Anchor My Faith

Previous Lesson
Next Lesson
Author: Stephen Weller
712 words, 4 minutes read time

Justice, Mercy and Grace

Scripture: Matthew 20:13-15

We ended the previous lesson with the first group of workers voicing their dissatisfaction with the later groups of workers being paid the same wage as they. You were left with some questions to think about; especially questions about justice, mercy and grace in relation to this parable.

In this parable the owner of the vineyard had work to be done in the vineyard and went to find workers, and those he found each agreed to work all day for a denarius, considered a days’ wage. Throughout the day the owner added more workers and agreed to pay a fair price for their work. When evening came and the days’ work was finished, the foreman was instructed to pay the workers, beginning with the last, up to the first. To each worker, no matter how long he worked, was given a denarius. The first group saw this equal payment as injustice and complained to the owner to which he responded to one of them:

^{Mt 20:13} “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 worker as I give to you. ¹⁵ Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or do you begrudge my generosity?”

The first group was paid the agreed wage; they received justice. All others were shown mercy. The owner knew they needed a denarius to meet their needs for that day. For them to receive justice, they would have been paid just for the time worked, but the owner showed mercy and paid more. The extra paid above what would have been a just wage was grace. They were given what they didn’t deserve.

In the garden, God told Adam that the wages of disobedience would be death for him and all future offspring. For his disobedience, spiritual death occurred then and consequently everyone else when born physically is born spiritually dead. Eventually, everyone will die physically. The wage was determined, and justice demands the wage to be paid, and so all should die.

⁴ “But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, ⁵ even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— ⁶ and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, ⁷ so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.” (Ephesians 2:4 – 7 ESV). Like the owner of the vineyard, God chose to show mercy, because of his love for us, and sent his Son to the cross to die in our place to satisfy justice, thus allowing him to show mercy and not give us what we deserved. By grace, he was then able to give the gift of salvation.

³ “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, ⁴ even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love ⁵ he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will” (Ephesians 1:3 – 5 ESV). Just as the owner of the vineyard chose those who would receive mercy and be shown grace, God chooses those he will adopt to himself. There never has been and there will never be one in an orphanage who will choose a family to adopt them. Some are shown mercy and chosen for adoption through a redemption payment. God is sovereign and he will have mercy on whomever he chooses.

Conclusion

In this parable, those who came after the first group to work received grace. The first group, who was paid the agreed wage, received justices. No one received injustice, but the first group, who worked all day, thought they received injustice; thought that the owner owed them something more.