church

INI
The 7th Sunday after Trinity
July 18, 2010
Ascension Lutheran Church, Tacoma WA
Paul Naumann, Pastor

WHO IS GOING INTO THE KINGDOM OF GOD?
Matthew 21:28-32

To Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or
think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by
Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen. This morning's text
comes from the 21st chapter of St. Matthew's Gospel, beginning with the 28th
verse, as follows [KJV]:

But what think ye? 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
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 them 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. This is the
Word of God.

In the Name of Jesus Christ, Who said, Blessed are they that hear the Word of
God and keep it, Dear Fellow Redeemed,

Actions speak louder than words. As a young man in the 1880s, future
president Theodore Roosevelt spent several years working as a cattle hand in
the badlands of North Dakota. He was rather quiet, and generally kept to
himself, but on one cattle drive there was cowboy who wouldn’t leave him
alone. He made jokes at Roosevelt’s expense and sneered at him, he called him
“four eyes” on account of the spectacles that he wore. Roosevelt stood it for
several days, but one evening, as the bully was again pouring foul abuse on him,
he quietly stood up and faced him over the campfire. His words were few. With
his hand hovering over his gun belt he said, “Mister, it’s time to put up or shut
up. You can shake hands and be my friend, or you can go for your gun.” The
man backed down, apologized and shook hands. In fact, he later became
Roosevelt’s employee, working for him on his “Elkhorn” ranch.

Actions do speak louder than words, and you don't have to be a future
president to understand that. In our text for today, Jesus contrasts people of
words with people of action. People who say that they belong to God, with
those who truly do the will of their Heavenly Father. It's a lesson about
hypocrisy and sincerity, about how things seem to the eyes of the world
compared with how things truly are in the eyes of God. If you're the kind of
person who looks down your nose on those who were "less righteous" then you
are, then this text contains a solemn warning for you. But if you are the other
kind of person, if you at times feel uncertain about your own sincerity, if you
suspect that you may sometimes fall prey to hypocrisy, worst of all if your sins
sometimes make you wonder whether you truly belong in God's kingdom at all,
then our text for today holds a wonderful promise for you. This morning's
theme is a question:

WHO IS GOING INTO THE KINGDOM OF GOD?
I. If you're an unrepentant hypocrite, your words can never get you in.
II. If you're a repentant believer, your sins can never keep you out.

It was Monday of holy week. Scarcely four days remained before Jesus would
give his life on the cross, a ransom to save mankind. During His ministry, the
common people had flocked to Jesus, taking heart from his message, and
receiving the grace of God. The hardhearted Pharisees, on the other hand,
continued to oppose him, and in fact we're already plotting to bring about his
death. Now Jesus makes a final attempt to break through to them. Jesus tells a
simple parable that gets the Pharisees to point an accusing finger. Then, with a
swift and elegant twist, he makes them realize that the accusing finger is
pointing directly back at themselves!

He said, But what think ye? 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 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.

In this parable, the proof of the pudding is in the deeds, not the words.
Whether of them twain did the will of his father? Jesus asked. The answer was
obvious. They said, The first. Not even the Pharisees could miss the point that
the one who did the will of his father was the one who did the work. What you
do is more important than how you sound, what’s in your heart than what’s on
the surface. The first son, for all his initial unwillingness, finally repented and
went into the vineyard and got down to work. The second son was all talk and
no action. Jesus drew a swift and piercing application to the Pharisees before
him. He said, 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. The message is clear: If you’re an unrepentant hypocrite, your
words can never get you into the kingdom of God.

Hypocrisy is an ugly thing - so often a beautiful exterior conceals a hidden
corruption beneath. Some time ago I spoke with a man who was trying to file an
insurance claim on his house. He was a very conscientious homeowner. He kept
his house up, he maintained it, he cared for it inside and out. In fact it was
while he was in the process of putting on a fresh, new coat of paint that he
discovered an unfortunate secret – there was a leaky water pipe hidden in one
of his exterior walls. It was a slow leak, but it must have been going on for a
long time, because when he put his ladder up to start painting, the ladder went
right through the wall! Underneath that beautiful exterior was nothing but rot
and decay.

There is no human exterior, be it ever so beautiful, that can fool the Lord.
What’s important to God is not how you look on the outside, but how you
really are on the inside. And this is evidenced by your life. Hypocrites who
refuse to repent of their sins won’t get into God’s kingdom no matter how many
shiny coats of paint they apply. You notice that in the parable Jesus didn’t care
about what the sons said, only what they did. If you refuse to go to obey God’s
Word, no amount of fine words and fair speeches can cover it up. As James
says, Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone. Yea, a man may
say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith without thy works,
and I will shew thee my faith by my works.- 2:17-18.

How many Christians have, like the second son, made fine promises to God
and then failed to follow through? How many young people on confirmation
day have promised to remain faithful to their Lord, even unto death, only to
drift indifferently away not long afterward? How many Christian couples have
stood at the altar on their wedding day and pledged their faithfulness "in
sickness and in health, till death us do part," only to abandon those vows when
the going got tough? How many Christians have sung loudly on Reformation
Sunday, Then take they our life, goods, fame, child and wife, let these all be
gone, expressing their willingness to make any sacrifice for the sake of the
Gospel, and then later ended up leaving the church, sometimes for the silliest
and most trivial of reasons! Like the second son in the parable, their words were
great, but there were no actions to back it up. It was nothing but hot air!

Jesus attempted to goad the Pharisees into action by pointing out that the
publicans and sinners were going into the kingdom of God ahead of them. One
thing that'll make just about anyone angry is when somebody cuts ahead of you
in line. It’s unfair, of course, but it’s also quite insulting. You know how you
feel when that happens - these people didn’t wait their turn! I was in line ahead
of them! I should go before they do! Well this was exactly the emotion Jesus
utilized to try to light a fire under the hypocritical Pharisees. Look what's
happening, Jesus said! Verily I say unto you, the publicans and the harlots [are
going] into the kingdom of God before you.". In the lineup to receive salvation,
the worst kind of sinners are cutting ahead of you! They’re making it and you
aren’t! Because of your lack of repentance, you're being shoved to the back! But
the Pharisees wouldn't change. Jesus' words, instead of making them sorry, just
made them angry. One thing they knew for sure: they wanted nothing to do
with any religion that included wretched tax collectors and "sinners" such as
these!

I wonder: could you and I be as callous as that? Could any of us refuse to go
into God's kingdom simply because to do so would mean associating with
people lower than us, people who aren't like us, people who come from a
different background than us? God forbid! In fact, God does specifically forbid
the kind of hypocrisy that mouths pious phrases on Sundays and displays a life
of selfishness and impenitence the rest of the week. Jesus said to the Pharisees,
"Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written: 'This people honors
Me with their lips, But their heart is far from Me." Mark 7:6.

If we look honestly at these five verses in Matthew chapter 21, they don't make
for very pleasant reading. They remind us of the hypocrisy that is still too
prevalent in our own lives. And that's frightening. But beneath the surface of
the story, there is an another truth that is really extremely comforting. Yes, if
you're an unrepentant hypocrite, your words will never get you into the
kingdom of God. But there's something else that Jesus makes crystal clear: if
you're repentant believer, your sins can never keep you out.

It's worth noting here, by the way, that both subjects in the parable are
addressed as my son, in the Greek teknon, literally "my child." It was a very
familiar and affectionate form of address. One child opposes his father and later
goes to work, one child flatters his father with false sentiments, and refuses to
work. But both are referred to as sons. That's so revealing: we may be
disobedient to God. We may be rebellious toward him or (worse yet) we may
say we will obey Him and then fail to follow through. The wonderful thing is
that none of that changes God one bit! Our faithlessness notwithstanding, He
remains faithful. Our lovelessness aside, God remains a God of love, "who
desires all men to be saved and to come unto a knowledge of the truth."
Through the prophet Ezekiel, God says, As I live, saith the Lord GOD, I have
no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way
and live: turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die, O house of
Israel. - Ezek 33:11.

God doesn't desire the sinner’s death. God isn't playing hide and seek with you,
seeing how difficult He can make your life, trying to find a way to keep you
from attaining salvation. No, the Lord's whole desire is bent toward bringing
you, you personally, into the bosom of his love. To enfold you in the arms of his
grace, just as the father in the familiar parable of the prodigal son embraced his
wayward child. The miracle of God's grace was demonstrated most visibly in
the ministry of John the Baptist. He urged people to repent of their sins and
come to God for cleansing, and crowds of people did just that. John came
baptizing in the wilderness and preaching a baptism of repentance for the
remission of sins. Then all the land of Judea, and those from Jerusalem, went
out to him and were all baptized by him in the Jordan River, confessing their
sins. Mark 1:4-5. Even the most wretched sinners, the lowest class of public
offenders - the harlots and the tax collectors - even these were entering into the
kingdom of God. They had the right attitude! They not only had faith in the
promise of forgiveness, they brought forth the fruits of their faith. Following
their conversion they went into their master's vineyard and got down to work!
The people asked [John], saying, "What shall we do then?" 11 He answered and
said to them, "He who has two tunics, let him give to him who has none; and
he who has food, let him do likewise." 12 Then tax collectors also came to be
baptized, and said to him, "Teacher, what shall we do?" 13 And he said to
them, "Collect no more than what is appointed for you." 14 Likewise the
soldiers asked him, saying, "And what shall we do?" So he said to them, "Do
not intimidate anyone or accuse falsely, and be content with your wages." Luke
3:9-14.

Of course, not all the tax collectors and sinners repented and believed. But
enough of them did to prove the miracle of God's grace. Enough to prove that,
if you are a repentant believer, then your sins can never keep you out of God's
kingdom of grace!

This is what Christ came for: to open the door of the kingdom of God. In
Christ, anyone can enter. Anyone who has sins, and needs them forgiven. One
CLC pastor was telling me recently about the success he's had in his ministry to
a nearby prison. He said that it's a unique kind ministry, because in jail of
course you are addressing convicts. People who by definition have already been
convicted of doing wrong. There's no question that they are sinners, the only
question is, what can be done about it? He said it was amazing how receptive
the prisoners were to God’s Word. In the same way, the people most responsive
to the Gospel in Jesus’ time were those who couldn’t argue that they weren’t
sinners - the despised tax collectors, the harlots, people who could never boast
the kind of outward piety displayed by the Pharisees. They listened to Jesus.
Mark 12:37 says that The common people heard him gladly. They recognized
that here, in Jesus of Nazareth, they were being offered a way out.

I pray that you, too, will hear your Savior gladly! Surrender to Jesus, who
invites you today to enter His kingdom of grace. Compared to that priceless
treasure, nothing else really matters in life. Maybe you've shunned God and
rebelled against his fatherly hand in your life, and are just now turning back. Or
perhaps you're the other son, the good Lutheran who knows all the right words,
but who is tempted with self-righteous thoughts. Perhaps you're tempted to
look down upon all those so called "sinners, " who are not good Lutherans like
yourself! What wonderful Good News God gives us in this passage, for it
doesn't matter whether you're one son or the other, or probably, like most of us,
a mixture of both. In Christ you too can find forgiveness! Because of what Jesus
did for you by dying on the cross, this much is eternally true: your sins can
never keep you out of the kingdom of God!

And this really is the main message the Lord would lay on your heart with this
passage. Who is going into the kingdom of God? You are! The Father's love still
reaches out to you and says, "My son, My daughter, receive the pardon and
peace that I offer you! Go into my vineyard and take up the work. The work
that, unlike any worldly occupation, is vastly fulfilling and satisfying, the work
of God's kingdom." You may think you're unworthy, and so you are. But Jesus
promised, he that cometh unto Me I will by no means cast out. This is what
Jesus wanted the Pharisees to see, and it’s what I pray he’s led you to see as
well. If those hardened sinners, those filthy prostitutes and thieving tax
collectors, simply by repenting of their sins and turning to Christ, could enter
the kingdom of God, then there is no reason you can’t enter, too! Think about it
-- if the thief on the cross could get in (and we know he did), then there’s no
reason you can’t. If David the adulterer, if Peter the denier, if Saul the
persecutor could be saved…then by God's grace you can, too. Your sins can
never keep you out of the kingdom of God! For as God remains true, so do
these words from the First Epistle of St. John: The blood of Jesus Christ His
Son cleanseth us from all sins.

Nathaniel Hawthorne once said, "No man, for any considerable period, can
wear one face to himself, and another to the multitude, without finally getting
bewildered as to which may be the true." He was right. Hypocrisy can
eventually make you forget who you really are. So let us abandon hypocrisy. Let
us be truthful with God and our neighbor. To the question, Who is going into
the kingdom of God? we now have our Lord's answer. If you're an unrepentant
hypocrite, your words will never get you in. But may God be eternally praised
for revealing to us the opposite as well: if you're a repentant believer, then your
sins can never keep you out! AMEN.