(for the first part, on the Epistle.)
...And
now let us proceed to the parable which, under a figure altogether different,
would impress on us the same, lesson of earnest diligence and perseverance.
In order to understand its full scope and meaning, we must first consider the
occasion on which it was delivered. St. Peter had said, “Lo, we have left all,
and have followed Thee;” and our Lord in His answer, had added, “But many that
are first shall be last; and the last first;” and then He delivered this
parable, in further explanation. As if He had said; There will be no advantage
conferred on you because you are first called, for even from this time unto the
end of the world will be “the day of salvation,” in which the Householder will
be calling into His vineyard. Yet, although it was first spoken with a peculiar
reference to the disciples, warning them not to presume; yet, no doubt, our
blessed Lord, in delivering this parable, had an eye to all of us who read and
hear it this day; and did intend that it should speak to us as we should
naturally understand it.
The
Kingdom of Heaven is like unto a man
that is an householder, which went out early in the morning to hire labourer
into his vineyard. And when he had agreed with the labourers for a penny
a day, he sent them into his vineyard. What is life but a day after which
the night cometh, when no man can work? a day in which each has his work
appointed of God, as even our Lord Himself spake of His own, “I must work the
works of Him that sent Me, while it is day.” [St. John ix. 4] It is a day which
has its morning, noon, and evening fast succeeding each other, in each of which
the Householder is calling us into His vineyard.
First,
“early in the morning.” So was it with us all; early in the morning, before it
was yet day, did He, by Baptism, hire us into His vineyard with the promised
reward of eternal life. There is no other call like this call. Then, once for
all; we were taken into this vineyard.
But yet,
in some sense, we may consider that there is a call of God repeated to us
through our whole life, by natural reason and conscience, His providence and
grace. And he went out about the third hour; and saw others standing idle in
the market-place, and said unto them. Go ye also into the vineyard, and
whatsoever is right I will give you. And they went their way. “ At the
third hour,” in the time of youth, does He come to us, and not by Confirmation
only, but in numberless ways, call us aloud to labour in His vineyard, to do the
work of God in our own soul. However laborious our life may be, yet in the
sight of God, it is all a mere “idling in the marketplace” of this world, unless
our labour is in His service; yea, even religious service may be as nothing,
unless it be that work of repentance which He requires. It is in our own heart
that this great work is to be; and how much this work is of all others the most
neglected, everyone’s own conscience will tell him. But, above all the other
constraining meanings of this parable, by which God is at all times calling us
to this one great business of repentance, the Church of all ages, by appointing
this lesson for this Sunday of Septuagesima, does evidently intend us to
understand it most especially as applied to this coming season of Lent. By thus
introducing it, the Church says to us, consider this approaching Lent as the
call of God to work in His vineyard; in whatever age of life you may be, in
childhood, or youth, or manhood, or old age, now, once for all, hear this voice,
as if you had never heard it before, and as if you should never hear it again.
For you that are “at the third hour” may never live to hear the summons “at the
sixth;” and you that are “at the sixth hour” may never reach “the ninth.” But
at all hours of the day, whatever your period of life may be, answer this His
call to repentance, with that answer of the heart which is by earnest obedience
and prayer. “In the evening, and morning, and at noonday will I pray,” says the
Psalmist, “and that instantly, and He shall hear my voice.” [Ps. lv. 18] So, in
the evening, or morn, or noon of life, may we instantly hear the voice of God
and obey. At all times hearing His call, “Seek ye My face;” at all times
answering, by our prayers and service, “Thy face, Lord, will I seek.”
Again He
went out about the sixth and ninth hour, and did likewise. The third call is at “the
sixth hour,” or the time of youthful manhood, and the fourth call is at “the
ninth hour,” or coming on of old age, as St. Augustin explains it. Such will
this approaching Lent be to many of us, as the sun of life is beginning to go
down; the call of God into His vineyard, as if we had never laboured there
before.
And about
the eleventh hour he went out, and found others standing idle, and saith unto
them, Why stand ye here all the day idle? This may be the case with some even
in this Christian land, “all the day idle!” their whole life lost, as to the
things of eternity; all their work to begin with feeble and cold hands.
Sometimes, even at such a time, some great reverse of condition, some
affliction, or the prospect of death, will be the means in which God comes and
thus speaks, when He seems, as it were, to uplift a veil which had been upon
their souls, and His awful whisper is heard, of Judgment, of Heaven, and Hell,
and of the door for ever closed.
Perhaps
to one who has been under the cloud of ignorance, or evil company, or bad
habits, all his life, the light will thus break in from the everlasting morning,
as the night of old age and death is overtaking him. And this Lent may be his
first entering the vineyard. Nay, it has been the case with some very holy men,
that, when at last disengaged from the world, and contemplating the holiness of
God, and the near approach of His Presence, they have seemed to themselves as if
they had been trifling all their life long, “all the day standing idle,” so
little do they seem to have done, compared with what they had always wished and
intended to do, and now wish they had done. Now do they seem, as if for the
first time, to hear the voice of God, even “at the eleventh hour,” so little do
they seem to have heard and attended to it before. Such, indeed, a sense of
their condition, in good men, is no other than the Holy Spirit pleading within
them, and making them to know the holiness, and, the love, and the majesty of
God; His light breaks in upon them through the rents and failing of their
earthly tabernacle, and His awful rays penetrate the veil of the flesh, when it
is about to be removed, and make them to feel that all the efforts of their past
life were but idleness; their best deeds as done for some one else but their one
true Master. It is, indeed, for such especially that our Lord seems to make
this mention of a call “at the eleventh hour,” because to such this His
expression has been an especial source of comfort. Thou callest me now, at
length, they seem to say, at the eleventh hour; and now, as if for the first
time, I rise and hear Thy call. This has been the case with those who laboured
long, and, in so doing, have persevered unto the end.
They say
unto Him, Because no man hath hired us. This, indeed, can properly be said
by none of us, because the Son of Man hath, from the early morning of our life,
hired us into His vineyard. But, alas, how many a self-stricken, sorrowful
penitent must, at this approach of Lent, find an echo to this answer in his own
heart? I seem to have been wandering all my life, as a sheep that is lost; oh,
seek Thy servant; if Thou seekest not, the night will have overtaken us, and we
have none else to go to. There is no hire, no recompense, no wages, but with
Thee. Lord to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life.
He saith
unto them, Go ye also into the vineyard, and whatsoever is right, that shall ye
receive.
Thus was it with the penitent thief on the cross; at the last hour was he
called by the gracious Spirit pleading within him, and he obeyed the call; and,
as if a pledge of the truth of these our Lord’s words, he was the last called by
Him when the night of death approached, and he was the first to enter the
Kingdom: “This day shalt thou be with Me in Paradise.” And it may be observed
that this parable must have been full of consolation at the first preaching of
the Gospel, when many who had been heathens or Jews all their lives were called
by God’s mercy, and deeply repented, and were baptized late in life, having
never before heard and disobeyed the call, as, alas, too many of us have done.
We now
come to another part of the parable, So when even was come, the lord of the
vineyard saith unto his steward, Call the labourers, and give them, their hire,
beginning from the last unto the first. And when they came that were hired
about the eleventh hour, they received every man a penny. That is the gift
of eternal life, that which is even now, in some sense, the joy of their Lord,
the fruition of God, the countenance of the King. But when the first came,
they supposed that they should have received more; they thought that a
difference would have been made in their favour: and they likewise received
every man a penny. And when they had received it, they murmured against the
good man of the house, saying, These last have wrought but one hour, and thou
hast made them equal unto us, which have borne the burden and heat of the day.
Now this does not mean at the Day of Judgement or in Heaven hereafter, for
there can be no murmuring there; but this part of the parable had an especial
reference to the Jews, who were so full of envy at the Gentiles being called
into all the privileges of the Gospel, as well as themselves. Such was the
elder brother in the parable of the prodigal son, who was so offended at the
welcome given to his returning brother; and the circumstance is often alluded to
in the Gospels. But, no doubt, it is spoken as a warning to us, as much as unto
them: there is a great and peculiar danger which besets those who have long had
the blessing of religious privileges, and who, on that account, are liable to be
esteemed by others, and to esteem themselves religious; a danger of secretly
despising others who have not had the same advantages; of thinking light of
their conversion; and of becoming themselves, therefore, careless, and
hard-hearted, and proud. This danger is so important, so overtakes persons
unawares, that many who think not of it are constantly being left behind in the
race of eternity by others who seemed once far worse than themselves. And it is
the more serious and alarming, as, from the very nature of the case, it is not
likely to be found out in this world; for the difference will consist more in
the secret state of the heart than anything else, which will only come to their
knowledge when they are commanded hereafter to take the lowest place, or find
that they are shut out altogether from the Kingdom. It has been said, that, if
we ourselves should be admitted into Heaven at last, there ‘are two things at
which we shall be surprised; one, that we shall find many there whom we should
not have expected; the other, that we shall find that many are not there whom we
should have expected to see there. If this be the case, it will be greatly
owing to this circumstance. Oh, how fearful and wonderful is our probation; how
full of encouragement at all times; at all times how full of terror!
For, if
there is awful warning, there is also great consolation in what our Lord here
says, that even at the last hour, by a full and effectual repentance, a very
earnest penitent may obtain such love and such humility, as to be equal to the
first; when feeling that he is much forgiven, he loves much; when he is as the
lost sheep, whom the good Shepherd has found, and carries back on His shoulders
rejoicing, when the good angels and the Father Who is in Heaven rejoice with
Him. It is the seal of our Lord’s own gracious promise on the words of His
prophet, “If the wicked will turn from all his sins that he hath committed, and
do that which is lawful and right, he shall surely live, he shall not die.”
[Ezek. xviii. 21.]
Thus, as
the manna in the wilderness was agreeable to every taste and suited to every
need, so is this most gracious doctrine of the Gospel to those who will heartily
and truly repent, without putting off, from day to day, at whatever hour it be.
It would remove all despair and distrust of God’s mercy by which many perish,
and, at the same time, cut off presumptuous hope, by which still more are lost.
It tends to keep us, in ourselves, full of humility and of fear, and, at the
same time, more and more sensible of the undeserved mercies of God.
But he
answered one of them, and said, Friend, I do thee no wrong; didst thou not agree
with me for a penny? Take that thine is, and go thy way. I will give unto this
last even as unto thee. Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine
own? Is thine eye evil because I am good? God is good to all; and here it is to be
observed, that even he who complains does not deny but that God has been
perfectly good and just to him; it is on the extent and the greatness of God’s
goodness, embracing others as well as himself, that this envious man looks with
an evil eye. His eye is evil because God is good. Yet it seems implied in
this, that although everything is the free gift of God according to His promise,
yet that in these ways of God’s grace there is something mysterious and
inscrutable to man; something hidden in the wisdom and goodness of God which is
quite beyond all our power to comprehend in this life. It is enough for each
one of us to know that God is to him good and just. That which is here
represented as so unsearchable, is not the ways of God in general, but His
undeserved mercies. It was under a sense of this that St. Paul cried out, “O
the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How
unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out.” [Rom. xi. 33.]
Our Lord
often concludes His discourses with some short and striking saying, which He
would have us always remember. So the last shall be first, and the first
last: for many be called but few chosen. This is the sum and purport
of the whole parable, that those who were first called become the last in God’s
Kingdom from want of charity and humility—they are apt to fall from some secret
pride; while others, by very earnest repentance becoming humbled, pass before
them, and persevere unto the end lowly and contrite. But the last words are
still more awful and impressive; that, in consequence of this, it arises that
“many are called, but few chosen;” it is this circumstance which renders the way
of life narrow and difficult, because so few attain unto this grace of
perseverance. I suppose that all persons have, at some time or other, serious
thoughts, and are impressed more or less with a sense of God and eternity. This
is probably some more especial call to them from the Great Householder. But,
for the most part, these intentions pass away, and they who are thus called do
not grow in grace and humility unto the end.
Let us
now again return to the Epistle for to-day, and pause to consider the remarkable
example of St. Paul, as there set forth, for our imitation and warranty. Not
his supernatural call, not his miraculous conversion, not his labours in
preaching the Gospel to the whole world, not all his imprisonments, and trials,
and suffering, even unto death, not his being taken up into Paradise and hearing
unspeakable words, not the abundance of the revelations which were given him,
could save St. Paul from working out his own salvation, with fear and trembling,
unto the last; and, especially, could not relieve him from the necessity of
mortifying the flesh. Nor did he do this with the view of obtaining any great
meritorious sanctity or perfection above others, but in order that he might not
be a “castaway.” It was this, his persevering humiliation unto the last, which
kept him above others in grace and goodness; if he had presumed he would have
fallen below them.
One of
the greatest saints of old times,—one, perhaps, most like to St. Paul himself in
his labours,—in speaking of this passage [St. Chrys. in 1 Cor., Hom. xxiii.],
exclaims, “If even Paul thus feared, what shall we say?” and I think such a
reflection must force itself on every thoughtful mind, in these days, in a
manner so painful as almost to occasion a feeling of despair; for the best of
men now alive, when he compares himself with St. Paul, must indeed feel as if he
were one of those who had been “standing idle in the market-place all the day.”
What healing medicine, what antidote can be found against such a sense of
despondency? It will be found in this parable. For what if it be the case that
all our life has been hitherto wasted and lost, yet even now, although it be at
the ninth or eleventh hour, there is a call into the vineyard from Him Who “will
not break the bruised reed, nor quench the smoking flax;” and Who has Himself
assured us, that there is more joy in Heaven over one sinner that repenteth,
than over ninety and nine just persons who need no repentance.
