Text: Matthew 21:28–32
Date: October 11, 2020
Event: The Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost, Year A
Matthew 21:28–32 (EHV)
28“What do you think? A man had two sons. He went to the first and said, ‘Son, go work today in my vineyard.’ 29He answered, ‘I will not,’ but later he changed his mind and went. 30He came to the second and said the same thing. The second son answered, ‘I will go, sir,’ but he did not go. 31Which of the two did the will of his father?”
They said to him, “The first.”
Jesus said to them, “Amen I tell you: The tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you. 32For John came to you in the way of righteousness, but you did not believe him. However, the tax collectors and prostitutes did believe him. Even when you saw this, you did not change your mind and believe him.”
The Gospel Changes Hearts and Actions
The Social Media era we live in has done strange things to opinions. Very often if someone post an opinion, even years ago, they find the need to “save face” in the public setting by doubling down on that opinion, even if perhaps their thinking might have otherwise changed. Or on the other hand, because things never die on the internet, if someone changes their mind on something, people will hold up old statements and keep trying to make the person be accountable for what they said months or years or even decades prior. Social media tends to either stop a person from growing and changing or makes other people try to prevent that person from growing or changing.
That’s really bizarre, right? Because, changing your mind based on new, better information or different life experiences is not a sign of weakness; it’s a sign of maturity. Being able to reconsider your position on both important and unimportant things like political points, food preferences, reliable cars to own, books, movies, games, etc. is good. There’s no shame in saying, “I think differently now,” and in fact, refusing to change your opinion when better information is staring you in the face is a clear sign of immaturity.
Jesus in our Gospel for this morning is speaking to the chief priests and elders of the people shortly after his Palm Sunday entry into Jerusalem. This is Holy Week, just days before Jesus would be betrayed, arrested, tried, and crucified. So, in many ways, these conversations with the leaders of the people are Jesus’ last-ditch effort to reach them before the end of his earthly ministry.
Just prior to our Gospel, the leaders and Jesus had this exchange. They asked Jesus, “By what authority are you doing these things?” and “Who gave you this authority?” Jesus answered them, “I will also ask you one question. If you answer it, I will tell you by what authority I do these things. The baptism of John, where was it from? From heaven or from men?” They discussed it among themselves, saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will say to us, ‘Then why did you not believe him?’ But if we say, ‘From men,’ we are afraid of the crowd, since they all regard John as a prophet.” So they answered Jesus, “We do not know.” He said to them, “Then I will not tell you by what authority I do these things.” (Matthew 21:24-27).
So, the leaders, despite being confronted with all the evidence of both John the Baptist and Jesus, refuse to acknowledge that these men were sent by God. Their hearts were hard and were set in their ways and they would not listen to what God was saying or even had said throughout the Old Testament promises of the coming Messiah. So Jesus tells them this brief parable of the two sons to show their error.
The first son is clearly a stand in for the “tax collectors and prostitutes” Jesus refers to later in the lesson. That son said he would not do the work the father asked him to do, but later he changed his mind and went. The “tax collectors and prostitutes” (or really any repentant sinner) are people who at one point had looked at the sin in their lives and said, “I like this.” But then later, hearing the call of God to come to repentance have said, “He’s right. I can’t keep doing this. Things have to change.”
The beauty of that is that for the repentant sinner there is always forgiveness. Jesus lived and died to pay for that sin, any sin, even formerly-beloved sin. The sinner that says, “I want to be done with this; God have mercy on me!” already has that mercy from God for Jesus’ sake.
But then what about the second son? He made a good show and paid lip service to the requests that the father made, but then did nothing he was asked to do. Jesus clearly has the religious leaders in his sights with this part of the parable. These men were paying lip service, trying to look good, but were not actually doing anything God asked of them. Jesus will have strong words for them later during Holy Week when he condemns these actions and attitudes very directly. Jesus will say to them, “Woe to you, experts in the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of a cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisee, first clean the inside of the cup and dish so that the outside may become clean too. Woe to you, experts in the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs that appear beautiful on the outside, but on the inside are full of dead people’s bones and every kind of uncleanness. In the same way, on the outside you seem righteous to people, but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.” (Matthew 23:25-26).
And so here is the clear difference Jesus points out between these leaders and the so-called “sinners” around them: “Amen I tell you: The tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you.” That is, the prostitutes and tax collectors are listening to God, confessing their sins, and God is working faith to trust in him for their forgiveness. But the religious leaders didn’t think they needed to repent. They thought that their outward actions, their lip service, should be good enough for God.
But how God sought after them! He sent John the Baptist to them earlier and here, again, Jesus is addressing them directly as he often had done. But still, their hearts were hard. They did not want to listen to what God said through John, Jesus, or the Scriptures, because they wanted to believe the lies they had in their heart that they were good enough for God. They wanted to cling to the delusion that they didn’t have sin that needed to be dealt with, or at least they were so much better than other people around them that by comparison they were fine. They did not want to change their mind despite God repeatedly showing them that they were wrong.
It’s tempting for us to want to identify with the tax collectors and prostitutes here, right? After all, they are the “good guys” in Jesus’ lesson. It’s tempting to want to compare ourselves with the first son in the parable. But really, neither son is ideal, right? Both did wrong in Jesus’ account. One ignored the initial call of the father and the other opted to not follow through on a promise. We don’t really want to be either of them. And yet, so often we fail in both places.
Where does sin have a little nook in your heart? Where is there something that God has said is wrong that you’ve decided you want to keep there? What are the good things God has told you to do that you’ve decided you’d rather not? What are your priorities in life? Are sports and entertainment or politics and news or work and family serving as your god, taking that number one spot in your heart? Are there shameful things in your heart and or actions that no one else knows about, but that you have no desire to change? Do you relish harboring grudges and animosity against people? Where in your life are you an unrepentant tax collector or prostitute?
And do you examine your heart and find none of those things? Do you judge yourself to be perfectly in compliance with what God says without any self-awareness of where sin affects your thoughts, attitudes, and motivations for your words and actions? Where are you an in-denial chief priest, figuring your life and your work are really good enough for God?
It is not pleasant when God addresses our sin directly. As we look into the mirror of God’s law we see our sin in all it horrid vividness. We are not the perfect people we want to think we are nor are we able to look at sin as a cute little pet that we want to carry around with us. We see our sinful lives in all their wretched glory. Our hearts, by nature, are stained and vile with sin. There is nothing commendable in us and there is nothing that our sinful nature produces that is worth keeping around.
And this, of course, is where God changes our minds—changes our hearts and actions. He leads us to repentance which says, “No, I don’t want to think of myself as good enough anymore because I’m not. No, I don’t want to think of this sin as ok or good because it absolutely is not.” The mirror of God’s law shows all of that to us and our need for a Savior. And here is Jesus, the one sent to rescue us from all of that damnable sin. He calls to us and gives to us freely.
Jesus suffered in our place for the penalty of our sin, whether sin we see clearly or sin we’ve turned a blind-eye toward. Whether we’ve adored the sin or tried ignore it, because of Jesus, it is forgiven and gone. Jesus’ forgiveness transforms us and our motivations. We no longer live in sin to please ourselves nor do we life in self-righteousness figuring our choices are good enough for God. No, we live our lives now in service to the God who has saved us from our sins. As God said through the prophet Ezekiel in our First Lesson, “Throw off from yourselves all your rebellious actions by which you have rebelled, and obtain a new heart and a new spirit for yourselves. Why should you die, O house of Israel? For I take no pleasure in the death of anyone who dies, declares the Lord God. So repent and live!” (Ezekiel 18:31-32).
Martin Luther famously wrote in the first of his “95 Theses” that the whole life of a believer should be one of repentance. Perhaps more clearly stated in his Small Catechism when discussing Baptism Luther wrote, “Baptism means that the old Adam in us should be drowned by daily contrition and repentance, and that all its evil deeds and desires be put to death. It also means that a new person should daily arise to live before God in righteousness and purity forever” (SC Baptism 4).
You and I have been changed from condemned sinner to forgiven child of God by his graciousness to us. God has changed our mind in terms of sin to recognize that it is not something to love and adore, nor something to ignore and pretend doesn’t exist. It is something to acknowledge and turn from, trusting in his forgiveness for it all.
We will never be rid of sin, but as Luther said, our baptisms provide a place to drown our sinful natures with its horrid desires, drown them in love and forgiveness of Jesus who lived for us and died for us. We are free to live lives in thanksgiving to God, lives that prioritize other people ahead of ourselves, lives that hold God to be the most important part of our lives. That’s a change of heart—a change of priorities and motivations—and a change of action that seeks to serve our God and fellow people in thanksgiving for Jesus’ forgiveness that he’s given to us. That’s a change that only God can work in us. Thanks be to him that he has!
We don’t have to, and in fact should not hold on to any old way of thinking about our lives that doesn’t fully place us in the mercy of our forgiving God. You have been changed by that mercy, by the good news of Jesus’ life and death for you. Allow the joy you have from God’s love to radiate in all you say, think, and do! Amen.
