“’But what think you? A certain man had two sons; and coming to the first, he said: ‘Son, go work to day in my vineyard.’ And he answering, said: ‘I will not.’ But afterwards, being moved with repentance, he went. And coming to the other, he said in like manner. And he answering, said: ‘I go, Sir;’ and he went not. Which of the two did the father’s will?’ They say to him: ‘The first.’ Jesus saith to them: ‘Amen I say to you, that the publicans and the harlots shall go into the kingdom of God before you. For John came to you in the way of justice, and you did not believe him. But the publicans and the harlots believed him: but you, seeing it, did not even afterwards repent, that you might believe him.’”
Jesus, still in the exchange with the chief priests and elders, moves into a parable. The man in this parable is God the Father, who made all things and can rightly be called Lord: “Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord” (Deuteronomy 6:4), yet desires to be loved as a Father rather than feared as an overseer: “For God hath not given us the spirit of fear: but of power, and of love, and of sobriety” (2 Timothy 1:7). The two sons encapsulate all of humanity, and when the Father calls them to work in the vineyard, this is to love in righteousness, which only becomes a full picture when many work in unison, like pieces of a stained glass window being organized in such a way as to make luminous art: “For as the body is one, and hath many members; and all the members of the body, whereas they are many, yet are one body, so also is Christ” (1 Corinthians 12:12). The entirety of the parable looks into the difference between words and deeds, for there are some that make lofty promises and tell God of great plans, only to shrivel up before love’s demands: “Peter saith to him: ‘Why cannot I follow thee now? I will lay down my life for thee.’ Jesus answered him: ‘Wilt thou lay down thy life for me? Amen, amen, I say to thee, the cock shall not crow, till thou deny me thrice” (John 13:37-38). This is seen in the history of Israel: “All the people answered with one voice: “We will do all the words of the Lord, which he hath spoken,” (Exodus 24:3), only to immediately fall into idolatry: “And the people seeing that Moses delayed to come down from the mount, gathering together against Aaron, said: ‘Arise, make us gods, that may go before us: for as to this Moses, the man that brought us out of the land of Egypt, we know not what has befallen him’” (Exodus 32:1). On the other hand, to love by action, to show that the other is a gift, this is the commandment: “My little children, let us not love in word, nor in tongue, but in deed, and in truth” (1 John 4:18). Learn the love languages, Theophila, and reach for expressing them all to those you meet, that no one may leave your presence without glowing with joy: “the path of the just, as a shining light, goeth forwards and increaseth even to perfect day” (Proverbs 4:18). While publicans and prostitutes, who can represent sinful men and women, repented and entered into treating others with justice and care at the preaching of John the Baptist: “And the publicans also came to be baptized, and said to him: ‘Master, what shall we do?’ But he said to them: ‘Do nothing more than that which is appointed you’” (Luke 3:13), the religious leaders, who spoke much on the commandments of God and practiced the Law, did not fulfill the commandment that animates the commandments of God and gives them meaning: “He that loveth his neighbour, hath fulfilled the law” (Romans 13:8), thus does Jesus reprimand them: “Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites; because you are like to whited sepulchres, which outwardly appear to men beautiful, but within are full of dead men’s bones, and of all filthiness” (Matthew 23:27). To profess the service of God and refuse to love is to refuse the will of the Father, whereas the call to love is constant: “Behold, now is the acceptable time; behold now is the day of salvation” (2 Corinthians 6:2), and where love is, there God is: “Dearly beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God. And every one that loveth, is born of God, and knoweth God” (1 John 4:7).