Whether we are willing to acknowledge it or not, our culture loves to watch the mighty and powerful take a fall. In politics, if we sit on one side of the aisle, we hope to see our opponent lose his or her power, influence and prestige. When George W. Bush was President, he had more than his fair share of critics and was the subject of many jokes by many comedians and others. During Barak Obama’s presidency, he, too, has had more than his fair share of criticism and has been the subject of many jokes by many comedians and others. Our culture loves to build up and tear down those in power. We love to take aim and fire our weapons of slander and gossip at those who govern and sit in high places.
Whenever one of these two men gave a speech, there were those individuals who are skeptical about their thoughts, reflections and ideas. There are always individuals who want to heckle them, who want to trip them up and make them look bad. Remember when President Bush had a shoe thrown at him during a news conference. President Obama has had hecklers of all kinds in the audience at various speaking engagements across the country. We see this everyday on any one of the variety of 24-hour news channels available to us.
Criticism, trying to make someone a fool: this was nothing new for Jesus. He had experienced this before. They were not innocent questions. The chief priests and the elders of the people had been trying to find ways to expose Jesus as a fake and a fraud for some time. They were trying to trip him up and discredit him. “By what authority” do you teach the things you do? Their agenda is clear. But Jesus has their number.
Jesus has an edge over the religious leaders of his day: he’s fully human AND fully God. He knows the hearts of those leaders. He sees them coming miles down the road. He knows them so well that his counter-question to them sets up a lose-lose scenario for them and a win-win for Jesus. Any answer they would offer would anger the crowd and expose their hidden agenda.
Jesus knows their hearts. He knows they wanted to make him look bad in public. He knows them so well he explains it through a story; a story about a father with two sons. The father asks them to go work in his vineyard. One son refuses to go, but later changes his mind and goes to work. The other son says yes but fails to show up for work. Jesus asked, “Which of the two did the will of his father?” Our God is a God of grace, mercy, love and forgiveness. The answer is the son who, though he first said no, later changed his mind and went. The other son could talk the talk, but was not able to walk the walk. He knew the right words to say, but didn’t live according to God’s will. “God welcomes those who have had less than ethical lives but who have repented and desired the goodness of God and God’s realm.”[1] The chief priests and the elders said the right words, but they didn’t follow through working to fulfill God’s will. They knew what was expected of them, but didn’t practice what they preached and taught because I believe they presumed that there were extra actions to be taken in order to be a true believer of God. There are some who believe you must have a proper understanding of and ability to articulate theories of Christian dogma in order to be eligible for heaven. There are many who express a deep faith in God but live a life that promotes a faith based strictly on one’s moral righteousness. And there are others who put their faith in a specific denomination, a specific church building, a specific way of interpreting Scripture or some doubtful type of conversion experience, complete with date, time and location. These are secondary aspects of faith. We must be careful to not put our faith in something other than God’s grace. It will be a distraction for us and lead us down the wrong road; a road that leads to the loss of ourselves, our faith and to our destruction.
As stewards of Christ, we are called to remember who we are. The chief priests and elders remembered who they were, but didn’t live it out in their daily lives. On the other side we have people represented by tax collectors and prostitutes who may not know the right words to say, but they are the ones who do God’s will because they learned who they were by living out the Gospel as they heard it. They expressed their faith by repenting of their sins and giving themselves to God in Christ. They may not be the most articulate individuals of theological doctrine, but they quickly understood what the walk of faith with Jesus truly entails.
We have four options according to this parable as Christ’s disciples: 1) say yes and fail to go, 2) say no and fail to go, 3) say no, then repent and go, and 4) say yes and go. Number four is our best option; our most faithful option. And as they say at Nike, we are called to “Just Do It”; we are to say yes and go; to let our yes be a yes and our no to be a no. We are to say yes to God and go wherever he leads us. To lose one's own will in the will of God should be the true occupation of everyone’s time on earth.[2]
Thomas Merton, the Trappist monk and writer, wrote this great prayer many years ago that continues to be a guide for me on my own spiritual journey. “My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you. And I hope that I have that desire in all that I am doing."[3]
And we must make sure we are responding and relating to Jesus, allowing him to confront us at any point in our walk with him where we have been like the second son, saying ‘yes’ to God while in fact running in the opposite direction.
For any promises we make as Christ’s disciples can never take the place of performance, and articulate words are never a substitute for fine deeds.[4] Amen.
[1]
The Stewardship Companion: Lectionary Resource for Preaching. David N. Mosser
(Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 1997)
p.68.
[2] Poet George Mackay Brown,
quoted in Context, December 1, 1997, 8.
[3]
Thomas Merton, Thoughts
in Solitude (New York: Farrar, Straus, & Giroux, 1983), 83.
[4]
The Daily Bible Study Series: Matthew. William Barclay
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