October 1, 2023 Eighteenth Sunday After Pentecost The text is Matthew 21:23-32.

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²³When [Jesus] entered the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came to him as he was teaching, and said, “By what authority are you doing these things, and who gave you this authority?” ²⁴Jesus said to them, “I will also ask you one question; if you tell me the answer, then I will also tell you by what authority I do these things. ²⁵Did the baptism of John come from heaven, or was it of human origin?” And they argued with one another, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will say to us, ‘Why then did you not believe him?’ ²⁶But if we say, ‘Of human origin,’ we are afraid of the crowd; for all regard John as a prophet.” ²⁷So they answered Jesus, “We do not know.” And he said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things.
 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.’ ²⁹He answered, ‘I will not’; but later he changed his mind and went. ³⁰The father went to the second and said the same; and he answered, ‘I go, sir’; but he did not go. ³¹Which 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. ³²For 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.”

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May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to You, O Lord, my rock and my Redeemer.

Grace, mercy, and peace are yours from God the Father and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.  Amen.

This morning we find Jesus in the holy temple in Jerusalem, teaching Torah and preaching about the coming kingdom of God.  He has spent the previous night in Bethany, away from Jerusalem, which he had first entered the day before.  His initial arrival into the city was greeted with shouts of “Hosanna” and the crowds laid their cloaks and palm branches on the ground before him.  Jesus then strode into the temple, and incensed, overturned the tables of the money-changers.  And after departing to Bethany that evening, he returned this morning, to preach and teach in the temple once again.

The temple authorities found themselves rather unnerved at the reception the crowds gave Jesus when he first came to the city, and as we know they felt threatened by his popularity, his disruptive teachings, and the many signs he has performed.  The money-changers’ table-flipping incident certainly didn’t serve to comfort the chief priests and scribes, since they were known to receive a portion of the profits made through the currency conversion business done at the temple.  After all, the whole concept of changing money into the local coinage was so that the High Priest could collect the temple tax that all faithful Jews had to pay when coming to Jerusalem during the several religious festivals.

So when Jesus returns to the temple the second time they, unsurprisingly inquire of him where his authority to teach, preach, and perform miracles comes from.  And once again Jesus “turns the tables” on them, first asking them a paradoxical question that they find themselves unable to answer.  So, rather than answer their query directly about the source of his authority, Jesus tells them a parable (as he often does, to make his point).  He recounts the “Parable of the Two Sons”, followed by the declaration of the order in which entrance to the kingdom of Heaven will be granted.  And, to drive the message home, Jesus cites the two groups he most often utilizes to compare the religious authorities to; prostitutes and the universally hated tax collectors.

The first son in the parable tells his father that he will not go work in the vineyard that day, but he relents and does what his father has asked of him.  The second son agrees to go labor among the grapevines, but then simply doesn’t follow through.

And in his not-so-subtle references to the characters in the parable, Jesus compares the tax collectors and prostitutes to the first, obedient son; and the second son, the one who did not do his father’s will after initially agreeing to, well this role is filled by the chief priests and scribes who have opposed John The Baptist and now Jesus at every opportunity.  These religious authorities have been tasked with living lives that are in obedience to God’s will and to care for the needs of the people they profess to serve.  It’s clear to Jesus that this is not the case.  These temple priests are profiting greatly from the money-changers’ shady business dealings, and from overcharging the faithful when selling them the animals required for temple sacrifice during the festivals.  Yet, they seem to be taking great pains to point out every little offense the people might make, if the authorities deem that these acts are not in line with the Torah.

In the telling of the parable and by associating the chief priests and scribes with the son who paid lip service to his father and then refused to do the father’s will, Jesus is exposing their hypocrisy.  They do not themselves do what they demand of others; they don’t practice what they preach.  And they don’t accept that the authority given to John The Baptist and Jesus comes from God.  Yet they claim to possess the authority that permits them to judge those who pledge themselves to adhere to Jewish Law.  They know what Scripture demands of all the people, but they don’t keep the Law themselves.  

And this propensity to say one thing and do another is not limited to the religious leaders Jesus confronted 2,000 years ago.  Unfortunately, hypocrisy is undeniably part of the human condition, an element of our nature that defines us as what we are; broken, disobedient, sinful people.  We are quite capable of being hypocrites; not always, but often enough, depending on the situation we find ourselves in.  Jesus points out to his detractors that there are basically two kinds of hypocritical behavior.  And these two types of hypocrisy remain with us today.  We can “talk a good game” and not follow through with action.  Let’s call this, “bad hypocrisy”.  Or, we can outwardly express resistance to the invitation to embrace faith, servanthood, and the doing of good works in Jesus’ name. This would cause others to assume that we’re not going to answer Jesus’ call, while we actually do follow through and act according to God’s will.

Let’s call this, “good hypocrisy”, for “actions” do “speak louder than words”.  This concept of “good hypocrisy” is rooted in the call for repentance, for this is what Jesus told the temple authorities that the tax collectors and prostitutes did when they came to believe in Jesus.  Their previous actions may have shown that they did not behave as they should have; but they accepted the righteousness of John The Baptist and his God-given authority.  Those who were baptized by him became followers of Jesus and thus changed their minds; they repented.  And this repentance, in spite of its perceived hypocrisy is of the “good” kind, the type that the first son exhibited; and the type that is expected from us.  This repentance, this changing of the mind is central to entering into discipleship and thus engaging in working toward the establishment of the kingdom of heaven here on earth. 

Let’s return for a moment to the earlier statement that we as humans often grapple with this inability to maintain repentance and strive to act according to God’s will.  The first son in Jesus’ parable proclaimed that he would not work in his father’s field; but he relented, he repented, he experienced “good hypocrisy”, and did what was requested of him.  For this son, the struggle was real!  St. Paul knew this all to well; he wrote on many occasions of the difficulty he strove to overcome as he, often in vain endeavored to act according to the will of God while acknowledging his human desire to refuse to do so.

Paul wrote in his letter to the Romans, “ I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.  Now if I do what I do not want, I agree that the law is good.  But in fact it is no longer I who do it but sin that dwells within me.   For I know that the good does not dwell within me, that is, in my flesh.  For the desire to do the good lies close at hand, but not the ability.  For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do.   Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it but sin that dwells within me.”  Boy, if this isn’t the first-century way of saying, “the struggle is real!”, I don’t know what is. 

But in spite of the sons in the parable, the castigated temple authorities, and St. Paul himself, Jesus makes it clear that we are permitted to say whatever we wish in response to the call to righteousness and discipleship.  He isn’t concerned with our words; it is the action of our hearts and minds that he seeks.  And we are expected to focus our actions outwardly, to the benefit of God’s kingdom.  Jesus will be fine with us if we, like Paul admit that we don’t really want to reach out to serve those in need, as long as we actually do so.  We have to decide; which son in the parable are we going to emulate?  Are we, our stubbornness notwithstanding, willing to go into Our Father’s vineyard, which is the world and work for his glory?    

Will you pray with me?  Good, and gracious, and holy God, like St. Paul we decide not to do what we hate, but then we do it anyway.  We decide to do good, but then we don’t do it.  Help and guide us as we struggle to do your will, in spite of our sinful nature.  Help us to be “good hypocrites”.

And we pray these things the name of Jesus Christ, the One who calls us to act as we are commanded, hypocrites though we are.  Amen.      

God is Good, all the time.  All the time, God is Good.  Amen.