Think About It

Text: Matthew 21:28-32

Focus: obedience

Function: to help people see that God is merciful to those who walk in love

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.

I love the way Jesus says What do you think. It is his way of saying, “Think about this!”

And this is a parable from last week’s lectionary lesson, but I choose it for today because I have never heard a sermon on it and I want to tackle the subject and think about what Jesus is trying to teach us here in this story.

The focus of the text speaks to us about the way we obey Christ’s teaching.

And you might remember me mentioning a month or so ago about how Jesus didn’t focus his teaching on what we believe, but on what we do.

And this parable has a profound message. It isn’t the one who says the right thing who are participating in God’s kingdom, but the ones who do the right thing.

And Jesus is asking another question here about what we think about what obedience is actually about.

Let me refer you to another passage of Scripture from the First letter of John the Apostle to the Churches. He says in 1 John 4:¹²No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us, and his love is perfected in us.

He says, the ones who love others are the ones who are the just, or what we in the West call, “the righteous.”

Righteousness is established in the fact, or the way, that we love others.

I hope you don’t get tired of me preaching this, but there is so little love in our culture, in our world and there are so many forces of evil that justify violence as a path to peace and forget that from the cross, the Savior said, “Father forgive them for they don’t know what they are doing” about the men who were making a callous mockery of his suffering right there at his feet. He was in more pain than we can imagine and these men were ignoring him and gambling over his belongings as if stripping him naked was not enough.

He forgave them in the midst of heinous evil.

Evil begets evil, and then begets more evil, And then begets more evil and the cycle never stops. Unless we all look to the Christ who cried out those words in Luke 23:34 and realize that by example, we do not need to take our our own revenge. Forgive them is the command we are given.

In the midst of evil, forgive them. That is the way of peace that Jesus taught.

I don’t know about you, but the events of last Saturday in Israel and the terrorist attack on and kidnapping of non-combatants, a war crime, re-traumatized me over the events of 9/11.

I remember how we sat shuddering and in shock as we watched over and over again images of the towers falling down and the planes crashing into them and we imagined the terror and suffering of those who were victims of that terrorist attack.

I remember how wanting revenge. And even though I oppose war as a pacifist, I was not dis pleased when we sent troops somewhere for revenge. God forgive me. But, it is human nature to want to fight back and take our our own revenge. And we did, and whether it was worth it, the consequences and benefits will be debated for years. Eventually, ISIS was quashed until this latest terrorist attack in Israel and I have to ask the question, how is the cycle of revenge, fire matched with fire, evil with evil, a way to bring peace when Jesus forgave his own heinous murder?

I refuse to side with terrorists. So, my heart breaks for Israel and my heart breaks for the innocents who have unwillingly been used as human shields for forces of evil.

And I don’t know what to do beyond pray that God will appoint someone to mediate peace.

And, pray that God will heal our own feelings of trauma that this attack may have brought on us.

I pray to God for a just peace. One that cares about justice for peoples, about half of whom are fellow Christians, who have called the land home for millennia and also a safe and secure homeland for the Jewish people.

Enough of that trauma.

In this parable, Jesus is not separating the members of the Kingdom by what they say, remember, the one son said the right thing but didn’t do it. That is like the believer who feels the leading of the Holy Spirit to forgive, or do a certain act of charity, or speak up for someone who is defenseless and all the other acts of justice that Jesus showed us to do by his actions and has called us to follow in his footsteps by living the same kind of life of love and acceptance of others.

The clear message is that it isn’t what we are saying that matters, it is what we are doing.

And John, as we pointed out, emphasizes that point when he tells us that believers will walk in love because God is love and God lives inside of them.

God dwells in us and gives to us the power of his Holy Spirit to overcome the tendency to want to take our own revenge.

That same message, as it relates to the cross and how Jesus set the example for us to react to those who are unjustly persecuting us, is reiterated by the author of the letter written to the Hebrew believers to help them understand the symbolism of the Jewish religion as it relates to their trust in Christ.

We read it here in Hebrews 12:2-3: ²look(ing) to Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith, who for the sake of the joy that was set before him endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God. ³Consider him who endured such hostility against himself from sinners, so that you may not grow weary in your souls or lose heart.

The phrase, “Consider him,” is literally translated “picture this in your mind.”

It is the same phrase given to us by Jesus to introduce this parable and the one I used to introduce this sermon.

Hebrews tells us the same thing: Think about this.

But he tells us to think about this and what Jesus did when we are being attacked and persecuted.

Was Jesus weak or a wimp?

No, he endured terrible suffering willingly, for us, so that we too can remember to trust in the inevitable and loving justice of God for us on our behalf.

So the message is this, before you react out of your human instinct which may be violent because we are hard wired toward violence, whether it is with force or speech or even silence, which in the face of evil is consent, before you react, consider what Jesus would have you do and respond with faith in the love and protection and justice of God.

When we think about it, instead of reacting, we can respond in love and show the divine inside of us.