One son said, “I will not” when asked by his father to work in the vineyard.

The other son said, “I will” when asked the same thing.

Yet, both of these sons did the opposite of what they said. The obstinate one seems to have changed his mind, for later in the day, if his father had gone to look, he would have found this son hard at work, doing whatever the vineyard required at the particular season of the year. The first son, so willing to say he would go, would instead be found somewhere other than the vineyard, apparently at his ease.

When Jesus told this story, as recounted in Matthew 21:28-32, He said nothing about the motivation of the three people involved. Why does the father ask his sons to work? Is it a small farm and they have no servants? Would they normally work in the vineyard but, for whatever reason, neither had at that point in the day gone to do so? Are they perhaps young boys, not adult sons, who are just learning about what was needed to tend an agricultural property?

Then, I wonder why the two sons changed their minds. The one who said, “I will” may have intended to go but, stepping outdoors, decided the heat of the day was too much, he hadn’t slept well enough for the labor, and decided he wouldn’t go. Or possibly he never intended to go, and his positive response was just to put his father off. The one who said, “I won’t go” might have been filled with remorse, especially if his father had a negative countenance after the son’s refusal. Or, perhaps he was teasing his father and intended to surprise him by going to the vineyard and working hard.

Speculation like this is kind of fun, but perhaps does nothing to help us understand the message Jesus has for us from this story. Neither son did what he said he would do. One spoke well but behaved poorly. One spoke poorly but behaved well. If these were your choices in life, you would most likely want to do well after having spoken poorly rather than do poorly after having spoken well.

I see a third option, however: to speak well and to do well. When the Father asks you to go work in His vineyard, don’t hesitate. Do what He asks of you. Go without hesitation. Go with joy that the Father has thought you worthy of some task, something that will improve His kingdom.

This was where our Life Group was a couple of Sundays ago, as we continued our series “A Walk Through Holy Week”. We had good interaction. Our group likes to talk, and I can usually fill the time just by asking a few questions. I think we all enjoyed digging deeply into this parable.

Alas, I’ve reached my desired word count but still have more to say. Look for part two of this, probably on Monday.