In the parable of the two sons, the father demands the same action from both boys. He says to them separately, “Son, go and work in the vineyard today.” The first son arrogantly replies, “I will not,” however, he later changed his mind and went to the vineyard. The second son willingly replied, “I go, sir,” but somehow he never made it down to the vineyard.
That’s the way the story goes, and Jesus prods the religious crowd with a simple question. “Which of the two did the will of his father?” Easy answer to an easy question from a simple story. Then again, parables are simple stories meant to convey powerful, spiritual truth!
The truth of the parable is this: the will of the Father is accomplished in actions not merely in words! True faith, believing faith is about living out the Gospel of Christ and growing in His grace and knowledge. True, believing faith cannot be enclosed in just words, it must be expressed in actions and living and obedience! Words are good, but can be deceiving. Actions speak louder than words! People say all kinds of things on the spur of the moment, but they “do” the things they really want to do!
It is interesting to note that the first son’s words were disrespectful and inappropriate, while the second son’s words were respectful and appropriate! In the end, though, the first son pleased the father and the second one disobeyed. Their actions, what did or did not do, in the end, made the difference! If we say we follow Christ and know Christ and love Christ, that is wonderful! The real question though is do we live in such a way that supports that claim? Behind our pledges of faith, do we find lives of faith? Actions will tell the truth!
Here was something new to me: In the ESV notes for Matthew 23:13-36 (the 7 woes), the commentators suggest a contrast between these 7 woes and the first 7 blessings of Matthew 5:3-9. Since I had never heard these two lists compared before, I decided to write them both out side by side on a scrap of paper. I thought maybe that there would be direct parallels, ie. gaining the kingdom of heaven (blessing #1 for the poor in spirit) with shutting the door to the kingdom of heaven (woe #1), and the pure in heart (blessing #6) matches with those whose hearts are full of dead men's bones (woe #6). But maybe an exact correlation between the numbers wasn't what the notes meant though, because not all of them match so smoothly. The merciful ones (blessing #5) didn't match #5 woe, but rather #4 woe (those not interested in mercy). List them out for yourself and see if you see something I didn't.
ReplyDeleteI know, that's kind of an odd thing to get excited about, but I think listing out the character traits that please our Father, and the traits that are repulsive to Him IS useful. I know which list I want Jesus to develop in me!