At young ages, kids have a highly developed sense of justice. If you have a brother and sister bickering over who should get the bigger piece of cake, you let one of them cut and the other to choose the first piece. You can imagine how that cutting will be done. Out comes the tongue, as the one tries to cut the piece into two perfect halves--maybe even the ruler to measure. Then as soon as the piece is selected, the cutter is absolutely convinced he didn't cut it equally. "Mom, she still got the bigger piece."

It doesn't get any better as we get older. Everyone wants what they think they deserve and full credit for what they have done. Imagine the scene in our text, going on in a workplace today. I can't. But here's how the story goes: The owner of a vineyard--we could say a farm-finds a bunch of people who have no visible source of income that day. A little sidenote: As I hear about more layoffs, I hope it doesn't come to that, but this is what it was like in those days. Guys would work for the day, only if they get picked up. No job security; no bennies, but at least an income-at least for a day.

The men who are there in the morning get picked up. They agree on a wage that is equal to a day's worth of work and go out to work. While out there, more come out and a little later in the day even more workers. Finally, the last hour of work-it's now about 5:00 in the evening and still more workers head out into the vineyard and work, but of course, only for an hour. The 6:00 whistle blows and the workers come together to be paid.

Here's what we would expect. The last workers come forward and are paid a twelfth of a day's wages because they only worked a twelfth of the day. The ones that came out at 3:00, a quarter of the day's wages; the ones that came out at noon, a half; and so on. But that's not the story.

Jesus flips it upside down. The owner of the vineyard is fair but he is also extremely generous. He was fair because he paid the first set of workers exactly what they expected the whole time they were working. But he was extremely generous in that he paid the last workers the same.

Does it surprise you the first guys grumbled? It doesn't me. In fact, I could hear some today saying, "I'm gonna sue." They may not have a case for a lawsuit, but they have a legitimate right to grumble-at least, according to our sense of justice.

But God's justice isn't our justice. And maybe we don't know it, but we should thank Him eternally it is not. Jesus started off by saying, "The kingdom of heaven is like…" and that's the point. We are not talking about earth, we are talking about the kingdom of heaven, the Lord's gracious reign. He rules over us with rules we don't have. He doesn't operate the same as we do. We may protest, "I want to be treated the way I deserve, what I have earned," but that's a very foolish thing to say. For one thing, we have the passage in Romans, "The wages of sin is death." No, we don't want to be paid what we deserve.

Actually, God has a strange sense of justice. Many people find it so strange they reject what He has done. He kills an innocent man. He takes part in the injustice not just by condemning Him to death, but even to hell. Can you think of a worse injustice? Is it any wonder why people reject what He has done? Their sense of justice says, "This is not right. God is a barbarian, if He really does what Christians claim He has done. He is a monster. If God had anything to do with the death of this man who they had been told to believe is His Son, then He is worse than a criminal.

Never mind that He created these people who reject Him and is therefore superior to them. Never mind that He said, "My ways are not your ways. As high as the heavens are above the earth so are my ways above yours." No, professing themselves to be oh so wise, they become fools. They cannot accept the idea that God operates with a different sense of justice, and therefore reject what He has done.

How sad, because the death of this man, His Son, God Himself, is exactly what they and we need. He was punished in our place. His death is what we deserved. He is punished and we go free. That's God's justice. That's love. Rather than condemning us, He condemns His own Son. Rather than simply being spared the punishment, He promises us eternal life in heaven.

Oh no, you don't want to be treated like you deserve. The passage, "The wages of sin is death," just scratches the surface, and yet makes the whole point. Death, eternal death is what we deserve. Yes, we deserve hell. First, because of the sin of Adam, which we have inherited, but then everything we pile up after that. Even this idea we want to be treated with justice. "I'm working at it, God. Treat me with justice, but go easy on me. Remember all the good things I tried to do and all my effort, and that should make up for the bad things." Even thinking like that is sin. It rejects what He has done.

You really do want to be treated as He treats you. He calls you His child, because He calls you His child. He has simply chosen you and promised eternal life to you. No, you don't deserve it; I don't deserve it, but He gives it. Justice, as we expect it, is the last thing we want.

Now, Jesus could make the point that His system of justice is different from ours with some other story, and He does, but this one talks about guys working harder than others and being treated the same, so we need to use the terms of this story.

Some of you have been Christians all your lives, baptized as infants, and others of you were converted later in life. Some people will even have deathbed conversions. And yet, all of His people-no matter when they became Christian--can expect the glories of heaven.

This seems unfair because some have been Christian all their lives. Our sense of justice says not everyone should be treated the same. Those who have been Christian all their lives, have been out in the world for a long time and have probably done more good works than someone who hasn't. They have been obedient longer. They went to church more. They did more church things. It would seem unfair that they would not be rewarded for all of this. But what do we say about God's justice? It's not like ours (Pause to let them answer)

But what about all this going to church more and doing more church things? We look at our friends and family who go to different churches and see they are like the guys who were hired toward the beginning of the day and worked more. Our friends who are Roman Catholic are expected to do more, and surely do more than we do as Lutherans. They have to go to mass, fast on Fridays of Lent, pay their church dues, pray Hail Mary's, and go to confession. Our friends and family who are in other denominations, also seem to do more. Some of them can't watch T.V., have to wear dresses and long hair, and go to church all day on Sunday. Others go to church and most of the sermon is telling them how they can show they are sold-out for Jesus, how they can show that they have been changed by becoming a Christian, and constantly urged to live the victorious life, whether they feel like they are or not. Where does this leave us Lutherans?

I have a friend who called herself a "lazy Lutheran." At first I didn't know what she meant, and then she compared us Lutherans to everyone else. We don't have to do all that stuff. And you know what? She's right. We don't. None of that stuff will make any difference in improving our standing with God. I didn't like being called a "lazy Lutheran," but the name fit.

Actually, this isn't just Lutheranism, it's Christianity. It's just that Lutherans get this. They get it. Salvation is a gift. Pure gift.

With this in mind, let's retell the story a little differently. The story's point is valid. God's justice is not like ours, we are given better than we deserve, but if we wanted to bring out the idea of gift, the story would go more like this: The master of the house went into the marketplace to hire some laborers to work in his vineyard. He found some people standing idle there, pulled out his wallet and paid them a day's wages. Now, let me ask you: What did they have to do to be paid in this version of the story? Nothing. He gave them a gift.

The wages of sin may be death, but the gift of God is eternal life. Gift. What did we have to do to be promised eternal life? Nothing. We don't have to go to church. We don't have to pray. We don't have to do anything at all.

So, why do we do these things? That's a good question, because simply doing them doesn't do anything to improve our position with God. People can do them and still be lost as today's Old-Testament lesson and Epistle lesson teach us.

So, why do we do them? Because these are also gifts from Him and because we need what He gives us. Does it make sense that He would go into the marketplace and pay people who haven't done anything? No. Does it make sense that He would give us such a big gift and not require anything from us? No. This is God's justice.

But the devil is working. And when he works, he lies. He will tell us God hasn't done this. He will tell us we're not so bad that we need His charity. He will tell us God isn't that generous anyway. He will tell us when bad things happen, this is a sign that God doesn't care about us anymore. He will say we have forfeited His favor because we have sinned.

And so we need the Lord's gifts again and again so the devil can't drive us away with his lies. We need to hear our Lord say, "You are forgiven." We need His body and blood to give us that forgiveness and demonstrate what He did to earn it. We need to remember our baptism daily, to remind us we are truly His children and that He is pleased with us because we are covered with Christ. We need to pray so we remember He is the one who supplies the wisdom and those things we need to survive, especially when times are tough, or even when they are really good. Because the devil is looking for any crack to get in. We need to serve our neighbor, not because God demands it of us and threatens to take away His grace if we don't, but because our neighbor needs our service. Also, because when we fail, we see just how badly we need His generosity, and that we could never earn it.

Lazy Lutherans? Yeah. We don't have to do any of this to be saved. We've already been paid. This is God's justice, the kind that gives, and gives freely. Thank God that He follow His ideas of justice and not ours.

AMEN