Matthew 21:28-32
Martin Luther was born into a family of modest means. He was ambitious and very bright, and initially studied law. Law in those days included a lot of religious law, and Luther started to become very disturbed by what he perceived as what God wanted him to do and what he had done so far. He decided to dedicate himself to doing God’s will and to that purpose became an augustinian monk --same order as Pope Leo xiv, and earned a doctorate in Theology. This did not help and his scrupulosity resulted in sleepless nights, losing weight, wearing hair shirts, and so on. Based on his reading of scripture, particularly of Saint Paul, he decided that what was necessary to enter the kingdom of heaven was faith. And Paul said, "Abraham believed in God and this was credited to him as righteousness”. Paul also said, “we hold that one is justified by faith, apart from works of the law.” IF you ask Google to show verses of the bible that support this idea, they are all in Paul, except one in the Acts of the Apostles. However that was what Luther was looking for, and eventually he developed a critique of the Catholic church that led to the so-called Protestant reformation. Luther felt that several books of the Catholic bible were not legitimate, and indeed the Protestant bible contains fewer books than our bible. But ultimately he couldn’t get rid of the epistle of James, which contains the statement “Faith without works is dead.” Some modern Protestant denominations go so far as to say that if you express faith in Christ and really mean it, you are saved and can’t be unsaved.
Luther had a point. In his time, and even when I was a kid, our church in practice seemed to emphasize works. We had indulgences, novenas, scapulars, special prayers, all of which implied that you could get benefits by doing something -- including the benefit of avoiding hell. On the other hand there were prayers and actions that could cut short your time in purgatory.
Today Jesus contrasts a son who says “I won’t do it” and does it with one who says “I will do it” and doesn’t. He is talking to the leaders of the Jewish religion, who would tell you that your closeness to God was measured by how well you kept the 632 commandments, with people who were the very opposite -- who had no use for any of the commandments. Jesus does not mean that all sinners are closer to the kingdom than the leaders of the religion, but those who had heard John the Baptist and were carrying out what he taught. The leaders had heard John and been unmoved; the tax collectors and prostitutes had heard him and been moved to change the way they lived.
IF you look at the gospel passage today, there is a crucial difference between the two sons. Jesus talks about the first son, who says no, and changes his mind. He does not say the second son changed his mind. The impression from the parable is that the second son never intended to do what the father had asked, he just agreed to shut the old man up. The two sons are not mirror images of each other; the first son seems to be genuine; he says what is on his mind and later changes his mind. The second, we suspect, is a liar from the start.
Martin Luther rightly points out that simply doing stuff for God doesn't really get us anywhere -- after all if we do good, God is working through us; and certainly we can’t manipulate God to do what we want him to do. The Catholic church was right in emphasizing Christ’s words, “by their fruits you shall know them”, and “Not everyone who says to me “Lord, Lord” will enter the kingdom of heaven”. The chief priests and leaders of the elders and you and I need to ask whether we are changing our minds. Does our faith express itself in what we do? I suspect some of the chief priests and elders did good things and compared themselves favorably to the sinners they condemned. Jesus is telling them and us that the most important thing is to change our minds, to look at Him and look at ourselves and see what still separates us -- and then with His help draw closer. It’s a dynamic relationship. Our belief leads to action, and our action strengthens our belief. And I guarantee you will never run out of things to change about yourself in your journey to Jesus.
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