Us and Them

Matthew 21:28-32

Introduction

I am proud to be a Canadian and there is no other country that I would rather live in. Having said that, I find even myself contrasting Canada with other nations in ways that are perhaps not completely factual. For example, Canadians tend to pride ourselves on being openminded and hospitable to all, not like those other countries. But is that completely true? It recently came up in the news that there were posters in British Columbia advertising a Whites-only mom and tots group shatters the illusion that prejudice is not part of the Canadian experience.

What about in the church? I remember in the years following the attacks on 9/11 that there was a lot of anger toward the Muslim community, especially those who moved to Canada. Even though many of them were fleeing the radical forms of Islam that we are most critical of, just the fact that they were Muslim was still a problem. I had Christian friends tell me that they hated that Canada was allowing Muslims to immigrate and wished they would “go back to their own country.” Perhaps you have had some of the same thoughts. I will not claim that I am above prejudice. Again, in those years following 9/11, I would get nervous when I would see middle eastern looking people on the same flight as I was on. Logically I knew that there was no reason to feel that way but that did not stop the prejudice from being real.

The fact is that there is a sense of us and them, even in the church. Most likely, if a stranger sat beside you in church, there would likely be some groups that you might feel less comfortable with than others. I talked to someone who was part of the decision of opening up the church building for homeless people to stay overnight on Saturdays. He told me that one church member expressed concern that they might want to stay for the church service. These feelings are real.

And these situations go back thousands of years to the time of Jesus. There has always been an us and a them. There have been the right kind of people and the wrong kind of people. Usually those classifications are based on social standards rather than personal integrity of the individual. These are difficult responses for us to wrestle with but they are essential conversations for us if we are going to be the church God wants us to be.

The Two Sons

In the passage we are looking at, Jesus tells a parable of two sons. If you are thinking: Wait, I have heard Jesus tell another story about two sons, you would be right. In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus tells the parable of the prodigal son, which is more accurately the parable of the two sons. In that story, there is a wayward son who comes back to the father and an older son who seems to be obedient but is bitter toward the father for the welcome offered to the younger son.

In this passage, Jesus is making very much the same point. It almost comes across as a first draft of the more detailed prodigal son parable. There are two sons. Both are asked to do something. One says yes but does not do it and the other says no but changes his mind and does it. Sometimes the questions that Jesus asks are difficult to answer but this one is easy. Which one did the will of the father? It was good that the one readily agreed to do it but bad that they did not do it. It was bad that the other originally said now, but good that they eventually did it. But ultimately, it was the one who did the task who did the will of the father. Doing what is desired is always better than just simple verbal agreement about what is asked. That seems simple enough.

But then Jesus takes it to the next step and applies it to their real life situation and things get uncomfortable. Jesus was not talking about two random sons but current attitudes. The son who agrees to the request is those who seem religious and respectable. They would know the Scriptures, follow certain rules strictly, and would be honoured by others for their place in society, even if they were not faithful in showing love and compassion to others. The son who first says no but ends up following the will of the father is those who are rejected by many, specifically prostitutes and tax collectors. These were two hated groups. Sexual purity for women was highly valued and those who became prostitutes were considered the lowest of the lows. Interestingly, there was no stigma for men to use prostitutes but there was a major stigma for women who became prostitutes. But men are not completely off the hook. It was men that would become tax collectors. These were taxes collected not for a Jewish government but for the hated Romans. Tax collectors were paid by how much they overcharged those in their area.That Jesus would say that these people were entering the kingdom of God before the respectable people was completely offensive. If you wonder why some religious people hated Jesus so much, you can begin to say why. What Jesus is saying is not that it is better to be a prostitute or a tax collector than a religious leader. What Jesus is saying is that the most important thing is to follow the will of the Father and not about how will you fit in with social expectations.

Who Are the “Them” Today?

How do we apply this today? Let’s begin with the assumption that the parable of the two sons is just as applicable today as it was when Jesus first told this story. Who is the son who says yes and who is the son who says no? Who is the son who does not get around to the father’s will and who is the son who follows through?

Traditionally, this parable was used to point back at the Jews. The Jews originally said yes to God in the Covenant but did not accept Jesus, while the Gentiles said no to God with idolatry but eventually became the majority of the church. While that may have been the an application in the first century as the church was shifting from Jewish to Gentile in nature, this was not meant to be a tool to spread anti-semitism.

The main point of the parable is that we think of life in terms of us and them. There is us, who are the right kind of people, and there are them, who are the wrong kind of people. Who fits in those categories may shift from culture to culture. 

Here is a thought experiment just to get us thinking about these issues. Imagine a man who holds a respectable place in society and is a business leader. He attends church regularly and donates 10% of their income to the church. Inside, he is not very devoted to Jesus and church is more about appearances and making contacts. He is not very ethical in how he runs his business, and while he is respected by other businessmen in his circles, he is not respected by his employees who feel like they are being taken advantage of.

Now also imagine a transgender women who has embraced this identity not on a whim but after years of internal wrestling. She is very active in her church, even if she cannot afford to give much monetarily. She loves Jesus and loves people. She prays constantly and is often found helping people in need, especially the marginalized. 

Thinking about these two individuals, how do you think God sees them? Does God see them both as equally bad, both as equally good, or one being more obedient than the other? Some might think that embracing traditional gender identities is the most important issue here. Others might see how we treat others as being the key measure. Some might want to prefer one over the other but find one aspect of them too difficult to look past.

This may be too radical of a comparison, one that is not fair to put out as a challenge. My point is not to offer an interpretation of transgender identities. My point is that there is going to be some groups that some people are going to struggle accepting as being obedient to God and we are often going to be shaped by what we have been taught are the right kind of people.

Conclusion

You may not have liked what I have talked about today. You may feel very strongly that there are groups of people that have gone too far and are beyond ever reaching the kingdom of God. If I was completely honest, I have moments of this as well. But I think in this we get a sense of what Jesus was trying to communicate in this parable. Tax collectors and prostitutes? Reaching the kingdom of God before us? Nonsense. Their identity has placed them outside of God’s acceptance forever. Or has it? 

What if God’s grace is greater that we have ever imagined? What if God can see beyond social respectability and conformity to traditional norms? What if God sees what is truly in our hearts?

Did you know that in Matthew’s genealogy of Jesus that there are four women that are mentioned as ancestors of Jesus. That by itself is remarkable, but of the four, all of whom are Gentiles, one was a prostitute, one tricked her father-in-law into fathering a child by pretending to be a prostitute, and another became pregnant by one man while married to a different man. The point is that people might not be in what we consider the proper categories and yet God can work in their lives and use them for his glory.