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Sermon
The Gospel of Matthew

Not Just Justice

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June 7, 2026
Matthew 20:1-16
Jared Compton
Associate Professor of New Testament and Biblical Theology at Bethlehem College and Seminary

Grace

Justification

The Gospel

Transcript

0:15Good morning. My name is Jared Compton. As Josh said, I teach at Bethlehem College & Seminary, and it's the best time in life for a professor. You know why that is, right? Because it's summertime. So listen, I've been really looking forward to being with you this morning. Kids, I want to say something especially to you. How many of you kids, you're not usually in the service on Sunday morning? Go ahead, raise your hands. Let me just see you. There we go. All right. We got some older kids than I thought, some young kids. Listen, this is what I need. I need your help this morning real fast here at the beginning with my sermon. I need you to finish a sentence for me.

0:55Kids, I'm talking to you right now, so don't get distracted yet. I need you to do something for me. Here it is. I'm going to tell you a story and then I'm going to have you finish a sentence for me. Here it is. Here's the story. Let's say I tell you and your brother, if you got a brother or a sister, if you got a sister, and if you got more than one brother or sister, choose one, okay? But I tell you and your brother, I'm going to give you 20 bucks. I'm going to give you 20 bucks if you write down the two points of my sermon on your sheet this morning. I only got two points. You write them down, I'll give you 20 bucks.

1:35If after the service you come meet me up here at the front and you and your brother, you show me your sheet, and if I look on them and I see that you wrote my two points down, I'm going to give you a crisp $20 bill. Okay. So let's say I said that. Hold on. Let's say I said that to you kids, and after the service, you come up here and you meet me up at the front. You jotted down my two points, you're ready to go, and I see your two points on the sheet, and your brother shows me his, and I reach in my pocket and I pull out a crisp $20 bill, and I give it to you. Here it is. Here's 20 bucks, just like I said. And your brother kind of expectantly looks at me, and I reach in my pocket again, and I pull out a crisp $100 bill, and I give this to your brother. Okay, that's the story.

2:29Kids, I need you to help me with this. Fill in the blank. If I gave you 20 bucks and I gave your brother 100 bucks for the same thing, finish this sentence. That's not... Fair. Come on, say it louder. That's not... Fair. That's right. Listen, you've just helped us this morning. You've identified the point at the center of Jesus' story this morning. In fact, I think, Dan, we can sing our closing song. I think we can pray and just go home right now. Thank you, kids. We're not going to do that. We're not going to do that. I should say a little bit more because Jesus does. So keep your Bibles open just for a little bit longer. And I should say, kids, to be clear, I'm not going to give you 20 bucks at the end of the sermon.

3:13But I will do this. If you write down my two points, I'm about to give them. If you write down my two points on your sheet of paper and you bring them up front, I won't give you 20 bucks, but I will give you a big old handshake or a high five, your choice. Or a high five at the end of the service. Come on up and see me. All right. So here's the two points. Here's the things, friends, everybody, kids and adults included, that Jesus wants us to see from the story that Jonah just read. He wants all of us to see this morning from the story that he tells us in Matthew 20. Jesus wants to see two things.

3:48First, Jesus wants us to see that there's a kind of master that we think we want. That's the first thing Jesus wants us to see. There's a kind of master that we think we want, and number two, there's a kind of master that we really need. There's a kind of master that we really need. So let's look at both of these. Number one, there's a kind of master that we think we want. Look with me at verse one. Look with me at verse one. It's harvest time. Let's look at the story. It's harvest time in first-century Israel. It's grape harvest. So it's the end of the summer, it's early fall, and the owner of the grapes, the vineyard owner, he goes out early, probably just before sunrise, and he goes into the marketplace where workers would be gathered for the day, kind of queuing, waiting in line, and waiting to be hired. And look at verse two.

4:47Verse two: After agreeing that he'll pay them a day's wage. That's what a denarius is. He agrees with them, "Look, I'll pay you a day's wage. You work all day, I'll pay you for working all day a denarius." After agreeing with them, verse two, the master hires some of the workers and sends them on to work in his vineyard. Now the story gets a little strange. Kind of strangely, listen to this, kind of strangely, the master does the same thing again at 9:00 a.m. Look at verses three and four. This time he tells some workers, "I want you to go work for me," and verse four, "And whatever is right," he tells them, "Whatever is right, I'll give it to you."

5:34And once hired, these 9:00 a.m. workers join the others already working in the vineyard. Then the master does the very same thing at noon, at 12:00 p.m., then again at 3:00 p.m. That's what we see in verse five. So he goes out two more times, once at noon, once at 3:00 p.m., hires more workers. We see that in verse five. And then, look, for a fifth timeFor a fifth time, this time just before sunset, just before quitting time at the 11th hour, the master goes back to the marketplace. At 5:00 PM, goes back to the marketplace and hires more workers. And this time, before he hires these new recruits, he asks them a question, well, maybe we might have asked.

6:26Look at verse six. He says, "Why do you stand here idle all day?" Which is like, "Why are you guys loafing around? Don't you have anything better to do? How are you still here?" To which they reply, reasonably enough, look at verse seven, they reply, "Well, because nobody's hired us." And we say, "Well, I guess that makes sense." In any case, he hires them and he sends them to join the others in the vineyard. To join the 9:00 AM-ers, to join the 12:00 PM-ers, and to join the 3:00 PM-ers, all of them together in the field. All right. Then the sun sets, and the workday ends. And the master, this is now verse eight, the master tells his foreman, "Go and pay my workers."

7:19And don't miss this. He tells the foreman, this is verse eight, he says, "Look, start with the last and then work up to the first." That's verse eight. Start at the end. Start with the guys that were hired last and then work up to those who've been working all day. In other words, start with the 5:00 PM-ers, pay them first, pay the all-day workers, pay them last. And friends, that order, like those five trips to the marketplace, the order of paying, last to first, that's meant to strike us as odd, as strange, as kind of unusual.

8:03But it makes sure the all-dayers don't get paid until they see what everybody else got paid. It makes sure of that. It makes sure that those guys or ladies who worked all day, they see what everybody else got paid. This is verse nine. Look at verse nine. They see that the 11th-hour workers get a whole day's wage. So when it's their turn to get paid, they wonder, verse 10, they wonder, "Look, are we going to receive any more? More than we'd agreed upon with the master, but also more than the others. After all, they worked less and we worked more." But they don't get any more, do they? They don't get any more.

8:51They get a day's wage for a day's labor, which, verse 11, frustrates them. It frustrates them. We're told they grumble at the master, and they say, verse 12. Look at verse 12. They say, "Look, these last, these guys you hired at 5:00 PM, they worked only one hour. They worked one hour and you have made them equal to us, us who have borne," look at what it says, "borne the burden of the day. We worked all day and we worked in the scorching heat." And as we read it, we think they sort of have a point, don't they? They sort of have a point. They did work harder than everybody else, right? They did work harder than everybody else.

9:41They worked all day, and it's hot when you work all day in the sun, even if it's the end of summer and the early fall. They sort of have a point, but then they also don't have a point. Look at verse 13. The master addresses one of them, maybe their spokesperson. The master says, verse 13, he says, "Friend, I am doing you no wrong. After all," he goes on, "did you not agree with me for a day's wage?" Like, "Didn't we settle on that? For a denarius, hadn't we agreed on that?" Well, yes, he's right. The receipt is in verse two. They had agreed before they went out into the work field to get paid a day's wage for a day's labor. So in that light, look at verse 14.

10:34The master tells the all-day workers, "Take what belongs to you and go." But not before asking them a question which I think is the most important question in Jesus' story. He asks them a question. Look again at verse 14. He says, "Take what belongs to you and go. I choose to give this last worker as I give to you." Here it is. "Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me?" Or to put a very sharp point on it, look how he says it at the end of verse 15. Look at the end of verse 15. "Do you begrudge my generosity?" Do you begrudge my generosity? And Jesus says, now looking at you, "Well?" He's looking at you. Out of the Bible, Jesus is looking at us and he's saying, "Well, do you?"

11:41He tells you that story and he's looking you eyeball to eyeball saying, "Do you begrudge my generosity?" Does the master in the story frustrate you? Does he seem unfair? Does Jesus' story make you want to say what the kid said right at the beginning? Kids, what is it again? That's not- FairYou hear the delay, that's right. It's still not fair over there on the left. Listen, if it makes you feel that way, if you say you listen to a story like this and you say, "That doesn't seem fair. I don't like that. I'm frustrated by that." If it makes you feel that way, you are in good company.

12:30Listen, even though we live in a polarized world, you know this. We live in a polarized world. Even though we live in a polarized world, there are still things that most everybody agrees upon. It's not a lot, but there's still stuff people agree upon, like are puppies cute? Well, absolutely, puppies are cute. Come on, everybody agrees on that. Or do we want the San Antonio Spurs to lose? Yes, we do. Yes, we do. Nobody wants the Spurs to win, okay? If you do, repent of that, okay? Listen, we all agree on that, but you know what else everybody agrees on? Do we want to live in a just society? Do we want to live in a just society? Everybody says yes to that.

13:15Absolutely, we do. Everybody wants to live in a just world. Our friends on the right, our friends on the left, listen, they can agree on that. They want to live in a just world. Now, they'll describe that just world differently. They'll get to that just world through very different means, but listen, everybody wants to live in a just society. Same for religious people. Religious people, they want to live in a just society. The Pharisees, you know these guys. These were the religious people in Jesus' day. They wanted a just society, which is why Jesus frustrated them so much. He frustrated them because Jesus said that swindlers and sex workers, or in Jesus' first century ESV language, tax collectors and prostitutes, they have the same access to God's kingdom that the Pharisees did.

14:16Even though the Pharisees, from their perspective, felt like they had worked so much harder to prepare for that kingdom than those other folks did. Listen, religious people want justice. Friends, you want justice. Christians want justice. You do. You want justice. You remember Peter, his question from last week. Do you remember this, Peter's question from last week? He says to Jesus, "Jesus, we have left everything and followed you." Remember what he asked after this? He says, "What then will we have?" That's what Peter wants to know. Friends, what does Peter want? Peter wants justice. He wants to know whether he's going to get out of this kingdom business everything that he sacrificed and put in.

15:07Everybody wants justice, which is why a story like the one that Jesus tells rubs us the wrong way. Why it feels, on the surface, so incredibly unfair. Listen, if we're honest, we don't want a master who gives people what they don't deserve. We don't want a master like that. We want a master who is just. At least we think we do. That's the first thing Jesus wants us to see. We think we want a master who is just, just. But second, Jesus wants us to see something else. There's a kind of master that we really need. There's a kind of master that we really, really need. Take a look at verse 16. There's something, this is verse 16, there's something clearly upside down about God's new society. Upside down.

16:14Something clearly upside down about God's heaven-like kingdom. Verse 16 says it this way, "The last will be first, and the first last." That's upside down, isn't it? Last people are first, first are last. It's the same tagline that we found after last week's story. You'll remember Matthew 19:30. Jesus says, "But many who are first will be last, and the last first." Jesus is trying to tell us that there's something upside down, something unusual or surprising about this new society created by the gospel that Jesus is bringing. There's something surprising, something backward, something unexpected about this kingdom that we've been looking at, especially over these last few weeks in Matthew 18 and 19.

17:15So maybe you remember this. This is some of the things we've learned in Matthew 18 and 19. Listen, we think we want, we do. We think we want a society based on strict justice, one that punishes wrongdoers, at least until we're the one doing the wrong, until we're the one in Jesus' story about forgiveness who wrongs his brother again and again and again. You remember this from Matthew 18. Only then will a society based on radical forgiveness, only then will a society based on the fact that you forgive everybody as often as they genuinely ask you for it, even if it's 500 times. Only when you're the one caught wronging your brother again and again and again will a society based on radical forgiveness look attractive to you.Only then will it look attractive to you. Or here's another one we looked at recently.

18:20Remember Jesus teaching on divorce a couple of weeks back. Listen, we might think we want a society based on transactional relationships, marriages where you get as much as you give, marriages that can be discarded or left or abandoned when they stop giving as much as we think they should, as much as we put in. And we think we want those kind of relationships until we're the one in Jesus' teaching about marriage who fails to put out what's expected of us. Only then do we want a society full of unconditional relationships, till-death-do-us-part kind of relationships. Listen, only when we're the one not living up to our side of the marriage bargain, do we want a society of unconditional relationships.

19:14Only then will a society like that look remotely attractive to us. All right, here's one more. This is from recent, from the rich young rule follower. Listen, we might think we want a society based on status, where industry or virtue inevitably lead to success and advancement. We may think we want a society built on industry and virtue, at least until we face our own lack of industry or our own lack of virtue. Listen, only then will a society made up of statusless people, no offense, like kids who don't bring anything to the table. There's no productivity. There's not always a lot of virtue. There's not a lot of advancement to the society that they're bringing in.

20:07Only then, when we realize our own lack of virtue or our own lack of industry, will a society comprised of statusless beings like children, will that look attractive to us. That's what Jesus is telling us. He's saying, "Look, you'll be frustrated with God's upside-down society as long as you think you're first." You see what Jesus is saying? As long as you think you're first, that you deserve to be first, you will not want the last to be first and the first to be last. That will frustrate you. Jesus' story, Jesus' kingdom, the society that Jesus brings in, will frustrate you until you realize that you're in the marketplace, still there.

20:57You need a day's wage. You're looking at your watch and it says 5:00 PM, and look, nobody's hired you. Until you realize that people like that, they don't want justice. They don't want a master who is just. People like that need a master who is generous. Listen, until you realize you aren't first. You're not first. You're not deserving. Until with God's help, that dawns on you, then a master like the one in our story is going to frustrate us. But when we realize we don't want justice, we don't want a master who is only just, only then will a master who is wonderfully generous look attractive to us.

21:49People like us, you and me in this room, people like us don't want a master who is just. Who is just just. We want a master who is generous or maybe your Bible, look at verse 15. Maybe your Bible calls him good. In fact, if you've got an ESV, you've got a little footnote down in the bottom of your page in size zero font that says it like this. It translates verse 15, "Is your eye bad?" Do you see it down at the bottom of your page in maybe the blue Bible that Jonah had you look to? "Is your eye bad?" Which is to say, are you envious? That's what it means to have a bad eye. "Is your eye bad because I am..." What does it say?

22:38"Because I am good." Listen, the master is described as good. Do you remember from last week who Jesus says is good? Who's good from last week? Can you remember? This is only last week, friends. God. God's good, that's right. Matthew 19:17. In fact, maybe look at it. Matthew 19:17, we're told God is the only one who is good. Which means? Well, it means everybody else isn't. God alone is good. Friends, that is an implication for us in this room. That means something to you. God alone is good, which means everybody else isn't, and everybody else isn't good. And people who aren't good, boy, they don't want justice.

23:29No way do they want justice. Justice would be devastating. People like that need a master just like the one at the center of our story. We want a master like the one Jesus describes in Matthew 20. People like that want a master like God, who reveals himself in the Bible as just, but more than just. He reveals himself as good and generous and merciful, which is what his generosity is called when it's directed towards people who aren't good. Friends, mercy is God's generosity calibrated to you. That's what mercy is. It's calibrated towards people like us.And God reveals himself in the Bible as a God who is full of mercy. That's his forward-facing face.

24:28You say, "What's God like?" Yes, he's just. Yes, he's sovereign. Yes, he's powerful. His forward face, God's forward face, his first name isn't any of those things. His first name is how he describes it to us, the Lord, the Lord, what does it say? Merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love. This is God's forward-facing face to you, friends. It's his goodness. God is intrinsically generous, and that gets calibrated to sinners like us in the form of mercy. The kingdom of God that Jesus describes, it's an upside-down kingdom, because those who are part of it, they deserve justice, but they get mercy instead.

25:19In the kingdom of God, they get a king who is generous, surprisingly generous. That's how God reveals himself to us. That's how he reveals himself to us from the beginning of the story, and especially in the gospel. In fact, look back at Matthew 20. Look at Matthew 20 with me. Take a look at the heading of the very next story after ours. Look at that heading. Matthew 20:17-19. Are you looking at it in your ESVs there, in your Bibles? What's it say? What's it about? It's about Jesus'? Death. Jesus' death. That's right, crucifixion. Friends, there's a reason why this story about a generous master is immediately followed by a prediction about Jesus' death.

26:08There's a reason why those two go together. God sacrificed what was so precious to him so that he could be everything he wants to be for us. He sacrificed what was so precious to him, his one and only dearly loved son, so that he could be released, free to be who he wants to be for us. He sacrificed Jesus so that he could be for sinners who he is fundamentally, which is an incredibly generous master. One who won't do wrong, but will very often do more than right. He won't do wrong, friends, but he will very often do even more than right. God's society is just. Of course it's just. But thanks be to God, it is not just just.

27:12All right, let me close with a word like this. Let me say something if you're a non-Christian in the room. We're super glad you're here. I suspect there's non-Christians in every section of the auditorium this morning. For all of you in this room, listen, Jesus' story, you heard it. Jesus' story is going to frustrate you until you admit something about yourself that is super hard to admit. I get it. In some ways, it's impossible to admit. What is it? Well, it's that you're not nearly as good as you think you are. Listen, if that's a hard thing for you to admit, and Jesus' story's going to frustrate you until you can say, "Listen, I'm not nearly as good as I think I am."

27:57Because once you say that, that means you don't really want a society ruled by justice alone. And sometime today, maybe now, maybe when we celebrate this meal that Christians eat together, I want you to consider what Jesus means when he says that no one besides God is good. Just think about that. Take that line with you in your mind. Jesus said that. Jesus. He said nobody. He's talking about God. Nobody besides God is good. So you might be better than your neighbors. Boy, you might be better than your parents were. Maybe you're better than your friends or even many of the religious people you know. Maybe you're better than them.

28:43But unless you're as good as God, then you don't want a world ruled by justice alone. That's Jesus' word to you this morning. Unless you're as good as God is, then you don't want a world ruled by justice alone. You want a world ruled by the God who has revealed himself in the Lord Jesus. You want a God who reveals himself in the pages of that book we're all looking at right now, in the Bible, one who is eager to be generous to you if you'll just recognize you need his generosity. He's poised, ready with generosity to part if you'll just recognize, "I need that. I need that generosity." All right.

29:27Let me say a word to Christians in the room, and then I'll pray, and we're going to celebrate the table. Let me say a word to Christians in the room. There's something Jesus doesn't want you, doesn't want us to miss from this story this morning. The same God, here's how I'd say it. The same God who gave you what you don't deserve will continue to be the God who gives undeserved things to other people. I'll say that again. The same God who gave you what you don't deserve continues to be the God who gives others what they don't deserve. Let that settle in a little bit. He continues to be a surprisingly generous God.

30:15Yes, he's been that way to you, but he'll be that way to other people. Here's what I meanI can wonder if maybe this was the sort of main thing Jesus was trying to do with this story. Maybe you're like Peter from last week's story, and you've sacrificed everything to follow Jesus. It's been costly for you. You've given up houses and lands and family, and you want to know, rightly, you want to know like Peter did, "Jesus, what's in it for me? What's in it for me? What's the return on my investment in Jesus?" And Jesus' answer was, if you remember, "A hundredfold." Which ChatGPT helped me figure out that means it's a 10,000% return on your investment.

31:15That's pretty good, isn't it? 10,000% return. So you invest 100 bucks in Jesus, you get $10,000 in return. You invest a million dollars, you see what we're doing. You sacrifice a million dollars, you get $100 million in return. And friends, that's in addition to eternal life. That's what Jesus says to Peter. In other words, Jesus says there will be extraordinary rewards given to Christians who sacrifice for Jesus. There will be rewards for you when God's heavenly kingdom comes down to Earth. And Jesus wants you to know, He's telling you this story today so you'll know, listen, the master will reward each and every sacrifice you've made because He's promised to.

32:08But He also wants you to know the master might just give the same reward to other Christians who sacrificed less. And Jesus is looking at you out of the page of this story. He's looking at me and He's saying, "Well, do you begrudge a master like that?" That's what He wants to know. Do you begrudge a master like that? Do you? And if you're tempted to say, "Yes, kind of," Jesus says, "You forgot about the cross. You forgot about the cross. You forgot where you would be without a master willing to do that for you, without a master generous like that." Do I begrudge a master who is generous beyond what people deserve? That's how you ought to ask that question. Do I begrudge a master who is generous beyond what people deserve? And the answer has got to be never, Lord.

33:14Never. Never. Never would we begrudge a master like that. Where would we be without a master like that? No, we won't begrudge a master like that. We'll glory in a master like that. Friends, we have a master who has been surprisingly generous to us, and He remains and will remain surprisingly generous to others. How could we begrudge a master and His generosity considering what He's done for us and what we pray He'll do for others? And may He do that. May He continue to be generous to us and to others in this room for His glory and our good. Lord, here we are, your people hearing your word and your divine wisdom. You've given us a story that arrests us, that captures our attention, exposes as only your stories can, exposes things that, boy, we don't even want to say out loud.

34:29Thoughts that you're not fair, that you're not just, and exposes that. Lord, we recognize, those of us who know the Lord Jesus, we recognize that without a generous master, with only a just master, we would be devastated. We would be bereft of eternal life and so much worse. So we glory, we ask you, help us to glory in the goodness, the surprising goodness of your generosity, not try to contain it, not try to control it, but to enthusiastically pray for it to spread and run and fill the Earth like the waters cover the sea. Do that, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen.

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Sermon Text

Matthew 20:1-16

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