"But what do you think? A man had two sons, and he came to the first and said, 'Son, go work today in the vineyard.' And he answered, 'I will not'; but afterward he regretted it and went. The man came to the second and said the same thing; and he answered, 'I will, sir'; but he did not go. Which of the two did the will of his father?" They said, "The first." Jesus said to them, "Truly I say to you that the tax collectors and prostitutes will get into the kingdom of God before you. For John came to you in the way of righteousness and you did not believe him; but the tax collectors and prostitutes did believe him; and you, seeing this, did not even feel remorse afterward so as to believe him." Matthew 21:28-32
To those of you believing I am about to rant to hypocritical Christians about how their lives should change and better fit the life of Jesus, I have a word for you. For sure, in this passage, Jesus is speaking out against Pharisees and those who believe themselves righteous. He points out the arrogance in thinking that an initial decision to follow Christ without following through will get them a ticket to heaven without an actual transformation of their heart. However, I think our generation already has enough to say about these nominal Christians or Christians by name alone. My problem is with those of us who constantly speak out against this group. Those of us who believe we are on the right track and and that those other Christians are ruining all our hard work. We are not being like Christ.
We may be right about all the things we say about the people who come to church Sunday and live like pagans the rest of the week. They are sinners though they think they are not. But, aren't we doing the same thing in judging them? We are just as arrogant in thinking that we are the righteous ones while they are drowning in sin.
Jesus is sending out a warning in this passage. But the warning should not cause us to hate our brother and turn our back on him! It should cause all Christians to re-evalute their lives and turn to God to make sure they are truly Christ-followers It should not cause us to turn to each other in order to convict others that they are incorrectly following God. This is arrogance. We are being the exact thing we hate when we put ourselves on a level above them in believing we know better than they.I have recently been convicted about how much I speak against the American church-goers. Yes, there is a right time and place to point out weaknesses in the churches, but it should be done with grace and not with the intention of leading others to hate. The church should be united in Christ (can I get an amen?). Instead of letting Jesus' words lead me to hating all the nominal Christians I know (which, by the way, is never Jesus' intention to lead us to hate others), rather I let the words soak in to lead me to compassion. If I have such a compassion for these 'prostitutes and tax collectors' because of their brokenness, shouldn't I have an even greater compassion for the brokenness of people in the church who believe they are saved when they may not be? Shouldn't this lead me to an even greater love towards them to show them who Christ really is by acting like it?
Jesus is pointing out that many in the church need Him more than those outside of the church. I would just like this to sink in to many of us currently feeling justified in hating those in the church. First, we should check our own hearts because if we feel justified to hate, their is evil in us. We are no better than any other human alive because we are all sinners. Second, if we truly believe they do not understand the Way, shouldn't this lead us to greater love and compassion instead of hate? How can we sentence someone to hell in our hearts when we deserve it just as much as they do?
