Take yourself back in time, back before this fall, before the long, hot days summer, even before the leaves were budding on the trees in spring. Go back all the way to the very first day of the year, New Year’s Day 1999. Even though that was quite some time ago, I imagine that you can remember something you did that day.
Maybe you got together with family and friends. Maybe you watched football from morning until night. And I think it’s safe to assume that at least some of you made a New Year’s resolution. Perhaps you resolved to shed a few pounds, to exercise more, to spend more time at with your family, etc.
Well, here it is over nine months later. How are you doing? Have you stuck to your resolutions? Or maybe a better question would be, "Do you even remember what you resolved to do?" If you broke your resolution this year, you are not alone. In fact, statistics show that most people break their New Year’s resolutions already during the first week of January.
So, if our best efforts are so futile, why do people go through this yearly ritual of resolution-making and resolution-breaking? The answer is simple. A new year is like a fresh start. It is the perfect time for people to look back and evaluate the previous year, and change the things that they didn’t like. Every year, we vow: "This time things will be different."
In the text for this morning, Jesus invites us to take a step back and take a good hard look at ourselves. But our Lord does not challenge us to bring about a physical change in our lives. Through the parable of the two sons, Jesus encourages us to look at our spiritual life and our spiritual condition to see if we like what we see. Today I ask you to ponder this question:
Which Son Are You?
I. Are you like the son of faithless words, or…
II. Are you more like the son of faith-filled deeds?
The text picks up on Tuesday morning of Holy Week, only three days before Jesus was to be crucified. As was his custom, Jesus was walking in the temple courts. In the verses before the text, we are told that some Jewish leaders had approached Jesus with a question.
But their motive was not to learn from Jesus, the Master-teacher. They only wanted to trap him. The conflict between Jesus and the Jewish leaders had reached the boiling point. The Jews were desperately searching for a way to kill him, but you may ask, "Why?" Why did the chief priests and elders, the spiritual leaders of the people, want to kill Jesus, the Messiah, the savior of the world?
Why? Because they weren’t really interested in a savior. They had the Old Testament Law handed down to Moses by God on Mt. Sinai and, in their minds, that was enough. Some people believed that they could keep the law perfectly and get to heaven on their own. Therefore, they didn’t need Jesus or the forgiveness he was offering. But Jesus just wouldn’t go away. He kept stirring up the people. He was causing the people to question their power and their authority. Therefore, he had to be stopped before it was too late, stopped by any means necessary.
Jesus saw right through their plotting and scheming. He knew the purpose of their questions. He knew that he didn’t have to defend himself. So Jesus went on the offensive. He turned the tables on the Jewish leaders by asking them a question, "What do you think?," and then proceeded to tell them the following parable.
"There was a man who had two sons." So here we have a father with two children, two boys that he loved very much. As was his right, this father asked his sons to go out and work in his vineyard. One son responded eagerly, "I will, sir." So at least one of the boys showed his willingness to obey his father.
The word order of the son’s answer is important. In the original text, the first word is "I." He placed the emphasis on himself. He wanted to make it clear that he was the one who was eager to help. This eager son also showed his father proper respect in his answer. He called his father "sir." They were father and son, but the younger still recognized the elder as the head of the household.
Just by his reply, this son sounds pretty good, the kind of helper we would all love to have. But words do not always give an accurate picture of what is in the heart. This son talked a good game, but how did he follow through? Matthew tells us, "but he did not go." His eager response meant nothing. His promise got nothing done. He called his father "sir" out of respect, but his actions revealed no real love for his father at all.
It is clear that when Jesus was talking about the son of faithless words, he was aiming right at the chief priests and elders who were gathered around him. He wanted to expose their false religious pride for what it was, sin. He announced to them, "John came to show you the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him." John the Baptist was sent to prepare the way for Jesus. He preached a message of repentance. He presented Jesus to the people as "the way of righteousness."
Jesus, the Way, came to earth to make all people righteous. He is Christ, the King over all, who became the servant of all and died to pay for the sins of all. He made us righteous, perfect in God’s sight, by his death and resurrection. But sadly, the Jewish leaders rejected John the Baptist and his message. And even though Jesus was standing right in front of them, they rejected him too. They were faithless children, who simply refused to believe.
It is easy for us to look back and condemn the Jewish leaders. They were so blind. They were so foolish. They had Jesus right in front of them, but they let him slip through their fingers. But what about us? Have you ever acted like these Pharisees? Have you ever acted like this son of faithless words?
It is so easy for us to fall into the trap of sinful pride. When we speak, our words are very important. Our confession tells others in plain terms what we believe. When we recite the Apostle’s or Nicene Creed on Sunday morning, we openly and boldly profess our faith for any and all to hear. But our confession does not make us "super" Christians. Neither does church membership give us an automatic ticket to heaven.
If we take worship for granted: by going through the motions, by praying without thinking, by believing that God is pleased just because he can look down and see us sitting in the pew, we are placing ourselves in danger. When we praise God with our lips but not with our hearts, we are no better off than the people we pity. We are no different than the son of faithless words.
These Jewish leaders were intelligent men. They understood the point of Jesus’ parable. But it didn’t matter to them because their minds were already made up. They were so blinded by their hatred that they saw Jesus as nothing more than an enemy who stood in their way, an enemy that needed to be destroyed.
Jesus, on the other hand, had a higher motive. He wanted to show them their sins, but he wanted to do more than just crush them with the Law. Jesus still had hope for these men, and he aimed to bring about a change in their hearts. Jesus calls all sinners to be sons of faith-filled deeds.
As you recall, there are two sons in this parable. We know about the one son, but what happened to the other one? When the father asked him to go out and work in the vineyard, he answered, "I will not." There is not much gray area there. This son answered with a short, flat "No." Unlike his brother, his response showed no respect for his father. Instead, he treated him like a stranger.
In a way, we almost have to feel sorry for the father in this parable. He loves his children. He asks them to help him with his work. One son lies to him. Now the other son rejects him. But this son is not a lost cause. Jesus tells us that he "later changed his mind and went out." Even though he had been rude and disrespectful, this son showed a change of heart and went out to work in the fields.
The trap that Jesus was preparing for the Jewish leaders was now set. He used a simple question to spring it on them: "Which of the two did what his father wanted?" The Jewish leaders, the ones who were trying to trap Jesus, found themselves trapped. They had no choice but to answer that the one who actually went out and worked in the vineyard was the obedient son.
Now Jesus had them right where he wanted them. He replied: "I tell you the truth, the tax collectors and prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you." With this one short statement, Jesus destroyed their pride. He shattered the false idea that they were "righteous" before God. These leaders thought of themselves as the elite, the upper crust of Jewish society, financially, politically, and especially morally. And the worst sinners in society, the people at the bottom of the barrel, were ahead of them on the road to heaven?!?
The prostitutes were unclean and, according to Jewish law, deserved to die for their open sexual sins. The tax collectors were nothing more than cheats and liars, who grew rich by stealing from fellow Jews. Jesus was trying to tell them that these "sinners" were better than the chief priests and elders? It seemed impossible. It sounded ridiculous. But it was so true.
When John came and preached his message of repentance, who listened? Did the Pharisees fall on their knees? Did the chief priests beg for forgiveness? No, they rejected him. But the lowly sinners, the tax collectors and the prostitutes, did listen and repent. Like the son who at first refused to work but later changed his mind, these people showed a sincere change of heart and turned from their sinful way of life.
The stubborn Jews rejected Jesus over and over, but Jesus remained patient with them. Even when he condemned them, he still hoped to win them over. Jesus told them, "the tax collectors and sinners are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you." The door was still open for them, if just a tiny crack. There was still time before it would be closed forever.
Each one of us has played the part of the son who rejected his father coldly. We have all been unfaithful to God our Father. At birth, we were dead in our sins. We were enemies of God. We wanted to have no contact with God. We tried to shut God out of our lives.
But God returned our hatred with love. Even though we are sinners, as bad as the worst tax collector, as filthy as the worst prostitute, God loves us. God loves us so much that sent his son to die for us. God restored a loving father/child relationship when the Holy Spirit worked faith in our hearts. What a comfort it is for us to know that God has forgiven all of our sins, even the worst sins imaginable. God has made us his children and he calls us his own.
As we close this morning, let me re-ask the opening question. Which son are you? As you take a step back and examine your relationship with God, with which son do you identify? Maybe the question is not so easy for us to answer. After all, neither son in the parable was perfect. The one son was rude and disrespectful toward his father before he changed his mind. The other son turned out to be nothing more than a liar.
Really, the only constant in this parable is the love of the Father. This amazing love that our Father has lavished so richly upon us leads us to act like a third son, a combination of the two. Like the one son, we will show our eagerness to do the Father’s work. And like the other son, we will take up that work and carry it out faithfully. As a child shows love for a father, may we always show our love for God.
Amen.