God were to adopt my standards of fairness, could I be sure that God still loves me? That I’m forgiven of my sin? Would Jesus have laid down his life for a sinner like me, or would he have decided, he’s doesn’t deserve it; the world isn’t worth it. 

For all our talk about fairness, Jesus suffered the greatest possible unfairness in his death on the cross. It wasn’t God who was unfair with Jesus. It was us. Jesus was crucified by the people he came to save, which includes you and me. Jesus took all our sin upon himself and died in it. That is not fair. But if God adopted our standards of fairness, we’d all be doomed.

Thankfully, God isn’t fair. God is gracious. The Parable reveals to us a God who is gracious to those who suffer the world’s unfairness, and who is gracious towards ungrateful sinners who are not fair toward him. God has something far greater than what you’d call fairness: and that is relationship. When life is unfair, and you’re lost and unsure what to do or where to go, God shows up.

Your God goes out to those who live without purpose, without direction, without belonging, without hope, and says, “Why are you standing here idle every day?” The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Come and work in my vineyard, and I will take care of you. Be a friend to those who suffer injustice, like the landowner was. I will give you what is right. 

Even when you say, “God isn’t fair,” God still calls you friend. Yes, it is true: Life is not fair. The world is not fair. People are not fair. But my grace changes everything. Those who are last in this world will be first to know my grace. 

Amazing grace happens not when everything is right and fair, but when everything is wrong and unfair. Why wouldn’t it be that way when you’re saved by the unfairness of the cross? 

I’m sure you know plenty of people who go through things we all would agree are unfair. For you to visit those people and offer your prayers, your gifts, your listening ear—that will be a soothing balm of grace to the stinging of unfairness upon their souls. 

Fairness is good, unfairness is bad, but God is gracious. God is love. Blessed be the unfairness where God shows up, call us his friend, and gives us himself.