Last week we heard about Jesus’ parable of the workers in the vineyard.  Jesus answers the complaint that God isn’t fair. He does so by using the parable of the laborers in the field, explaining how the first will be last and the last first, highlighting the generosity and grace of God.

This week we hear a similar issue, one where God’s people still complain that He isn’t fair to them.  Last week we focused on how from our point of view, God is not fair, but He is gracious.  This week we hear God’s answer that He is fair, He is more fair and just than you or I could be, repaying evil with evil and good with good.

When it comes down to it, that is what we really want.  We want God to be fair, we want justice in the world and in life. We want consistency so we know where we stand before other people and before God. This is what we want, yet this is also the very fact that scares us.  God is just and fair, but we are not.  We are unfair. We sin in thought, word, and deed, by what we have done and by what we have left undone. We have no loved our neighbors as ourselves. We justly deserve God’s present and eternal punishment.

God makes it clear in Ezekiel that sinful man must stand before a holy God at the judgment.  God is holy and cannot condone sin.  He is righteous and has promised to punish sin.  This is the kind of Judge we need, one who is fair and just, who punishes evil and rewards good.  But this is also the kind of Judge that we fear, who makes us squirm in our seats, uncomfortable with who we are as sinners against God’s holy and righteous Law.

It’s not that God isn’t fair, the problem is that He is fair.  If a man is righteous, he shall live. If a man is wicked, he shall die.  It is that simple, that fair.  Our problem comes in the reality that we are not righteous by our own merits.  As Isaiah says, All our righteous acts are like a polluted garment (Isaiah 64:6). When faced with God’s judgment, with His standard of perfect holiness and righteousness, we don’t like where that leaves us – deserving the consequences for your sinful thoughts, words, and deeds.  

Yet God is also merciful. For God has consigned all to disobedience, that He may have mercy on all, not wishing that any should perish but that all should reach repentance and believe in the Lord Jesus (Romans 11:32; 2 Peter 3:9). He is merciful in not giving you what you deserve, but instead giving you what Jesus deserves.  God solves this with the cross.  For on the cross, God’s justice and His wrath against sin are satisfied. On the cross, Jesus takes the punishment that you deserve. On the cross, the judgment is “guilty!” for Jesus, so that for you who believe in Him may hear from the judgment seat of Christ, “justified! Innocent! Free!” In the mercy of Almighty God, Jesus Christ was given to die for us, and for His sake God forgives us all our sins.  To those who believe in Jesus Christ He gives the power to become the children of God and bestows on them the Holy Spirit.

Where does the authority come from that God can do this?  That is the same question that is asked of Jesus in our Gospel reading today.  What gives God the right to be my judge, to decide what is good and what is bad.  His right, His authority comes from being God, from being your creator.  The authority comes from the fact that since God created all, He guides and directs His creation.  You see, “God isn’t like you.  He doesn’t think like the way you think.  His ways are not your ways.  And He doesn’t owe you, or anyone, anything.”

When we begin to think that the Lord somehow owes us a special status and owes us grace for what we have done and what we have not done.  We too sin when we think that we can somehow manage, manipulate, control, and domesticate the Lord’s grace, as if His grace must respond to who we are and what we do.  As sinners, we deserve only punishment. As Christians, we get only Jesus.

The Lord pleads with His people, He pleads with you today, to repent of your sins, to turn away from all the transgressions you have committed, to live in Christ and to not die! This is not just turning around in circles, but it’s a turning to Jesus.  It’s a turning to the One who takes all your punishment, all your guilt, all the death and the hell that you deserve, so that eternal life may be yours.  For His righteousness is perfect and holy and He gives it to you freely through the Gospel of His Word and Sacraments.

Soon, we will sing our offertory song, “Create in me.” Psalm 51, a song composed by King David after the prophet Nathan had shown him his sins and guilt and unfairness with Bathsheba. These words do not just belong to David, these words are the Lord’s.  These are the Lord’s words that He gives to you today, to hear with the ears of faith, to sing with repentant joy in the sacrifice of Jesus for you. “Create in me a clean heart O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Cast me not away from Your presence and take not Thy Holy Spirit from me.  Restore unto me the joy of Thy salvation, and uphold me with Thy free Spirit.” This is our prayer of faith, our response to God’s gift in Christ, and our witness to the world about the fairness of God. Amen.