But Where's the Vineyard

I'd like to begin by reading the parable of the laborers in the vineyard, found in Matthew chapter 20, starting at verse 1. For the kingdom of heaven is like a householder who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. After agreeing with the laborers for a denarius a day, he sent them into his vineyard. And going out about the third hour, he saw others standing idle in the marketplace.

And to them he said, you go into the vineyard too, and whatever is right, I will give you. So they went. Going out again about the sixth hour and the ninth hour, he did the same.

And about the eleventh hour, he went out and found others standing. And he said to them, why do you stand here idle all day? They said to him, because no one has hired us. He said to them, you go into the vineyard too.

When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to the steward, call the laborers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last up to the first. And when those hired about the eleventh hour came, they each received a denarius. They'd only worked one hour and they got a denarius.

Now when the first came, they thought that they should have received more. But each of them also received a denarius. And on receiving it, they grumbled at the householder saying, these last worked only one hour.

You've made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat. But he replied to one of them, friend, I am doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius? Take what belongs to you and go.

I choose to give to this last as I give to you. Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Is your eye evil because I am good? And so the last would be first and the first last. And so the ones who were hired at the end of the day get exactly the same as the ones who were hired early in the morning and worked all day long in the scorching heat.

Not only that, but the ones who were hired at the end of the day and only worked one hour got their pay first and these other people had to wait. Because that's how it is in the kingdom of God. The last are first and the first are last and we better get used to it.

It's really not so bad because we're near the last whether we realize that or not. But the foundation of this parable is that there really are only two conditions that we can be in as human beings. We're either standing idle in the marketplace or we're working in the venue.

To be standing idle in the marketplace is to experience a foretaste of hell. You don't know where you fit, you're at loose ends, time drags, you have this underlying consciousness that your life is going to waste. And even though you're not working there in the marketplace, there is no rest.

You're never at rest inside. On the other hand, to be working in the vineyard is to be experiencing a foretaste of heaven. You've heard and responded to your calling.

You've found it. You know where you fit. Life makes sense.

You're doing something worthwhile. And even though you're working, your heart, your inmost spirit is inwardly at rest. At rest with a rest you never had when you were in the marketplace, waiting.

Of course you're going to get your denarius at the end of the day. But the real blessing is not that you're going to get paid. The real blessing is that you have found your calling and that already your spirit is experiencing heaven because you found rest.

The most blessed moment of our life is that moment when the Messiah of God breaks into our darkness, calls us by name, and says, You, come, go work in my vineyard. Now Jesus doesn't go into any details explaining how these laborers found their way from the marketplace into the vineyard. Because it was simple.

You walk down the road, turn left at the sycamore tree, and there sloping up on your right is this marvelous vineyard. As far as the eye can see, laden with grapes, ripe to be picked. But for most of us, this journey from the marketplace to the vineyard is a difficult transition.

It's like one of these dreams where you're trying to find your way home in your dream. And you're always getting sidetracked. Something always goes wrong.

You're always getting lost. I know the Lord has called me into his vineyard. But I can't seem to find it.

I just don't know where I fit. I'm not quite certain of what I'm supposed to be doing. I don't know where I belong.

Mother Teresa has found her place. Billy Graham has poured in a full day already. And here I am.

It's five o'clock in the afternoon. I can't even find the vineyard. Is it really this factory where I work? Is it really Toledo and the Boulevard? Could it possibly be this hard-hearted neighborhood where I live where nobody's thirsty for God? Lord, I want to serve you.

I'm willing to serve you. But you're going to have to show me what you want me to do. Show me what this vineyard is.

For the kingdom of heaven is like a householder who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. The vineyard is not a place. It's not a certain kind of ministry.

It's not something you have to spend half your life trying to locate. The vineyard is the kingdom. For the kingdom of heaven is like a householder.

The minute we respond to the householder, we're in his vineyard. And as long as we keep our eyes on him and listen to what he says, he guides us through exactly where he wants us to be and what he wants us to do. The issue is not, where do I belong? The issue is, where is my commitment? For the vineyard really boils down to a fourfold commitment, which can be made anywhere at all.

The vineyard is continuous commitment to the person of Jesus. The vineyard is continuous commitment to a walk of faith. The vineyard is continuous commitment to the body of Christ.

The vineyard is continuous commitment to the harvest. Commitment to Jesus, to a walk of faith, to the body of Christ, to the harvest that is never interrupted, never broken. Excuse me again.

In about the eleventh hour, he went out and found others standing and said to them, why do you stand here idle all day? There's only one hour left. And they said to him, because no one has hired us. He said to them, you go into the vineyard too.

And they went. The vineyard is continuous commitment to the person of Jesus, just to Jesus. And when they brought their boats to land, they forsook everything and followed him.

Why did they forsake everything? They forsook everything so that they wouldn't be distracted from what they knew they had to concentrate on. So they wouldn't go back and forth between Jesus and their hobby, Jesus and their ego, or even Jesus and their ministry. As the gospel of Jesus began to spread out into the Greek and Roman world after the resurrection and after Pentecost, it was exactly the same thing.

People followed Jesus by forsaking everything. Now, they didn't quit their jobs. They didn't leave their wife or their husband or their child.

They didn't move out of their house and put themselves up in a tent. But they did, in fact, so commit themselves to Jesus that it was as if they had done all those things. Jesus is my life, they would say.

And then they would back that up by drawing their life from him. They worshipped him, they loved him, they served him, and they took his word and converted that into living. They translated his word into flesh and blood living day after day in their lives.

Now, when he is absolutely number one in our lives, and that we look to him and draw our life from him and take what he tells us and convert that into living. You know, if you want something specific, you take the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5, 6, and 7, and you translate that into everyday flesh and blood living. When we're doing that, we're in the vineyard.

The Sermon on the Mount, and turn that into living. Who can live that life? And Jesus says, anybody, any man or woman, trust me, follow me in faith, and I will absolutely transform you into a new creature on this side of the grave. Which brings us to the second commitment.

Commitment to a walk of faith. Commitment to a walk of faith, which means that instead of forever hugging the shore, we now launch out into the deep, because Jesus says, launch out into the deep. You know, we're always playing it safe.

He says, come on, instead of forever staying inside the boundaries of the possible, we press on into the wilderness of the impossible, toward the promised land, because Jesus up ahead beckons us to come with him. Come on, follow me. And we do.

You know, it's a walk of faith in which I say, Lord, I trust you to be able to give me what I need to please God. That this is absolutely possible for me to live, even in this body of flesh and blood, a life that pleases God. And I will draw my strength from you so that I can live a God-pleasing life of truth and a life that's merciful.

And day after day we draw strength from him so that we can walk in truth and walk in mercy and walk in love and receive whatever we need, even the material things we need, the guidance we need, trusting him for this. Faith is being sure of things hoped for, certain of things not seen. We're sure of the kingdom and we're certain of the king.

And so now we press on behind him and push everything aside and keep going with him. You're able to do it, Lord, I trust you. This is apostolic Christianity and it's modern.

It's the life of the faith. Anything less than that is nothing but a compromise. And we end up as little clubs for nice people that play it safe and worry about what's going to happen next.

The vineyard is commitment to the body of Christ. Nobody works in the vineyard alone. We work together in the vineyard so that in the vineyard, in the body, see, everybody helps to carry the weight of its ministry, everybody.

He puts us together in this body so that we're members one of another. And we draw strength from each other and we're linked together. And usually in his mercy, and almost you could say in his humor, God links us together, the knee bone with the thigh bone, and you're the knee bone and you don't like the thigh bone that you're being linked to, but that's just what you need, just what I need.

And he puts us together in the body so that each Sunday, when we come together and we break bread, it's not like a spiritual supermarket where we draw just what we want, you know, fill up our little bag and take off, but we are a body, a household, members one of another, and together we carry the weight of the kingdom of God as a body, as members of the same household, always together. You know, that doesn't mean, you know, that we're always physically together. We're not.

Now we're going to go out from here. When the service ends, we go out. But we go out as members of the body, as members one of another, so that we carry the body with us.

You know, if I pick up this pulpit, it's my hand that touches the pulpit, but the whole body gets behind it and lifts it. It's the mind that makes that happen. So you touch the world and we touch that world through you.

And our prayers support you. And there are specific people in the body who are praying for you by name, and you're doing the same. You're praying specifically so that they can fulfill their... And as we do, the life of God flows.

Take the Apostle Paul. The Apostle Paul's commitment to his Lord always manifested itself as commitment to the body. Read the opening verses of any one of his letters in the New Testament, and you will see a man who was committed to these people.

He cared about them. He wept for them. He carried them around in his heart.

He stood over them. He was really committed to them. May God help us toward each other.

The vineyard is commitment. When you become a follower of Jesus, it's to make disciples of others. You become a fisher of men.

Every follower of Jesus is a fisher of men and, Helen, of women too. When we say men, it always means men and women, never just men. So men and women, a fisher of men.

Every one of us becomes this. From Luke 10, verse 2, And he said to them, The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Pray therefore the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.

Go your way. Behold, I send you out as lambs in the midst of wolves. And so we see these two verses.

Pray for laborers. Go yourself. Pray for laborers.

Go yourself into the harvest, which is right where you are. It's the house where you live. It's the block where you live.

It's the place where you work. Bring them to the banquet table. Invite them to the feast.

Drag them if you have to. Bring them to the banquet of the Lord. Bring them.

Draw them. When we see the world beyond us as the harvest field, and care about that harvest field, and pray for laborers for that harvest field, and commit ourselves to it, what happens is our eyes open, and we begin to see the hand of God moving through us and in us and with us, turning hearts, opening blind eyes, opening deaf ears, setting free the captives. Bringing the prisoners right out of their cells.

And about the 11th hour, he went out and found others standing, and he said to them, Why do you stand here idle all day? They said to him, Because no one has hired us. He said to them, You go into the vineyard too. It's the 11th hour.

At last the householder has found his way to us and has said and is saying right now to every one of us, You, go into the vineyard too. If we will take that seriously, we'll know what to do. Our problem, if we're having a problem finding the vineyard, it's not a map that we need.

All we have to do is trust the householder. Commit ourselves to him. Place ourselves in his hands.

And before we leave the building, we will find ourselves in the outer courts of heaven. Maybe even further in than that. You go into the vineyard too.

The vineyard begins right here with commitment to Jesus, commitment to a walk of faith, commitment to the body, and commitment to the harvest. As we make that commitment and move with it, the spirit of the living God visits us, drives away our doubts, clarifies our vision, anoints us with the powers of the world to come, beginning right here, right now. Let's just take some time.