Bible Study on Matthew 21, verses 28 to 32, the parable of two sons

 

Matthew 21:28 ¶  But what think ye? A certain man had two sons; and he came to the first, and said, Son, go work to day in my vineyard. 29  He answered and said, I will not: but afterward he repented, and went. 30  And he came to the second, and said likewise. And he answered and said, I go, sir: and went not. 31  Whether of them twain did the will of his father? They say unto him, The first. Jesus saith unto them, Verily I say unto you, That the publicans and the harlots go into the kingdom of God before you. 32  For John came unto you in the way of righteousness, and ye believed him not: but the publicans and the harlots believed him: and ye, when ye had seen it, repented not afterward, that ye might believe him.

 

On one level this could clearly be a reference to Israel. The obedient Jew may have resisted at first but eventually did what God wanted. I think of Moses himself. The disobedient Israelite said I’ll obey and did not.

 

Exodus 3:11 ¶  And Moses said unto God, Who am I, that I should go unto Pharaoh, and that I should bring forth the children of Israel out of Egypt?

 

But he did go, didn’t he?

 

Exodus 24:3  And Moses came and told the people all the words of the LORD, and all the judgments: and all the people answered with one voice, and said, All the words which the LORD hath said will we do.

 

And they didn’t obey.

 

But on a more important level, based on the context, it is also clearly a reference to the outcasts of society who seem, at first, to be as far from God as they can get and yet when they come to Christ they are accepted as if they were always His. The argument Jesus is making here is that the chief priest and the elders who are attacking Him pay lip service to God but disobey Him by rejecting His Messiah while the outcasts will come into God’s kingdom before they will because the elite are not receptive to God’s ministry of reconciling mankind to Himself.

 

The religious elite here, at their best, are farther from God than the prostitutes and tax collectors who receive their Saviour. God’s ministry of reconciling mankind to Himself reaches its most important point when the Messiah makes Himself known to the people of Israel and;

 

John 1:11  He came unto his own, and his own received him not. 12  But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:

13  Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.