Matthew, Luke and Universalism
The parables of the lost sheep and the vineyard workers

Introduction:
I always wish to argue the position that God will save everyone, because this seems logical to me. I was specifically looking through the archives here for Bible quotes that may say God is not universalistic, and was going to prepare an essay which argued that we should reject the Bible as a moral God's word on the basis of these anti-universalistic verses. However I found some strongly universalistic text in the Christian gospels.

When I read Matt 20:1-16 I initially concluded that it was true that the Christian God was limited rather than universalistic: It was saying that God will give out whatever he wants to whoever he wants, whether it's "fair" or not. So I noted it all down and moved on. I then found a website that listed all the major parables, and I found the Parables of the Lost Sheep in Matthew and Luke. Something amazing and beautiful hit me and I had the overwhelming urge to put all these parables together, along with my aim to prove God is unfair, and create an essay₁. I was writing at full speed, inspired, and not even on coffee. I was playing loud industrial music by a power noise band called Flesh Field.

Half way through writing the "God is unfair" essay I realized suddenly what my fingers were trying to write₂. Suddenly some things all came together and I wrote the following rant (I have included Bible verses because I know from experience that it's easy to skip them and not look them up):

Matt 20:1-16 NIV: The parable of the vineyard workers

¹"For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire men to work in his vineyard. ²He agreed to pay them a denarius for the day and sent them into his vineyard.

³"About the third hour he went out and saw others standing in the marketplace doing nothing. ⁴He told them, 'You also go and work in my vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.' ⁵So they went.

⁶"He went out again about the sixth hour and the ninth hour and did the same thing. About the eleventh hour he went out and found still others standing around. He asked them, 'Why have you been standing here all day long doing nothing?'

⁷" 'Because no one has hired us,' they answered. "He said to them, 'You also go and work in my vineyard.'

⁸"When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, 'Call the workers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last ones hired and going on to the first.'

⁹"The workers who were hired about the eleventh hour came and each received a denarius. ¹⁰So when those came who were hired first, they expected to receive more. But each one of them also received a denarius. ¹¹When they received it, they began to grumble against the landowner.¹²'These men who were hired last worked only one hour,' they said, 'and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day.'

¹³"But he answered one of them, 'Friend, I am not being unfair to you. Didn't you agree to work for a denarius? ¹⁴Take your pay and go. I want to give the man who was hired last the same as I gave you. ¹⁵Don't I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?'

¹⁶"So the last will be first, and the first will be last."

Denarius is not any arbitrary amount. It's a full day's pay. It is the reward 'of the kingdom of heaven'. It is salvation. The passage is saying that even if at the last moment you do enough, God will jump at the chance of giving you a full reward. This is because God is Loving, and only needs the slightest gesture from us before he will excitedly and lovingly accept us into his fold. He cannot give more than 100%, and that is what the gift of a Denarius is. The jealous voice in verse 15 is someone (perhaps a devout Christian!) who thinks they have worked harder for salvation than other people. It is someone who thinks they've got there first.₃

Parable of the lost sheep. God will go out of his way to save people. God will do anything to save a single person. All that person has to do is some honest work. In the parable of the sheep, the lost sheep has to do nothing at all. It is saved because God loves it. It is not punished for getting lost, for going off on its own. Not only is it not punished, but when God brings it back, God celebrates. Here is the scriptures:

1) Matthew 12:11 (KJV)

¹²And he said unto them, What man shall there be among you, that shall have one sheep, and if it fall into a pit on the sabbath day, will he not lay hold on it, and lift it out?

2) Matthew 18:11-14 (KJV)

For the Son of man is come to save that which was lost.
¹² How think ye? if a man have an hundred sheep, and one of them be gone astray, doth he not leave the ninety and nine, and goeth into the mountains, and seeketh that which is gone astray?
¹³ And if so be that he find it, verily I say unto you, he rejoiceth more of that sheep, than of the ninety and nine which went not astray.
¹⁴ Even so it is not the will of your Father which is in heaven, that one of these little ones should perish.

3) Luke 15:4-7 (KJV)

⁴ What man of you, having an hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost, until he find it?
⁵ And when he hath found it, he layeth it on his shoulders, rejoicing.
⁶ And when he cometh home, he calleth together his friends and neighbours, saying unto them, Rejoice with me; for I have found my sheep which was lost.
⁷ I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons, which need no repentance

The first one is free salvation. God wishes, and does, hold on and save those who fall into a pit. People only spent a finite time in 'the pit'. God eventually rescues all.

The second one. Free salvation: 'It is not the will of God that one of these little ones should perish'. God will go out of his way, leaving all the others behind, to rescue the lost sheep. The ones left behind are the same as the workers who were hired on the first hours. They do not have a right to complain as they already have eternity, they already have everything. Now, God goes and saves one who does not have everything.

The third one is the same but has a single extra note. 'joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repents'. On this model, the sinner needed to repent. This is not present in the versions that Matthew gives us: Luke feels all sinners need to repent before God will willingly save them. The first sheep parable says that no-one would not save a helpless sheep, the second one phrases it as 'God wills not one of these perish', the third one, Luke adds but God can't save you unless you repent. This contradicts 'who will not lay hold on it, and lift it out?'

If you just accept Matthew you can see that God is universalistic and will methodically save everyone. If you just accept Luke, you find that God there will only be 'joy in heaven' when the 'sinner repents'. Luke makes the same addition in his Parable of the Lost Coin immediately afterwards₄. If you, however, accept all of these accounts simultaneously and add the parable of The Workers in the Vineyard we find that the overall intention makes more sense then any of them individually:

All will be saved. Matthew makes this clear. Luke makes it doubly clear that those who repent will be saved. The Vineyard parable makes it clear that those who were saved due to repenting have no right to question 'what God does with his money'. Those who have worked harder get the same reward as those who come in last. Who, asked God, would not go after that which is lost until he find it? God never gives up, eventually he finds all of us.₅