"WHICH OF THE TWO DID HIS FATHER'S WILL?"

26^th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A.  Matthew. 21:28-32.

AIM: To show that our only claim on God is our acknowledgment of sin and our prayer for forgiveness.

On the day after Christmas 1958 Angelo Roncalli, who had become Pope John XXIII not quite two months before, visited Rome=s central prison.  A murderer asked the Pope: ACan there be forgiveness for me?@ The Holy Father responded by enfolding the man in his arms. No words were necessary. The embrace said it all.

AYou can=t come to me,@ Pope John told the prisoners. ASo I have come to you.@ He went on to tell them that he had some personal experience of jails: his brother had once been arrested for poaching. In the account of the visit which appeared in the Vatican newspaper Osservatore Romano the next day this remark was censored. The editor feared that readers would be scandalized to learn that a Pope=s brother had been in trouble with the law.

 Pope John=s experience with the Church Establishment, represented in this instance by the editor of the Vatican newspaper, was not unlike that of Jesus Christ. ATax collectors and prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God before you,@ Jesus says to the religious leaders of his people at the end of this story about the man with two sons. He was addressing Athe chief priests and elders of the people@.  

Jesus= association with people of bad moral character (represented here by Atax collectors and prostitutes@) scandalized his pious critics. His acceptance of such people did not mean approval of their sinful lives, any more than Pope John=s embrace of the murderer implied approval of violent crime. By welcoming notorious sinners Jesus was appealing to the spark of goodness that was still in them as God=s children. He knew that kindness and love can break through the hardened human heart far more effectively than moral denunciation.     

Today=s parable of the two sons was Jesus= way of bringing home the contrast between the religious leaders, who rejected him, and the outcasts of society, who heard him gladly. To Jesus= hearers, living in a patriarchal society, the father in the story was a figure of unquestioned authority. His sons owed him obedience not merely because they lived in his house.  Obedience was also a sacred duty enjoined by the fourth commandment: AHonor your father and your mother.@ 

The first son=s response to the father=s request for help on the family farm was an in-your-face refusal of his duty which would have deeply shocked Jesus= hearers. ABut afterwards [he] changed his mind and went,@ Jesus tells us. The second son responds courteously and at once: AYes, sir!@   ABut [he] did not go,@ Jesus says.

Immediately Jesus confronts his critics with a question. AWhich of the two did what his father=s will?@ Jesus= critics give the only possible answer: AThe first.@ They are convicted out of their own mouths. AAmen, I say to you,@ Jesus tells them, Atax 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.@   

The second son in the story, who told his father he was on the way to work and then failed to go, is like Jesus= upright critics. Proud to be members of God=s chosen people, they were confident that faithful performance of their religious duties gave them a claim on God which he was bound in justice to honor. They had forgotten that we never have a claim on God. God has a claim on us, and it is an absolute claim. AWhen you have done all you have been commanded to do,@ Jesus says on another occasion [and which of us has?], Asay, >We are useless servants. We have done no more than our duty=@ (Luke 17:10).

The first son in the story, who told his father there was no way he was going to work for him any longer, and later regretted his insolence and went to work after all, is like the depraved outcasts who heard Jesus gladly. Their lives proclaimed rebellion against God. But the welcome they gave Jesus showed there was still goodness in them. Jesus appeals to this goodness by his compassionate love. Perhaps, like the first son, they will yet feel regret and turn from the darkness of their wasted lives to the sunshine of God=s forgiveness and love. This hope is the basis for Jesus= stern warning to his hard-hearted and self-righteous critics: ATax collectors and prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God before you.@

For us the story contains a warning C but also encouragement.  Faithful performance of our religious duties is in itself no guarantee of salvation. Such obedience is profitable only if it brings us closer to others and makes us more loving people C and if it brings us closer to God. And the closer we come to God, the more clearly we shall recognize our remaining sinfulness and unworthiness of all the love he showers on us.  Jesus gives the same warning in the sermon on the mount: ANone of those who cry out, >Lord, Lord,= will enter the kingdom of God but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven@ (Matthew 7:21).

Who are those who cry, ALord, Lord@? Certainly not the declared enemies of Jesus Christ. No, we are the people who cry, ALord, Lord.@   Day by day, and Sunday by Sunday, we utter the Lord=s name: in petitions, intercession, thanksgiving, praise, and penitence. That is right and good.  The parable warns us, however, that if our piety does not bear fruit in our lives, we are still far from God. The warning is not for outsiders, for others.  It is for us, the declared followers of Jesus Christ.

If the story=s second son is a warning to us, however, the first son is an encouragement. As followers of Jesus Christ we have been taught that readiness to respond to God=s= call is a virtue, slowness or refusal a sin. We have been told not to complain, and to avoid the rebellious attitude which produces and nurtures complaints. Few of us, however, avoid these things completely. Often we are slow to respond to God=s call, coming to us through the teaching of the Church, through the inner voice of conscience, through the needs of a sister or brother whom we encounter along life=s way, or in the legitimate commands or requests of those in authority. Sometimes we refuse such calls altogether.

All that is, in the last analysis, of little account, Jesus is telling us.  What counts is not what we say, feel, or intend. The only thing that counts is what we do. Negative feelings, resentment of God=s demands or of the demands of others, are not important if, despite such feelings, we are still trying to do what we know is right. Indeed, being generous with God and others when this is difficult, in spite of the sullen resentment within, is of greater value than obeying God=s call in times of spiritual fervor and zeal.

God sees the difficulties with which we must contend. When we stumble and fall, and think we can rise no more because we=ve been down so often before, we need to ask God to do for us what we can no longer do ourselves. When we approach God in that way, we do have a claim on him: the claim of a sinner seeking God=s mercy.

Let me conclude with the verses of an evangelical hymn. If you have ever watched a Billy Graham revival on television, you have heard it sung softly by the massed choirs as people come forward to give their lives to Jesus Christ. It goes like this:

Just as I am, without one plea, but that thy blood was shed for me

And that thou bid=st me come to thee, O Lamb of God, I come.

Just I am, though tossed about, with many a conflict, many a doubt

Fightings and fears within, without, O Lamb of God, I come.

Just as I am, poor, wretched, blind; sight, riches, healing of the mind,

Yes, all I need, in thee to find, O Lamb of God, I come.

Just as I am: thou wilt receive; wilt welcome, pardon, cleanse, relieve;

Because thy promise I believe; O Lamb of God, I come.

Just as I am, thy love unknown, has broken every barrier down;

Now to be thine, yes, thine alone, O Lamb of God, I come.

Just as I am, of thy great love, the breadth, length, depth, and height to prove,

Here for a season, then above: O Lamb of God, I come.