As Our Father Wills Matthew
21:23-32How much does it bother you when someone is insincere, when they say they’ll do something but fail to follow through or never meant it in the first place? Maybe you’ve dealt with this when talking to customer service. A business had promised you “satisfaction guaranteed” or “30-day money back”! But then you spend hours on hold and being transferred from one person to another. Or you learn how the fine print makes those promises all but impossible. Might you wonder if they were ever sincere with those promises? Or what about a person’s forced apology? When the child says “I’m sorry” because their teacher is standing right there or the public figure tearfully addresses the crowds so they can save face. Does their insincerity just make things worse?
When a person or organization is insincere, it makes you look like a hypocrite or have a double standard. We are quick to decry and avoid such insincerity. But what if that insincerity is spiritual? In Jesus’ day, many of the Jewish religious leaders were spiritually insincere. They said what the crowds wanted and looked the part, but they failed to lead as God expected of them. So Jesus exposed their spiritual insincerity with an insightful question about John the Baptist and a short parable about two sons. In so doing, Jesus also exposes our own spiritual insincerity and teaches us what it should look like so that we may do as our Father wills with genuine, spiritual sincerity.
These Jewish religious leaders represented the highest ruling authority and were based out of the Temple in Jerusalem where the Jewish faith was centered around. As leaders, God expected them to teach his Word to the people, model it with their lives, and ensure that everything was done in accord in Scripture. They also had known of Jesus for three years now since he began preaching. Though both claimed to teach God’s Word, their messages were very different. Jesus preached what God’s Word actually says – how sins are forgiven through faith in the Promised Savior who Jesus is. The religious leaders stressed strict obedience to the law as long as it benefited them.
When they asked Jesus whose authority he had, their concern wasn’t about the truth of God’s Word. They were asking about what happened the day before when Jesus disrupted their heyday of a payday by cleansing the temple courts. As countless Jewish pilgrims came from across the world to celebrate Passover, the temple courts were full of sacrificial animals for sale. Between the dishonest dealing and the sights, sounds, and smells of the animals, the religious leaders had
made God’s house anything but a house for prayer. But that didn’t concern them. Rather, they didn’t want Jesus disrupting their business a second day in a row.
I mention all this to show the insincerity of these religious leaders and to explain why Jesus responds the way he does. Rather than right away answer and miss an opportunity to address their insincerity, Jesus asked about what they thought of John the Baptist’s ministry. Where did it come from, from God or from men? You may remember that John the Baptist pointed everyone to Jesus as the Promised Savior in whom to believe for salvation. Once they had that faith, then he strongly encouraged them to live as children of God. Jesus’ and John’s ministries were intertwined to the point that to believe one was to believe the other; to reject one was to reject the other.
Though John had been beheaded a year or two earlier, he was still a talking point in popular culture. The Jewish religious leaders had already made their mind up about John: a mistaken person whose message and life were misguided at best. But if they told the crowds that John’s ministry was from men, the crowds would rise up against them because they saw John as a prophet who came from God. But if the religious leaders said that, then Jesus would ask them why the didn’t believe in John and therefore also in him It was a Catch-22! But rather than be sincere and face the heat, they decided to be insincere and evade the question. So they feigned ignorance saying, “We don’t know.”
Jesus recognized their insincerity. So he exposes it against their wishes with our short but powerful parable for today, the parable of the two sons. It’s a parable that just about any parent, boss, or manager has dealt with themselves. In it, a father wants his two adult sons to work in the vineyard. The first son refused but later changed his mind and worked. The second son initially agreed! But later he changed his mind and did not go and work. When asked which of the two sons did their father’s will, the religious leaders correctly said it was the first one, the one who actually worked in the vineyard.
What is Jesus teaching in this short but powerful parable? Spiritual sincerity is shown in doing what our Father in heaven wills, not just good intentions or giving lip service. And what is the will of our Father in heaven? What the John the Baptist said: to believe in Jesus for salvation, to readily agree to live as God’s child, and then following through with a thankful heart. Sadly, these religious leaders were like the parable’s second son. They said they’d do what God the Father said and looked the part to the public! But failed to follow through and perhaps never meant it at all. But who was it that Jesus identified as the first son who ending up doing
the Father’s will? The crassest of sinners – tax collectors who reveled in lies, greed, and corruption; prostitutes whose livelihood was a sin against God and the bodies he gave them – these were the ones who at first rejected John’s and Jesus’ ministry! But later on, they believed in Jesus for salvation and put aside their sinful ways.
This spiritual insincerity is something we also struggle with ourselves. We hear what our Father wills of us – to believe in Jesus as John the Baptist preached and to readily live for our Father in heaven as his thankful children. But aren’t we like that second son who failed to follow through or perhaps never meant his words in the first place? We put our hope and trust for salvation in someone other than Jesus Christ. Maybe it’s ourselves and the good things we’ve done to assure that heaven will be our home. Perhaps we hedge our bets and believe in others just in case Jesus isn’t enough. We hold to a double standard, expecting others to live as God desires but not ourselves. While it’s wrong to tax collectors to misuse money, why can’t I have my money serve me first and give to God what remains afterwards? I earned it after all! While it’s wrong for prostitutes to make a living by selling their bodies, why can’t I enjoy the blessings of marriage before I actually get married to someone? As long as we both agree to it and no one gets hurt, can’t we do whatever we want? Or we let the busyness of life keep us from what’s actually important: strengthening our faith in Jesus through time spent in his Word like at church, in Bible study, and home devotions; showing our thanks to God as we love our undeserving neighbor; equipping and encouraging one another to remain on the narrow path of heaven.
Thinking back to our parable, the first son was the better of the two. But he too started off insincere by refusing to work in his father’s vineyard. We were like that too at one time. When we were born into this world, our cute and cuddly cheeks were equally matched by our lost and condemned status from being born in sin until we were baptized and came to faith. Some of you know what it’s like to live without Christ because you were an adult when you became a Christian or you fell away for a time. Even though we’re children of God, we still struggle to live as our Father wills: when we choose the sinful pleasures of this world and indulge the selfish cravings of our flesh; when we decide what parts of a Christian’s life we’ll live as if we were ordering from a menu; when we let grudges or gossip color our interactions with others.
Neither of the parable’s two sons were completely sincere. But there was a son who was, God’s own Son, Jesus Christ. Unlike the first son, he sincerely agreed to do his Father’s will. To be eternally joined to a human body like ours. To leave
heaven’s incomparable blessings and live here on Earth for 33 years facing daily temptations, enduring sin’s consequences, and submitting to the perfectionist demands of God’s law. To receive the full punishment for sin by being crucified on the cross and abandoned by his own Father. To rise from the dead on Easter Sunday and ascend again to heaven. Unlike the second son, Jesus sincerely did his Father’s will: a virgin birth, a perfect life, an innocent death, a bodily resurrection, and an accepted sacrifice.
Because of Jesus, the only Son who was perfectly sincere to his Father’s will, we get to be sons and daughters of our Father in heaven. As John the Baptist said, Jesus came to take away the sins of the world! Whoever believes in him has what God gives through faith – the blessing to call God the Father our own Father as we do in the Lord’s Prayer; the blessing to be counted among God’s children. As sons and daughters of our Father, we share in what the family has: forgiveness for our every sin, a clean slate before the Judge of all, love and compassion that surpasses our earthly fathers, protection and preservation in this sin-broken and trouble-filled world, guidance and direction to show our thanks to God above, and the guarantee that heaven and its every blessing will be ours. These blessings are yours because of your faith in Jesus, the Son who was completely sincere to his Father’s will.
That in turn encourages us to likewise be spiritually sincere as our Father wills. Listen to John the Baptist and believe in the one he pointed to: Jesus Christ, God’s own Son, who came to take your sins with his perfect life, innocent death, and resurrection from the grave. Like the parable’s second son, readily agree to all our Father in heaven wills as we live for him in thanks and faith. Like the parable’s first son, follow through on our good intentions and walk the walk we’ve talked about. As we model genuine, spiritual sincerity to all, let’s do it so we may lead others to ask about the One from whom we live: our Savior Jesus Christ, God’s own Son, who was perfectly sincere to his Father’s will so that we may be sons and daughters of our Father in heaven. Amen.