“The tax collectors and prostitutes will get into the kingdom of God before you,” Jesus in Matthew 21:31.
“It was deep! I liked the parts where some character was once this, but he ended up being that. Like he’d be dissing Jesus, and then he ends up being a saint. That was cool.” (Musician Lil Wayne on reading the Bible for the first time while serving in prison last year, as reported by World Magazine, February 12, 2011.)
“Those who say that they believe in God and yet neither love nor fear him, do not in fact believe in him but in those who have taught them that God exists. Those who believe that they believe in God, but without any passion in their heart, any anguish of mind, without uncertainty, without doubt, without an element of despair even in their consolation, believe only in the God-idea, not in God.” (Miguel de Unamuno, quoted by Philip Yancy in Reaching for the Invisible God)
It is Tuesday. Jesus is teaching in the temple well aware of the cross and tomb that patiently wait for Him on Friday. Still the people hang on every word (Luke 19:48). The chief priests and scribes are trying to destroy Him (Luke 19:47). Yet Jesus thwarts them when they question His authority (Matthew 21:23). And He follows that up with a parable.
This parable of the Two Sons is found only in Matthew’s gospel. Given Matthew’s tendency to lay out his gospel topically, its reasonable that Matthew would put this parable at this location. This parable of the Two Sons keeps with the current themes of John the Baptist, Jesus’ teachings in parables and the faithlessness of the chief priests.
In the parable when both sons are told by their father to “Go work today in the vineyard,” (v. 28), the first son said, “I will not,” but afterward he regretted it and went (v.29). The second son answered, “I will, sir” but he did not go (v. 30). Jesus then asks His challengers, “Which of the two did the will of his father?” They said, “The first.” (v.31)
At this point, Jesus had them fully engaged. And here He brings the hammer down in one of the most stunning rebukes this side of Nathan’s rebuke of David: “Truly I say to you that the tax collectors and prostitutes will get into the kingdom of God before you”(v.31). Imagine hearing this being said to you if you are a chief priest and elder of the people! After all, you are the gate keeper of the Law given to Moses at Mt. Sinai. The Oracles of God have been entrusted to you. For this your salvation is guaranteed, right? Yet this upstart, this man of no formal education, has publicly rebuked us and questioned our right-standing with God! Any desire the chief priests have to destroy Jesus is now only compounded.
Jesus explains: “For John came to you in the way of the righteous and you did not believe him” (v. 32). The chief priests came to John at the River Jordan (Matthew 3:6-7). But they came for the wrong reasons. They wanted to be part of the “next cool thing” in religion and they followed the crowd out into the desert. They were even willing to receive John’s baptism. Maybe they felt threatened by John and came to infiltrate his movement. Either way, they did not come to John in order to repent and they did not believe him. But many tax gatherers and prostitutes did believe John (v. 32).
Matthew himself was one such tax gatherer. For his life was radically changed by the call of Christ. Before Christ’s call, Matthew was a traitor to his own Jewish people and extorted taxes from them on behalf of the occupying Roman army. Yet when told by Jesus to “Follow Me,” he left everything behind and followed Him (Luke 5:28). Matthew is a classic example of the first son in this parable; the chief priests and elders are so hard-hearted, so dense, they didn’t even feel remorse (v. 32) for their lack of belief and they didn’t realize they are the second son in this parable.
God is the God of second-chances; He is the God of failures, miscreants, traitors, tax-gatherers and prostitutes. He is the God of those who repent, those who realize they have no hope outside of the mercy of God. Yet God turns away those who play the religious game on their own terms by their own rules without any directives from God. May we turn to God while it is still day (John 9:4). May we dismiss the lie that our own efforts can reach the infinite holiness of God.
No comments:
Post a Comment