“The Choice”

Scripture: Matthew 21:28-32


Life is made interesting by the choices we make – things like friendships, careers, trades and colleges, elections of our governmental leaders (!), family, vacation destinations, not to mention the many routine decisions that we make every day of our lives. Notice that I said “interesting”, and not “better”! Our choices are seldom perfect. We make mistakes because our decision making process has no relation to future knowledge – they are generally based in emotion or desire, and not always on how they will actually benefit us at some point in the future, as well as how they will fit together with all the other choices that we make throughout our life.

If only our ways could be as perfect as God’s are! But then, that’s a choice that we have to make, too. If only his perfection could be ours. The truth is that it could be - if we continue to seek his word and way every moment of every day. We may not always understand what the Lord has in mind when he calls us to go someplace, or to do something, or to meet someone, but as time passes, we begin to get a glimpse of what his plan for us is all about. And his ways seldom match with what we would like to do with our life, but they are always better and more beneficial than anything that we could possibly imagine.

Today’s parable is about the choices we make – some being good, and some being not so good. Our message is from The Parable of the Two Sons.

Read Matthew 21:28-31a

In the previous passage (Matthew 21:23-27), Jesus is in the temple teaching, and he is approached by the priests and tribal elders who challenge his authority to teach the word of God. They knew that the parables he presented were about them, and they didn’t like it. He was undermining the authority that they had held for many years, and the people were beginning to flock to him, and were listening to him. And this day would be no different!

The exalted leadership of Israel knew that this situation was about them and all of the laws and ritual that had kept the nation close to their Jehovah God throughout the centuries, or so they believed. They were the righteous ones, and the sinners – the tax collectors, the prostitutes, the gentiles and Samaritans, those who openly worshiped other gods, the ones who stood directly in defiance to the law - were now being raised up as the ones who would be Jehovah’s favorites.

Israel’s leadership fancied themselves as the only ones who truly obeyed God’s commands, but the truth is that they had failed miserably. Not only weren’t they following the Godly path, they had assumed authority to interject their own ideas into God’s law - the commands that had been handed down to Moses at Mount Sinai - and in their attempt to clarify and detail what obedience to each required, they had caused God’s call on the people to become so complex and difficult that it had essentially become impossible to follow. They were not the first son in any way, shape, or form.

The “first son” would be the ones who the exalted leadership of Israel had deemed as unworthy of God’s grace. The first would be those who would see the Lord’s call on them as a second chance to be Godly people again. In Romans 5:1-11, we read “You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him!” By committing our lives to the way of Jesus Christ, our past failures will no longer have a voice at the Judgment! And neither will Satan NOR the legalists. (Zechariah 3:1-10) The final decision is God’s and God’s alone.

Initially, the first son had no interest in doing what his father asked, but eventually, he saw the truth of the request, and did what was right. But there was a second son. In Jesus’ day, it wasn’t that the Pharisees and Sadducees and priests hadn’t heard the truth of God. As a matter of fact, they had doggedly been following John the Baptist and Jesus since their ministries began. But the truth never quite settled into their lives. They were so caught up in the laws that they and their predecessors had created, that everything else seemed like heresy to them.

The second son was the one who said that he would obey, but never did. In our day, these are the people who talk a good faith, but live a very secular existence. God’s way - the way that Jesus, and John the Baptist, and the disciples, and Paul, and the apostles proclaimed – seldom fits with the ways that make earthly sense, and for some folks, their common sense must take precedence over the unusual and uncommon ways of the Lord.


When Satan came to Jesus after the Lord had been fasting and praying for many days in the wilderness (Matthew 4:1-11), he used scripture to try to get Jesus to leave the way of the Father, and to begin following and obeying the dark way. Of course, he did it by adding a word, or by leaving one out, or by taking the word of God out of context.

And this is what some do even today. “Apparent” knowledge of scripture makes their cultural adaptations of the word seem reasonable! And yet, they, too, are this “second son”. These are the ones who will say “Scripture is OK, except for a few passages and concepts, but we’ll rewrite them and bring them up to date for you.” Doesn’t this sound like a 21st century version of “I’ll gladly do whatever you say”, but never actually does?

Read Matthew 21:31b-32

Neither of these “sons” were perfect! One hesitated to do what the father asked, and even questioned the validity of the request, even though he eventually did go and do what was right. And the other, even though he acted and spoke as though he agreed with the father, he refused to follow up on his words. Neither one of them perfectly obeyed the father, but the important difference between them is that the first turned his life around – he “repented” of his denial of the father’s desire. He changed the brokenness in the relationship that they had, from demanding that his own understanding take first importance in his life, to surrendering his ways and letting the wishes and authority of his father to take the lead for him.

Jesus was telling these learned men that even though they had heard the truth, and saw how others had accepted it, and how they let it change their lives, they still held out in their own way and understanding. And all who refuse to accept “the way, and the truth, and the life” of Jesus Christ, (John 14:6-7) the life that is only available by faith and obedience in him, will miss out on the greatest relationship, the gift of righteousness, and the presence of God’s glory for eternity.

We can never let pride of “self” keep usfrom living a life of righteousness and truth with the only one who can bring forgiveness, cleanliness, and perfection to our less than perfect lives. And when we make our choice for Jesus, he will turn our failures into victory. And that is a choice we can live with forever!