In today’s Gospel Jesus takes an example from everyday family life: “A man had two sons…”. One son started in disobedience, “I will not,” but ended in obedience, “afterwards he changed his mind and went.” The other son right away answered, “Yes, Father,” but never went. Jesus’ key question: “Which of the two did his father’s will?” The answer, of course, is obvious, the first son although he said no did his father’s will.
Throughout Matthew’s Gospel Jesus put a great emphasis on doing the will of God. So, when we pray the Our Father, we pray that we may know and do God’s will: “Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done.” When Jesus concludes his Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:1-7:28) he emphasizes that it is not enough to hear his words or confess that Jesus is Lord, we must also put his teachings into practice:
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven.” (7:21)
“Everyone who listens to these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock.” (7:24)
Jesus is particularly hard on hypocritical religious leaders, be they Jewish or Christians, who preach but do not practice. “The scribes and the Pharisees have taken their seat on the chair of Moses. Therefore, do and observe all things whatsoever they tell you, but do not follow their example. For they preach but they do not practice” (Matthew 23:2-3).
Jesus teaches us that dogmas, creeds, catechisms, and theologies all have the proper place in our religious life but more important than all of these is obeying God and doing God’s will. Like the father in today’s Gospel God is a patient father who gives us time to change our disobedience into obedience. Jesus challenges us to not just pay God “lip service” by saying “Yes, Yes,” “Amen, Amen,” but striving each day to do God’s will by following Jesus’ way of mercy and compassion, service and sacrifice.
Image: “sea father son” by jmettraux is licensed under CC BY 2.0.