What is the meaning of the Parable of the Two Sons?

During His last week in Jerusalem He was frequently assailed by the religious leaders of Israel. On one occasion, after He had exposed their spiritual incompetency for the sacred office, He gave utterance to the parable of the Two sons, wherein is set forth the hopeless case of men who say and do not. "A certain man had two sons, and he came to the first, and said, 'Son, go work to-day in my vineyard'. He answered and said, 'I will not': but afterwards he repented and went. And he came to the second, and said likewise. And he answered and said, 'I go, Sir': and went not" (Matt. 21:28-30). The rebellious son, who at first refused to do his father's will, represents the publicans and the harlots. Immersed in iniquity, these hearkened to the stern denunciations of John the Baptist, and bowed their hearts in true contrition before God. When the Saviour's ministry of grace reached their ears they welcomed it, and thus became true heirs of the Kingdom. The son who promised obedience but did not render it represents the priests and Pharisees. These, steeped in religion, and profoundly contemptuous of "publicans and sinners," were in fact the veriest hypocrites. Nothing could be more cutting than the Saviour's words concerning them on another occasion: "All therefore whatsoever they bid you, observe and do; but do not ye after their works; for they say and do not" (Matt. 23:3). For such men, no sentence could be more righteous than this: "Verily, I say to you, that the publicans and the harlots go into the Kingdom of God before you."

This parable should raise the most serious thoughts in men's minds to-day. All around us are those who "profess and call themselves Christians," with leaders and shepherds not a few. From all these God demands reality. Deeds, not words, are His holy requirement. A pious "Lord, Lord," can never deceive Him. True faith in the Saviour's name and in the blood He shed produces holiness, separation from the world, and devotedness to the will of God as revealed in the Scriptures. Where these things are not seen, profession is the merest sham, which may pass muster with men in the present world, but will be fully exposed in another scene. However startling it may appear, it is nevertheless true that maybe a religious person will be lost for ever. But it is equally true that multitudes of the earth's vilest will be found in the blessedness of the Father's house when the gathering moment comes. The very vileness of these latter disposes them to seek the Saviour's face, and to avail themselves of His great salvation. Like the crucified thief who said, "Lord, remember me," their cry of repentance has been heard, and divine forgiveness has been vouchsafed to them full and free. Salvation is altogether of grace, and it is the happy portion of every true believer, wherever found.

The Lord goes on and meets parabolically a wider question than that of the rulers, gradually enlarging the scope, till He terminates these instructions in Matt. 22:14. First, He takes up sinful men where natural conscience works, and where conscience is gone. This is peculiar to Matthew: "A certain man had two sons; and he came to the first, and said, Son, go work today in my vineyard. He answered and said, I will not: but afterward he repented, and went." He comes to the second, who was all complacency, and answers to the call, "I go, sir: and went not. Whether of them twain did the will of his father? They say unto Him, The first. Jesus saith unto them [such is the application], Verily I say unto you, That the publicans and the harlots go into the kingdom of God before you. For John came unto you in the way of righteousness, and ye believed him not: but the publicans and the harlots believed him: and ye, when ye had seen it, repented not afterward, that ye might believe him." (Matt. 21:28-32.) But He was not content with merely thus touching conscience in a way that was painful enough to the flesh; for they found that, spite of authority or anything else, those who professed most, if disobedient, were counted worse than the most depraved, who repented and did the will of God.

Plainly it was conscience they needed, and the Lord has in turn a question for them. A man had two sons: one who to his bidding, "Go, work today in my vineyard," answers openly and defiantly "I will not;" while the other expresses at once his ready obedience. After all, 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 makes application for them: the tax-gatherers and harlots would go into the Kingdom of God before them. For John came in the way of righteousness, only demanding on their part an upright conscience to receive manifest truth, but, built up in legal self-righteousness, they had turned from him; while the people of evil life had been convicted and believed; and even this witness of repentant sinners they had refused.

"And when He came into the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came to Him as He was teaching, saying, By what authority doest Thou these things? And who gave thee this authority?" (Verse 23) What troubled them most was no doubt the scene of the preceding day, the cleansing of the temple. He is face to face with the mighty ecclesiastical rulers of the people, those who constitute the Sanhedrin. How will He deal with them? How will He answer their question? Divine wisdom is manifested in the way He deals with them. It is so in the chapters which follow, in these conflicts with the men who were so soon to be His accusers, to deliver Him into the hands of the Gentiles. "And Jesus answering said to them, I also will ask you one thing, which if ye tell me, I also will tell you by what authority I do these things: The baptism of John, whence was it? of heaven? or of men?" (Verses 24, 25) Here was the question for them to answer. And in this way He not only silenced them but He also answered the question. John the Baptist to whom He appealed had borne witness of Him. John himself, the forerunner of the Christ to whom He so faithfully pointed, was believed to have been a prophet. If they said, Yes, the Baptism of John was of heaven, as they should have said, they would have both endorsed John's statement concerning Jesus and this would have condemned them, their unbelief and satanic hatred. They dared not to say that John's Baptism was not of heaven. What could they do? There they stand with their dark faces, talking over this serious matter. "And they reasoned among themselves, saying, If we should say, Of heaven, He will say to us, Why then have ye not believed him? But if we should say, Of men, we fear the people, for all hold John for a prophet. And answering Jesus they said, We do not know" (verses 25, 26). Miserable, self-condemned, dishonest men they were! Alas! how much of the same spirit and worse is found today among the self-appointed ecclesiastical rulers of the people, who reject the Christ of God. The Lord refuses to discuss with them this question. "Neither do I tell you by what authority I do these things." The question they had asked was answered. He is the King, the Christ, the Son of God and as such He was about His Father's business and that was His authority for cleansing the temple, His Father's house and His own.

And now a parable. "A man had two children, and coming to the first he said, Child, go today, work in my vineyard. And He answering said, I will not; but afterwards repenting Himself He went. And coming to the second he said likewise; and he answering said, I go, sir, and went not. 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. For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and ye believed him not; but the tax gatherers and harlots believed Him; but ye when ye saw it repented not yourselves afterwards to believe him" (verses 28-32).

The parable needs but little comment. They despised the tax gatherers and harlots, but the Lord proves that these polished, cultured, educated, religious priests and elders were far worse, far more obnoxious. The tax gatherers and harlots are meant by the son who said he would not go and repented and went. The second who said, I go, and does not go, nor does he repent, is the proud religious Pharisee, the high priests and elders. Thus the righteous Judge lays them bare with His mighty sword. Self-righteous they repented not. Convicted and condemned the Sanhedrin stands in the presence of the King.

This fact may be seen in the parable, for neither of the two sons was marked by full obedience. One made fair profession in words but totally disobeyed. The other flagrantly refused at first, but then was brought to repentance, and obedience as the fruit of that. Just so the chief priests and elders were deceiving themselves by their religious profession, while publicans and harlots repented and entered the kingdom. In verse 32 the Lord definitely connects the matter with John's ministry. He came at the close of the age of law, calling those who had failed under it to repentance. Thus the Lord Himself connected the parable with law and not the Gospel.

In the second son we have that which is descriptive of the general character of 'decent' people. They go on quietly and in outward order, professing to own the will of God, and to serve God; they say, "I go, sir," but after all, from morning to night, and from night to morning, they are occupied in doing their own will and nothing else.

266 In the other son there was the positive delight in doing his own will (just, alas! the description of the wilfulness of the human heart: he said, "I will not"), delight in breaking through all righteousness as it regarded the relationship between himself and his father, but withal the consciousness of this, and the owning afterwards that it had been broken through (not merely that he had done a wrong thing, but that he had disobeyed the father), and repentance on account of it.

There was no regard in the self-righteous Jew, with all his profession, for the righteousness of God; but the publicans and the harlots believed John. Now there was no regard in the former for the ordinances of God; in the latter there was no regard for the common decencies of life, but when they heard the ministry of John, who came in the way of righteousness, they repented; and this repentance, touching the root of all sin, referred itself, not merely to acts of sin, but towards 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." They recognised not merely certain particular faults, sins in conduct, but sin against God, that they had failed in rendering that which was due to God. We see then that the only repentance which God owns is that in which there is the recognition of sin, and the recognition of Himself as the One against whom we have sinned. The state that the publicans and harlots were in brought them to this certainty, that if God spoke, they had nothing to say for themselves, there was nothing which they could do, except indeed to put their hand, as Job says, upon their mouth, and say, "I am vile." And this they did, whilst the scribes and Pharisees remained as insensible as possible, not only to God's word, but also to the full operation of God's grace; they were as insensible to it as if there had been no such thing. This is the first part, the first case of God's dealings with man, brought before us by our Lord here.

In the other son there is avowed determination to disobey; just, alas! the description of the thorough wilfulness of the human heart. With "I will not," he delights in breaking through all the righteousness of filial relationship; but withal he is conscious of the violation, and afterwards owns it with repentance.

There was no regard in the self-righteous Jew, notwithstanding all his profession, for the righteousness of God, of which John bare witness, and therefore he believed him not. But the publicans and harlots, who had no regard for the ordinances of God, or for the commonest morality, on hearing the testimony of John, believed and repented. The Pharisee made clean the outside; owned God in ordinances, but not in heart and conscience. These openly and outrageously sinned against God, but "repented and went." And their repentance was such as God owns: it consisted not merely in acknowledging acts of sin, but in recognising Him as the One sinned against; thus it touched the root of all sin. Their condition necessitated this conclusion, that if God spoke, there was nothing they could say, nothing they could do, except, indeed, adopt Job's confession, "I am vile," and then lay their hand upon their mouth. Such was their course, while the scribes and Pharisees, seeing it all, remained alike insensible to God's word and to God's grace in its full operation.

In verses 28-32 He proposes to them the case of the two sons: the first saying, I will not go, but afterwards going; the second answering, I go, sir, but not going. Such was the pretended obedience of the Jews, whilst poor sinners repented of their sins and followed Christ. His interlocutors owned that it was the first of the two sons that did the will of his father. The Lord applies the case to them, and adds that, though they had seen the repentance of others, they did not repent one whit more.

Let us look into these things in a little more detail. The Lord no longer replies to the cavils of the elders, except to bring truth to bear upon their consciences. They ask Him for His authority. Had it not been displayed before their eyes in acts of power, which proved that it must be heavenly in its origin? But now, would they answer His question, "John's Baptism, was it from heaven?" He had been a burning and a shining light and they had been willing for a season to rejoice in that light (John 5:35). Their national pride had gloried in a prophet being raised up amongst them, as so often among the fathers of old, but their self-righteousness had prevented them from accepting his testimony to Messiah. John had been murdered and his Master they had rejected. Hence their difficulty. Rather than own their sin, they refuse to answer. Then the Lord brings their moral state before them in the parable of the Two Sons.

Open opposition to the father, followed by repentance, marked the first. False profession, unrepented of, marked the second. Open sinners were converted by the preaching of the fearless Baptist and brought into the Kingdom of God. Self-righteous Pharisees saw no need for repentance.

"But what think ye? A certain man had two sons; and he came to the first, and said, Son, go work today in my vineyard. He answered and said, I will not: but afterward he repented, and went. And he came to the second, and said likewise. And he answered and said, I go, sir: and went not. Whether of these twain did the will of his father! They say unto him, The first. Jesus saith unto them, Verily I say unto you, That the publicans and the harlots go into the kingdom of God before you. For John came unto you in the way of righteousness, and, ye believed him not: but the publicans and the harlots believed him: and ye, when ye had seen it, repented not afterward, that ye might believe him."

In this first parable the Lord makes most apparent the difference between formal righteousness and self-will followed by repentance; between the person who goes through the world decently, desiring to make a fair show, and the one who, acting against all the dictates of natural conscience, sins deliberately, but afterward repents.

We see described in the second son the general character of "decent" people. They go on quietly and in outward order, professing to own the will of God, and to serve God they say, "I go, sir;" but after all, from morning to night, and from night to morning, they do their own will, and nothing else,