Septuagesima
Dear friends in Christ. Today we begin the short, 3 week season of the Church Year of Pre-Lent. This is more than a bridge between the joy of Christmas and Epiphany and the penitential sorrow of Lent. Pre-Lent is season of its own right. In it we prepare our hearts for the spiritual rigors of Lent but also for the joy of Easter. The names of these 3 Sundays are all Latin names and serve as “signposts” along the way to Easter telling us about how long it is until Easter. Today is named “Septuagesima” which means there are about 70 days until Easter; next week “Sexagesima”, about 60 until Easter; the final Sunday “Quinquagesima”, 50 days until Easter. Long story short, we are always pointed to Easter. Lent serves a glorious purpose but it is not an end; it is a means to an end—confession is valuable because of the Absolution/ forgiveness.
We hear St. Paul telling us in today’s Epistle [1 Corinthians 9.24-10.5]: Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may obtain it. And everyone who competes for the prize is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a perishable crown, but we for an imperishable crown. Here the Apostle strikes a note that rings and echoes through the entire season: the race with the prize before us. Not only does that apply to the season of Pre-Lent, but throughout our lives: run the race and run the race to win; that is, strive to, do all in your power to remain faithful to our Lord, His word and promise, to His gifts and blessings He won and now gives us.
But doesn’t this leave us scratching our heads a bit? Isn’t it works, my works, that I run the race in such a way to win the prize? If I run the race of faith and life, am I not the one working and keeping myself in the faith? Therefore, don’t I get some credit, at least, for keeping myself in the faith? Isn’t there something to my credit or in it for me that I am and remain a Christian? Or, in the words of St. Peter right before our text that prompted the Lord to tell this parable [Matthew 19.27]: See, we have left all and followed You. Therefore what shall we have?
As we examine our text this morning, which serves as part of Jesus’ response to Peter’s question, we will see that when it comes to Christ and His kingdom there is nothing but pure grace; we are the recipients of our Lord’s grace and it is by His grace alone that we are in His kingdom, the Church, receiving all His blessings and benefits both now and forever.
1. As Jesus tells this parable He makes it absolutely clear and certain that it is all by grace that we are and remain in His kingdom, the Church, both here on earth and in heaven. Our text: "For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. Now when he had agreed with the laborers for a denarius a day, he sent them into his vineyard. And he went out about the third hour and saw others standing idle in the marketplace, and said to them, 'You also go into the vineyard, and whatever is right I will give you.' So they went. Again he went out about the sixth and the ninth hour, and did likewise. And about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing idle, and said to them, 'Why have you been standing here idle all day?' They said to him, 'Because no one hired us'.
When in the parables we hear Jesus use the phrase the kingdom of heaven is like, He is describing the Church. Here it is very clear that the only reason, the very fact that we are in the Church, one of His dear Christians is by His grace alone. Maybe some would say that the workers the landowner first hired were the “cream of the crop”; after all they were in the marketplace early thus they must have been industrious; they were probably the best and strongest looking and so hired first. In short, there must have been some good quality or trait that caused the landowner to hire them—and so they apply that spiritually: there has to be some good quality in us that makes God choose us rather than someone else to be His Christian. Or to put it differently: people think that it is not by God’s grace alone that we are Christians.
What about the rest? The owner of the vineyard goes out at 9 AM, noon, 3 PM and even 5 PM and finds other workers standing idle in the marketplace because no one else would hire them. Certainly these cannot be considered the “cream of the crop”. They would have been passed over by how many other bosses? Who knows—maybe they didn’t wake up until late to stand in the marketplace; certainly they wouldn’t be the industrious ones. But what do we hear in our Lord’s parable? 'You also go into the vineyard, and whatever is right you will receive.'
The point is this: the grace of that landowner wanting to give work to those who needed it. The point of comparison? God’s grace to us sinners in calling us into His Church, into His vineyard, His kingdom, to receive all His heavenly gifts and blessings. None of us deserves to be called into and made a part of Christ’s kingdom; none of us deserve these gifts and blessings Christ pours out on us in His Church. All of us are by nature—as we are conceived and born into this world—sinners and enemies of God. We are standing here idle all day; that is, there is nothing that makes us worthy or more deserving than someone else of God’s favor and blessing.
What is it that we pray in the collect today? –we are justly punished for our offenses. What does David say in the psalm [Psalm 14. 2,3]? The Lord looks down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there are any who understand, who seek God. They have all turned aside, they have together become corrupt; there is none who does good, no, not one. What does the Apostle [Romans 3.23; Ephesians 2.1] write? — For there is no difference; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God; andYou were dead in your transgressions and sins. The point is clear: all of us are spiritually standing idle in the market-place with nothing to offer the Lord spiritually; none of us deserve anything good from the Lord, but He comes and calls us into His vineyard, into His kingdom—that’s grace!
Let us not forget Who is doing the work—the Lord! He seeks us. We don’t out of the love and purity of our hearts seek Him; we can’t “decide” to follow Jesus. Again, note the beginning of our Lord’s parable: For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. The landowner goes out! He takes the initiative to get the workers into his vineyard. What a glorious picture of how we are brought into Christ’s kingdom, the Church! Scripture is clear. Jesus says [John 14.6; John 6.44]: No one comes to the Father but by Me; and earlier He says: No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws Him. Left to ourselves and our own devices we would just stand idle in the marketplace, that is, outside of Christ’s kingdom. To us our Lord says: 'You also go into the vineyard’. He says this as through His word and Holy Baptism He calls us to faith and by His Holy Spirit at work in the word and baptism He works faith in our hearts—faith that says “yea and amen” to the promises of God; faith through which we become part of Christ’s kingdom, the Church, and recipients of all His gifts and blessings.
That we are Christians is all due to the gracious work of the holy Triune God, and it is grounded in His grace. 'Why have you been standing here idle all day?' They said to him, 'Because no one hired us.' He said to them, 'You also go into the vineyard'. Hiring the ones for that last hour would be considered an act of charity ensuring that they would eat that day. Here again we see: it is not our merit that moves God’s grace but our need; grace is God’s answer to our dire spiritual necessity.
When it comes to Christ and His kingdom, to us being Christians and enduring in the faith, it is nothing but God’s pure grace.
2. If our Lord had stopped His parable here, it would have been a very glorious teaching on His grace. But our Lord continues this parable, anticipating the Lutherans asking: What does this mean? What does it mean that our salvation is all due to the grace of God? Here is where the great divide comes in: the preaching of the grace of God is a sharp rebuke to the proud and self-righteous, but the sweetest message to the poor, repentant sinner.
So when evening had come, the owner of the vineyard said to his steward, 'Call the laborers and give them their wages, beginning with the last to the first.' And when those came who were hired about the eleventh hour, they each received a denarius. But when the first came, they supposed that they would receive more; and they likewise received each a denarius. And when they had received it, they began murmuring against the landowner, saying, 'These last men have worked only one hour, and you made them equal to us who have borne the burden and the heat of the day.' But he answered one of them and said, 'Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius? Take what is yours and go your way. I wish to give to this last man the same as to you. Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with my own things? Or are you jealous because I am generous?' So the last will be first, and the first last.
All the workers received the same wage. The ones who worked for an hour got a denarius, a day’s wage. The ones who worked from early in the day thought they would get more. But they too got the same. They drew a false conclusion from the owner’s generosity. They were proud of their work, thought themselves better than the others and held these late comers in contempt.
The warning for us, dear Christian, is clear. Because of our old sinful nature we can easily fall into self-righteousness. It is a trap that Satan easily uses in Christians: he uses our faith and the resulting good works against us. He leads us to think that somehow we are better and more deserving than others of God’s favor and blessing. The call for us today is clear: let us examine our hearts and lives to see if there is any self-righteousness and pride in ourselves. This is vital as we prepare for Lent and Easter. We must recognize ourselves as the lost condemned sinners we are—but for the grace of God who does not give us what we deserve but sought us out for His kingdom, and called us to faith and by His Holy Spirit in word and Sacrament worked faith in our hearts to receive all His heavenly and spiritual gifts in Christ. Simply put, for the proud and self-righteous God’s grace is offensive. And when it comes down to it, they are unthankful to the Lord for it—they think they earned by their works, their virtue, their being better than others, God’s favor and blessing. Again, let us examine our hearts and lives and root out any self-righteousness we may find there. Our life of good works, our self-discipline, especially during Lent, must not breed self-righteousness but humility and joy in bearing/ in living the Christian life/ in running the race.
But what great joy and comfort God’s grace is to the repentant sinner! The repentant sinner—the one who holds up his/her life to the mirror of God’s holy Law, sees all his/her sin, feels God’s wrath and condemnation for those sins, who longs for a Savior from that sin—that one clings solely to the grace of God in Christ. Here is the certainty of forgiveness! We know by the holy Law of God that we are the Last, that is, that we are lost, condemned sinners; but we also hear the saving word of God/ pronouncement of forgiveness of sins in Christ—and we rejoice that in word and sacrament the Lord has called us. In Spirit-worked faith we know and are assured and hold to God’s promise not to deal with us as we deserve but in grace. In grace that the Father sent His Son to be our Savior from sin; in grace that the Son earned and won for us by His holy life and innocent suffering and death and announced by His resurrection; in grace that the Holy Spirit in word and sacrament brings us all these heavenly and spiritual blessings.
May we use this upcoming Lenten season rightly to recognize our sin, lest in pride and self-righteousness we insist on what we think we earned by our virtues and works and so lose God’s grace and receive judgment. In Christ’s kingdom there’s nothing but grace! What joyous news for us sinners! INJ Amen.