Who Did His Father’s Will?
Matt 21:28-32
Jesus’ teaching has many places in it where it is difficult to understand what he means. And, then there are those places where his meaning is clear, but the application what he says is tricky – or so we like to think. We have one of those places in the gospel lesson for today. The lectionary we are following assigns for today’s gospel the parable of the two sons. I have included the verses in Matthew 21 which come before it, because it helps to set the scene for Jesus’ parable.
The larger context of this episode is the last week of Jesus’ life. This is one of many climactic scenes between Jesus and the religious leadership of the Jews, scenes in which Jesus gets the Pharisees and Sadducees put in their place, so much so that they decide the only way they’re going to succeed in thwarting Jesus is to kill him.
But, in one of their last attempts to trap Jesus in some statement which they can use against him, they demand to know directly from Jesus what authority he has to do what he has been doing and to say the kinds of things that he has been saying.
Jesus, of course, puts the question back on them. “I’ll answer your question,” he says, “if you first answer one of mine. Was John’s baptism from God or from the people.” Matthew tells us that they carefully considered how to reply to this. And as they pondered the possible answers they could give, they figured out that they couldn’t actually answer the question without trapping themselves. If they said, “From God,” then they would leave themselves upon to a retort from Jesus – “Then why didn’t you believe him?” But, if they said, “From the people,” they feared the crowds, for the crowds were convinced that John was a prophet sent from God.
So Jesus asks them another question: What do you think? And he tells the parable of the two sons.
The father tells the first son to go work in the vineyard, and the first son says, “No.” Later, however, he regrets this and goes into the vineyard.
The father tells the second son to go work in the vineyard, and the second son says, “Yes.” But, he never goes into the vineyard.
Which one, Jesus asks, did the will of his father? This is one that the Pharisees cannot wriggle out of. The answer is obvious – the first son. Even though he initially said “no,” he later regretted his refusal, and he entered the vineyard. But, the second son, though his words were “yes,” his actions were “no.” Jesus inquired who DID the father’s will, not who SAID he was going to do it.
So, the Pharisees give the only answer that is possible: they admit that the first son was the one who did the Father’s will. And then, Jesus clobbers them.
“Tax collectors and prostitutes will go into the Kingdom of Heaven before you.” Why? Well, they are like the first son – their words and deeds say NO to God’s will, but when John comes preaching, they repent. The Pharisees and Sadducees, on the other hand, they’re always insisting that they were serving God. But, when God’s prophet John comes preaching, they refuse his message. And, to make matters worse, when they see those whom they think are the worst of sinners repenting – they STILL won’t repent themselves.
So, what implications do we draw from all this for ourselves? Well, I trust that we who are gathered here today are not the Pharisees. If Paul is correct, that among us there are not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble among us. Instead, we are far more apt to be those Paul calls the foolish things of the world the weak things of the world the base things of the world and the things which are despised the things which are not -- these are, Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 1, the kinds of people whom God calls. In the ministry of John the Baptist, it was the traitorous tax collectors and the prostitutes who were repenting. And, this is just as Paul tells us – God chooses those kinds of people, and he sends them into his vineyard to work.
If you’ve ever run into an occasion where you supposed God were calling you, and you didn’t go, think again. Maybe you were just rebellious. Paul himself was certainly that way. Or, perhaps you are like Moses, who thinks that he is not very eloquent, certainly not eloquent enough to be God’s spokesman. Or, perhaps, you have felt like Isaiah – who when called by the Lord was overwhelmed with a sense of his own uncleanness, and the uncleanness of the nation in which he was born. It’s as if God looks out over all those whom he might call, and guess whom he calls the most often – it’s the ones who are most apt to say “no.”
Why? Paul says it is so that when they regret their no and go into the vineyard, God will get the glory for it, and no one may do as these Pharisees and Sadducees are doing—being puffed up and prideful and self-righteous, even though they are actually doing nothing that God has asked them to do.
A second implication is this: God is very willing to wait to see what we will do. God is generous in giving room for repentance.
I think one of the most astounding evidences for God’s willingness to wait is found in the ministry of the Prophet Enoch. Enoch was the prophet who preached the coming judgment before the Great Flood. When Enoch was 65 years old, he sired a son, to whom he gave a very odd name. In Hebrew, the name is Methusaleh. But, that name has a meaning – in Hebrew it means “When he dies, it will come.”
When he dies, WHAT will come? Well, the implication is that when Methusaleh dies, the judgment Enoch was preaching would come. And, if you run a time-line based on the numbers on the genealogies of Genesis, what we find? We find that Methusaleh died in the year of the flood. Methusaleh’s very long life is testimony to God’s willing to give room for repentance.
Another implication of Jesus’ parable is very plain – talk is cheap; deeds are what proves one’s intentions are true. James put it another way – faith without works is dead. James wrote in chapter 2 of his general epistle, 14 What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him? 15 If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, 16 and one of you says to them, “Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,” but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? 17 Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. … 21 Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered Isaac his son on the altar? … 25 Likewise, was not Rahab the harlot also justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out another way? 26 For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.”
The last implication for us from Jesus’ parable I want to mention is this: it is always the right time to repent. Because God is patient, because he is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance, he waits. And that means for you, the time to repent is today.
Even God’s patience – as very long as it is – has an end. If we have breath, the time to regret our failure to obey and to repent of that disobedience is today. The time to leave whatever else we have been doing and go into the vineyard, as God has commanded, that time is today. And, when we do this, the earlier disobedience does not matter, for at the judgment it will be said that we have done the will of our Father in heaven.
God grant that we may be like those tax collectors and prostitutes who heard the preaching of John and repented. May we be like Rahab the harlot, who saw and understood the judgment coming toward her land in the armies of Israel, and repented. And, may we be like all those reluctant Prophets of Israel, who laid aside their fears, their excuses, their aversion to God’s call, and instead regretted their reluctance and took up the work God had for them to do.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
