First in the Kingdom
Jesus often used stories to communicate subtly and powerfully, because they allow people to connect emotionally with Truth. Jesus’ core message was “repent and believe” - turn away from your sins and accept Him as the Messiah. On occasion, He put it just that directly. More often, though, He cloaked the message in a narrative. Here’s one of them which terminated a little dust up with the Pharisees:
Jesus said: “What do you think? There was a man who had two sons. He went to the first and said, ‘Son, go and work today in the vineyard.’ ‘I will not,’ he answered, but later he changed his mind and went. Then the father went to the other son and said the same thing. He answered, ‘I will, sir,’ but he did not go. Which of the two did what his father wanted?” “The first,” they answered. Jesus said to them, “I tell you the truth, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you. For John came to you to show you the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes did. And even after you saw this, you did not repent and believe him.” (Matthew 21:28-31)
Keep in mind that Jesus was speaking to the religious elite in public. They had initiated this showdown, but He ended it with the shocking comparison of their righteousness to that of the two most despised social classes of the day - those who worked for the Romans by collecting taxes for them and sex-trade workers. It was unthinkable, especially for the Pharisees, to include these polar opposites of the spiritual world in the same sentence. And all this in front of people they considered to be morally inferior!
But Jesus went further. He tipped their world completely upside down by commending the tax collectors and prostitutes for their spiritual insight and exercise, while condemning the Pharisees for their spiritually hard hearts, deaf ears and blind eyes.
When we bring it home, this story not only revealed the heart of the Pharisees, but it shows us our own. In these few lines of narrative, Jesus forces us to make a choice. Either we identify with those who are outwardly righteous and inwardly rebellious or with those who are outwardly rebellious but inwardly moving toward righteousness. Let me confess my initial reaction to the moral of the story: I don’t want to be associated with either the smug religiosity of the Pharisees, or the unsavoury character of the social outcasts. Then, as I think about Jesus' point here, I’m disturbed by the recognition that such an attitude on my part makes me worse than either.
In this declaration of truth, Jesus shakes us out of our own sense of spiritual superiority and helps us see that like the tax collectors, the prostitutes and the Pharisees, we all need God’s grace to move in the right direction.
