Sermon Tone Analysis
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We ended last week with the scene where the chief priests and elders were challenging Jesus’ authority to teach and perform miracles.
That story flows right into the text we have before us today.
In fact, really throughout the next couple of chapters, it is hard to even find a good starting and stopping point, because all the teaching and all the scenes of confrontation flow together in rapid succession.
We have to keep in mind that while the first 20 chapters of Matthew covered Jesus’ entire life up until the age of probably 33, the last quarter of the book covers mostly just one week.
We are seeing things play out in rapid succession.
But even though things are moving quicker, the way the scripture is put forward is in keeping with how the rest of Matthew’s writing went.
All through we’ve seen miracles or narrative, followed by teaching.
Here, we see the same thing - miracles/narrative, then teaching.
Jesus rode in on the donkey, cleansed the temple, healed the lame and blind, received praise from the little children, cursed the fig tree, and had a confrontation with the leaders - miracles and narrative.
Now, we get a long section of teaching again, and it begins with three parables.
We are going to look at just two of them today, because these two are nearly identical in their purpose and themes.
The themes of the vineyard come up again in this passage, as Jesus’ often used the culture around him to explain and give light to his teaching.
Here, the parables are about God’s vineyard people, and in each case there are workers.
There are a lot of major themes in these two parables, I’m going to list some of them and you can sort of keep track of what you see as well.
God’s care for his people, the “vine.”
The value of repentance over false professions
The concept of stewardship and human agency in God’s creation
The rejection of God’s authority, and God’s son
The Kingdom of God
Judgment on wicked servants
Jesus is coming face to face with the leaders of Israel’s religion in the most intense ways, and these parables were very pointed.
But we must take heed not to say, “well that hard lesson is just for the Pharisees and the priests and leaders, its really not relevant to us.”
We must take heed because the attitudes, the pitfalls, and even the depths of unbelief and rejection that we see from these leaders is something we are all prone to.
These parables are at once warnings and encouragements.
Two Vineyard parables show the importance of repentance and doing God’s will.
1.
A Father and His Sons - Vs. 28-32
A. The Parable - Vs. 28-30
Jesus starts off verse 28 with an invitation to think - “what do you think?”
He is asking these leaders to seriously consider their positions.
This is helpful, too, because it is a reminder that spiritual things are not mindless.
Life is not just meditation and emptying ourselves and hoping to be filled with something else - it requires the mind that God created and gave to us.
Jesus invites them, and us by implication, to think about two sons.
There is a comparison that is coming.
And the means of comparison is this family vineyard.
The Father and patriarch is no doubt the owner of a vineyard, and he makes a simple and reasonable request to his son.
“Go and work in the vineyard today.”
It would be expected not just culturally but even practically that the son would obey, because it was in everyone’s best interest for the vinyeard to be tended well.
If it was a family business, then the livelihood and future of the whole family benefits from cooperation.
We can already see here the weight of what is happening - God has created a world, a “vineyard” so to speak, and he commands his children to work within it.
It is not just busywork, but it is productive work.
It is a simple and reasonable request.
But in verse 29, we see that this first son answered blatantly, “no!”
He said “I will not.”
That is an interesting phrase, it literally means “it is not my desire to do this.”
He was honest, but his honesty was dishonorable.
This would have been immensely shameful in that culture, and put the son in jeopardy.
He was honest, but he was honest in his rebellion.
But after thinking about it, he “changed his mind.”
He was very sorry - regretful.
And not only was he sorry, we see that he repented and went.
This is much like the parable of the prodigal son in short form.
We see here the concept of repentance from rebellion, the struggle of the human will against the will of God.
With the second son, however, things went differently.
The father used the same language - he “said the same” to Him.
So no different command, no different context.
But a different response.
This son immediately said, “Indeed, Lord!”
A very respectful and honorable response.
This was the response that would be expected of any good son.
And this son knew that, he knew just what to say.
But his respectful answer was not followed through with.
He simply did not go.
Good words, but no action behind them.
Sort of like a fig tree with leaves, but no fruit.
That is the simple parable, and it is easy to wrap our minds around.
And with both of these parables, the main point of them is summed up in a question that Jesus asks.
B. The Question - Vs. 31a
“Which of these two did the will of his father?”
The answer to that question is the interpretation of the parable.
It is a simple lesson, simple but profound.
Well, these leaders of Jerusalem answered, and they answered correctly!
They said, “The first.”
The first son, remember, at first said “no, it is not my desire to go!”
But then he repented - he changed his mind and heart and went.
And their answer, being correct, was an answer that put them immediately in their place within this story.
Because they were in this story, they just didn’t know it.
In fact, we are all in this story, to some degree or another.
We may not know it, but Jesus knows it, and he knows exactly where we are.
C. The Application - Vs. 31b-32
Jesus goes right from their answer into application, and he immediately brings them into it.
He says, “truly!
I say to you, tax collectors and prostitutes are going into the kingdom of God before you...”
This coupled phrase, we’ve seen before.
What were tax collectors and prostitutes?
They were sinners!
They were clearly unrighteous!
But in this story, the tax collectors and prostitutes are the first son.
They at first say “no!” to God’s ways, and go on in rebellion.
But That rebellion only lasts until something happens - they repent.
They have a change of mind and heart that leads to a change in behavior and they go, in this case, into the Kingdom of God.
The lowest people, in these leader’s eyes, were this class of people.
Yet, Jesus is saying that by repentance, these lowest of lows - the people of the earth - are the first going into the Kingdom.
They are becoming citizens of the True Kingdom of God while these religious leaders are left behind.
Why is that?
Because the religious leaders, and much of Israel with them, are the second son.
They put on a good face, put on a good act, say and do the right things in public, but when the rubber meets the road, they do not do the will of the father.
Jesus ties their rejection back to John the Baptist’s ministry, which ties this parable back into Jesus’ question to them about John’s authority.
Jesus is affirming that John, and therefore Jesus’, authority comes from Heaven above.
and he says to them, “Righteous john came to you and you didn’t believe Him.”
When it came time to believe, you didn’t.
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