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Matthew 21:28-32  [Jesus said]  “What do you think?  There was a man who had two sons.  He went to the first and said, ‘Son, go and work today in the vineyard.’  ‘I will not,’ he answered, but later he changed his mind and went.  Then the father went to the other son and said the same thing.  He answered, ‘I will, sir,’ but he did not go.  Which of the two did what his father wanted?”  “The first,” they answered.  Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you.  For John came to you to show you the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes did.  And even after you saw this, you did not repent and believe him.

The clue to what Jesus was teaching through this parable is in the phrase “later he changed his mind” (verse 29).

The first son represents all of us in our natural condition.  As descendants of Adam, we are born with a heart that is opposed to God, our Creator, the One who therefore maintains the right to direct every part of our lives, and to hold us accountable for our failure to submit to his rightful rule in us.  The saddest part about continuing in this way is that we miss out on experiencing ‘life to the full’ with which God wants to bless every one of us.  As Jesus said, “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full” (John 10:10), and when we discover this for ourselves it becomes our most treasured possession.

Desperate people, whose lives had become extremely messy – the ‘greedy, cheating tax-collectors and prostitutes’ – heard the message of John the Baptist pointing to Jesus and saying: “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29) In response, they gladly ‘changed their minds’.  To this point they had devoted their lives to ‘doing it my way’ but the more they pursued this blatant rejection of God’s way  the messier their lives had become; so they ‘changed their minds’.  Like the first son in the parable they realised the error of such rebellion and turned in repentance with contrite hearts.

How different they were from the Scribes and Pharisees who had managed to convince themselves that they were ‘toeing the holiness line’ and ‘keeping the rules’ by their outward observances and so could never be convinced that they needed a Saviour.  Their proud, arrogant hearts were so intent on convincing themselves that they were doing God’s will just as he wanted, that they were blind to the fact that they were hypocrites and that nothing could be further from the truth.  I happily participated in their erroneous thinking for three of my teenage years (making me a real pain to live with – ask my siblings!) until in August 1957, at age 17, I ‘discovered’ I was a sinner, and that my patient, gracious, loving God had provided for me a Saviour – ‘the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world’.  I, or rather God, ‘changed my mind’.  “I have decided to follow Jesus … … no turning back, no turning back.”  Thank you, LORD Jesus for this parable.

 – Bruce Christian