The text is Matthew
21:28-33 the Parable of the Two Sons: “But what do you think about this? A man
with two sons told the older boy, ‘Son, go out and work in the vineyard today.’
The son answered, ‘No, I won’t go,’ but later he changed his mind and went
anyway. Then the father told the other son, ‘You go,’ and he said, ‘Yes, sir, I
will.’ But he didn’t go. “Which of the two obeyed his father?” Which of the two
obeyed his father?” They replied, “The first.” "Then Jesus explained his
meaning: “I tell you the truth, corrupt tax collectors and prostitutes will get
into the Kingdom of God before you do.
For John the Baptist came and showed you the right way to live, but you
didn’t believe him, while tax collectors and prostitutes did. And even when you
saw this happening, you refused to believe him and repent of your sins."
Let us pray.
no with your
mouth and yes with your heart. or yes with your mouth and no with your heart.
What would
cause someone to say yes with their mouth and no with their heart? I really
like being the "yes" person. It feels good to tell people yes. They
smile and look relieved and you get to be the hero of the moment. But the
saying yes can be a cover up – Sometimes we say yes because we want to get
someone off our back, or we want them to like us or we feel like we can't
say no.
What does it
say about the relationship between the two parties? ‘Yes, sir, I will,’ but you have no intention
of following through. It’s a “get off my back” kind of answer. An “if I answer
you, will you leave me alone?” kind of answer. And worst of all, it’s a “I know
better than you” kind of answer because you said yes but then you decided that
it wasn’t important or that it didn’t really need doing and you didn’t even
think it was worth arguing about. The attitude behind this betrays a broken
relationship and disrespect for the authority of the asker.
What about the other son? What makes you say no with
your mouth and yes with your heart? This happened to me last year around this
time. David was writing his licensing
paper for the Covenant. He asked me if I would read over his answers to make
sure they sounded ok (most of you know this, but English is not his first
language and he sometimes words things or spells things incorrectly - like the
word double - he thought it was spelled d-o-p-p-l-e for a long time) and I was
so tired and didn’t want to read through them and so I whined a little and said
“please don’t make me do that” and he said ok I guess they’ll just have to be
good enough. And he didn’t pout or ask me again but as the evening wore on, I
thought about how he never complains when I do things like spend time with
friends or work on Saturdays and how he does the laundry and how he rarely asks
for help and how insecure he feels about writing things and I couldn’t take it
anymore - I said “OK, I WILL read it!”
I couldn’t bear to not do it. I was compelled by his
love for me and mine for him and I couldn’t sit with the “no” any longer. He’s
my best friend. You don’t say no to your friends.
Jesus wants
to be your friend. In John 15:15 He says "I no longer call you slaves,
because a master doesn’t confide in his slaves. Now you are my friends, since I
have told you everything the Father told me."
Before you
say “yes! Of course! I want to Jesus to be my friend!” let’s look at what was
happening when Jesus said this. In order to be friends, you have to trust each
other so He’s letting them in on the plan. It’s the huddle before the big play.
Dave Coleman preached on this last year, he paraphrased Jesus like this, “ok,
you’re all gonna fail hard, Judas already did and Peter is going to mess up
super bad, also, I’m going to die. trust Me.”
This is a
huge test of trust. a test of friendship. Now all of a sudden it doesn’t seem
like such a great idea to be Jesus’ friend. When we can’t see what God is doing
or if it looks like things are getting darker, it is hard to trust. it is hard
to believe that God is doing anything good.
The
disciples had just enough information to make them terrified. And then what
happens next? Jesus is taken into custody, put on trial and killed.
Let’s sit
there for a minute. In that moment. Those few days. What would that have felt
like?
We get a
glimpse from the disciples on the road to Emmaus in Luke 24 - listen to what
they say in the Message paraphrase “Jesus the Nazarene...He was a man of God, a
prophet, dynamic in work and word, blessed by both God and all the people. Then
our high priests and leaders betrayed him, got him sentenced to death, and
crucified him. And we had our hopes up that he was the One, the One about to
deliver Israel. And it is now the third day since it happened. But now some of
our women have completely confused us. Early this morning they were at the tomb
and couldn’t find his body. They came back with the story that they had seen a
vision of angels who said he was alive. Some of our friends went off to the
tomb to check and found it empty just as the women said, but they didn’t see
Jesus.”
We had our
hopes up. You see, this disappointment with God, this “I don’t understand what
has happened, how could things have gotten so bad” moment is so painful. So
painful that we don’t know what to do with it. My God, why have you forsaken me?
Joshua Dusk
Peebles described it this way, “We have lost something that we think we need
from God. We need an answer. We need information. We need to know how it is and
He won’t give it to us or can’t give it to us or we can’t understand it and so
we say Fine! Fine, God. I’m not rejecting You - I will do what You tell me to
do. I’ll do it. I’ll go through the motions, but I’m going to keep you over
here…” Yes with our mouth but no with our heart.
The truth is
we don’t trust God. not really. as soon as there is a real price to pay or an
unanswered question or a deep wound, we feel like God has betrayed us. and so
we go through the motions. play by the rules. toe the line. all the while
gritting our teeth and bearing it.
God came and
lived here. as a human. a man. a baby first, then a man. And he showed us how
to live. He isn’t the big general sitting in the air conditioned office sending
the soldiers off to fight. He sent Himself to the front lines. And it was not
safe. and people hated him. and even His closest friends turned their backs on
Him when it really got bad. this reality is frightening to us. we’re not sure
if we’re all in.
I think
these two sons boil down to two attitudes: play it safe vs. go for broke! And
let’s face it, prostitutes and tax collectors have a go for broke attitude in
life. They’ve got nothing to lose - and they have no pretense left! They are
what they are. Desperate. Graspers. misdirected, yes. but definitely going for broke.
Willing to
sell out their neighbors or sell their bodies to get what they want or need.
They've lost everything or lost enough to think that they've got nothing left
to lose. They aren't caught up in what anyone thinks of them or what society's
rules are – they are moral, religious, and cultural outsiders
They are
definitely not playing it safe.
We can’t
afford to either.
We have to stop
playing it safe. Safety is the god of this age.
Just last Sunday, as I was getting ready for church, I prayed that God
would bring David and Nolan home safe from their camp-out. That felt selfish, so
then I asked that all the boy scouts would be safe. Why stop there, I thought and I laughed at
myself a little. I thought of all the safety prayers God hears and that made me
pause.
What if they
don't come home safe? What am I asking God for? Do I think if I pray the right
way or live the right way or ask enough times that God will do what I ask Him
to do? This is how the Pharisees operated. Their legalistic way of living made
them think that they had God figured out. That they had Him in their corner. or maybe even in their pocket. But as Brennan
Manning points out, "The tendency in legalistic religion is to mistrust
God, to mistrust others, and consequently, to mistrust ourselves."
Taking a
moment in silence, I realized that safety wasn't and isn't my strongest desire.
I took a deep breath and prayed instead, "Whatever happens, help me to be
faithful."
because
sometimes people don’t make it home safe. sometimes the diagnosis is terminal.
sometimes horrible unspeakable things happen to us or someone we love.
sometimes the world around us is devastating and hopeless and terrifying.
Jesus isn’t
promising us an easy life. He is just promising to be with us. “I have told you
all this so that you may have peace in Me. Here on earth you will have many
trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world.”
Let’s stand under the cross one more
time. This time let’s stand there with Mary, the mother of Jesus. The
redemption of the world is about to be accomplished but it will cost Mary the
life of her son. God so loved the world that He gave His son – but He asked
Mary to give her son, too.
There is no resurrection without
death.
“The Son of Man must suffer many
terrible things,” Jesus said. “He will be rejected by the elders, the leading
priests, and the teachers of religious law. He will be killed, but on the third
day he will be raised from the dead.” Then he said to the crowd, “If any of you
wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross
daily, and follow me. If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But
if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it."
Frederick Buechner says "…the
life you clutch, hoard, guard, and play safe with is in the end a life worth
little to anybody, including yourself; and only a life given away for love’s
sake is a life worth living. To bring this point home, God shows us a Man who
gave His life away to the extent of dying a national disgrace without a penny in
the bank or a friend to His name. In terms of men’s wisdom, He was a perfect
fool, and anybody who thinks he can follow Him without making something like
the same kind of fool of himself is laboring not under a cross, but a
delusion."
Mary was just an ordinary person
willing to be used by God. And when God asked her, she said, “Yes”
What about you? What are you saying
to God today?
I encourage you to go for broke! Say
yes with your mouth AND with your heart.
