We continue looking at different parables. I don't think I've ever preached this parable. One of the challenges of preaching sermons on texts we are studying in Sunday School is that I have a lot of information about each parable because presenting a parable for a 45-minute class garners lots more background information than preparing a sermon. Consequently, I will have to work to keep the sermons focused, instead of wandering in all sorts of directions.
This week, Bernard Scott's mention of the third manuscript with a variant that had the son who said yes, but did not go, being seen as the one who acted correctly gave strength to the sermon. When I opened up the possibilities for interpreting the parable, it led to a much stronger sermon.
“A Man Had Two Children”; July 6, 2025; St. Andrew Presbyterian Church; Matthew 21: 28-32; Philippians 2: 1-13
28 “What do you think? A man had two sons; he went to the first and said, ‘Son, go and work in the vineyard today.’ 29 He answered, ‘I will not,’ but later he changed his mind and went. 30 The father[a] went to the second and said the same, and he answered, ‘I go, sir,’ but he did not go. 31 Which of the two did the will of his father?” They said, “The first.” Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are going into the kingdom of God ahead of you. 32 For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes believed him, and even after you saw it you did not change your minds and believe him.
Introduction: we continue our summer preaching series on parables.
This morning a parable from the Gospel of Matthew. It is not told by either of the other two synoptic gospels, Luke or Mark, only in Matthew.
It is told in the temple, which is a rather unusual setting for Jesus to tell his parables. Usually he is telling parables out with the people.
It is told in response to a point, counter point between Jesus and the religious officials as they argue over whose authority Jesus acts and speaks.
The chief priests had just answered Jesus’ sort of trick question about John’s baptism with “we do not know!”
So Jesus immediately asks, “what do you think?” And tells this parable.
Move 1: What do you think?
vote for first brother did he respond correctly?
second brother -
how about both brothers
Notice Jesus does not really answer, although we probably can interpret his answer
so, what do you think?
a. Ancient manuscripts have three different variations of this parable.
1. no/goes + yes/does not = first one
2. yes/does not + no/goes = second one presumably answers correctly.
3. Scribal error between first two manuscripts; basically, the same point.
4. Third manuscript No/goes + yes/does not = last one
b. What’s going on with this third option?
1. It never makes the final version of the Gospel of matthew.
2. Admittedly, It does not make much sense to us.
3. Bernard Scotts asks the question: So why does this third version continue to be told in the oral tradition and find its ways into some of the written manuscripts.
almost as if it is a minority report.
4. so, what is at stake in this third option?
Scott suggests that it deals with the important role shame and honor had in peasant society.
from that perspective, the first son, even though he ends up doing what his father asks, has publicly shamed his father by saying, “No”
while the second son, has shown honor to his father by publicly saying “yes” to his father’s request, even though he does not do what his father had asked.
In other words, it mattered to the father both what his sons did and what they proclaimed they would do in response to his request.
5. Before dismissing that entirely, imagine a parent in a crowd of peers asking his child to do something, and the child announces loudly, “no,” but then quietly changes his mind and goes and does it.
or, the parent asking his child to go and do something, and the child announces for everyone to hear, “yes,” but then he never gets around to doing it.
Which one makes the parent happier?
c. interpreting this parable may be a bit more complicated than it appears at first glance.
1. Maybe the presence of third third textual variant frees us to answer “both” when asked to choose between the sons.
1. The son who says, no, but then does what he is asked shows forth an important aspect of discipleship - doing the work we are asked to do as followers of Christ.
3. But it also matters that claim who we are?
To publicly lay claim that our calling as disciples of Christ matters and identifies who and whose we are.
4. As I pondered these responses this week, I was reminded of, maybe haunted by a story told by Barbara Ehrenreich, in her book Nickeled and Dimed, 36.
You may remember this book - it was a very popular read a decade or so ago.
Ehrenreich is Writing about her experience as a waitress.
She is describing the different kinds of customers and notes that “The worst, for some reason, are the Visible Christians–like the ten-person table, all jolly and sanctified after Sunday night service, who run me mercilessly and then leave me $1 on a $92 bill.
Or the guy with the crucifixion T-Shirt (SOMEONE TO LOOK UP TO) who complains that his baked potato is too hard and his iced tea too icy (I cheerfully fix both) and leaves no tip at all.
As a general rule, people wearing crosses or WWJD? Buttons look at us disapprovingly no matter what we do, as if they were confusing waitressing with Mary Magdalene’s original profession.”
Christ’s invitation to us is both and.
Both to lay claim to our calling by what we say,
and to live out our calling by what we do.
Move 2: I also want to point out signs of hope we see in this parable.
a. Notice that Father goes to the sons.
1. It reveals an incarnational approach.
2. The father who goes to his sons like the God who comes to us,
interrupts our lives,
invites us into discipleship.
3. Holding grandchildren and talking to them has brought back lots of memories of raising my own kids.
like reading a book to a new born. At one level, that seems kind of silly, but we do it anyway, hoping that reading the book will somehow shape them
I remember each night trying to read from the Children's Bible to my daughter Caitlin, our first child. It was not too long before she wanted to read the stories for herself, even though those could not read.
So she flipped from page to page and pointed at a variety of people from Moses to Rachel to Joseph to David to Paul, etc. and said: "God is coming, God is coming." As she turned each page, no matter who was on it or what the picture showed, she said, "God is coming."
We know that God,
we find hope in the God who keeps coming to invite us,
cajole us,
push us,
or prod us into discipleship, despite our failings.
b. The parable also reminds us that we always have the next moment.
1. The first son has said no.
But he changes his mind.
2. A reminder that it is never too late to respond to God’s invitation.
the Holy Spirit keeps working on us
our community of faith keeps asking us questions and challenging us
and sometimes our nos becomes yesses
2. David Lose, Biblical Preaching Chair at Luther Seminary, in his commentary on this parable suggests that the parable reveals what theologian Paul Tillich meant with his phrase “the eternal now.”
Each moment is pregnant with the possibility of receiving God’s grace,
repenting of things we’ve done or were done to us,
returning to right relationship with God and those around us,
and receiving the future as open rather than determined.( https://www.davidlose.net/2017/09/pentecost-17-a-the-eternal-now/)
Move 3: What do you think?
a. That’s the question Jesus asks those listening:
1. that’s the question Jesus asks the chief priests and the elders who had recently seen Jesus turn over the money-changing tables.
they had asked Jesus under who authority he was doing and saying things,
and jesus had asked them a question about John’s baptism to which they replied, “We do not know.”
So now Jesus asks, “What do you think?
And then he tells this parable.
2. “What do you think?” is also the question the disciples who gather there listening hear.
and “what do you think?” is the question those other interested parties listening in that day hear.
I suspect Jesus invites them to ponder their own answer.
3. “What do you think?” is also the question we hear today as we listen explore this parable and our call to discipleship.
I suspect Jesus invites us to answer that question in our own lives.
b. no explicit demand to take this action or that action.
1. But the expectation that we who call ourselves disciples of Christ,
we who profess to follow Jesus Christ into the world;
we who want to follow Jesus
we who know we fail in our discipleship
the expectation that we will choose our actions and words to shape our lives in the example Jesus puts before us.
2. As Paul writes to the Philippians: Do nothing from selfish ambition or empty conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. 4 Let each of you look not to your own interests but to the interests of others. 5 Let the same mind be in you that was[a] in Christ Jesus,
3. No easy task;
no forced response
Just an invitation from the God who keeps coming to us and keeps inviting us to follow.
Conclusion: what do you think?
One says “no,” but does it anyway.
one says, “yes,” but does not do it.
What say you?
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