[AI translation] Dear brothers and sisters, from this parable that Jesus tells, we see that in the early Christian churches, in the church of believers, there was also the danger of Phariseeism, the idea that some believers gave themselves more credit than others. That is why some believers claimed more for themselves from God than they thought God should have given to others. Especially those who could say that they belonged to the first generation, that they had followed Jesus from the beginning, and that they bore all the consequences of the perils of following Christ, the heat and burden of the day, as the Word says in the parable. And for this very reason they somehow feel that they are entitled to more of the divine reward than those who have only just begun, just recently, to live the Christian life. Well, brothers and sisters, Jesus teaches in this parable that in the kingdom of God, the old convert is not before the new convert. There is no difference, especially in terms of reward. It is not that the believer who is just joining should be shortchanged in any respect over the one who has been following Him for a long time. He is entitled to the same as any other. Besides, faith in Christ and service to Christ is not a merit, but a reward in itself, and he who begins to follow Christ earlier will benefit. It is well for him who has had much trouble and much trouble, and who has had to bear the burden and heat of the day. He is fortunate who has begun to follow Christ earlier.That would be the primary meaning of this parable, and I know very well that during my absence, the church has been taught this parable recently. It is for this reason that I would now like to emphasise not the primary meaning of this parable, but the secondary meaning, which we might briefly call the envy complex. I would like to talk about the envy complex that is described by the sentence: 'Is your eye evil - or, to translate it more correctly, envious - because I am good?' Well, brothers and sisters, if we look at this story or this parable, we have to say that it is perfectly understandable, from a human point of view, that these vineyard workers should be grumbling and criticising their master, because it is true that if those who worked only one hour get 10 times as much money, those who worked 6-8-10 hours should have got six to eight to ten times as much. It is perfectly understandable in human terms. Hence the envy with which these vineyard workers looked at the rewards of others, the fortunes and prosperity of others, the fortunes of those they did not consider worthy. How can one be so honoured, so rewarded, so blessed, by one who did not deserve it at all in their opinion. To this murmuring criticism the farmer, the lord of the vineyard, then says, "Is it because I am good that your eye is evil - your eye is envious? Are you envious because I allow myself to love another man as I love you? Art thou envious because I dare to help the unworthy in thy sight, dare to stand by them? Or do I also want to be good to him whom you pity for my goodness? Dost thou object that I give to another more than thou thinkest I ought? Dost thou envy the other man my goodness?
That is the problem brothers and sisters in this story, or at least in the secondary meaning of this parable. God's goodness is a very strange thing for all of us, brothers and sisters. Think about it: no one can object to God's goodness as long as he himself receives it, and even rejoices in it, and is very happy to give thanks for it. Nor would these husbandmen have objected to their Lord's great goodness, if they themselves could have profited by it. So that if they had received a higher wage or a bonus, everything would have been all right. Then they would have accepted it with thanks and would have been happy to say to each other how good our Lord is! They were only upset that he could be so good to other people. They thought it unjust that he should be so good to another man. And that is how it is with us too, unfortunately. Note that there is nothing wrong with God's goodness as long as I myself receive it in some form. It is only when someone else receives it, that I begin to ask myself, "What has this other person done to deserve all the good things that he has received in this life on earth?
If the goodness of God happened to want me to have, say, a four in the lottery, that would be fine. But the fact that it's always the other guy and always the other guy who gets lucky is a bit annoying! If I manage to achieve something that makes me stand out from the rest, I get the glory; or if I have such a good figure and a good appearance that it is in itself half a success in the rotation of people; or if my child manages to get into university at the first attempt; or if my family is allocated a good flat - I count it as a thankful act of God's goodness to me. But if all this good fortune and good deeds go to someone else - that unpleasant colleague in the office, or that much younger person who has time to spare, or that lucky fellow who always manages to do everything right - that is somehow an injustice! It is so very rare among brothers and sisters that someone, seeing another person's luck and prosperity, can say with all his heart: I thank you, God, that you are so good to him! I thank you that you have so richly blessed my co-tenant, or colleague, or friend, or enemy. I thank you, God, how good you are! Instead, it is much more the case that God's goodness to another person, that which is seen in another person's life, is usually viewed with that envious eye that is spoken of here in this parable. Why does that other deserve more good than I do? I work from dawn till dusk, and that other person earns more than I do with a much easier job. Or I worked day and night to prepare for an exam, and yet the other one, who cut all the time and barely studied, did better than me. A man in his 40s said to me the other day: 'I went into marriage clean. As a young man, I kept, I abstained from all the pleasures that my friends enjoyed without a neck, and yet they had better marriages than I did. Where is the truth here?
Where did this rebellion of the vineyard workers come from? Very interesting: not because the farmer mistreated them, not because he shortened them, no! But because he gave the others, who worked less, the same amount of money as he did. And what was the reason that the farmer wanted to give these last ones as much as the first ones? - It was because of his goodness. Are you jealous because I am good? Is it not a dreadful thing that we should be able to reproach and envy the goodness of God? Try for once to look at another person's fortune from the perspective of God's goodness. Not always just in terms of your own perceived merit or the merit you attribute to another. In general: the blessings of God with which he enriches our lives have nothing to do with our merit. This is precisely what this parable teaches us. Jesus is not here preaching social principles. He is not saying that this is how vineyard workers should be paid, or how wages should be calculated, but here Jesus is simply teaching us how God treats people. And we do not want God to treat people according to our human sense of justice! This vineyard owner is not unjust! He was perfectly fair in that he gave these grumblers exactly the same amount of money that they had contracted to give each other. And yet when they grumbled, he said to them, quite rightly, 'My friend, I am not being unjust to you. Have we not contracted in ten pence?" What can be said? The farmer is right, and the demand of these workers is not justified at all. There can be no claim or demand of any kind against God. "Take what is thine!" - says the farmer Fear not, God is not in debt to anyone! God will never shortchange anyone. Everyone will have what is his. Everyone will have what is his. And no one has the right to grumble about it or to demand more. Leave it to God, He knows what is due to whom, much better than we do. And if He wants to give to the last, to the very last person, as much as He wants to give to you, God has not yet cut you short.
God's goodness cannot be measured by length of service or work performance. You cannot calculate that this one gets this much and that one gets that much. And if I have this much, he has this much, and if he has that much, I have this much. You cannot do it that way. God sees our lives very differently from the way we see each other's lives. Brothers and sisters, if anyone feels that there is even a tiny spark of envy in him, I would like to offer him a test: try to think about whether he would trade places with someone he envies. Would you trade with one whom you consider a special favour of divine goodness? Would you trade with a man whom you consider in any way more fortunate than yourself? Would you trade places with him? But in everything! So not only your bicycle with his Wartburg, but perhaps his very difficult and very agonizing family life with your independence. Not just your rented room with his villa on the hill of freedom, but also his very troubled and very fearful and anxious mind with your simple but calmer way of life. Would you swap? Not only his wallet or his salary with yours, but perhaps also his secret wounds, his emotional pain with your calm and peace. Would you trade not only his enviable, happier family life for yours, but perhaps the illness that only he knows about and secretly suffers from, for your health - would you trade that too? Would you exchange your whole bag of tricks for the whole bag of tricks of the man you envy? Not by exchanging this and that, picking and choosing, but by exchanging the whole bathtub. With everything in it, would you trade it all for a real one? And would you really throw all that he has given you before God, saying, "Lord, you have misplaced your goodness! You have left me out of it, and rewarded the other above his merits!
Do we really see the other person's whole life, with all its dark background, depths, hidden problems, as God sees it? Can we judge how much is due to him if that is all I have? Is it not sad to ask, "Your eyes are envious because I am good"? With envious eyes no one ever sees the goodness of God. Whoever doubts God's goodness, and whoever feels that he himself has missed it, or at least has not sufficiently benefited from it, always comes from looking at another with envious eyes. He who looks with one eye at what he himself has received, and with the other at how much more the other has received, will sooner or later have a squinted eye, and will not see well either the goodness of God in his own life, or the life of the other man. He will always feel poor and always miserable. To him, God is nothing but blindness, and the other person is a perpetually irritating thorn in his side. The unhappiest man is the man with the envious eye, because he cannot be happy with what he has. He cannot give thanks for what he himself has. He is never satisfied because he always thinks he is entitled to more than he has.
But, brethren, the happy certainty of how good God is to me becomes clear when I once try to take a really serious account of how much more I have received from Him than I deserve! And when I try to take account of it in this way, of all the good things He has rewarded me with, I never get to the end of giving thanks. And then I have neither the time nor the inclination to be envious.
Jesus, as he hung there in agony nailed to the cross, did not envy the people who walked around him on Calvary without pain of body or soul. Yet, humanly speaking, it would have been understandable, for He was suffering, He was in agony, He was thirsty. He was a prisoner and they were free. They were carefree, they were joyfully sharing His garments, they had nothing to worry about. So, apparently, they undoubtedly had a much better fate than Jesus. And Jesus did not envy them, but prayed for them: 'Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do'. Jesus really saw how unenviable these people were. How pitiful they are, how they are not better off, and how they are in much greater peril, only Jesus really saw. There, hanging on the cross, was someone who did not look on enviously, but saw the other person always as the Father sees him: with pity, with compassion, with love that wants the best. He was at one will with the Father, and that is why he could bow his head in the Father's lap with such great, peaceful serenity.
Thinking of him, let us say to ourselves and to one another in the words of the song:
Only be a little blessed in silence: in thyself thou shalt find peace,
In the grace of the Lord's ordinance, Thou shalt meet an eternal and wise purpose.
He that hath divided our lives, Knows well what we need.
So sing to the Lord and walk in the way He has just given you;
He will give you a rich blessing from heaven, And Jesus will give you a brave new day.
He that trusteth and hopeth in Him, He shall live for evermore.
(Canto 274, verses 3-4)
Whether early converted or late converted, whether of the first generation or now joining it, the Spirit lives for evermore!
Amen.
Date:27 February 1966.