There Is a Third Son for You

Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost

October 1, 2017

Matthew 21:23-32

There Is a Third Son for You

In the name of the Father and of the ☩ Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

I hope many of you will stay for our Bible study later this morning. It's about a son who said yes to his father as to his future and then didn't do what his father wanted. Instead this son did what he thought his heavenly Father wanted. Instead of pursuing a life as a respected professional—what his father wanted—the son tried to get his heavenly Father's approval by performing religious acts. These acts of religious piety often were so over-the-top that they were concerning or even annoying to the son's new religious community.

Over time, the son began to realize that his religious performance did not please his heavenly Father. The son felt lonely and isolated from his heavenly Father. He had traveled the path of self-correction and self-perfection and it left him without hope.

Fifteen hundred years earlier, Jesus spoke with this son's fellow travelers. They called themselves Pharisees. At that time Pharisees had only good connotations. Pharisees looked good. They helped people. They lived upright lives. People liked them. People wanted to be like them. They were outwardly kind and compassionate people (and some were doubtlessly truly caring).

But Jesus saw through them. He saw what really drove them as individuals and as a group. They driven by their desire to please other people and their heavenly Father with their religious performance. They talked a good game, but they were not about their Father's business. Jesus laid it out for them like this:

²⁸What 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.’ ²⁹He answered, ‘I will not,’ but later he changed his mind and went. ³⁰Then the father went to the other son and said the same thing. He answered, ‘I will, sir,' but he did not go. ³¹Which of the two did what his father wanted?”

MATTHEW 21:28–31 NIV 1984

The Pharisees did not miss Jesus' point. They were the second son. They respectfully said, “Yes, sir!” to the father, but then they did not do what he asked them to do. On the other hand, there were other sinners, who had rudely said no to the father at first, changed their minds and later did what he asked them to do. Sinners, really bad people, were turning to Jesus' heavenly Father and were doing His will.

What is His will? In the story the father asked them to work in his vineyard. And Jesus explained that this vine work was confession and repentance.

³²Jesus said to them, “I tell you the truth, 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.”

MATTHEW 21:32 NIV 1984

Many Pharisees had heard John the Baptist preach the way of righteousness. This way means calling sin, sin. This way means calling yourself what you are: sinner. And this way means receiving forgiveness from God Himself. Dr. Luther explained this righteous way in two parts:

The one is that we confess our sins; the other, that we receive absolution or forgiveness from the pastor as from God Himself, not doubting, but firmly believing that our sins are thus forgiven before God in heaven.

SMALL CATECHISM V:1

Even though this righteous way is life for all who trust in the Lord, there are many who find this way off-putting and tiresome and even wrong. The Pharisees thought their performance of right deeds would force God to honor them as VIPs in heaven. Martin Luther, the son who disobeyed his earthly father, was taught the same.

Today many cultures still revere their religious performers, such as Buddhist monks or Hindu gurus or yourself. It is easy to spot idols if Indiana Jones grabbing a golden head off of a bobby trap, so it is easy to be sad about those self-righteous actors in our world, whether from Kathmandu or Hollywood or Washington. But it's much harder to spot idols or actors when they live in Davenport. Or in your house. Or look at you in the mirror.

We are these two sons. We say yes and we say no. We do our Father's will because He has made us alive to do His will, but we also sin and do our own good things that really aren't so good.

We don't want to be the guy who says yes and then goes off to do his own thing. But we aren't saved by saying no to the Father and then saying yes to Him later with our good deeds. That risks becoming a religious performance, too. Our salvation is not about us, the two sons. Our salvation comes from the other Son, not mentioned in Jesus' parable. We are saved by the Son who said yes to His Father and then did His Father's will all the way to the cross.

For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve,

and to give His life as a ransom for many.

Mark 10:45