Matthew 21:28-32
28 ‘What do you think? A man had two sons; he went to the first and said, “Son, go and work in the vineyard today.” 29He answered, “I will not”; but later he changed his mind and went. 30The father went to the second and said the same; and he answered, “I go, sir”; but he did not go. 31Which of the two did the will of his father?’ They said, ‘The first.’ Jesus said to them, ‘Truly I tell you, the tax-collectors and the prostitutes are going into the kingdom of God ahead of you. 32For John came to you in the way of righteousness and you did not believe him, but the tax-collectors and the prostitutes believed him; and even after you saw it, you did not change your minds and believe him.
BLOG DISCUSSION QUESTION:The Greek word for repentance, metanoia, literally means "change one's mind". What light does this parable shine on what the tax collectors and prostitutes changed their minds about?
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Well, as Jesus states the tax-collectors and protitutes believed John so they repented when they heard what John said maybe out of fear or true belief (I don't know). So they changed their mind about their ways and how they were living their life. Were as the disciples needed to have many miraculous signs given to them by Jesus himself before they truely believed and fell at His feet, for some it even took the cross (although they followed Him the entire way). So off my tangent, it shines light on that the tax collectors and prostitutes changed their minds about their beliefs in the Messiah.
"A man had two sons". "But later he changed his mind (when he came to himself)". This parable has familiar words to recent sermon titles and messages at WC and Benton. Are there intentional correlations? Is this Matthew's version of Luke's prodigal son parable? The words, "you,(pharisees and religious leaders), tax-collectors, and prostitutes ARE GOING INTO THE KINGDOM OF GOD" stand out to me. It doesn't appear in this story or Luke's that the religious leaders or the older son gets excluded from the family reunion after their Fatherly lecture. These are encouraging words to me as I find myself in each of the characters. The light that shines in the darkness must be a flood light rather than a spot light.
Wow...RJQ...you really gave me a new phrase of beautiful comparisons--the Light must be a floodlight instead of a spotlight. That's truly God's OPEN ARMS for all--prodigals, desitutes, and US! As Pastor Jerry has often said, our God is a God of second chances....and as stated earlier, the beautiful thing about grace is that it is unfair! We all count on that! Unfortunately, we all have the tendency to be the "second son"--in intending to spread God's Word, and then we don't do it.
A question: How about all of us asking Pastor Jerry to keep his blog going after Lent?????? It has really been good for my daily thoughts and meditations--and it's fun getting other peoples' insights!
Appreciated your thought, Pastor Jerry, that you don't intend to be "the authority"...but you do a bang-up job of simplifying and "putting it altogether" for us. As we Lutheran's would say, "Thanks be to God!"
Me again...good thoughts, RJQ--in comparing this Matthew's version to the Luke version of the prodigal son! We ALL get invited to the Celebration!
Thinking of the "lost parables"--in each of the parables, something is lost: 1 out of 100 sheep; 1 of 10 coins, 1 of 2 sons. Notice the ratio. The flock is not complete without the last sheep, the collection is not complete without the least coin, and the family is not complete without the lost son.
The sheep was lost by straying from one clump of green grass to the next...the coin was lost by carelessness, and the son was lost by his own act of willful disobedience.
No matter what the cause, the owner cares, the search is on and the conclusion is the same in all three cases. Hallelujah! The lost is found! Let's have a party. Celebration time. "There is more joy of one sinner who repents..."
I have said this before and dont get bored with me but... if you are and outsider, tax collector, prostitute, you have been on the dark side of life. If you hear about an opportunity to have something special, it is something special. If you have lived a life that is comfortable, reasonable and not overly emotional, its hard to change. The good news to someone who is lost is that THE GOOD NEWS really is GOOD NEWS. "Where else is there to go."
I have said this before and dont get bored with me but... if you are and outsider, tax collector, prostitute, you have been on the dark side of life. If you hear about an opportunity to have something special, it is something special. If you have lived a life that is comfortable, reasonable and not overly emotional, its hard to change. The good news to someone who is lost is that THE GOOD NEWS really is GOOD NEWS. "Where else is there to go."
The question that I posed occurred to me as I considered what the son in the parable changed his mind about, and what the tax collectors and prostitutes changed their minds about. I have always thought that the "repentance", changing of mind, always referred to the life they were living.....but I don't know that is what this parable infers. It seems to me that both the son and the tax collectors and prostitutes changed their mind about their relationship to the father/Father. I don't know, but I wonder...did their repentance lead the tax collectors from being tax collectors.....the prostitutes from being prostitutes. Can you be a tax collector and a follow of Christ? Here's a tougher question.....can you be a prostitute and be a follower of Christ? MMMMMMMM.......I don't know that I have the answer to this, but the parable sure leads one to wrestle with these questions.
Praise's looking at the various ways one gets lost is a good thing to think about....whether we lose ourselves by our own doing...whether we get lost by no fault of our own....or whether we get lost simply in life itself.....there is one who is looking for us... and finds us!
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