Tuesday in the Third Week of Advent, December 14, 2021

Matthew 21:28-32

Jesus said to the chief priests and the elders of the people: “What is your opinion? A man had two sons. He came to the first and said, ‘Son, go out and work in the vineyard today.’ The son said in reply, ‘I will not,’ but afterwards he changed his mind and went. The man came to the other son and gave the same order. He said in reply, ‘Yes, sir,’ but did not go. Which of the two did his father’s will?” They answered, “The first.” Jesus said to them, “Amen, I say to you, tax collectors and prostitutes are entering the Kingdom of God before you. When John came to you in the way of righteousness, you did not believe him; but tax collectors and prostitutes did. Yet even when you saw that, you did not later change your minds and believe him.”

Today’s Gospel reading follows hard upon that of yesterday.  As there is no break between the two, it is not entirely clear to whom the Lord is now speaking.  The lectionary adds “Jesus said to the chief priests and the elders of the people”: these words are not found in the Scriptures.  Due to Matthew’s episodic writing style, the chief priests and elders may not have been present in this scene.  The Lord may have spoken only to a crowd.  As far as this reading is concerned, the identity of the hearers means that the Lord is continuing his rebuke of the chief priests and the elders, or he is rebuking the crowd.

“A man had two sons.”  When we read of “two” in the Gospels, we ought to be ready to understand the Jews and the Gentiles.  The questions of whether the Gentiles can be saved and whether the Jews are lost loom large throughout all four of the Gospels and the Letters of St. Paul.  “Son, go out and work in the vineyard today.”  The family farm needed constant work and everyone pitched in.  The sons would go out at the direction of the father and would direct the hired hands and even work alongside them.  The father’s orders were not to be disobeyed in the ancient world.  His rule was law.  “The son said in reply, ‘I will not,’ but afterwards he changed his mind and went.”  The first son’s refusal was a rebellion, indeed, an act of treason.  Short of a fatal illness or wound, there could be no excuse for not obeying his father.  But before repercussions set in, this son went out.  The son came to his senses and realized the grievousness of what he was doing.  We can see our refusal to obey the will of God in the same terms.  We take for granted what we have from God and attribute whatever success we have to ourselves.  But this is mere vanity.  It is as though we were complacently walking toward the edge of a cliff and stepped off — and then scrambled back to safety, having come face to face with reality.  True repentance consists of this.

“The man came to the other son and gave the same order. He said in reply, ‘Yes, sir,’ but did not go.”  Perhaps this son initially intended to go, but through sloth he did not.  The matter here concerns not merely obedience but also the survival of the family.  Work not done would result in a smaller harvest.  The son who refuses to go out to work endangers his family.  He does not act even in his own best interests, let alone those of the father to whom he owed his life.

The Lord asks his hearers, “Which of the two did his father’s will?”  Now, the clearness of the answer ought to concern those who give it.  “The first.”  This begs the question, So who is the first son?  The Lord may have paused to give the crowd a chance to think.  “I say to you, tax collectors and prostitutes are entering the Kingdom of God before you.”  For us, in this jaded age in which profanity has lost its taboo and shame is considered a problem to be solved with therapy and medication, it is hard to think of a modern equivalent for “tax collectors and prostitutes”.  Perhaps drug dealers.  The crowd would have been outraged.  Some of its members probably reached for stones to throw back.  The Lord explains and hardens his rebuke: “When John came to you in the way of righteousness, you did not believe him; but tax collectors and prostitutes did.”  This leads us to think that the Lord was addressing the chief priests and the elders, for the people regarded John as a prophet.  The unspoken truth is that the chief priests and the elders did nothing themselves to bring back the tax collectors and prostitutes.  “Yet even when you saw that, you did not later change your minds and believe him.”  Repentance from sin is a greater miracle than any other wonder that could be performed.  The repentance of each of the common people as well as each of the tax collectors and prostitutes constituted a miracle that should have caused the chief priests and the elders to rejoice and to see that John was a prophet, and something more than a prophet.  But they saw no benefit for themselves and so held these conversions to be of no account.  The tax collectors and prostitutes had initially said No to God, but had repented and gone out to work in his vineyard to perform good works.  The chief priests and the elders had said Yes to God by taking their places in society, but had done no work at all for God.  They did not even serve their own best interests, thinking that they needed to do nothing to be saved.

We must work earnestly in the Lord’s vineyard so as to encourage others to do so and so as to bring home the most abundant possible harvest for the Lord.  He gives us the privilege of working there and so we ought not to see it as a burden, but as a chance to glorify him.