“What authority?” Orange Congregational Church UCC, September 27, 2026, (Matthew 21:23-32) Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost
We have been engaging with Jesus’ parables as found in the Gospel according to Matthew for weeks here at OCC. Today’s parable is The Parable of the Two Sons. The premise is rather simple. Jesus tells a story about a man who had two sons. The father asked his first son to go and work in the vineyard. The son said, “I will not” but then he changed his mind and did indeed go and work in the vineyard. The father went to his second son and made the same request. The second son said that he would go, but he didn’t follow through. Sometimes we like to say, “Kids these days just don’t want to work!” Well, this story Jesus told is over two thousand years old, and it’s a story about a father with two sons and let us just note that they have various responses to working in that vineyard.
Anyway, Jesus ends up turning to the chief priests and the elders who were questioning him about where his authority for teaching and healing and preaching about the Kingdom of God came from. Jesus asks them, “Which of the two did the will of the father?” They answer, “The first.”[1] Jesus does not mince his words in response, “Truly I tell you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are going into the kingdom of God ahead of you. For 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.”[2]
Now shockingly this parable is not as well-known as The Parable of the Prodigal Son—another parable about a father and his two sons. It is not as well known as The Parable of the Lost Sheep or The Mustard Seed or The Wedding Feast. This is a story about commitments and follow-through. As Jesus commands in the Sermon on the Mount, “Let your yes mean yes, and your no mean no.”[3] Perhaps this story can serve as a gentle reminder that our words have power. We are encouraged to mean what we say. If we say that we will do something, then we can hopefully follow-through. As New Testament Professor Arland Hultgren analyzes this parable he relates, “Doing the will of God is more than a matter of words; it has to do with deeds (7:21-27; 25:31-46). And when words are uttered as promises, and those promises are not kept, the words are more than empty platitudes; they are corrupt.”[4]
As we gear up for elections across our country this feels like an especially pertinent parable. Political candidates sometimes make many promises out on the campaign trail. When an incumbent is running for re-election (whether this is a local, state, or national election) one’s constituents often would like to know if their campaign promises came to fruition. Did that political leader do what they promised? Or if someone new is entering the political scene, voters often wonder—if elected, will this politician do what they are promising they will do? The West Wing is one of my favorite TV shows of all time and President Bartlet once said, “Decisions are made by those who show up.”[5] In other words, we are invited to show up and be present. Be part of civic life, get involved and resist the urge to just complain on the sidelines. This parable can serve as a reminder of the power to mean what we say. Empty promises and empty words will feel just like that after a while—empty if we do not let our yes mean yes and our no mean no, if we do not show up like that first son who did roll up his sleeves and get to work in the vineyard.
Another way to consider this parable could be that sometimes God is doing a new thing. We can keep in mind that this parable is shared within the context of a conflict as Jesus is challenging the “old guard” and the way it had always been done. Again, as Professor Hultgren explains, “God may be doing a new thing. The sending of John was such, and who knows what else? To reject the new and unfamiliar may be right. But there may also be occasions where God is beckoning [God’s] children to serve in the kingdom in unexpected ways or places.”[6]
Sometimes we can become so familiar with what was that we miss being open to what might be. It strikes me that the rejection of John the Baptist’s message and then Jesus’ message by some people at the time could have been simply because change is hard. If we are honest, some of us have an easier time with change than others. Perhaps a lasting lesson of this parable is that God may be doing a new thing. To shut down new opportunities or understandings simply because they are new might be worth rethinking.
A final way to understand The Parable of the Two Sons is to consider who is open to the calls of God in this story and who is not. Suffice it to say that tax collectors and prostitutes were not among the upper echelons of society. Tax collectors in particular were often viewed as Roman collaborators and nearly universally disliked. Grouping tax collectors and prostitutes together would have been a storytelling device Jesus used to convey that these were folks on the margins, people often despised by those who were “righteous.” Yet “those people” on the margins are the very people Jesus said will get into the Kingdom of God ahead of the “righteous.” Why? Perhaps it is because they make no claim to be righteous, but instead go about the daily tasks given them by God.
Jesus is calling out hypocrisy and not really defending himself when there is not much he could say to convince folks about who he was, about what he came to do, about what a life devoted to his teachings looks like. Because if one’s heart is closed off to God doing a new thing it seems unlikely that anything Jesus said at that point would have made a difference. The very people who were viewed as dishonorable are the ones who can hear the message of God’s upside-down kingdom the most easily.
As Jesus taught, the first will be last and the last will be first. People do not need to lord power over one another because following him is not about being the greatest. It’s about being of service. The Kingdom of God is about welcoming and protecting vulnerable people in Christ’s name. It’s about examining ourselves and our words and actions, knowing that we have the capacity to cause great harm and to spread God’s extravagant love. It’s on us which way we choose to go. Because God isn’t going to force us to love God, to love one another, and to love ourselves. God isn’t going to force us to have a relationship with God at all, not when God desires authenticity and genuine love.
This parable reminded me of a story told by Rev. Kate Braestrup in her book Here if You Need Me. Braestrup’s husband Drew was a Maine State Trooper who tragically died in a car accident. Drew had been contemplating becoming a Unitarian Universalist Minister, so Kate ended up going to seminary to honor her late husband. It soon became clear that she wasn’t just there for Drew, and she eventually became an ordained UU minister and Chaplain to the Maine Game Wardens. Yes, these are the folks who may check to see if somebody has a valid fishing license though these are also the folks who lead complex search and rescue operations in the wilderness. It is not an easy job.
Throughout the book, Rev. Kate shares stories about some of the challenging situations the Maine Game Wardens respond to. For instance, on one call they search and find a hiker deceased in the woods—a college student who had gone to seek peace and solace in the wilderness after the stress of midterm exams. She as chaplain and one of the wardens waited for the medical examiner to call and give permission to move the body. As they waited, they ended up speaking about the differences between bobcats and lynx with Warden Rob sharing his vast knowledge. It came up because the warden had just found an injured bobcat and was hoping to get her to a wild animal vet, but the bobcat also died that day. It was a rough day out in the woods of Maine for that game warden in particular.
The chaplain and the warden spoke about the warden’s wife attending an Adventist Church and that sometimes he would go with her. The warden admitted, “To tell you the truth, if I could choose my church, it would be the outdoors . . . So I can understand what this guy was thinking, a little bit.”[7] Later in the week Rev. Kate received a call from the Sergeant, letting her know how helpful it was to have her there on that call to find the young hiker in the woods and that she was a big help to Warden Rob especially. After the call Rev. Kate was mystified—she couldn’t think of what helpful thing she might have said or done. In reality, she was just there with him passing the time as they waited.
And sometimes that is the point entirely. We can show up when we promise to show up. Be there. Be present. For that is how we can be the presence of Christ for one another. Thanks be to God. Amen.
[1] Matthew 21: 31, NRSVUE.
[2] Matthew 21:31-32, NRSVUE.
[3] Matthew 5:37, CEB.
[4] Arland Hultgren, The Parables of Jesus, A Commentary, pg. 224.
[5] Quote from The West Wing.
[6] Arland Hultgren, The Parables of Jesus, A Commentary, pg. 224.
[7] Kate Braestrup, Here If You Need Me: A True Story, pgs. 74-75.
Photo by Sarah Swainson on Unsplash
