‘Son, go out and work in the vineyard today.’
The son said in reply, ‘I will not,’
but afterwards he changed his mind and went.
It probably wasn't a simple matter to change his mind, or as some translations have it, of repenting. Imagine the excuses not to change his mind that might have occurred to him as he considered it. After all, had he not already said no? There was already damage to his relationship with his father. He probably didn't want to be seen as inconsistent or wishy-washy. Sometimes we can be like this, thinking that what's done is done, and that we must lie in the bed we've made. We think that because we have already in some measure committed to our course we must pursue it to vindicate our original choice. But this first son must have realized that the harmonious relationship with his father that he had disrupted was something good enough to make a change worthwhile. Sitting with the choice he had made he could have doubled down on his pride and insisted on his way. But he must rather have begun to notice by its absence what he had lost. To change his mind was an act of hope, a belief that it was not too late, that his father would forgive his earlier impetuous refusal. To that end he did what he could to open himself to what he knew his father's will to be.
The man came to the other son and gave the same order.
He said in reply, ‘Yes, sir,’ but did not go.
We know what they say about the road to hell. When the father called the eldest son into the vineyard the son responded as though he would do his father's will. But he did not go. Maybe initially he had thought that he would but then considered it and found it difficult or daunting. Maybe his initial yes was rather more to placate his father than an indication of any true intention to do the work. Either way, having said it, it was as though he felt the thing itself was done, as though what the father wanted was merely the agreement and not the action.
Which of the two did his father’s will?”
They answered, “The first.”
There is a lot to which we say we agree in the Christian life, but our yes isn't always robust or matched with sincere intent on our part. Sometimes even when it is time wears away at our yes until it has for all practical purposes because a no. Yet the danger for us in these cases is that we remember that we said yes and therefore assume we must be in good shape. There was nothing we rejected outright after all. It is possible to be people who say yes among a congregation of those echoing the same yes and yet accomplishing nothing for the kingdom. It is also possible that outside these boundaries of mutual affirmation that outcasts are reconsidering the call the once rejected. Even if they no longer feel permitted to change their answer they may yet go to work in the vineyard. And it is these that actually enter the Kingdom of God. Our merely verbal yes does not move us one inch further forward.
Jesus said to them, “Amen, I say to you,
tax collectors and prostitutes
are entering the Kingdom of God before you.
It is healthy for us who believe we have said yes to take a look at those who said no and whose minds were more obviously changed by the Gospel. They demonstrate to us the way truly embracing the call of the father might look radical, or at least appear to be something other than our precious status quo. Such conversions are both a challenge and an invitation. They challenge us to recognize areas of our own lives where we need to change our minds and go. They are an invitation to believe that God himself can make it possible within us, that he desires to gather all of his sons and daughters into his Kingdom.
But I will leave as a remnant in your midst
a people humble and lowly,
Who shall take refuge in the name of the LORD:
the remnant of Israel.
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