The Parable of the Two Sons

This Sunday is the 26th Sunday in Ordinary Time and our gospel reading is another parable teaching by our Lord Jesus Christ, the Parable of the Two Sons that you can find in your Bibles in Matthew 21: 28-32. Mind you this is not an easy gospel to interpret.

“28 “What 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.’ 29 “‘I will not,’ he answered, but later he changed his mind and went.

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

“The first,” they answered.

Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you. 32 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 believe in him.”

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Last Sunday’s gospel reading talked about the workers in the vineyard that the master hired on different hours, but paid them the same wage, which is why some think that the master was dishonest to his workers. But today’s gospel deals with the two sons of the master. Of course, since these are his two sons, we do not expect them to be paid for their work in the vineyard.

So, as the story goes, the man went to the first son and asked him to work in the vineyard, this son immediately answered that he would not go to work in the vineyard, but later he changed his mind and went to work anyway. Then the father asked the other son the same thing, and he answered that he would go to work in the vineyard, but he did not go to work. So Jesus asked the Pharisees, “Which of the two did what his father wanted?”

“The first,” they answered. The first son.

Then Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, 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 believe in him.”

The Pharisees answered that it was the first son who did what the father wanted. The Pharisees were correct. However, they did not realize that their choice condemned themselves. This is why our Lord said, “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.” It is for this reason why John the Baptist had so many followers and many of them public sinners who repented their ways to follow God.

Meanwhile, the second said, I go sir; and went not - This represented the conduct of the scribes and Pharisees - "professing" to obey God, observing the external rites of religion, but opposed really to the kingdom of God, and about to put his Son to death.

So I guess it is time for us to ask, which of us belonged to the two sons? Mind you, we are not seeing the separation of the sheep and the goats; rather asking ourselves whom among the two has the right to enter the kingdom of Heaven? This is why in last week’s gospel our Lord professed, “The first will be the last and the last will be the first.” Basically the first son represented the Jews who openly rejected the message of John, which is why public sinners made it to the kingdom ahead of the Pharisees. While the second son represented the conduct of the Pharisees who earlier promise to preach the word of God, but failed to do it later. Actually this was some kind of test that our Lord gave to the Pharisees and the scribes as to who should be entitled to enter the kingdom of heaven.