Göttinger Predigten im Internet, hg. von Ulrich Nembach und Johannes Neukirch

11. Sunday after Trinitatis
August 15th 1999
Text: Matthäus 21, 28-32
Author: Hilmar Menke

It is rather trivial what Jesus is telling here: You ask someone to do something and hear a friendly "yes!" which makes you happy; for it's not what you thought you could expect. The more you are disappointed then when it turns out that this "yes" has been all - without anything happening.
The reverse is more seldom. Who, after all, likes it to say "no" and who dares to say frankly "I will not!"? However, this does happen. But far more seldom it happens that I have to realize that yet my request is granted and the matter is accomplished. My joy about this corresponds my disappointment in the former case!
No doubt, there is no other answer to Jesus' question than the answer of the people around him. Incidentally, it is an interesting question. For he does not ask, "Who acted in the right way?" which would have caused discussion, since neither of the sons behaved correctly. And, of course, everybody knows that the proper way would be to say "yes" and to do the thing. But Jesus asks, "Whether of them twain did the will of his father?"
I wonder how those felt who listened to Jesus and now had to learn that this applies to ourselves - and to those whom we consider wicked and godless! It is you who are like those who said "yes" - and that's it. It is you who judge yourselves to be pious and perfect but fail to do the Father's will. You condemn and contempt those who said "no", and you do realize that nevertheless many of them do God's will. So it is they who are obedient - not you.
They will have been shocked, annoyed, and infuriated at the bottom of their hearts!
Of course, they were hurt - our anger and wrath gets to the top when someone tells us the plain truth. That "the chief priests and the scribes" said "yes" and did "no" - we are in the know of this ...
But perhaps we succeed in standing in their shoes ourselves for a while and grasp their situation. I think we all belong to those who said "yes" - "yes" to God and to His commandments, "yes" to Christ and to his mission. We did say "yes" - and what have we done?
People observing our parishes, or our church, from outside often do not find Christian life and attitude there. "Christians ought to look more redeemed," once someone mocked, i.e.: You Christians are talking about redemption but are looking rather depressed; or you are speaking of "good tidings of great joy which shall be to all people," yet you seem to lack joy yourselves; you make much ado about love, but here is little kindness among you let alone love to others; you proclaim the Gospel is "to all people", but you prefer to remain in Christian privacy; you speak of God inviting everybody, but the doors of your churches are locked; you say that, in the eyes of God, we all are equal, but you despise people who do not live like you; you say, "All have sinned" and yet you rate yourselves better than others ...
And those who said "no"? Are there not people amongst them who fulfilled in their lives more of what Jesus proclaimed, and lived himself, to be God's will? More love, more unity, more confidence, more readiness for reconciliation, more self criticism too?
I will try not to worry about either side nor to get rid of it by arguing. I will try, instead, to hear it as if Jesus says it to myself. And I will examine myself lest I become, or remain, the notorious pharisee who rates himself highly, though he is nothing in God's eyes and who is losing his credibility also among the people. to say "yes" and to act "no" - I cannot absolve myself from this. To say "no" and to act "yes" - well, this happens.
"Pastor, you really must visit me ..." "Certainly, but this week there are two funerals and the groups and the meetings, so, you know, I'm afraid it won't be possible this week. But as soon as there will be a relief I will come ..." Then either is possible: that I am delaying the visit more and more, forget or even repress it (perhaps - who knows? - hope that the person forgot it also) - and that yet I come soon or the next day (maybe because I feel the urgency of the demand).
There I am standing in my lack of constancy, being yes-man as well as no-man, doing the right thing as well as failing to do so, believer as well as doubter, just as well as sinner. Where do I belong in the story Jesus tells? To "the chief priests and the scribes" or to the publicans and the harlots"?
As I see it, Jesus' issue was not to discriminate between the people nor to standardize them nor to sort them into any scheme. And most certainly it is not his point to expose the no-people and "the publics and the harlots" as shining examples (how many of them will stick after all to their "no" forever?), just as if a plain "yes" - and then no sooner said than done - were not the proper way?
I think that Jesus does not intend to make human beings samples - with and without value ... - but to show ways, to open up possibilities, and to foster understanding:
Self-knowledge above all, self-knowledge which arises when persons meet him. A good example of this is given by those who act like the son in the parable, who at first is unwilling but afterwards comes back to his senses. They realized who they were, namely people remote from God, people who did not live according to his will, people who were lost and without hope, but people who perceived at the same time: There is hope because God does not do away with them nor allows them to get lost, because he offers his love which can change and renew people. They already saw this when listening to John the Baptist, and they believed it when they met Jesus - they just believed from their hearts. They trusted in God and not in themselves, they expected all from him, and he was all their hope.
The story of Zaccheus, the chief among the publicans, makes it distinctly clear to us; it also shows what may result from it:
Zaccheus only "sought to see" Jesus - but he invites himself into Zaccheus' house. This attention, this sign of fellowship makes him a new person, and it frees him to make amends for the evil he had dond - consequence, to be sure, not presupposition!
The liberation springing from the words of Jesus - I find it also in the story of the two sons. Also the one who says "yes" and then does not act remains son of the father. And the father does not cease to ask him: "My son, go and work in my vineyard".
Also "the chief priests ... and the elders" are being still invited to do God's will.
Amen


Hilmar Menke, Superintendent in Cadenberg, Germany
e-mail: HHFJMenke@aol.com

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