A parable of Jesus

The Parable of the Two Sons

It is not the one who says the right words but the one who actually turns and obeys who does the will of God.

Where and to whom Jesus told it

Jesus is now in Jerusalem in the final week, teaching in the temple, and the chief priests and elders have just challenged his authority. He answers them with a series of parables, and this short one is the first. The context is confrontation: the religious leaders who ran the temple against the prophet they refused to receive, with John the Baptist's ministry standing in the background as the test they had failed.

The picture is homely and clear, a father and two sons and a day's work in the family vineyard. Its very simplicity makes the trap it sets inescapable, for Jesus will draw the answer out of his opponents' own mouths before they see where it leads.

The parable

A certain man had two sons, and he came to the first and said, Son, go work today in my vineyard. He answered, I will not; but afterward he repented and went. The father came to the second and said the same, and he answered, I go, sir; and went not. Which of the two, Jesus asks, did the will of his father? They say unto him, The first. And Jesus says, Verily I say unto you, that the publicans and the harlots go into the kingdom of God before you.

The contrast is between words and deeds. The first son's blunt refusal is redeemed by his later repentance and obedience; the second son's polite, respectful promise is worthless because he never goes. Jesus applies it directly: the tax collectors and prostitutes, who had said no to God with their lives but repented at John's preaching, are entering the kingdom ahead of the priests and elders, who said yes with their lips but would not believe. For John came in the way of righteousness, and they did not believe him, but the publicans and harlots did.

What it means, and how it has been misread and rightly read

This parable is sometimes softened into a general encouragement that actions matter more than words, true enough, but far less pointed than what Jesus meant. He is not making a mild observation; he is telling the religious leaders of Israel, to their faces, that despised sinners are entering the kingdom ahead of them. The parable is an indictment before it is a proverb.

Read rightly, it distinguishes between saying yes to God and actually doing his will, and it locates true obedience in repentance that changes conduct, not in a fine profession. The second son represents the danger of religion that is all the right words and none of the reality, the peril of those most confident of their standing with God. And the first son gives hope to everyone whose life has been one long no, for a past of refusal is no barrier to a future of obedience when it turns to genuine repentance.

The heart of God and the kingdom

This parable reveals a God who looks past the mouth to the life, who is not flattered by a respectful I go, sir, that never moves toward the vineyard, and who is not permanently offended by an initial I will not that gives way to repentance. He desires not the appearance of obedience but its substance, and he reads the heart beneath the answer.

It reveals, too, the astonishing scope of his welcome. The kingdom is open to publicans and harlots, to those whose lives began in flat refusal, because God receives the repentant. The parable overturns every assumption that God's favour runs along the lines of religious respectability. What matters to him is not where a life started but whether it turned and went into the vineyard.

What it asks of us

This parable warns us that saying yes to God, singing the songs, speaking the language, keeping up appearances, is worthless without doing his will. It asks whether we are the second son, full of respectful profession and empty of obedience, and it presses us past words to action, past agreement to the actual work of the vineyard.

And it holds out hope to anyone whose past is a long refusal of God. It is never too late to repent and go. The first son had already said no, and still he ended up doing the father's will. What God looks for is not an unblemished record of yes but a life that turns, at last, and obeys. A history of saying no does not shut the vineyard gate to those who finally go in.

How it points to Christ

Jesus is the true Son who not only said yes to the Father but went, doing his will perfectly, all the way to the cross. Where both sons in the parable fall short, one in word and one in deed, he obeyed completely on our behalf. He welcomes the repentant no-sayers into the kingdom because he has done the Father's will for them, and in him our own failed and half-hearted obedience is taken up into his perfect obedience, so that the door stands open to everyone who will truly turn and follow.

Frequently asked questions

What does the parable of the two sons mean?

It means real obedience is doing the Father's will, not merely saying yes to it. The son who refused but repented and went obeyed; the son who said 'I go, sir' but stayed home did not (Matthew 21:28-32).

Who do the two sons represent?

Jesus applied it to his hearers: the first son is like tax collectors and sinners who said no to God with their lives but repented; the second is like religious leaders who professed obedience but would not turn.