The Jews in Jesus’ day who conceived this legend were quite proud of their privileged status among the nations. They were quite proud that they alone possessed the Torah, the Law of Moses. But the hard fact is that Israel as a whole did not live according to God’s covenant. In truth, they were no different than the heathen nations around them. Many of the Jewish leaders were outwardly correct and righteous, but they refused to accept God’s way of true repentance as proclaimed and demonstrated by John the Baptist, whose life and words Jesus reminds them of in our text. They spurned God’s salvation accomplished by the Lord Jesus Christ.

Some of us today may imagine that we are members of God’s covenant because, unlike others, we have promised to obey the demands of Christ’s teaching. We might like to think that we are innately superior to those who reject the Gospel and engage in obvious sins. We may think that our choice of God and an upright lifestyle have gained for us a place of honor in God’s kingdom, and that we have little need of heartfelt repentance.

In order to lead each one to sober self-examination, Jesus resorts to a simple but powerful story. Through this parable the Lord calls us to serve him in faith as eager and zealous children.

The interpretation of this parable is clear, since Jesus himself explains it. The two sons of the Father represent two ways in which people respond to the call of our heavenly Father. That call came to Jesus’ audience through John the Baptist and Christ himself.

The child who so blatantly said he would not go into the vineyard, only to go later represents the tax collectors and prostitutes of Jesus’ day. They were blatant sinners who said loudly and clearly by their lifestyle that they would go their own way. Later, God’s Spirit moved them to go His way after all.

Remarkable things happened as John the Baptist preached out in the wilderness. He was different. Visibly different. He wouldn’t have anything to do with the ways of the world around him and people came to see such a man. They traveled great distances. Mostly it was the people who were not prominent and upright in the eyes of the nation. They may have looked like hardened sinners on the outside, but inside they were hurting. They were empty. They went to be filled, and filled they were. Falling on their knees before almighty God they confessed the sins that John exposed by his preaching. Turning from their lives of sin they were baptized and became disciples of Christ.

Jesus did not live like John. Upright and without sin of course, Jesus did not stay out in the wilderness. Instead He went from village to city to seashore to hillside to find people where they were. But Jesus preached the same message as John. Talking with prostitutes on the street and dining with notorious tax collectors in their homes, Jesus did not blunt the message of the law to them. "Repent, turn from your life of sin, be baptized and follow me" he told them. And many of them did. People who with their lives had once loudly said "No!" to God, eagerly went to work in the vineyard of the Lord.

The second child, who so eagerly said yes, but then did not go to the vineyard, masterfully depicts the unfaithful nation of Israel as a whole and the religious leaders in particular. They were quick and proud to profess obedience, but their actions did not match their words. They rendered lip service, but not divine service.

While many in Israel heeded the preaching of John and Jesus, many others were like this second son and did not. Many became angry and hate-filled at Jesus’ call to repentance. As Jesus spoke this parable during holy week, many were already plotting to arrest and crucify him. To have heeded Jesus’ message would have been to admit personal guilt before the holy God who demands holiness of His people. This they were unwilling to do.

It is interesting to note that the son who said "Yes, sir" did not address his father with any affection. He was going through the upright motions, but his heart was not in it. There was no love there. The Bible teaches that "We love, because God first loved us." But these people did not understand and know the love of God. They didn’t know what God could possibly do for them, since they did not confess their need for salvation from God.

God, for his part, still loved them. Jesus spoke this parable because He still wanted to reach out to them and save them. He told them that the prostitutes and tax collectors were entering the kingdom of heaven not instead of them but ahead of them. There still was room and there still was time. How patient and loving is the Lord!

Jesus’ parable goes far beyond the immediate situation in which He first told it. It was no accident that Jesus caused former tax collector Matthew to write these words down for all the world to read. And these words of Jesus still elicit the same two reactions of people.

Some, like the first son, show no interest in the Lord and His call. Their immediate refusal is blunt, even belligerent. Yet God’s Spirit continues to work on them until, perhaps at a time of crisis or despair, they believe and respond. Those who were most enslaved and paralyzed in sin may become the most eager and energetic workers in the vineyard.

Some, like the second son, promise to do anything their Father asks, but their profession far exceeds their practice. They make a great show of piety, feigning eagerness and zeal for vineyard work, but their lives fall far short of their pious promises.

Like that second son they may think of God in formal terms like "Sir" but they don’t know him as their loving "Father" who saved them from eternal damnation. Their outward formality betrays the fact that they are interested in the appearance of religiosity but their refusal to heed His commands show that their hearts are not really in it.

To use the popular terminology they "Talk the talk, but they don’t walk the walk," and as Jesus said, "by their deeds ye shall know them." When push comes to shove, they abandon Him and show their true intentions through their actions. They do not know the Father intimately as their Father. They don’t really love Him because they don’t truly understand how desperately they need Him and much He loved them.

Enough about others. We have not really heard and grasped this parable of Jesus unless it causes us to probe our own spiritual lives. We may recognize the story of one of the sons to be our own story. As we recall how we have responded to our heavenly Father’s call—in our words and in our deeds—it is important that we keep several things in mind.

The Father’s invitation into his vineyard is an open-ended, standing invitation. Despite the insulting, hostile answers from some, His amazing grace and constant love persist., regardless of the indifferent and cold reception His mercy may get. The Creator so fully desires that each and every one of His earthly children work in His vineyard that he even gave His own Son into death for them all. We deserve eternal death for our sins, just as did the prostitute and the tax collector. But Jesus has paid the penalty for our crimes. He has set us free from death. Christ’s death and resurrection have freed us from the heavy burden and lethargy of sin so we may work joyfully and productively in the Lord’s vineyard. Today in His Sacrament He comes to each of us and says again, "My Son, My daughter, by My wounds and stripes you have been healed of the consuming disease of sin. You have been rescued from the flames of hell. You have been freed by My blood to live forever for God." Today by His Word He comes to each of us, saying, "Son, daughter, please come and work today in My vineyard."

The vineyard’s gate stands open to all who repent and believe. It is the same call John announced as he preached repentance and baptized for the forgiveness of sins. (Lk 3:3) While the overt sinners responded more readily than the pious promenaders, Jesus’ death and resurrection have opened wide the gate to the most unscrupulous tax collector, the most promiscuous adulterer, and to the most hardened religious hypocrite. The Father follows the familiar maxim, "Better late than never," and even the last to enter will receive the same salvation as the first.

What if we today combine the best of both sons? Jesus does not teach that we must first say no for a while before we do the Father’s will. What about a third son who immediately says "Yes!" and then promptly and eagerly goes to work in the vineyard? Perhaps there are few people like that. Certainly there are none who can honestly look at their past life and not see times when they have said "No" and do not have need for heartfelt repentance. We have all said "No" many times, just as we confessed at the beginning of this service. But by God’s grace—today, now—as we hear God’s call to salvation through faith in Jesus Christ, we can answer "Yes!" and today we can begin anew our labor in his vineyard.

Today, again, the Father calls us into His service, no matter how we have responded in the past. He holds before us His loving, calling invitation and His mercy. Today once again He invites us to repent and believe. He holds before us His Son, who was nailed to the cross along with our sins, resulting in our redemption. He also holds before us two typical ways people respond to His loving pleas. Today the Father addresses each of us, "My child, go and work today in my vineyard." Prompted by God’s grace and empowered by His Spirit through Word and Sacrament, let us respond, "Yes, Lord—Father—I will!" and then go eagerly to work—a child of the third kind. Amen.