Which of the two did the will of the father? They say [to him], The first. Jesus says to them, Verily I say unto you that the tax-gatherers and the harlots go into the kingdom of God before you.
Jesus answers the religious leaders with a story about two sons: one refuses his father, then goes; the other agrees, then never goes. Then comes the verdict of verse 31: the people they despised most are entering the kingdom ahead of them.
The Lord does not argue with the religious leaders. He tells them the story and lets them pass the sentence themselves.
Plainly it was conscience they needed, and the Lord has a question for them in turn. A man had two sons. To his father's order, "Son, go and work in the vineyard today," the first answers openly and defiantly, "I will not." The other says at once that he is ready to obey. In the end the first repented and went; the second never did go. Which, then, did the will of his father? The answer is put into their mouths: they could only say, The first. Then He applies it to them: the tax collectors and prostitutes would go into the kingdom of God before them.
The two sons are not a good man and a bad man. They are two classes of people standing in front of Jesus as He speaks.
Two classes were then before the Lord's eye. One was the rough and immoral, the careless and irreligious. They made no claim to religion, and they chased worldly profit and open sin. The other was the respectable and well-behaved. They prided themselves on keeping the rites of religion and on their own decent character... One class insults God shamelessly and glories in lawlessness. But an appeal comes, and it convinces the bold sinner of his outrageous evil. He breaks down in self-judgment. He turns to God and serves the One he had treated as nothing. The other class claims credit for its proper ways. Nothing touches their conscience, so they stay self-satisfied, and God remains unknown.
"Before you" is not a compliment to sin. It measures distance from God. It puts the religious leaders further out than the people they looked down on.
In the parable of the two sons He convicts these religious leaders of being further from God than the most despised classes in the land... Polite lip-service and outward forms — "I go, sir," but did not go — that was the religion of those who stood highest in the world's esteem in that day. Hypocrisy was there. It covered self-will and pride with the cloak of religiousness. That made them harder than people who disgraced the decencies of society in wild or otherwise disreputable ways.
The first son's turning went deeper than admitting a list of wrongs.
These people sinned against God openly and outrageously, but they "repented and went." Their repentance was the kind God owns. It was not only admitting acts of sin. It was recognising Him as the One they had sinned against, so it reached the root of all sin. Their condition forced this conclusion: if God spoke, there was nothing they could say and nothing they could do. They could only take up Job's confession in the older wording, "I am vile," and then lay their hand on their mouth.
The way in was open to the religious leaders. What kept them out was the terms of entry — the same terms offered to a tax collector.
As a rule, the Lord here shows that John did not baptise the people who justified themselves before others. They thought it beneath them to enter the kingdom by the same narrow gate and hard road that stood open to the tax collector and the prostitute. But there can be no other way to God for the sinner. The grace of the gospel condemns sins and insists on repentance. It presses this even harder than John did when he came in the way of righteousness.
The same test still falls on people who claim the name of Christ.
From everyone who professes the Christian name, God demands reality. Deeds, not words, are His holy requirement. A pious "Lord, Lord," can never deceive Him... However startling it may seem, it is still true that a religious person may be lost for ever. It is just as true that huge numbers of the worst people on earth will be in the blessedness of the Father's house when the gathering moment comes. Their very vileness makes them ready to seek the Saviour's face and to take up His great salvation.
- Conscience. The Lord aims at conscience, not argument. The leaders answer His question and condemn themselves.
- Contrast. Two sons stand for two classes. Open sin breaks down in self-judgment. Decent religion stays self-satisfied and never knows God.
- Cloak. Religious words without obedience left these leaders harder and further from God than open sinners. The cloak of religiousness hides self-will and pride.
- Confession. Real repentance is not listing wrongs. It is recognising God as the One sinned against. That is the repentance God owns.
- Common door. One narrow gate serves the moral person and the prostitute alike. Refusing it leaves you outside while they go in.
For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and ye believed him not; but the tax-gatherers and the harlots believed him; but *ye* when ye saw [it] repented not yourselves afterwards to believe him.
Jesus has just told the chief priests and elders the parable of two sons, and this verse is His verdict on them. The people they despised had entered the kingdom ahead of them, and even watching those people repent left the leaders unmoved.
The phrase "the way of righteousness" set the terms of John's ministry. No family pedigree or religious routine could meet them.
John came from the family of Aaron, yet he found his place of ministry not in the temple but in the wilderness. He "came in the way of righteousness." Descent from Abraham or the keeping of ordinances did not meet what his ministry required. Repentance was an inward moral purification.
That road ends in a baptism of repentance for a reason:
John the Baptist came in the way of righteousness, as the Lord describes him. So he came with his baptism of repentance. The legal requirement of righteousness only marks all men as under hopeless condemnation. Repentance is simply the heart's acknowledgement of this, so that grace may appear in its own sovereignty.
The crowd John baptised was not respectable.
And what sort of people came to the prophet's baptism? Tax collectors — men whose character was openly disgraceful. Soldiers — used to oppressing the people. Corruption and violence — but owned and judged — find a meeting place at the baptism of repentance… For such people there is no resource. God can only recognise in them the fruit of His own work.
Believing John meant more than admitting bad behaviour.
The self-righteous Jew, with all his profession, had no regard for the righteousness of God. But the tax collectors and the prostitutes believed John… When they heard the ministry of John, who came in the way of righteousness, they repented. This repentance touched the root of all sin. It looked not merely to acts of sin, but to the Person sinned against. The one decently owned God, and left it there. The others indecently and outrageously sinned against God, but "repented and went."… So the only repentance God owns is the one that recognises sin, and recognises Him as the One we have sinned against.
Their answer to John matched the second son's — polite words with nothing behind them. That politeness proved harder ground than open sin.
Decent lip-homage and forms — "I go, sir," and he did not go. Such was the religion of those who stood highest in the world's esteem in that day. Hypocrisy was there, covering self-will and pride with the cloak of religion. That made them more stubborn than people who disgraced the decencies of society in wild or otherwise disreputable ways. Such people were more open to the stirring appeals of John than these Pharisees.
The last clause charges a second refusal. They had watched sinners change.
John came in the way of righteousness. He asked only for an honest conscience on their part, so they could receive plain truth. But they were built up in legal self-righteousness, and they had turned away from him. Meanwhile people of evil life had been convicted and had believed. Even this witness of repentant sinners they refused.
What happened at the Jordan repeats wherever the gospel is preached.
Since that day, when the gospel is preached, men who boast of their religion, their church, or their character are always its bitterest enemies… Nothing in their eyes is more hateful than that grace which denies the value of their own righteousness. It announces God's righteousness, so that He may be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. For this openly declares that there is no difference, since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
The practical door out is the same one the tax collectors used:
Conventional goodness is a great hindrance to the soul's salvation. Such people find it hard to take the place of a lost, ruined sinner, so that grace may have a free course and do her blessed, saving work. Anyone who wants God to justify him must take the tax collector's place, and offer the tax collector's prayer: "God, be merciful to me, a sinner!"
- The road — John came "in the way of righteousness." On that road ancestry and ceremony counted for nothing. Righteousness leaves every man condemned, and repentance is the heart agreeing with that verdict.
- The travellers — Those with no reputation to protect took that road first. God recognised in them the fruit of His own work, not any merit of theirs.
- The depth — The repentance God owns reaches past particular sins. It owns the Person sinned against, and makes no defence.
- The blockade — "I go, sir," and no going. Polite religious words covering self-will proved harder ground than open scandal.
- The double refusal — They rejected John. Then they rejected the living evidence of changed sinners in front of them. The same self-righteousness still resists grace, and the only way in is still the tax collector's prayer.