Autumn is the time of year during which the theme of the gospel readings is that of the inbreaking Reign of God. In these passages, Jesus provides us with insights into the nature of that state of being he called “eternal life” or “abundant life” or “the Kingdom of God.” Through metaphor and parable, we are able to catch a glimpse of what life in that state of being is, to gain a perspective on what kinds of people are there, and to examine our own hearts and minds with regard to our own citizenship in that realm.
The Parable of the Two Sons (Mt. 21:28-32) appears in Matthew in the context of a confrontation between Jesus and the religious leaders of Jerusalem. It concerns the Kingdom of God and the makeup of the Kingdom’s population.
Why was the Kingdom so important? To get at this question, it helps to have an overview of sacred history. As the Bible tells the story, in the act of creation, God made our first ancestor in God’s own image. And, like God and the angels, the human creature was androgynous. We call the creature “Adam,” which really isn’t a name but a description of a unique kind of being – one that is capable of having complete communion with God and one that has resources beyond what any other creature possesses.
Then, as the Bible tells it, God divided the creature into two, male and female. While they were separate, they still lived in communion, in harmony with one another. There was a spiritual union. But then, the desire to become gods overcame our first parents. Ever since, we have felt disconnected, dysfunctional, diseased, dissatisfied, and disempowered. We struggle to fill the hole at the core of our being with something that will make us feel whole. We try all kinds of things but all fall short of our unconscious goal of unity within and reconciliation with our human brothers and sisters.
Finally, one like us was sent to become the New Adam. He was the first person since the beginning of time to get it all back together. And, the way the Bible tells the story; we know that it was painful for him, just as separation was painful for our first ancestors. Yet there is salvation and a sublime joy in the case of Jesus. He called that experience of having it back together “Eternal Life”, “Abundant Life”, “Kingdom of God.”
What was Jesus saying to those religious leaders? They, of all people, should be sensitive and receptive to the signs of God’s activity, but they were not. So, he told them a story about two sons. One son refused to do what he was asked to do, but ended up doing it anyway. The other son said he would do what he was asked to do, but didn’t follow through. Jesus wanted the religious leaders to know that, in his opinion, they were the ones who were not following through and that the people they most despised were going to catch on and get it together before they did.
God keeps coming to the aid of the broken, unscrubbed, ritually unclean, outcast, and marginalized. Really, that is the only kind of people there are. Jesus wanted the washed and scrubbed to know and acknowledge that fact. Such self-awareness and humility are the prelude to big changes in the heart and the mind that are the very gateway to the experience of back-togetherness. So, what he was saying to those leaders was, “You are bringing up the rear! Promises are not enough."
What does this have to do with us? We resemble the people in this parable. The self-emptying of Christ for us in the Incarnation was not his victory of the human temptation to be like God – the sin of our first parents. Rather, his victory was the free renunciation of divine prerogatives in order to fully share the human condition, which of its very nature is a service to God. By his humiliation and exaltation, Jesus has conquered, as a human, all the cosmic powers that are hostile to God and humanity. Adam and the offspring of Adam were disobedient and fragmented the human family. Jesus and the followers of Jesus restore the human family to koinonia – to fellowship, communion, spiritual union – with God and one another. All creation is watching just to see the sons and daughters of God come into their full inheritance. And, to bring it home right where we live today, everybody is waiting to see what God can do with us. What an opportunity!