Repentance

What do you think? There was a man who had two sons. He went to the first and said, 'Son, go and work today in the vineyard.'

"'I will not,' he answered, but later he changed his mind and went.

"Then the father went to the other son and said the same thing. He answered, 'I will, sir,' but he did not go.

"Which of the two did what his father wanted?"
"The first," they answered.

Jesus said to them, "I tell you the truth, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you.
-Matthew 21:28-31


In the Parable of Two sons, there is this recording of Two Sons; one who says he will not do his Father's will but then changes his mind and goes, and one who says he will do his Father's will but then does not go.

Therefore, as we try and follow the Father's will, which of the Two Sons should we be? Ideally, we should be the son that says 'yes' and still follows, but this Son isn't recorded here...

Just these two problematic children. The Perfect Son would be the one who says 'yes' and goes from the beginning. However, this isn't recorded in the bible. We want to be the perfect Son of God, but this recording doesn't come out in Jesus' parable.

Jesus is asking us to look at ourselves through the images of these two half-half Sons.

Like one Son, the disciples of Jesus had nothing to do with the Kingdom of God, they were sinners who had ignored the will of God, but upon realising this, they deeply repented and followed Jesus.

The Jews said they would, but ultimately, they didn't. Therefore, Jesus is telling them that the tax collectors and prostitutes are better than them!

He is pinpointing their problems - they claimed to know the will of their Father, but they didn't carry it out. This is why the Kingdom of God was far from them.

There is something we can learn from the images of these Sons...

Even if sometimes we feel like the Son who does not want to go. Sometimes we don't want to follow the will of the father, and even if sometimes it is hard to follow His ways; if we repent and change our minds we can still be beautiful in God's eyes.

Of course it would be great if we could be the perfect Son and do well from the beginning. But even if we can't be that perfect Son; if we repent it is still beautiful!




-Author Unknown