Biblion Bible Commentary
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The Two Sons
Matthew 21:28-32
28 But what do you think? A man had two sons, and he came to the first, and said, ‘Son, go work today in my vineyard.’ · WEB
One son says no and goes, the other says yes and doesn't — and the priests give the right answer against themselves.
"A man had two sons, and he came to the first, and said, 'Son, go work today in my vineyard'" Matthew 21:28.
The first of the three parables answering the credentials question is Matthew's alone, and it is short enough to be a trap. Everyone can see the answer, which is the mechanism — they will convict themselves before they notice they are in it.
"He answered, 'I will not,' but afterward he changed his mind, and went" Matthew 21:29. The refusal is flat and public and there is no excuse offered. What follows it is a change of mind that nobody witnessed.
"He came to the second, and said the same thing. He answered, 'I'm going, sir,' but he didn't go" Matthew 21:30. The second son is courteous. The word he uses is respectful, the tone is everything a father could want, and the field stays empty.
"Which of the two did the will of his father?" They said to him, "The first" Matthew 21:31. They answer correctly and immediately, because the case is not close. Doing is the criterion — which this Gospel has said in the sermon Matthew 7:21, in the house on the rock, and in the scene where his family stood outside Matthew 12:50.
"Most certainly I tell you that the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering into God's Kingdom before you."
The application is brutal and precise. The two named groups are the ones who had said no with their lives and then went to the Jordan; the men being addressed had said yes with their whole careers. And the verb is not instead of — they are entering before you, which leaves the door open in a sentence designed to sting.
"For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you didn't believe him; but the tax collectors and the prostitutes believed him" Matthew 21:32. The question they refused to answer three verses earlier is answered for them.
And the last clause is the worst of it: when you saw it, you didn't even repent afterward, that you might believe him. They watched the disreputable change their lives. The evidence was in front of them, and it moved nothing. The first son's whole hope was that he changed his mind afterward, and that is the exact thing said not to have happened here.
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