Rembrandt, Head of Christ (c1648-56) detail, Phila. Museum of Art
Jesus had entered the holy city of Jerusalem, amidst the crowd’s cries of “Hosanna!” and proceeded to the courtyard of the temple, where he had cleared it of “business as usual”.
“By what authority are you doing these things, and who gave you this authority?” Jesus, just who do you think you are? Come traipsing into our precincts, our territory, our areas of expertise, our lives? What right do you have to interfere with the way we’re running things around here?
In good rabbinic fashion, Jesus responds to His interlocutors, the “chief priests and scribes,” by telling a story. In the parable, a man orders one of his sons to work in the vineyard. The first son he says “I will not,” but has a change of heart and goes to work. The other son immediately says “yes” but never enters the vineyard to work. Jesus asks a question, to which the answer is obvious: “Which of the two did the father’s will?” Then Jesus hammers home the application, that while notorious sinners (originally naysayers to God’s commands) repented & did God’s will, the religious establishment, although they may have paid lip service to God’s commands, did nothing.
Apparently, the preferred son is the one who does the right thing, not the one who says the right thing, or perhaps even believes the right thing. But for Jesus, the faith that doesn’t result in faithful action is mere talk. As Kierkegaard, was fond of saying: “Truth produces itself in action”.
Jesus has a lot of listeners to His word, but relatively few doers. The word listen means “to audit.” Latin: audire “hear” (as in audience, auditorium). When a student “audits” a course, they attend classes to listen. You don’t do the homework. You don’t take the tests. You don’t get graded. But you don’t get credit either! The same is true in our spiritual lives. You don’t get credit for auditing Scripture!
Another lesser known theologian than he was an actor, John Wayne, told his deputy sheriff, played by Dean Martin in the movie “Rio Bravo”: “just showing up doesn’t get the job done.” The goal is to do.
Doing God’s will doesn’t require being part of the local Church Council; being rostered or ordained; or having a lot of initials after your name from years of study. It doesn’t require that you’ve never made mistakes in the past.
All that is required is that we change our minds and believe the One who is the Truth, and go work in the vineyard. And so when this Gospel story ends, we hear the words of the Risen Lord: “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all people…” (Matt. 28:18).
