God Doing

Matthew 21:23-32

The chief priests and the elders asked Jesus where His authority came from, and Jesus turned the question upon them by asking about John.  They answered, “we do not know,” which generally is a great answer coming from a religious authority.  However, we are privy to their argument.  They know they had not been heeding John’s message, so they cannot answer from Heaven, yet they were terrified of the crowd who certainly believed John to be a prophet.  So Jesus refused to answer them, yet rather told them a parable.

He told the parable of the two sons.  The first said he would not do it and yet went out in the field to work, while the second responded with an affirmation, but never went out to the field.  When they answered the obvious question so clearly, I believe they were reminded of David’s emphatic answer to the story of Nathans in 2 Samuel 12, about two men.  One was rich and the other only had one lamb, which the rich man took for a meal.  David thought it was so awful, Nathan giving his famous line, “you are the man.” (v.7) Which is what the temple authorities should hear especially when Jesus explains the parable. 

Jesus tells us that the prostitutes and tax collectors, may not have said the right things before but they have gone and done the work.  While they, the chief priests and the elders simply just say the right things but do not go do the work.  This parable is for all of us who worry more about the legalism of church then the work of church.

I remember working on projects with my dad. He would want me to anticipate what tool he would need next.  I learned through trial and error and often got good at it, but even when I was wrong he was much happier with me for trying.  God simply wants us doing the work.  God wants us to be righteous not right.  God is doing is God’s authority, we also must follow God, for as Jesus called His disciples, called us, to follow him.  We do not wait to be called into the vineyard, we are there with Him.  We end up in the field for we found Him, not rules.