Today’s passage from the Gospels tells the parable of the two sons. Parables were stories that Jesus told to give a spiritual or moral lesson. They were not just for empty entertainment, but were meant to show or teach spiritual truths to His listeners. The parable in our Scripture tells of a man who came to his two sons and asks the first one to go work in their vineyard. He tells his father he doesn’t want to, and goes off on his way. Later he feels bad for what he told his father, changes his mind, and goes to work in the vineyard. Meanwhile, the father asked his second son to also work in the vineyard. He told his father that he would, but instead went off to do as he pleased.
The story Jesus told wasn’t just about children and their lack of obedience to their parents. Jesus is illustrating two classes of people - those who claim to follow God and look highly upon themselves for supposedly doing so, and then those “others”, which the religious folks look down upon. As He told this parable, Jesus was seated around not only His disciples, but also among many of the Pharisees, who were members of a Jewish sect which outwardly strictly kept to the Jewish religious regulations, and felt spiritually superior to everyone who didn’t. Jesus wanted those who were outwardly self-righteous and sanctimonious to take a good look at themselves, so He asks them which of the two really obeyed their father.
This was a hypothetical question, as the answer was very obvious. As the Pharisees answered, they didn’t expect that their answer was going to nail them and show them for what they really were, hypocrites whose religious practices and faith were really fake. The nation of Israel in Jesus’s day, particularly the Pharisees, just pretended to obey God. They were not serious with God. They really did what they wanted, what they felt was right. Those who they looked down on, the “sinners”, they were the ones who had had a true change of heart, had a true conversion (vs. 31).
This didn’t really go over too well with the Pharisees. Those outwardly religious hypocrites in the group were infuriated that Jesus said that tax collectors and prostitutes who honestly repent and had truly converted would enter God’s Kingdom, and not them. John the Baptist had also preached true repentance and faith, and for the most part the Pharisees had rejected his message, just as they rejected Jesus’s message right then. Many of the notorious sinners, such as the tax collectors and prostitutes, though, took both John the Baptist’s and Jesus’s message to heart, and were saved (vs. 32).
So how can we apply this lesson to our own lives today? Doing what God says is more important than just saying it, giving lip service. Do we just quote Bible verses, or do we actually live what we’re saying? How many people come to church every Sunday carrying their Bibles, sit up front, sing the hymns loudly, but their heart and life do not reflect the Savior? Jesus doesn’t want followers who just say the right words, but their actions are different. As He said in verse 31, there will be many people who have lived all sorts of sinful lives, who truly give their hearts to Him, change their lives around, and will be in heaven. But those whose faith is only outward show and not true, will not be there.
Not only that, but God wants His children to be obedient, even after they have been saved. The father in the parable was not pleased when his son did not obey, especially when he had given his word. God wants faithful workers in His Kingdom. We are to work faithfully, without procrastination. Can we look back on our life since becoming a Christian and say that we’ve served Him faithfully? Let’s be like a different, or third type of son - one who says yes to our Heavenly Father, and then also goes out obediently and does what He asks us to!
Amen!
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