(23) 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?' (24) Jesus 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. (25) Did 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?" (26) But 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." (29) He answered, "I will
not"; but later he changed his mind and went. (30) The father went to the second and
said the same; and he answered, "I go, sir"; but he did not go.e (31) Which 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. (32) For 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.
- Matthew 21: 23-32
The parable of the two children is short and simple. A man had two sons. He ordered
them to work in his vineyard. One son said he would, but did not. The other son was
resistant. "I won't," he said, but later went to work. It doesn't not take much
thought to muddle meaning from the parable. The resistant son, the disobedient child, was
actually the one who did his father's will. Simple, isn't it? I've been waiting all my
life for this message!
But we're disturbed by this parable. Something doesn't seem quite right. To paraphrase
the Apostle Paul, "What shall we say, then? Shall we sin boldly that we may be richly
forgiven? Heavens no!"
This parable is more complex than it first appears. As with some types of dream
interpretation in which the dreamer is considered to be, to some degree, each of the
characters in her dream, we, too, find ourselves in each of the two sons, and we move back
and forth between them.
We certainly find ourselves in the son who said "yes", but then did not do
the father's work after all. We say "yes," we make commitments to God, we have
our moments of foxhole religion and make promises to go to church, read our Bible, spend
time with our family, be kind to our colleagues, support more charities. We follow through
for awhile, but then in the words of both religion and 12-step groups, we back-slide. We
fall off the wagon. We fail to see God at work around us and fail to respond
appropriately. We say "yes" with our words and "no" with our deeds.
In a world too filled with judgement, however, and to people like all of us who want to
be good Christians and good people, who want to do the will of God, and are quick to judge
ourselves for the ways we fall short of our ideals, I want to say a word of hope and
grace.
All of us are not only the son who said, "I will" and didn't. We're also like
the son who said "no" with his words, but with his deeds said, "yes."
We know what it is to resist the will of God, end up doing it anyway, and then to find
both ourselves and others blessed by how God's will has been done.
I know people who say "no," I can't visit that person whose illness is so
awful, the prognosis so depressing, their grief and mortality so present. But they have
formed the habit in their heart of asking God to work with that resistance, so that their
"no" ultimately becomes a yes. They are blessed by those visits, and sometimes
so deeply that the person they visited is still having an impact on them decades later.
God does not judge our initial "no." God rejoices in the eventual
"yes." God's will is done.
I know people so depressed it seems they are breathing cotton, who long to give up and
stay in bed, who say they can't get up out of bed again and care for their family, or go
to work. But they have formed the habit in their heart of letting God give them hope
beyond their own. Their "no" becomes "yes," and they spend their day
helping other people. Day by day, step by step God brings blessings from their
faithfulness. God understands the "no's" and rejoices in the "yes's."
God's will is done.
I know people whose loved ones are ill or have died and who carry so much grief it
feels as though they are walking upstream against a heavy current. They say, "No,
God, I don't know how to find the strength to go on, and do what I'm supposed to do
today." But they have formed the habit in their heart of letting God give them
strength to keep going. Their "no" becomes "yes" and they change
another bedpan, or they stop by a friend's house to give a comforting word to someone else
in need. They find themselves blessed by shared faithfulness. God aches for the pain
behind their "no" and rejoices in the ultimate "yes" that has let
God's will be done.
I know people who sense that God wants them to seek a new job or leave a destructive
relationship, to seek medical help or seek therapy, to go back to school, or reach out to
a friend, to bear witness to someone's pain, or risk committing themselves to a loved one
in marriage.
They say "no, God, I won't do that." But they have formed the habit in their
heart of listening to the insistent voice of God that is calling them forward. Finally
they answer, "yes." God rejoices that they have come to the vineyard and are
ready to do the work ahead. God's will is done and people are blessed.
Even Jesus, in the Garden of Gethsemane on the night before his crucifixion wept and
prayed to God, "No, Lord, I don't want to do this. Please let there be another
way." Yet the habit of his heart was to listen to God and let God engage his
resistance. As he listened to God speak to his heart, his "no" became
"yes." He gave his life and was raised from the dead that we might have life and
Good would overcome Evil.
This is the good news of the Gospel: It's not so much where we start out that matters,
it's where we end up. Thanks be to God.
