ACC ~ Matthew 21 v28 - 32

OVERVIEW:

The identity of the two sons in this parable varies with different commentators. For one the older son represents the Gentiles, and the younger son represents the Jews (INCOMPLETE WORK ON MATTHEW). For another the older represents the Pharisees or those influenced by their teaching; the younger represents the publicans and sinners (HILARY OF POITIERS). It is surprising that the publicans and sinners believed in Christ even before the priests, who were too arrogant. To work in the vineyard is to do justice. Lessons drawn from the parable include the point that it is better to do the righteousness of God without promising to do so than it is to promise and then renege (INCOMPLETE WORK ON MATTHEW). The son who first refused to work but afterward repented did the will of the father. The son who said he would go but did not go is reproved. Even after the publicans and harlots had believed, the Jewish leaders had not believed. So they were thereby deprived of all excuses. He is saying, “To you he came first, not to them. You did not believe. They were not offended. They believed. Yet this did not profit you at all” (CHRYSOSTOM).

21:28 | Two Sons and a Vineyard

THE TWO SONS

INCOMPLETE WORK ON MATTHEW: Who is this if not the God who created all people and loves them with a fatherly affection, the God who preferred to be loved as a father rather than feared as a lord, even though he was Lord by nature? On this account, at the beginning of the commandments of the law, he did not say, “You shall fear the Lord with all your heart” but “you shall love the Lord with all your heart.” [1] To elicit love is not characteristic of a lord but of a father.

Of the two sons in this parable, the older one represents the Gentiles, since they come from their father Noah. The younger son represents the Jews, who come from Abraham. “And approaching the first, he said, ‘Son, go and work today in my vineyard.’ ” “Today” refers to this present age. How did he speak to his sons? He didn’t address them face to face like man, but he spoke to the heart, like God. Man only utters words to the ear, but God supplies understanding to the mind. HOMILY 40. [2]

[1] Deut 6:5.

[2] PG 56:849.

21:29-30 | One Son Works, One Does Not

DO NOT PROMISE, THEN RENEGE

INCOMPLETE WORK ON MATTHEW: What does it mean to work in the vineyard? To work in the vineyard is to do justice. We noted above that the vineyard is the justice that God has planted generally in the nature of all people but more particularly in the Jewish Scriptures. Each vine in the vineyard represents a different type of justice, and each person, according to his individual virtues, produces either more or fewer vines. I do not know of anyone, however, who is sufficient to work the entire vineyard.

“And he said, ‘I will not.’ ” How did he say, “I will not”? He said it in his thoughts, for whoever understands the difference between good and evil and abandons the good to follow evil seems to be rebelling against the Lord in his thoughts; for “I will not” is spoken against the faculty of the intellect, which was created by God for himself. No one would ever have been able to sin unless he had first said in his heart “I will not,” as the prophet indicates: “Injustice speaks within him that he might sin.” [1] The pagans, who abandoned God and his justice from the beginning and converted to the worship of idols and to a life of sin, seem to have rebelled in their thoughts, as though they had said, “We will not do the justice which we learned from you.”

“Approaching the other,” Jesus asked the same thing, and he replied, “ ‘I will go,’ but he did not go.” When the Jewish people, represented here by the younger son, were asked both by Moses and by John the Baptist, as though God were speaking through each of them, they promised that they would do everything the Lord commanded. Afterwards, however, they turned away and lied to God, as the prophet had foretold: “Foreign sons deceived me.” [2]

“Which of these two did the will of the Father? They replied, ‘the first.’ ” Notice how, as we have already said above, attracted by the truth of the parable, they turned its meaning against themselves when they said that the first son, who represented the pagan Gentiles, had done the will of the father. It is better to do the righteousness of God without promising to do so than it is to promise and then to renege. HOMILY 40. [3]

[1] Ps 36:1 (35:1 LXX).

[2] Ps 18:45 (17:46 LXX).

[3] PG 56:849-50.

21:31 | Which Son Did the Will of His Father?

EARLIER AND LATER RESPONSES

HILARY OF POITIERS: The first son represents the people who are from the Pharisees. Urgently admonished by God through the prophecy of John to conform themselves to his commandments, they remained insolent, disobedient and contemptuous to God’s warnings. [1] They put their faith in the law and despised repentance from sin, glorying instead in the noble prerogative that they had from Abraham. Later they came to believe through the miracles worked by the apostles after the resurrection of the Lord, and, having returned by a faithful act of the will to evangelical works, they repented and confessed the guilt of their former insolence.

The second son represents the group of publicans and sinners who later returned to the sinful state in which they lived at the time. They were instructed by John to expect salvation from Christ and to be baptized and to believe in him. When the Lord says in the parable that the second son did not go as he promised to do, he shows that these people believed John. But because they were not able to receive the teaching of the gospel through the apostles until after the Lord’s Passion (for it was then that the mysteries of human salvation were to be accomplished), they did not go. He didn’t say that they refused to go but simply that they did not go. Their failure to go does not make them guilty of disbelief, because to do so would have been very difficult. Therefore it is not that the second son did not want to do immediately what he was ordered to do but rather that he was unable to do it. His will is shown free from guilt by the obstacles of the circumstance. ON MATTHEW 21.13-14. [2]

[1] It was not easy to interpret the parable of the two sons in relation to the call of the Jews and the Gentiles.

[2] SC 258:138-40.

THE HARLOTS ENTER THE KINGDOM BEFORE YOU

CHRYSOSTOM: If he had said simply, harlots go before you, the word would have seemed to them to be offensive. But now, uttered after their own judgment, it appears to be less harsh. THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW, HOMILY 67.3. [1]

[1] PG 58:635-36; NPNF 1 10:411.

21:32 | The Way of Righteousness

JOHN CAME TO YOU

CHRYSOSTOM: Therefore he adds also another accusation: “John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him.” John came “to you,” he says, not to them. You cannot find fault with him, as if he were some careless person of no value. His life was irreprehensible. His care for you was great, and yet you did not pay attention to him. THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW, HOMILY 67.3. [1]

[1] PG 58:636; NPNF 1 10:411-12.

THE HARLOTS BELIEVED

CHRYSOSTOM: The word “they go into the kingdom before you” is not meant to emphasize that some were following but as having a hope, if they were willing. For nothing so much as jealousy rouses our passions. Therefore he is forever saying things like “the first shall be last and the last first.” [1] Thus he mentioned here both harlots and publicans that they might provoke them to jealousy. Taken together these two represent chief sins engendered by violent lust: the one of sexual desire, the other of the desire of money. THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW, HOMILY 67.3. [2]

[1] Mt 19:30.

[2] PG 58:636; NPNF 1 10:412.

NO ONE EXPECTED THE PROSTITUTE TO BELIEVE

INCOMPLETE WORK ON MATTHEW: You who are priests, because you know the commandments of Scripture and hold positions of leadership among the people, should have been the first to believe in Christ as an example to the people. Not only did you fail to believe in him, but even after you saw that the publicans and prostitutes believed in him, you were neither ashamed nor repentant. The publicans and prostitutes, whom no one expected to believe, did in fact believe, but you who appeared to be followers of every commandment persisted in your impudence, refusing to repent and believe or even to follow the example of those for whom you ought to have provided an example. Are we to believe that you did not believe in Christ because you were more sinless than those who did believe in him? Quite to the contrary, you did not believe because you were more contemptuous of God, more arrogant, lovers of vainglory, hard-hearted, wanting neither to lead them in faith nor to follow them. Truly great shame has come upon the priesthood and on the whole clergy when the laity can be found more faithful and more just than they are. [1] HOMILY 40. [2]

[1] The author passes in his criticism from the Jewish to the Christian priests. Like Origen, he is highly sensitive to the theme of dishonesty and corruption in the church hierarchy.

[2] PG 56:851.

YOU DID NOT AFTERWARD REPENT

CHRYSOSTOM: And with this there is also still another charge. The publicans were attentive and repented, but even after the publicans and harlots had believed, you did not believe. You should have repented long before they did. But you did not do it. So you are deprived of all excuses. How unspeakable was both the praise of the one and the charge against the other: He came to you, and you did not receive him. He did not come to them, and they received him! And you did not even learn from their example. Note in how many ways he shows that some are to be commended and others charged, but in surprising ways, reversing expectations. To you he came first, not to them. You did not believe. They were not offended. They believed. This did not profit you at all. THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW, HOMILY 67. [1]

[1] PG 58:636; NPNF 1 10:412.

WHY PUBLICANS PRECEDE YOU IN THE KINGDOM

INCOMPLETE WORK ON MATTHEW: The Lord’s teaching can be paraphrased as follows: “Even if John had not come to you ‘in the way of righteousness’ but had only preached a baptism of repentance, you should have believed him as priests and wise men who judge impartially and in accordance with the facts, for what relevance is the preacher’s way of life to his student? If he lives wickedly, he alone is damned, but if he teaches truthfully, the benefit redounds to everyone who hears him. Even so, however, John came to you in a ‘way of righteousness’ so clearly manifest that his exemplary conduct and angelic life pierced even the hearts of publicans and prostitutes and converted them with fear and trembling to the faith. Yet he did not affect your hearts at all. You can see then that publicans and prostitutes are rightly said to ‘precede you into the kingdom.’ ” HOMILY 40. [1]

[1] PG 56:850.