GOSPEL PARABLES 15 TWO SONS
Today I’m sharing the parable of the Two sons from the Gospel of Matthew (21:28).
The background to the parable of the Two Sons is that the Pharisees and Jewish leaders were strongly resisting what Jesus was saying and doing and questioning his authority, as they had with John the Baptist, so Jesus speaks this parable to them,

Matthew 21:28 “What do you think of this? A man had two sons. And he went to the first and said, ‘Son, go and work in the vineyard today.’ And he answered, ‘I prefer not to,’ but afterward he changed his mind and went. And he went to the other son and said the same. And he answered, ‘I will go, sir,’ but did not go. Which of the two did the will of his father?” They said, “The first.” Jesus said to them, “Truly, I say to you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes go into the kingdom of God before you, for the tax collectors and the prostitutes believed John for he came to you as an upright and Godly man and you did not believe him. And even when you saw that, you did not afterward change your minds and believe him.

The Godliness and anointing and spiritual authority of John the Baptist was at the centre of the argument that the Jewish leaders were really having about the authority of Jesus - before he spoke the parable of the Two Sons.
What did the Jewish leaders see in John the Baptist that they did not want to believe?
They did not want to see or believe that John the Baptist was from God because if they believed that then they would have to believe that Jesus was also from God. The whole crowd saw John the Baptist baptise Jesus and they all saw the dove of the Holy Spirit appear above the head of Jesus and they heard the voice from Heaven say, ‘this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased’. As well as that, the tax collectors and prostitutes received the baptism of John the Baptist, but the Jewish leaders had refused it.

Jesus is saying a lot here about choices and preferences and our willingness to believe in Jesus and trust him and do what he says, or we may resist and walk our own path of self-advantage. We may give a nod to doing what is right because it looks good but deep down resent that we are not fully in command of our own destiny and desires, and in this story the two sons are being weighed in the balance of either determining their own destinies or doing the will of their father. This Two Sons theme occurs in another three major stories in the Bible - the stories of the prodigal son, and Jacob and Esau, and Cain and Abel.

In the Two Sons parable Jesus is comparing the responses of the tax collectors and prostitutes with the responses of the legalistic Pharisees and Jewish leaders, and the situation in this parable resembles the story of the prodigal son. In the Prodigal Son story the father wants to bless both the sons, but the prodigal son goes his own way then has a change of heart and discovers his heart of gratitude and love and honour for his father. The older son is self-righteous and resentful of the mercy shown to the wayward son, just as the Pharisees are resentful of the mercy Jesus shows to sinners.

In the story of the twins Jacob and Esau, the older twin Esau was entitled to the spiritual inheritance from their father Isaac, but Jacob deeply desired it for himself. And one day after Esau had been out hunting and was hungry he impetuously traded the valuable older son inheritance for a tempting bowl of Jacob’s lentil soup, and later on, Jacob deceived the blind Isaac into blessing him with the sought after inheritance instead of Esau by disguising himself as Esau. And although Jacob initially acted out of self-will, he later repented, and years later, on the eve of his meeting with Esau to make reconciliation, he had an encounter with God and wrestled with God and with his own inner conflicts, and after this encounter God granted Jacob the full blessing of the heavenly inheritance he sought.

The Two Sons parable is also a replay of the Cain and Abel story where Cain is also resentful of the approval that God gives to Abel, who offers a heartfelt sacrificial offering of the best of his flock to God, whereas Cain gives only what he is obliged to give - just like the empty hearted Pharisees. God accepts the offering of Abel but not that of the envious Cain, who murders his brother and is sentenced into exile, to wander as a lonely man with an inner emptiness and bitterness. Cain’s crime of killing Abel is also replayed in the killing of Jesus by the Jewish leaders and the shouts of ‘crucify him’ in front of Pontius Pilate. Cain’s fate of being exiled to wander the earth (Genesis 4:4) is the same as the self-righteous Pharisees who exiled themselves from a merciful and forgiving God. The Bible says that through his sacrificial offering Abel still speaks even though he died (Hebrews 11:4) and how much more through the sacrificial offering of his own life does Jesus still speak even now to all the world.

The story of Jesus is the unique story of the Son who delighted to honour the will of his Father, and who never wavered or had to repent or regret any wrong attitudes, and Jesus stands in the midst of all of these Two Sons stories. Jesus becomes the answer of forgiveness and mercy and hope to us as a wayward humanity represented by the tax collectors and the prostitutes and the prodigal son and the unruly and deceitful Jacob. And if we go astray like lost sheep, he comes to find us.

Jesus through his patience and longsuffering also becomes the remedy to those like the self-righteous Jewish leaders or the entitled older brother of the prodigal son or the disinterested Esau, or the hapless Cain who all remained in their shadow of darkness.
Jesus waits and peers towards the horizon to see their hearts humbled and softened and become willing to return. For a brief moment I let you go your own way, but with great compassion I will gather you… (Isaiah 54:7)
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Jesus has embraced humanity within the length and depth and height of his love. We are the brothers and sisters of Jesus, the sons and daughters of the Father, and heirs together with him of the Kingdom of Heaven. Jesus fulfilled every requirement of the Commandments because of his love for his Father and he lives within our hearts as the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus with a desire to do the Father’s will. That means that we too can now fulfill his Commandments because they are now written on our new hearts of faith and love through the Holy Spirit that he has given to us. This redeeming love and mercy and forgiveness of God can be a great encouragement to us when we might have felt we have let God down, but then turn to him, safe within his love. This is also how we can encourage others who may have felt they have wandered too far away from God and feel there is no way back, for he has said. For a brief moment I let you go your own way, but with great compassion I will gather you.

Paul O’Sullivan – spiritcode.podbean.com (pauloss@icloud.com)