Well, I certainly did not intend for it to be this way, but
it kind of ended up like it. So I must apologize. I have to begin this sermon
with one more pop quiz. It really is fitting though in light of the text. OK.
Ready here we go. 1). Why do noses run
and feet smell? 2).If the little black box on airplanes always survives the
crash, why don’t they just make the entire plane out of it? 3). Can you name
another word for Thesaurus?
Our sermon series on parables concludes today with the
parable of the two sons. Our parable today comes to us as part of an answer to
some tough questions. Even though we are reading this at the end of September
and we can already find Christmas decorations in the stores, the text this week
takes place during holy week. That is Jesus is literally days away from the
cross.
Do you remember how Holy Week began? Yes. Palm Sunday. Jesus
rides a donkey triumphantly into Jerusalem. The people call out “hosanna to the
son of David.” It is a pretty powerful event and experience. Jesus enters the
temple and drives out the money changers. He overturns the tables. The next
morning he sees a fig tree with no fruit, and he curses the tree. Then he
enters into the temple again.
This is where our text picks up. So the chief priests and
the elders of the people come up to Jesus while he is teaching. These are the
religious leaders and politicians of the day. And it would be a bit of an
understatement to say that they were upset by the previous day’s activities and
all that happened on Palm Sunday. So now they ask Jesus a question. “By what
authority are you doing these things?”
Well, there are only three answers that could be answered
here. The authority comes from God, Satan or Jesus is just doing it all by
himself. No matter what he answers they will not be happy with it. Although he
is doing this by God’s authority. They wouldn’t believe him.
They are not asking because they want to know the answer to
the question. They are asking because they are trying to trap Jesus. They are
trying to get him in trouble. But Jesus doesn’t fall for it. Instead he asks
them a question in response. “The baptism of John, from where did it come? From
heaven or from man?”
Now Jesus is talking here about John the Baptist. The people
had gone out to him to be baptized by him. And not all these people were good,
decent upright citizens. Some of them were sinners. They were tax collectors
and prostitutes. Jesus poses this question to the religious leaders, not to get
out of answering their question, but in order to answer it. Implicit in this is
that what John did was from heaven. It was from God. In the same way too, then
the authority by which Jesus is doing what he is doing is from heaven. But
notice that even though Jesus is in the right, he is still respectful of the
religious leaders.
But the religious leaders are stuck. If they acknowledge
that the authority of both is from heaven, it will expose their unbelief. If
they deny it, the people will get upset and they could have some real problems
on their hands. After all, this is the week of the Passover. It was a very
contentious time as it was, and they don’t want to make anything worse. So they simply answer that they do not know.
Jesus says, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.”
And then he tells this parable. And talk about a scandal. I
mean wow. A man had two sons. He goes to one and in the time-honored tradition
of parents, he sends the kid off to go do work in his vineyard. This is really no different than, “clean your
room,” or “mow the lawn,” or “do the dishes.” And the first son refuses.
What? Really? What is wrong with him?
That is absolutely a terrible thing to say. You don’t talk to your father that
way.
After this, something happened. We don’t know what. But the
kid had a change of heart. This isn’t just that he changed his mind because his
plans fell through, the TV show was a re-run and wasn’t worth watching again.
The word that is used here in one that carries with it remorse. This isn’t
simply changing his mind this is repentance. This is changing the way he thinks
and acts. And so he ends up going out
into the field.
The first one refused. So the dad goes to the second son. He
asks his second son to go work for him in the vineyard and the son says, “I go,
sir.” Now there is a good boy. He is
respectful. He honors his father. He doesn’t argue. He doesn’t say, “in a
minute.” Or “Hold on, let me save my video
game first.” He says, “yes.”
There is just one problem. He doesn’t go. He said he would,
and that was certainly a good thing. But he doesn’t go. Well that is even worse
than saying “no.” At least the first son was honest. So then Jesus asks them,
“Which of the two did the will of his father?”
And the religious leaders correctly answer that it was the
first. Even though he originally said that he would not go, he had a change of
heart. He ended up being the one who did the will of his father. It was not
what you would have expected to find out based on the answers that they gave to
the father’s request. But at the end of the day, it doesn’t really matter if
you say you will do something, if you don’t follow through and actually do it.
The point of this parable is that the religious leaders are
like the son who said that he would go and do what his father asked, and then
doesn’t. The sinners, the prostitutes and the tax collectors that the religious
leaders so easily condemned and left out, well they are the ones who end up
honoring the father. Because they were the ones who changed their minds, they
were the ones who turned and ended up doing what the father asked.
In this parable, Jesus is really calling out the religious
leaders. Not because they are his enemies and he is out to get them. It is not
like Jesus is superman and these guys are Lex Luthor. Or that he is Batman and
these guys are the Joker. Because what Jesus wants is for them to know the life
and salvation that can only come from him. After all, that is why he came in
the first place. That is why he is making that journey to the cross.
Generally speaking, I think it is a good idea if we are
careful not to come down too hard on the religious leaders of the day. We can
certainly learn from when they are wrong, and indeed we need to do so. But we
should be careful that we don’t look down our noses at them too hard. I believe, I can’t prove it, but I believe
that the reason why there are so many stories about the religious leaders in
the gospels, is because God knew in his wisdom, that they are the people that,
if we are not careful, we will become.
You see, the whole point of this conversation and
interaction is that the one who should have been the first to see God at work,
the ones who should have led the people to see and understand, missed it. They
had God’s word. They knew the prophecies. They had the temple and the services
of the temple. And yet, the missed it. God was in their midst and they missed
it.
That is a danger that faces the church today too. We have
this awesome and powerful presence of God in our midst. We have the ability to
see God at work in our lives and in our world. We know that God works through
word and sacrament. We know what he does as we are gathered together for
worship in pouring out his forgiveness and giving and strengthening faith. We
know that he hears our prayers and answers them in accordance with his gracious
will. We know this.
We know that God loves us. That his love for us, and for the
people of our world, was so great that he would become a human being in order
to save us; to redeem us from the powers of sin, death and the devil. Jesus did
this. He accomplished it. The price has been paid in full. What we were unable
to do by our own power or strength has been accomplished on our behalf, by our
God who loves us so very much.
And yet it can be easy for us to lose sight of it. We have
all this, we see all this, and it can become for us common, ordinary and no big
deal. After all, this is just the way that it is supposed to be. This is just
what God does. And we think that we understand God so well, that we can lose
sight of the awesome ways that he works in our lives. We think that we
understand God so well; that we make life lived with him all about us, and what
we want, and what we do. We think that we understand God so well that we make
life lived with him all about a building or an institution.
Church becomes more about budgets, buildings and membership
numbers. Not that these things don’t have a role, but they are all too easily
placed much more prominently than what they should be. And when we focus on
those things we lose sight of the awesome ways that God works in our midst and
our world. We lose our zeal for making the love of God in Jesus known to the
world around us. And when we get caught up in this, it’s kind of like workers
going to work in a vineyard, but instead of harvesting grapes, they spend all
their time fussing over stones along the path. [1]
It’s a good time to be a part of life here at Faith. I am
very excited. God has placed lots of exciting opportunities in front of us.
There are a lot of things going on. There is a lot of ministry that we get to
do and be a part of. From Bible studies, to service events, to worship
services, to things like Oktoberfest. Next week we start a new series. And we
will roll out the vision for the congregation, a guide in helping us to
understand who we are in Christ and living life as his people. I am very
excited about it, and I pray that it will energize you and get you excited
about life and ministry in this place.
We have a wonderful gift in being able to live life with our
God. I pray that that life would be a blessing to you, now and always. Amen.
[1]
Hare, D. R. A. (1993). Matthew.
Interpretation, a Bible commentary for teaching and preaching (248).
Louisville: John Knox Press.
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