A Man Had Two Sons (Matthew 21:28-32)

“There was a man who had two sons.” So begins the parable of the Prodigal Son where the younger son asks for his share of the inheritance and then goes and squanders it all in reckless living while the offended older son labors hard in the field and claims that he never disobeyed his father’s command. Actually there were three sons in the passage. There was a Son who actually never disobeyed His Father’s command. He is the Son who went and sought out the lost younger brother and found him famished and feeding pigs and brought him home. He is the Son who paid the price for His lost brother’s sin. He is the Son who confronted grumbling Pharisees seeking to be righteous by their works using stories like the Parable of the Prodigal Son. He used many parables to do so and even at least two that begin, “A man had two sons.” Both of these parables really have three sons in them when you count the Son of God who tells them. During this season of Lent we are going to look at five parables set during the last week of Jesus’ life in the Gospel of Matthew. The first and the shortest one Jesus tells is about a man who had two sons. It begins in Matthew 21:28, but I will begin reading at verse 23 so that you have a little more context. 

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Matthew 21:23-32 

1. The man had a son who said he would go and work in the vineyard for you and then did.
   1. The Son of God who tells this parable is the one to whom our Father in Heaven said, “Go and work in the vineyard today,” and He answered, “I will go, Father,” and He did go for you. Israel is often described in Scripture as a vineyard. Thus working in the vineyard is metaphorical language for serving in the kingdom of God. God the Father even asked Jesus to go to His death on a cross and Jesus answered, “I will go, Father,” and He did go to die for your sins. Unlike the Pharisees and priests, Jesus served as God’s Son in the kingdom of God. He served God by telling parables like this one that confronted those who thought they were serving God but didn’t believe John nor Jesus. He served God by serving those who had been the worst of the worst sinners who believed John the Baptist like many tax collectors and prostitutes. Jesus who tells this parable is the Son not mentioned in this parable.
   2. Jesus is the Son in whom we believe and enter into the kingdom of God. John the Baptist pointed people to Jesus Christ. The tax collectors and prostitutes believed John and repented of their sins. The Pharisees and priests did not believe John even after seeing the tax collectors and prostitutes repent nor now did they believe Jesus. Thus Jesus tells the Pharisees and priests that the tax collectors and prostitutes go into the kingdom of God while the Pharisees and priests are standing on the sidelines watching. So this is a parable about salvation but evenso it is a parable about salvation to service.
2. The son who said that he wouldn’t go and work in the vineyard but then did was the son Jesus saved for service in the vineyard.
   1. He is never praised for saying that he wouldn’t go just as the Prodigal Son is not praised for squandering everything he had been given. No one would mistake the tax collectors and prostitutes earlier behavior for righteousness. It was wrong. Saying, “I will not” to serving in the vineyard of God was wrong. Some say that this parable teaches that it is not our words but our deeds that are important. Jesus however is not saying anything of the sort. This son did not just say no but acted upon it. These are fighting words – they are words of rebellion. Only later did the son “change his mind.” “Changing his mind” is the language of repentance like the Prodigal Son coming to his senses. This son who had turned away from God now welcomed the gifts of faith in Jesus and repentance unto life.
   2. And because the repentant son now went and worked in the vineyard, he did the will of his Father. He had been saved by Jesus for service in the vineyard. The Pharisees and priests were able to draw the correct conclusion from Jesus’ parable. They said that the son who said no but afterward changed his mind and went was the one who did the will of his father. Never would they have imagined that Jesus would say that this son is like the tax collectors and prostitutes who sinned against God and then repented and went to serve in the vineyard. Indeed, even seeing the tax collectors and prostitutes doing the will of God did not lead the Pharisees and priests to repent.
3. The son who said that he would but then didn’t represents the Pharisees and priests.
   1. The chief priests and the elders are the kind that said yes to the father asking if they will go work in the vineyard, but they didn’t actually do so. They were active in all kinds of religious service – many of the Pharisees were elders in Israel and the priests were serving in the temple. Priests collected the offerings and the alms for the poor, they did the sacrifices, they taught the Law, and many other things. The elders exercised spiritual oversight of the people and ruled over religious matters. But they were not actually serving in the kingdom of God because they didn’t believe in Jesus. They were serving in their own vineyard – their own little kingdom – rather than in God’s vineyard.
   2. The only hope for those who think that they are serving God but aren’t is that they might change their minds and believe in Jesus. The tax collectors and the prostitutes went into the kingdom of God before many priests and Pharisees. But some priests and Pharisees heard the good news and were saved later. Thus they became like the other son who said, “I will not” but changed their minds and went. The scary thing is that today it is still possible to think that you have said, “I go, sir,” but did not go. It is possible to serve in a church, even taking up the offering, teaching, preaching, and serving in many other ways, but be serving in your own vineyard – in your own little kingdom – rather than in God’s vineyard. It is faith in Jesus that sets one apart for service in the kingdom of God.