High Bar to Clay Jar

1:03 His garage was so clean and well-organized, it could have been an operating room. You could have performed an appendectomy in there, if you knew how. Keith and his wife, Tina, they lived across the street from us. I served in the Air Force with him. We worked in the same unit. We'd both been in the Air Force for about the same amount of time, but Keith had previously served in the Navy and was about 13 years older than me. Really, there was no comparison between the two of us. But I couldn't help but want to try to measure up to the standard he set. Militarily, we were the same rank, which means that we had roughly the same amount of pay and the same privileges, but in ability, he was an eagle and I was a fruit fly. I wanted to perform at his level, but he had tools in his toolkit that I could only dream about as a 23-year-old kid, who sometimes fell asleep during meetings at work.

2:04 And at home, I couldn't even get my lawnmower started. Comparing myself to Keith, all my shortcomings came into focus whenever I stood next to him in his garage that could have been an operating room. Keith's last name isn't Jones, but I was doing my best to keep up with him. But why do we feel like we have to keep up with anyone? Social researchers reported that money doesn't make people happy. It's having more money than their neighbors. And it didn't matter how much money they had if what they had was less than most of their neighbors they felt like they were losing at life. And it's not just with money, but with status, seniority, education, accomplishments. Someone might feel good about the hundred or so views or likes they got on a photo they posted on social media until they see that their friend got 500.

3:04 Why don't we just admit that comparisons get us nowhere? Because there's always more Joneses to keep up with. Most groups of humans have people they want to be like, people they model themselves after. They've got the car, the house, the job, vacations, toys, clothing that we want. And some days, these people above us inspire us to keep on climbing. But other days, we can't keep up. So maybe we look down to the rungs below us for some comfort of knowing that at least we've climbed higher than those people down there. it's just what we do. We can't help it. There's always some higher bar we're trying to clear. We keep score. We compete. We measure ourselves and we exclude from our attention those who we don't think measure up. We compare. It's what we do. Jesus of Nazareth once zeroed in on this all-too-human tendency to rack and stack ourselves against other people. He did it with a story, a fictional, hypothetical story, a parable. The story focuses on a group of people, like us, who wanted to know how they compared. They felt like they had earned a spot, maybe not at the top, but at least higher than most, because they had gotten in at the beginning.

4:33 They had gotten in at the ground floor. They had seniority, which should account for something. Stock options, backstage passes, their names on a building, something. So Jesus tells this story to these social climbers who happened to be his first followers, the 12 disciples in his inner circle. Now, they didn't have much to show so far for betting it all on Jesus, who was still a mostly unhoused itinerant rabbi at the time. But these sacrifices were bound to pay off eventually because Jesus wasn't just any traveling sage. He was the Messiah, the future king of their people, Israel, the one chosen by God to be at the top of the ultimate org chart. And they would be up there too with him. But also, Jesus keeps giving his attention to people who weren't worth paying attention to.

5:30 People who hadn't cleared the bar and weren't likely to do so any time They had nothing Nothing to add to his capital campaign No capacity for major gifts No network of influencers No special skills Jesus doesn't seem to care about our comparisons And so his inner circle of followers, they're getting anxious Maybe even a little jealous So they ask Jesus, what's in it for us? We've left everything to follow you. What do we get out of it? Jesus reassures them that in the new world that he is making, in the rebirth of all things, when he sits on the throne as king over the whole universe, they will be right there with him. And anything that anyone has left or given up to follow him, it cannot compare to the glory and the blessing and the joy of the life to come.

6:29 But then Jesus says something cryptic that gets them concerned again about where they fit and how they compare. He says, but many who are first will be last and the last first. Then he tells this symbolic story, a parable, to explain his meaning. It's recorded in the Bible in the Gospel of Matthew chapter 20. Jesus says. You see, the kingdom, the rule and reign of God is like a master of a house, a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard. And when he had agreed with the workers for a denarius, a day's wage for a day's work, he sent them for the day into his vineyard. And when the owner went out in the third hour of the day, around 9 a.m., he saw others standing idle in the marketplace. And he said to them, you also go into the vineyard, and whatever is right, I will give you.

7:38 So they went. Again. After going out around the 6th hour and the 9th hour Around noon and 3pm He did the same Then in the 11th hour Around 5pm When he had gone out He found others standing around And he says to them Why do you stand here idle all day? They say to him Because no one hired us He says to them you go also into the vineyard. Now when evening came, the lord of the vineyard says to his foreman, call the workers and give them their wages, starting with the last ones and continuing to the first ones. And when they came, the ones hired in the eleventh hour each received a denarius, a full day's wage.

8:39 And when the ones hired first came, they thought they would receive more. But each of them also received a denarius. And when they received it, they began to grumble against the landowner. They were saying, these last ones worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us, who have borne the burden of the day and its scorching heat. But answering one of them, he said, Friend, I'm doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius? Take what is yours and go. But I choose to give to this last one, as I gave to you. Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what is mine? Or do you begrudge my generosity? Is your eye evil, because I am good?

9:36 In this way, Jesus said, The last will be first, and the first will be last. Matthew chapter 20, verses 1 through 16. It's a symbolic story, and Jesus is showing us that he's well aware of our tendency to compare ourselves to others. He knows that we imagine ourselves in a story of survival, in a race to the top of the food chain. And it's a dog-eat-dog world out there, survival of the fittest, competition for scarce resources, limited attention, diminishing returns. And if you get more for you and your people, then that means I have less for me and mine. And if I want more for me and my tribe, then I have to take it from you and yours or from someone's.

10:31 And the clock is ticking and time is running out. Jesus understands our default view of the world. But in this parable about this odd vineyard owner, he offers an alternative. Because the owner doesn't see the world through the lens of competition, but participation. Not through the filter of scarcity, but generosity. Not by the rules of meritocracy, but by grace. Did you notice what bothers the Lord of the vineyard? It's not lost profits, that's for sure Every time he hires more workers Especially workers so late in the day And especially when he pays them No, gives them a full day's wage for an hour's worth of work Every time he does that, he cuts into his profits So if it's not bleeding out all his resources that bothers him What does?

11:29 What bothers him is when people have been left out Excluded, without meaningful work What bothers him is when people aren't given a place to participate He doesn't see the world in terms of competition But participation And he doesn't assume scarcity either A scarcity mindset may be driving at least some of the grumbling of those first workers They're certain that any operation run like this will eventually run itself out of business If the boss keeps this up, he won't have enough to pay anyone. They see the situation like scarce stadium tickets to a baseball game. He sees it like doing the wave. The more people you invite, the better it gets.

12:17 See, the owner believes that he has more than enough to share. But what about his blatant attack on meritocracy? Surely that can't be good for business A meritocracy ensures that only the best rise to the top Meritocracy means that workers get exactly what they earn Not more, not less That way, the smartest, most reliable, hardworking workers Rise to the top and the others settle to the bottom And whoever doesn't clear the bar gets cut And if it works any other way, what happens? well you demoralize the best most productive workers and eventually they'll quit and go work for your competitor while the lazy ones stick around and go on putting out shoddy half-hearted work because they know they're still going to get paid no matter what they do now all this is true if you're talking about self-interest serving humans dealing with other self-interested humans caught up in a story of survival.

13:22 But that's not what this story is about. It's not about economic theory. It's about the reality of God's coming kingdom, the rule and reign of God coming, not to prop up the old world, but to deliver a new one. Jesus is speaking for God here as the eternal son of God, the father's eternal coworker who created the world and the power of the Holy Spirit. And so Jesus knows what the world was meant to be and how we got ourselves trapped in this comparison game. We tried to define right and wrong on our own terms. Instead of trusting our creator to provide for us, to make a place for us, to belong, to supply meaningful work and give us what is right, instead of letting God set the rules, we tried to make our own.

14:15 but being finite creatures and not the infinite creator we changed the game we made it about survival and scarcity and competition and exclusion and god let us have our little meritocracy so that we could see what it becomes a self-defeating never-ending rat race that eventually spits us out at the bottom. And that's where God met us. Not at the top of human achievement, but at the bottom. See, Jesus' mission wasn't just to set the bar higher, to show us how we fall short of the glory of God, although that's part of it. Jesus came down to give us God's gift, God's treasure, himself. Jesus has always been first, the most valued, the most treasured in the eyes of God, his father. Jesus is first, but he made himself last.

15:21 He stepped into our self-serving comparison game and let insecure people just like us crucify him in a mad race to try to get another leg up on their competition. But it was in that moment that God put it all to a stop. God ended it in the death of his son. Because our comparisons will never reach God's standard. And so God raised Jesus, his son, from the dead to make a new world. The world he's always wanted. A world that looks like this strange vineyard. ruled by a generous Lord who keeps going out to bring more people in and removing anything that would bar the way.

16:10 And maybe that just might sound like good news if you know what it's like to be last picked for teams at the playground or to show up at the 11th hour knowing that all the hard work's already been done or to be young and inexperienced with no tools in your toolkit or to have made it to the top only to watch the bar get ever higher.

16:40 Maybe Jesus' message does sound like good news because it is good news. This comparison game that you found yourself in, it's on its way out. There's a new world coming that King Jesus is bringing, and it's already here because the old world died with him. And by faith in Jesus, by baptism in his name, you died with him. The world still runs on meritocracy for a little while longer. And God uses it to hold our old self-interested selves in check. But in Jesus, you don't have to play the comparison game anymore. you can play by grace instead. Grace doesn't mean no effort. It just means no earning. Because everything you have is a gift. Your work doesn't merit you anything from God because even your ability to work is a gift. So use your ability, your status, your experience, your tools, whatever you've been given, use them to serve others, especially those who have not yet had the same opportunities and advantages as you. Give them your best, because God gives you his best, his son, Jesus. Sometimes Christians can turn keeping up with the Joneses into keeping up with Jesus. But that's not what the Christian faith is about. Jesus didn't come to motivate you to jump higher. He came to give you his life. You don't have to keep up with Jesus because he's in you and you're in him. There's just a small but important part of his body, the church. In Jesus, we do not have to compare ourselves to anyone else.

18:48 and if we stop comparing ourselves with others, we're free to appreciate them. My friend Keith from the military, whom I told you about at the beginning, if I go back and think of it from his perspective, it could have been easy for him to look down on me, the new guy, 13 years younger than him, the kid who'd been given the same rank as him, the rookie who strolled into the vineyard after the hard work had been done, but that's not what Keith did. He treated me like an equal, and he taught me everything he knew, even how to organize my garage and get my lawnmower started. I was talking with Keith on the phone recently, and he shared that all those years ago, he had been tempted to compare himself to me.

19:45 When he saw me leave the military to study to become a pastor, he felt like that was an even higher bar, and that as an ordinary Christian, he couldn't measure up. But God has been good to remind us that we're not in a contest. Keith retired from the military a few years ago. He and his family bought a small farm in Oklahoma. They went from a comparably cramped lot in California to 23 acres. We felt like we were high cotton, Keith said, but we were just rookies. A neighbor had to show him how to start his tractor. That's how it goes. One moment, we're at the top. The next, we're newbies again. But what if there is no bar to clear? Author Justin Rossow suggests in his book, Escaping the Assembly Line, what if we saw life not as a high bar, but as treasure in a clay jar? What if instead of competitors, we saw people, ourselves included, handcrafted, incomparably unique creations of God, no two alike, each with our own story in Jesus, each shaped by his capable hands, each made to be filled with the same treasure of God's spirit and called to specific work in his vineyard. As the Bible says in 2 Corinthians chapter 4 verse 7, we have this treasure in clay jars to show that the surpassing power, the abundant ability is from God, not from us.

21:39 In the name of Jesus, amen.

22:10 Thanks for being here with us, Jeff. Thanks, Mike. Thanks for inviting me. So today we hear this symbolic story of the laborers in the vineyard. And in your commentary on this parable, you say that it's a wonderful and suspenseful story. It's the second longest of the parables that Jesus tells in Matthew. And part of the power I've seen in parables is that they can hit you so many different ways. And maybe at different times of your life, they speak to you differently or to different people. Would you talk about how the influence or the impact of a story like this, a parable that Jesus tells us, is influenced by what you bring to, what the listener here brings to it? Yeah, that's a great question, Mike. One kind of prior note is that a lot of Jesus' parables, maybe all of them that are about the reign of God or the kingdom, as our English translations give it, they're often kind of unexpected. They have these elements that are not normal.

23:07 So they're about everyday life. But that's not the way everyday life is as we normally expect it. So this is a classic example where the wage paid has nothing to do with the amount of work that's done. And Matthew does give us a context. Peter, at the end of chapter 19, has asked Jesus a question. Jesus has answered it. The best way to get one of at least the impacts of the story is to ask, well, how would Peter have responded? Or how is Jesus' parable a response to what Peter said? And his question is, what are we going to get? It's funny, it's kind of an interesting interchange because Peter says, look, we've left everything to follow you. Well, what will we get? And we might expect Jesus to say, you sinner, repent. That's a terrible question. But he doesn't say that. He says, well, look, you're the 12 apostles. I'm paraphrasing now. You have a unique place in God's history of salvation. In fact, on the last day, the apostles will, in some way that Jesus doesn't specify, participate in the judgment of the world.

24:07 You get a hint of this in Revelation where the new Jerusalem comes down from heaven, and on the 12 gates are written the names of the 12 apostles. And so these sinners, these sinful men who were chosen, they were chosen to play a unique role. Of course, they were also chosen to suffer uniquely as well. We know that too. So Jesus has just told Peter and the others, yeah, there's something really stupendous and glorious waiting for you. But then he says, and everyone who has left anything for my sake. It's a reasonable guess to think that Peter is, he's getting puffed up, right? Yeah. And it's really, what's really beautiful is the last verse of chapter 19, verse 30, and the last verse of the parable are the same saying, but it's reversed. The one says, the first will be last, last will be first. Peter says, the last will be first, first will be last. When the day is done, we're all the same. See, that's the point of the parable.

25:01 Everybody gets the same, quote unquote, wage. If you're a comparison type people and you want to come out on top, you're probably not going to like that message. It's the only message we have. But if you're among the poor in spirit, which we all are, we just forget. Now this parable is, what? It's really good news. It's really good news, yeah. One of the phrases you use in your commentary in the Gospel of Matthew to sum it all up is, all comparisons are odious. Yeah, yeah. How is that a helpful way to sum up the teaching of Jesus? Well, again, it takes the focus off me and how I compare with you or you with me. And you can play that game and win it. You can play that game and lose it. But that's not the way God operates. That's not the way Jesus operates. And so they're odious. I like that word because it means they smell, right? So related to odor.

25:54 And so we go through life constantly tempted to do that. But the gospel invites us not to do that, first of all, for our own peace of mind, our own troubled conscience. No, it's not about how much for me. It's about how much is he. That's also a transformative truth for people who hang out together. That is to say the church, that when we don't spend our time comparing and judging and competing with each other, this enables us to be a different kind of community in the church gives us that opportunity to do that so when where comparisons stop is when community can can truly begin that's a very nice way to say when comparisons stop community can really begin yep i like it all right thanks for being here with us yep glad to be here Jesus, remember us in your kingdom and teach us to pray.