It's About the Third Son - Matthew 21: 28-32

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. The text is the Gospel reading from Matthew 21.

Jesus asks, who did the will of the Father: Son #1 or Son #2?  

That seems pretty easy, right? After all, Son #2 never got out the door, even after starting so well with a nice, polite answer to his father. It sounds like he never even got off the couch. Perhaps he got busy; maybe he was winning his X-box game and lost track of time; maybe he just forgot. Whatever the reason, his promise is broken and his feet never hit the floor, let alone got dirty. Pretty easy to see how he failed do the father’s will. How about Son #1? To be fair, he started out pretty rough. His curt and rude answer, and lack of action, finally starts to stick in his craw.  “He had a change of mind,” Jesus tells us. So, Son #1 heads out to the fields to do what his father had originally asked, doing what he originally refused to do.

James Tissot - The Parable of the Two Sons

So – who would you say did the will of his father, and why? It must be #1…right? 

Let’s talk about that. Did Son #1 really do the will of his father? Consider him through the lens of the Ten Commandments. We can summarize the Ten Commandments with a singular word: love. He dishonored his father by not going out when asked (4th Commandment). He did not initially help improve or protect his father’s farm, therefore he “stole” part of the harvest from being successfully completed (7th Commandment). By dishonoring his father, he also dishonored his Heavenly Father, breaking the first and second commandments.  

But, he went, you say. Yes, he did. His mind was changed. But, how was it changed? The Greek helps us understand more clearly what caused the change of mind: regret and remorse. This is the same word that is used to describe Judas Iscariot’s change of mind when he saw Jesus arrested and he tried to return the 30 pieces of silver to the chief priests. With both the son and Judas, the motive wasn’t love; it wasn’t really repentance; it wasn’t the desire to help his father. It was guilt that he had not done what his father wanted. So, thus moved, seeking to alleviate his troubled and burdened conscience, Son #1 hit the fields.

So, let me ask you again: which of the two did the will of the Father? I submit the answer is: neither. Why do you think I say that?

Because neither acted in love. Son #2 didn’t act at all. Son #1 acted out of guilt. No father wants a child to act out of guilt. A father wants his children to act and respond out of love. Lacking love, neither fulfilled their dad’s will.

This is a parable, remember, and parables tell us something about the reigning work of Jesus. Parables, while a story, also have an immediate context. Here, the context is with the Jewish leaders. In the timeline of Jesus life, either earlier in the day, or perhaps the day before, He cleansed the temple, driving the money changers out. The Jewish leaders were concerned: who authorized your behavior, Jesus? He turned the question. Who gave John his authority to preach and baptize – God or someone else? Afraid of what the people might say, and smelling a Messianic trap, the Pharisees played as dumb as Mongo. Thus, the parable is told.

The Jewish leaders, you remember, are very concerned about who Jesus hangs out with. The average rabbi did not want people like tax collectors, harlots, and other kinds of riffraff to be part of his entourage. Jesus seemed to not only tolerate them, but welcome and invite them, even going so far to be seen in their homes and eating with them. To Jesus, those are like the first son, hungering for something better, desiring for someone to help them, yet not quite understanding what Jesus has come to do. The Pharisees, on the other hand, are like the second son, saying all the right things and doing all the right things – except one important thing: repenting and turning in faith to Jesus as the promised Son of God. So, which of those two categories are doing the will of the Father? The tax collectors and sinners.

If you go back to the parable, there is one Son who perfectly does do the will of His Father. He’s not a hidden character in the story, yet He is so obvious that He can be missed. In fact, He is as obvious as the narrator Himself: that is the Son, standing in the midst of the Jewish leaders, who is speaking the parable to them. Here is the Son of God, who has come into human flesh, so that He can rescue and redeem the world of sinners. The will of the Father is that His Son would set aside His full divine power so that He could live as a boy, a teenager, and a man. As a human, this Son would experience every temptation you and I wrestle with. He experiences physical pain and mental sorrow and spiritual attack just as we do. He will be rejected by His own people – including those listening to this very parable - and even abandoned by His own disciples. He will be arrested, whipped and beaten, and crucified. He will be abandoned by His own Father in Heaven. He will die miserably, alone and abandoned in the sinner’s death that is the damning consequence of the fallen world’s sin. He will be buried in a pauper’s grave.

Why does this Son do all of this? Why does this Son give up everything for the sake of those who want nothing to do with Him? Where Son #1 acts only out of guilt, Jesus acts out of His great love for you. Where Son #2 failed to do what he pledged to do, Jesus is willing to go all the way to His own death, giving Himself as an innocent sacrifice for sinful people. He does this for you. He does this for the times like, the two sons in the parable, when you dishonor God with your actions and inactions. He does this for the times when you fail to support your neighbor and his property and possessions. He does this for the times that you fail to show love and compassion to those around you. He does this for when you fail to do what God asks of you, or when you break your promises you make to God Himself. He dies for those moments when you think you can somehow do this all on your own strength, merit and worth. He dies for the times when you sin against your brother and sister in Christ. Jesus does all of this so that He is able “to give Himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father,” (Gal 1:4).

Which Son does the will of the Father? Jesus. And the question left unanswered is, will the Pharisees and Jewish leaders join with tax collectors and sinners, looking to Jesus for salvation, or will they remain distant, separate, and outside the Kingdom?

But, that’s not the end of the story. That you may know this and believe that Jesus died for you, He also rose from the grave, demonstrating that that Jesus accomplished the Father’s will for you. With your sins paid in full, your redemption price paid completely, your justification declared perfect in the eyes of God, Jesus said this: “For this is the will of my Father: that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in Him should have eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day,” (John 6:40).

Enabled by the Spirit of God to believe in Jesus as your Lord and Savior, you do the will of the Father when you know, believe, trust and rely on Christ alone for your salvation. Baptized into Christ, you have put on Christ Himself who enables you to do the will of His Father as you love your neighbor as Christ first loved you. Forgiven by the death and resurrection of Christ, you seek to do the will of God as you forgive those who have hurt and harmed you. Having received the mercy of God in Christ, you do the will of God by demonstrating mercy to the weakest and least among us who, you remember, in the eyes of God are the greatest in the kingdom.

So, let’s answer the question one last time: Who did the will of the Father? Not Son #1; not Son #2. It was Son #3 - Jesus.

And, because He does the will of the Father perfectly for you, and you are so closely connected to Christ that God sees you as “Little Christs,” (that’s what “Christian” means, by the way), you have another answer to the question.

Who does the will of the Father? You, sons and daughters of God, you have done the will of God by believing Jesus perfectly fulfilled the will of God for you, thus enabling you to share His love with those around you in His name. You continue to do the will of the Father in your vocation of serving others as Christ Himself works in and through you to those who are around you.

You do the will of the Father as you work with your grandchild who is in a constant, daily wrestling match with your patience. You do the will of the Father as you refuse to engage your neighbor in the rude things he does to you, repaying his ugliness with kindness and compassion, instead. You do the will of the Father when you encourage a coworker in his or her vocation, even after your own difficult, long day. You do the will of the Father when you tell your spouse you squeeze the stuffing out of them and tell them you love them. You do the will of the Father when you sit down in the morning, collect your thoughts, and ask His blessing on what you say and do, that His name is glorified and His kingdom comes through you to those you encounter.

Who does the will of the Father?

You do, through Christ, your Lord. Amen.