Two Sons
Preaching
Preaching the Parables
Series II, Cycle A
When he entered the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came to him as he was teaching and said, "By what authority are you doing these things, and who gave you this authority?" 24Jesus said to them, "I will also ask you one question; if you tell me the answer, then I will also tell you by what authority I do these things. 25Did the baptism of John come from heaven, or was it of human origin?" And they argued with one another, "If we say, 'From heaven,' he will say to us, 'Why then did you not believe him?' 26But if we say, 'Of human origin,' we are afraid of the crowd; for all regard John as a prophet." 27 So they answered Jesus, "We do not know." And he said to them, "Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things. 28"What do you think? A man had two sons; he went to the first and said, 'Son, go and work in the vineyard today.' 29He answered, 'I will not'; but later he changed his mind and went. 30The father went to the second and said the same; and he answered, 'I go, sir'; but he did not go. 31Which of the two did the will of his father?" They said, "The first." Jesus said to them, "Truly, I tell you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are going into the kingdom of God ahead of you. 32For John came to you in the way of righteousness and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes believed him; and even after you saw it, you did not change your minds and believe him."
In the current vernacular people speak of those who "talk the talk" in contrast to those who "walk the walk." Those who "talk the talk" are persons who recognize a problem and analyze the situation. They may rant and rave about the difficulties and the need for change. They make accusations against those whom they believe to be responsible for the situation. But they do not move to action to do anything about it nor do they assume responsibility themselves for the existence of the problem when they may be somewhat responsible for it.
Persons who "walk the walk" identify with the people who are in need. They do not simply talk about the situation. They join with the people in need to take action and do something to meet the needs and change the circumstances which create the problem. They assume responsibility and proceed to act.
The parable we deal with today puts into story form a somewhat similar distinction. The son in the parable who said yes to the request of the father to work in the vineyard but did not do it "talked the talk" but did not "walk the walk." The son who refused the father's request but later changed his mind and went to work in the vineyard "walked the walk."
Context
Context of the Church Year
We are in a series that would afford an opportunity to do five parables in succession if one so chose to do it. This is the third of the parables, with two more to follow. This parable and the next use the imagery of workers in the vineyard, as did the parable for the previous Sunday.
Context of the Gospel
The parables for today and for next Sunday are in Matthew 21. They follow an increasing crisis of conflict between Jesus and the religious leaders. They raise questions about his source of authority. He counters with a question about what they think about the authority of John the Baptist. They knew that if they said it was on his own authority, they would alienate the common people among whom John was very popular. If they granted him to have authority from heaven for his message, they could not very well deny Jesus the same authority.
The parables speak to the question of authority and call into question those who have the position of formal authority but do not necessarily carry it out in practice. Others may not have an office, but they perform the function which should be appropriate to the office.
The First Lesson. (Exodus 17:1-7) The people quarreled at Rephidim because they had no water to drink. Moses understood this to be a test of the Lord. They objected because they thought Moses had brought them into the desert where they and their livestock would die of thirst. Moses was then advised to go ahead of the people to Horeb where he struck his rod against a rock. He did so in the presence of the elders and the water flowed forth. That was the answer to the question he had posed as to whether the people were testing the Lord.
The Second Lesson. (Philippians 2:1-13) Paul asserts the authority of Jesus. The key is found in v. 9 where Paul, after describing the servant role of Jesus, says, "Therefore" and proceeds to assert his cosmic authority. He calls the Philippians to faithfulness in accepting the authority of Jesus over their lives.
Gospel. (Matthew 21:23-32) The passage gives the parable of the obedient and disobedient sons.
Psalm. (Psalm 78:1-4, 12-16) The Psalm ties together both the first lesson by reference to the events in Egypt and the Gospel lesson by pointing toward the technique of Jesus in using parables to make clear his teachings about the kingdom.
Context of Related Scripture
Isaiah 5:1-7 -- The song of the vineyard.
Amos 6:6-8 -- Justice, not sacrifice, desired by the Lord.
Micah 6:6-8 -- What the Lord requires beside sacrificial ceremonies.
Matthew 7:21, Luke 6:46 -- Saying Lord, but not obeying.
Luke 3:12-13 -- Tax collectors admonished by John the Baptist.
Luke 7:37-50 -- How Jesus forgave a prostitute.
James 1:22-25 -- Faith demonstrated by works.
1 John 3:18 -- Love not in word or speech, but in real deeds.
Content of the Pericope
The parable is unique to Matthew. The brief parable raises three important issues:
1. The significance of repentance that leads to obedience to God's will. The first son changes his mind. His actions are more important than his initial response.
2. The greater receptivity for change among those who are obviously sinners -- tax collectors and prostitutes -- than among those who are professional religionists. A sense of need is more likely to lead to repentance than a sense of already having arrived.
3. The kingdom is open to all. Entrance into the kingdom is not so much on the behavior or actions of the past or on profession of readiness to obey, but is dependent on readiness to act in obedience once the call is received. The readiness to act in response to God's will is evidence of true repentance.
Precis of the Parable
The owner of a vineyard had two sons. He told the first son to go and work in the vineyard. The son was rebellious and at first said he would not do it. Later he had a change of heart and actually did go to work.
The father went to the second son. He told him to go to work also. The second son seemed to be compliant. He said he would. But he never showed up in the vineyard. Jesus does not say whether his failure to do the father's bidding was because of rebellion, thoughtlessness or sheer laziness.
When Jesus asked his opponents who was the true son of the Father, they had to agree that the son who actually obeyed despite his first refusal was, of course, the real son. The one who seemed to be more compliant but did not do what he said he would was not the true son.
Jesus then makes application to the present situation, both in his own ministry of finding the tax collectors and prostitutes responsive to his call to repent and enter the kingdom and in the response to the preaching of John the Baptist.
Thesis: Repentance leading to obedience is more important than profession without corresponding deeds.
Theme: What counts with God is right action.
Key Words in the Parable
1. "Think." (v. 28) Jesus signals that he has something important to say. He wants his hearers to pay attention and consider the implications of what he is about to relate as it applies to the controversy at hand.
2. "Vineyard." (v. 28) As noted in an earlier parable, the vineyard imagery was already used in the Old Testament as the place where God calls his people to labor with him in the midst of the world. It is where his sons and daughters work in order to receive the reward of his kingdom.
3. "He Changed his Mind." (v. 29) Repentance means a change of direction. It is more than just being sorry for past behavior. It means now moving to do what earlier was refused.
4. "Sir." (v. 30) The term indicates respect for the father. The actual term in the Greek is kyrie which normally would be translated Lord. This is the euphemism used instead of God at that time. It clearly indicates that Jesus intended the father to be an image of God. He indirectly implies a judgment against those who too easily mouthed the expression but did not translate it into real understanding and submission to God's will.
5. "Kingdom of God." (v. 31) This is not a typical expression for Matthew. He usually referred to the kingdom of heaven. To refer to the kingdom of God would be more typical of the term used by Luke.
6. "Ahead of You." (v. 31) "You" refers to the opponents of Jesus who used flattering address yet really were seeking to trap him. They wanted to find a reason to accuse him of some religious error. Their questions were not sincere in seeking to understand him and respond to his message.
7. "The Tax Collectors and the Prostitutes." (vv. 31 and 32) The tax collectors and the prostitutes would be the stereotypical images of persons whom everyone would assume to be sinners and disloyal to God. They are chosen to make the contrast as graphic as possible for the hearers of the parable.
Contemplation
Insights
1. Orthodoxy or Orthopraxy. The parable of the two sons would seem to come down on the side of orthopraxy (right action) as opposed to right teachings or doctrines (orthodoxy.) The son who seemed to reject the father's request but did the work is the one who is right. In the context of the situation in which the parable is placed, the people who had been obvious sinners were more approved than those whose major occupation was to study and teach the religion. It is not enough to know the right ideas or doctrines. They have to be acted upon. Indeed, it is probably true that right doctrines are not really understood until they are put into practice.
2. True Repentance. Some people seem quite ready to say, "I'm sorry," if they fail to do something or if they do something that is wrong. Nevertheless, they continue in the same habits. A person habitually ran behind schedule, showing up late for work assignments, for committee meetings, in submitting reports. Each time the person would say "I'm sorry." What was wanted was not apologies but performance. True repentance does not mean only asking to be excused for behavior; it is only true repentance when a change in practice accompanies the apology.
3. Life Witness. A strong Christian witness depends on integrity between the profession of faith and the life of the believer. The hypocrisy of those who claim to be followers of Christ and the denial of it in their life styles is one of the main obstacles to persons coming to a church or for young people to leave the church. A life lived as a serious attempt to accord with the example and teachings of Christ is one of the strongest invitations to others to become followers of him as Lord. Without the joining of faith and works which flow from it, the appeal to others is hollow.
4. No Sinner Excluded. Jesus in his ministry was open to all persons. He saw people in sin not as persons to be avoided, condemned or rejected. He saw them as people in need and he acted to meet the need. He did not judge them according to the label given to them by his society but according to their potential when redeemed by the grace of God. He was more impressed by the possibilities of those with obvious needs, such as the tax collectors and the prostitutes, responding with repentance and a changed life than those who thought themselves already to be religious.
5. Resolving Conflicts. People use a variety of mechanisms for resolving conflicts, some more useful than others. The chief priests and the elders in this instance tried confronting Jesus. Confrontation may be a useful mechanism if persons are interested in resolving the conflict. In this case they were not interested in a genuine attempt to deal with the conflict but were seeking to trap Jesus so they could arrest him. He uses another mechanism when he expanded the conflict by introducing the question of the authority of John the Baptist. This is sometimes called issue proliferation.
The chief priests and the elders chose another mechanism at that point. They decided to avoid the conflict. Jesus tried another mechanism. He challenged them to change their minds. In a dispute where people have differences of religious beliefs, ideologies, philosophies, or values, a conflict can only be resolved fully by some party having a change of belief. When people come to agreement, they use the mechanism of reconciliation in which the parties achieve unity and no conflict exists.
In the case here neither was willing to change and so the conflict was postponed and came back later in a worse form. The leaders decided to use the mechanism of elimination of the opponent. Only, as we know, it did not really resolve the conflict because of the resurrection of Christ.
Homily Hints
1. Creeds and Deeds. (vv. 28-30) Here the issue is not whether or not works lead to salvation. The issue is whether belief is real unless it manifests itself in action which follows from it.
A. Belief Expressed in Words
B. Belief Expressed in Works
C. Validating Words with Works
2. The Changed Mind. (vv. 29, 32) How does a person come to a change through repentance? Develop the stages of the process.
A. Acknowledging Need. A person has to acknowledge wrongdoing before repentance occurs.
B. Rejecting the Past. A person needs to give up behaviors which may have seemed satisfying and satisfactory previously.
C. Turn to the New Future. A person becomes a new person when empowered by the Holy Spirit to move into the future as a new beginning.
3. The First in the Kingdom. (v. 31) Contrast the conventional views about who is a good person with the way Jesus would give priority.
A. The World View. Those who lord it over others, who control and dominate, are usually looked upon as number one.
B. Jesus' View. Jesus gives priority to servanthood as the measure of who is number one.
C. A Reverse Priority. The kingdom of heaven goes contrary to conventional wisdom about priorities.
D. Your Response
4. True Children of God. (vv. 28-32) The question to each person by this parable is whether we identify ourselves with the first son or the second son.
A. The Demand of Obedience
B. The Claim of Sonship
C. The Real Test in Behavior
5. Talkers and Doers. (vv. 28-31) Some people talk about needs. Others proceed to meet the need or solve the problem. Some people are so busy doing many things they never stop to ask if they are meeting real needs or doing the most important thing.
A. All Talk, No Action
B. All Doing, No Reflection
C. A Rhythm of Talking and Doing
Contact
Points of Contact
1. Many people live with tension between what they hear and confess in church on Sunday and how they respond to pressures other days of the week. They can be challenged to ask whether they show they are sons and daughters of the Father in the daily work and walk.
Children show their kinship to their parents in many physical characteristics. Christians show their kinship in how they behave. Their character should conform to the God they have seen in Jesus Christ. When it does, they are children of God and it shows.
2. The church should have a different appreciation of people than what the usual standards of the world are. A church needs to ask if it would be embarrassed if certain persons would be included in its membership. The background of the person should not be a barrier to membership. A church that only finds persons of a certain socio-economic status or a particular ethnic and racial heritage acceptable is not answering the question which Jesus posed to the chief priests and elders. It would seem that even the test of assent to a particular creed is not the crucial question. The criteria suggested are the actions that show a willingness to obey God's will as they understand it and to do God's work to which they are called.
3. People need to be confronted with the question of what authority Jesus has for them. If they acknowledge that Jesus is Lord as well as Savior, their lives should show it in their actions. They should be doing the work of the kingdom he proclaimed and lived. The final test of the acceptance of the authority of Jesus as coming from heaven and not from human sources is in the conformity of life and works to his commands and example.
Points to Ponder
1. Does the church spend too much of its efforts and attention on those who have already committed themselves to Christ? Should it rather seek out those who are sinners in need? Jesus did not invest most of his time with the religious community. He reached out to people in need and invited them to come into the kingdom. Does this parable challenge the church today to do likewise?
2. Who is the good person? Jesus did not seem to be much impressed by the status of persons. He was more concerned with the direction of their movement. Tax collectors or prostitutes who were trying to change the direction of their lives were given more approval by Jesus than the religious leaders who had high social status. Is the process of change in life more important in judging who is a good person than where the person happens to stand at a given moment?
3. How do people change? Two factors may be most effective in bringing people to change. One is an awareness of some inconsistency between their present value system and what they come to realize is a better one. The second is the presence of role models which they come to accept as a better example for them to emulate than they find in their own lives. Can we attract them to change by confronting them with the highest values embodied in the kingdom of God and giving them living role models which show what Christ can mean as a model to emulate?
4. How do you make faith operational? What one person described as "stratospheric theology" needs to be translated into understandable terms for the laity. It is important to think seriously and carefully about the Christian faith. It is more important to demonstrate it in daily living. Is the end of theology just to have correct ideas about the important issues, or should it be to issue in a living that helps fulfill the prayer "Your kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven"?
5. The chief priests and the elders were very careful to observe all the proper rituals and ceremonies. How do you prevent such religious practices from becoming ends in themselves and a substitute for a dynamic religious life that permeates all of a person's actions? How do you make the rituals and ceremonies not an empty formalism but a preparation to say yes to the request of the Father to work in his kingdom?
Illustrative Materials
1. Down and Outers or Up and Outers. Eugenia Price began her Christian ministry working among the alcoholics and homeless people on the south side of the Chicago loop, the so-called "Skid Row." Later she lived on the near north side of Chicago, the so-called Gold Coast. She observed that it was harder to bring the "up and outers" of the Gold Coast to Christian commitment than it was among the "down and outers" of skid row. She might have paraphrased Jesus by saying that the alcoholics and homeless would go into the kingdom ahead of the socially elite and business personnel of Chicago.
2. Perform or Resign. Ryne Sandberg was an all-star second baseman for the Chicago Cubs. In mid-June 1994, he suddenly and unexpectedly resigned. The year before he had signed a four-year contract for $28 million. He had over three years yet to go on the contract, which meant he could earn $18 million more just by continuing to play. No one was pressuring him to quit.
Sandberg quit because his batting average at .238 had dropped over 50 points from his lifetime average of .289. He also had lost some of his enthusiasm for playing. He said, "I am not the type of person who can be satisfied with anything less than my very best effort and my very top performance... And I am certainly not the type of person who can ask the Cubs organization and the Chicago Cubs' fans to pay my salary when I am not happy with my mental approach and my performance."
3. Think! Someone has observed that five percent of the people think; ten percent of the people think they think; 85 percent of the people would rather die than think.
______________
A speaker at a conference observed that the only thing harder to open than the plastic pack of peanuts given to passengers on an airline is the human mind to a new idea.
4. Preaching or Social Action. The debate was over which was more important: Proclamation of the word in evangelism and missions or doing relief work and developing and working for social justice. A pastor said, "They are like a pair of pants: Singular at the top in the Gospel, but plural at the bottom in practice."
5. Faith Expressed in Works. A young pastor and his wife, a nurse, worked in a fairly conservative inner-city church. Many people in the congregation did not like his liberal theology. They could not, however, fault the couple because of the way in which they showed a deep concern for the problems and needs of the people in the neighborhood. He worked hard to try to find jobs for the church members. He visited them in their homes. He organized activities for the young people. His wife visited the sick in the community and offered help when they were incapacitated. Both were much respected and held in affection by those to whom they ministered unselfishly.
In the current vernacular people speak of those who "talk the talk" in contrast to those who "walk the walk." Those who "talk the talk" are persons who recognize a problem and analyze the situation. They may rant and rave about the difficulties and the need for change. They make accusations against those whom they believe to be responsible for the situation. But they do not move to action to do anything about it nor do they assume responsibility themselves for the existence of the problem when they may be somewhat responsible for it.
Persons who "walk the walk" identify with the people who are in need. They do not simply talk about the situation. They join with the people in need to take action and do something to meet the needs and change the circumstances which create the problem. They assume responsibility and proceed to act.
The parable we deal with today puts into story form a somewhat similar distinction. The son in the parable who said yes to the request of the father to work in the vineyard but did not do it "talked the talk" but did not "walk the walk." The son who refused the father's request but later changed his mind and went to work in the vineyard "walked the walk."
Context
Context of the Church Year
We are in a series that would afford an opportunity to do five parables in succession if one so chose to do it. This is the third of the parables, with two more to follow. This parable and the next use the imagery of workers in the vineyard, as did the parable for the previous Sunday.
Context of the Gospel
The parables for today and for next Sunday are in Matthew 21. They follow an increasing crisis of conflict between Jesus and the religious leaders. They raise questions about his source of authority. He counters with a question about what they think about the authority of John the Baptist. They knew that if they said it was on his own authority, they would alienate the common people among whom John was very popular. If they granted him to have authority from heaven for his message, they could not very well deny Jesus the same authority.
The parables speak to the question of authority and call into question those who have the position of formal authority but do not necessarily carry it out in practice. Others may not have an office, but they perform the function which should be appropriate to the office.
The First Lesson. (Exodus 17:1-7) The people quarreled at Rephidim because they had no water to drink. Moses understood this to be a test of the Lord. They objected because they thought Moses had brought them into the desert where they and their livestock would die of thirst. Moses was then advised to go ahead of the people to Horeb where he struck his rod against a rock. He did so in the presence of the elders and the water flowed forth. That was the answer to the question he had posed as to whether the people were testing the Lord.
The Second Lesson. (Philippians 2:1-13) Paul asserts the authority of Jesus. The key is found in v. 9 where Paul, after describing the servant role of Jesus, says, "Therefore" and proceeds to assert his cosmic authority. He calls the Philippians to faithfulness in accepting the authority of Jesus over their lives.
Gospel. (Matthew 21:23-32) The passage gives the parable of the obedient and disobedient sons.
Psalm. (Psalm 78:1-4, 12-16) The Psalm ties together both the first lesson by reference to the events in Egypt and the Gospel lesson by pointing toward the technique of Jesus in using parables to make clear his teachings about the kingdom.
Context of Related Scripture
Isaiah 5:1-7 -- The song of the vineyard.
Amos 6:6-8 -- Justice, not sacrifice, desired by the Lord.
Micah 6:6-8 -- What the Lord requires beside sacrificial ceremonies.
Matthew 7:21, Luke 6:46 -- Saying Lord, but not obeying.
Luke 3:12-13 -- Tax collectors admonished by John the Baptist.
Luke 7:37-50 -- How Jesus forgave a prostitute.
James 1:22-25 -- Faith demonstrated by works.
1 John 3:18 -- Love not in word or speech, but in real deeds.
Content of the Pericope
The parable is unique to Matthew. The brief parable raises three important issues:
1. The significance of repentance that leads to obedience to God's will. The first son changes his mind. His actions are more important than his initial response.
2. The greater receptivity for change among those who are obviously sinners -- tax collectors and prostitutes -- than among those who are professional religionists. A sense of need is more likely to lead to repentance than a sense of already having arrived.
3. The kingdom is open to all. Entrance into the kingdom is not so much on the behavior or actions of the past or on profession of readiness to obey, but is dependent on readiness to act in obedience once the call is received. The readiness to act in response to God's will is evidence of true repentance.
Precis of the Parable
The owner of a vineyard had two sons. He told the first son to go and work in the vineyard. The son was rebellious and at first said he would not do it. Later he had a change of heart and actually did go to work.
The father went to the second son. He told him to go to work also. The second son seemed to be compliant. He said he would. But he never showed up in the vineyard. Jesus does not say whether his failure to do the father's bidding was because of rebellion, thoughtlessness or sheer laziness.
When Jesus asked his opponents who was the true son of the Father, they had to agree that the son who actually obeyed despite his first refusal was, of course, the real son. The one who seemed to be more compliant but did not do what he said he would was not the true son.
Jesus then makes application to the present situation, both in his own ministry of finding the tax collectors and prostitutes responsive to his call to repent and enter the kingdom and in the response to the preaching of John the Baptist.
Thesis: Repentance leading to obedience is more important than profession without corresponding deeds.
Theme: What counts with God is right action.
Key Words in the Parable
1. "Think." (v. 28) Jesus signals that he has something important to say. He wants his hearers to pay attention and consider the implications of what he is about to relate as it applies to the controversy at hand.
2. "Vineyard." (v. 28) As noted in an earlier parable, the vineyard imagery was already used in the Old Testament as the place where God calls his people to labor with him in the midst of the world. It is where his sons and daughters work in order to receive the reward of his kingdom.
3. "He Changed his Mind." (v. 29) Repentance means a change of direction. It is more than just being sorry for past behavior. It means now moving to do what earlier was refused.
4. "Sir." (v. 30) The term indicates respect for the father. The actual term in the Greek is kyrie which normally would be translated Lord. This is the euphemism used instead of God at that time. It clearly indicates that Jesus intended the father to be an image of God. He indirectly implies a judgment against those who too easily mouthed the expression but did not translate it into real understanding and submission to God's will.
5. "Kingdom of God." (v. 31) This is not a typical expression for Matthew. He usually referred to the kingdom of heaven. To refer to the kingdom of God would be more typical of the term used by Luke.
6. "Ahead of You." (v. 31) "You" refers to the opponents of Jesus who used flattering address yet really were seeking to trap him. They wanted to find a reason to accuse him of some religious error. Their questions were not sincere in seeking to understand him and respond to his message.
7. "The Tax Collectors and the Prostitutes." (vv. 31 and 32) The tax collectors and the prostitutes would be the stereotypical images of persons whom everyone would assume to be sinners and disloyal to God. They are chosen to make the contrast as graphic as possible for the hearers of the parable.
Contemplation
Insights
1. Orthodoxy or Orthopraxy. The parable of the two sons would seem to come down on the side of orthopraxy (right action) as opposed to right teachings or doctrines (orthodoxy.) The son who seemed to reject the father's request but did the work is the one who is right. In the context of the situation in which the parable is placed, the people who had been obvious sinners were more approved than those whose major occupation was to study and teach the religion. It is not enough to know the right ideas or doctrines. They have to be acted upon. Indeed, it is probably true that right doctrines are not really understood until they are put into practice.
2. True Repentance. Some people seem quite ready to say, "I'm sorry," if they fail to do something or if they do something that is wrong. Nevertheless, they continue in the same habits. A person habitually ran behind schedule, showing up late for work assignments, for committee meetings, in submitting reports. Each time the person would say "I'm sorry." What was wanted was not apologies but performance. True repentance does not mean only asking to be excused for behavior; it is only true repentance when a change in practice accompanies the apology.
3. Life Witness. A strong Christian witness depends on integrity between the profession of faith and the life of the believer. The hypocrisy of those who claim to be followers of Christ and the denial of it in their life styles is one of the main obstacles to persons coming to a church or for young people to leave the church. A life lived as a serious attempt to accord with the example and teachings of Christ is one of the strongest invitations to others to become followers of him as Lord. Without the joining of faith and works which flow from it, the appeal to others is hollow.
4. No Sinner Excluded. Jesus in his ministry was open to all persons. He saw people in sin not as persons to be avoided, condemned or rejected. He saw them as people in need and he acted to meet the need. He did not judge them according to the label given to them by his society but according to their potential when redeemed by the grace of God. He was more impressed by the possibilities of those with obvious needs, such as the tax collectors and the prostitutes, responding with repentance and a changed life than those who thought themselves already to be religious.
5. Resolving Conflicts. People use a variety of mechanisms for resolving conflicts, some more useful than others. The chief priests and the elders in this instance tried confronting Jesus. Confrontation may be a useful mechanism if persons are interested in resolving the conflict. In this case they were not interested in a genuine attempt to deal with the conflict but were seeking to trap Jesus so they could arrest him. He uses another mechanism when he expanded the conflict by introducing the question of the authority of John the Baptist. This is sometimes called issue proliferation.
The chief priests and the elders chose another mechanism at that point. They decided to avoid the conflict. Jesus tried another mechanism. He challenged them to change their minds. In a dispute where people have differences of religious beliefs, ideologies, philosophies, or values, a conflict can only be resolved fully by some party having a change of belief. When people come to agreement, they use the mechanism of reconciliation in which the parties achieve unity and no conflict exists.
In the case here neither was willing to change and so the conflict was postponed and came back later in a worse form. The leaders decided to use the mechanism of elimination of the opponent. Only, as we know, it did not really resolve the conflict because of the resurrection of Christ.
Homily Hints
1. Creeds and Deeds. (vv. 28-30) Here the issue is not whether or not works lead to salvation. The issue is whether belief is real unless it manifests itself in action which follows from it.
A. Belief Expressed in Words
B. Belief Expressed in Works
C. Validating Words with Works
2. The Changed Mind. (vv. 29, 32) How does a person come to a change through repentance? Develop the stages of the process.
A. Acknowledging Need. A person has to acknowledge wrongdoing before repentance occurs.
B. Rejecting the Past. A person needs to give up behaviors which may have seemed satisfying and satisfactory previously.
C. Turn to the New Future. A person becomes a new person when empowered by the Holy Spirit to move into the future as a new beginning.
3. The First in the Kingdom. (v. 31) Contrast the conventional views about who is a good person with the way Jesus would give priority.
A. The World View. Those who lord it over others, who control and dominate, are usually looked upon as number one.
B. Jesus' View. Jesus gives priority to servanthood as the measure of who is number one.
C. A Reverse Priority. The kingdom of heaven goes contrary to conventional wisdom about priorities.
D. Your Response
4. True Children of God. (vv. 28-32) The question to each person by this parable is whether we identify ourselves with the first son or the second son.
A. The Demand of Obedience
B. The Claim of Sonship
C. The Real Test in Behavior
5. Talkers and Doers. (vv. 28-31) Some people talk about needs. Others proceed to meet the need or solve the problem. Some people are so busy doing many things they never stop to ask if they are meeting real needs or doing the most important thing.
A. All Talk, No Action
B. All Doing, No Reflection
C. A Rhythm of Talking and Doing
Contact
Points of Contact
1. Many people live with tension between what they hear and confess in church on Sunday and how they respond to pressures other days of the week. They can be challenged to ask whether they show they are sons and daughters of the Father in the daily work and walk.
Children show their kinship to their parents in many physical characteristics. Christians show their kinship in how they behave. Their character should conform to the God they have seen in Jesus Christ. When it does, they are children of God and it shows.
2. The church should have a different appreciation of people than what the usual standards of the world are. A church needs to ask if it would be embarrassed if certain persons would be included in its membership. The background of the person should not be a barrier to membership. A church that only finds persons of a certain socio-economic status or a particular ethnic and racial heritage acceptable is not answering the question which Jesus posed to the chief priests and elders. It would seem that even the test of assent to a particular creed is not the crucial question. The criteria suggested are the actions that show a willingness to obey God's will as they understand it and to do God's work to which they are called.
3. People need to be confronted with the question of what authority Jesus has for them. If they acknowledge that Jesus is Lord as well as Savior, their lives should show it in their actions. They should be doing the work of the kingdom he proclaimed and lived. The final test of the acceptance of the authority of Jesus as coming from heaven and not from human sources is in the conformity of life and works to his commands and example.
Points to Ponder
1. Does the church spend too much of its efforts and attention on those who have already committed themselves to Christ? Should it rather seek out those who are sinners in need? Jesus did not invest most of his time with the religious community. He reached out to people in need and invited them to come into the kingdom. Does this parable challenge the church today to do likewise?
2. Who is the good person? Jesus did not seem to be much impressed by the status of persons. He was more concerned with the direction of their movement. Tax collectors or prostitutes who were trying to change the direction of their lives were given more approval by Jesus than the religious leaders who had high social status. Is the process of change in life more important in judging who is a good person than where the person happens to stand at a given moment?
3. How do people change? Two factors may be most effective in bringing people to change. One is an awareness of some inconsistency between their present value system and what they come to realize is a better one. The second is the presence of role models which they come to accept as a better example for them to emulate than they find in their own lives. Can we attract them to change by confronting them with the highest values embodied in the kingdom of God and giving them living role models which show what Christ can mean as a model to emulate?
4. How do you make faith operational? What one person described as "stratospheric theology" needs to be translated into understandable terms for the laity. It is important to think seriously and carefully about the Christian faith. It is more important to demonstrate it in daily living. Is the end of theology just to have correct ideas about the important issues, or should it be to issue in a living that helps fulfill the prayer "Your kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven"?
5. The chief priests and the elders were very careful to observe all the proper rituals and ceremonies. How do you prevent such religious practices from becoming ends in themselves and a substitute for a dynamic religious life that permeates all of a person's actions? How do you make the rituals and ceremonies not an empty formalism but a preparation to say yes to the request of the Father to work in his kingdom?
Illustrative Materials
1. Down and Outers or Up and Outers. Eugenia Price began her Christian ministry working among the alcoholics and homeless people on the south side of the Chicago loop, the so-called "Skid Row." Later she lived on the near north side of Chicago, the so-called Gold Coast. She observed that it was harder to bring the "up and outers" of the Gold Coast to Christian commitment than it was among the "down and outers" of skid row. She might have paraphrased Jesus by saying that the alcoholics and homeless would go into the kingdom ahead of the socially elite and business personnel of Chicago.
2. Perform or Resign. Ryne Sandberg was an all-star second baseman for the Chicago Cubs. In mid-June 1994, he suddenly and unexpectedly resigned. The year before he had signed a four-year contract for $28 million. He had over three years yet to go on the contract, which meant he could earn $18 million more just by continuing to play. No one was pressuring him to quit.
Sandberg quit because his batting average at .238 had dropped over 50 points from his lifetime average of .289. He also had lost some of his enthusiasm for playing. He said, "I am not the type of person who can be satisfied with anything less than my very best effort and my very top performance... And I am certainly not the type of person who can ask the Cubs organization and the Chicago Cubs' fans to pay my salary when I am not happy with my mental approach and my performance."
3. Think! Someone has observed that five percent of the people think; ten percent of the people think they think; 85 percent of the people would rather die than think.
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A speaker at a conference observed that the only thing harder to open than the plastic pack of peanuts given to passengers on an airline is the human mind to a new idea.
4. Preaching or Social Action. The debate was over which was more important: Proclamation of the word in evangelism and missions or doing relief work and developing and working for social justice. A pastor said, "They are like a pair of pants: Singular at the top in the Gospel, but plural at the bottom in practice."
5. Faith Expressed in Works. A young pastor and his wife, a nurse, worked in a fairly conservative inner-city church. Many people in the congregation did not like his liberal theology. They could not, however, fault the couple because of the way in which they showed a deep concern for the problems and needs of the people in the neighborhood. He worked hard to try to find jobs for the church members. He visited them in their homes. He organized activities for the young people. His wife visited the sick in the community and offered help when they were incapacitated. Both were much respected and held in affection by those to whom they ministered unselfishly.
