Matthew 21:28-32

Jewish Leadership Rejected - Three Parables

Matthew 21:28-32 Parable 1: Unbelieving Yes-Sayers Excluded

Many scholars believe that the following story was Matthew’s own composition, serving to develop the theme of the leaders’ ignoring of John’s call to repentance. He would connect it to the following parable by anticipating the images of vineyard and of son.

²⁸ “How does it seem to you? A man had two sons.

He went up to the elder one and said,

“Son, go and work in the vineyard today.”

²⁹ He answered, “I am on my way, sir”;

but he did not go.

³⁰ He went up to the second one and said the same thing.

But he answered, “I do not want to go”;

but later on he changed his mind and went.

³¹ Which of the two did the will of the Father?"

They answered, “The last one.”

The story was hardly a parable – more an illustrative example. It was addressed to the chief priests. Its effectiveness came from the presence of the unmentioned, but presumed, bystanders.

To draw the leaders into implicating themselves, after their non-committal answer to his previous question, Jesus asked their opinion on his story. In anticipation of the allegorical explanation, the first son referred to his father with the title sir (in Greek Lord). (They should have been on their guard, because the image of vineyard had frequently occurred in the Hebrew Scriptures as a symbol of God’s People.)

Jesus said to them, “I tell you clearly

that the tax-collectors and the prostitutes

are entering the kingdom of God before you.

32 For John came to you in the way of justice,

and you did not believe him.

But the tax-collectors and the prostitutes believed him.

You saw that,

but you did not change your minds afterwards

and believe him.

Though it was held in the folk memory, Matthew had not mentioned in his narrative the impact of John’s mission on tax collectors and prostitutes. They served to illustrate persons who initially chose not to do the will of God, but later believed and converted. The chief priests attested their allegiance to God’s will, but failed to believe. Though they went out from Jerusalem to hear John (most of the priestly aristocracy were Sadducees) and apparently sought his baptism, they lacked the faith that necessarily finds expression in appropriate behaviour [3:7].

Jesus contrasted the marginalised who believed with the elite who did not. The crowds had still to make up their minds.

Next >> Matthew 21:33-46