Matthew 21: 28 – 32
Hypocrites
28 “But what do you think? A man had two sons, and he came to the first and said, ‘Son, go, work today in my vineyard.’ 29 He answered and said, ‘I will not,’ but afterward he regretted it and went. 30 Then he came to the second and said likewise. And he answered and said, ‘I go, sir,’ but he did not go. 31 Which of the two did the will of his father?” They said to Him, “The first.” Jesus said to them, “Assuredly, I say to you that tax collectors and harlots enter the kingdom of God before you. 32 For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him; but tax collectors and harlots believed him; and when you saw it, you did not afterward relent and believe him.
In speaking with a person about fellowshipping with other Christians a person said to me, ‘I do not go to church. It is too full of hypocrites.’ I told him that he should come to church anyhow. One more hypocrite won’t hurt. One of the major complaints non-believers’ level against Christianity is that the churches are full of hypocrites.
So, to start out we need to understand exactly what we are talking about. What is hypocrisy? It is a pretense of having a virtuous character, moral or religious beliefs or principles, that one does not really possess.
The Holy Son of God had a lot to say about hypocrisy and hypocrites. Since He didn’t mince any words on the subject, but directly confronted the religious hypocrites of His day, they hated Him intensely – eventually having Him arrested on trumped up charges. Here is a list of some of the hypocrisy that He spoke against:
. Giving to the poor to be recognized by others
. Praying in public to be recognized as God’s man
. Complaining about another person’s behavior when theirs was even worse.
. Testing other people to try to make yourself look superior
. Deceiving people from knowing God
. Repressing the poor and widows
. Teaching others to be hypocrites like them.
. Doing everything for show, while really being self-indulgent and unrighteous
. Able to analyze the weather but unable to distinguish between right and wrong.
Our Lord Jesus indicated that those who practiced hypocrisy would be sent to hell, indicating that they were non-believers. Our Precious Holy Spirit throughout His Word in our bibles associate’s hypocrisy with such things as evil, lying, perverting the gospel, envy and slander, jealousy and selfish ambitions.
I want us all to stop and think about what I am about to say. It is this point. Christians are often accused of being hypocrites. However, the Bible clearly indicates that those who practice hypocrisy really aren’t Christians at all. But will be judged to be non-believers and will be sentenced to Hell.
The scariest scripture I have every read comes from our Lord’s mouth in chapter 7 of Matthew’s Gospel, “13 “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. 14 Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it. 15 “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. 16 You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thorn bushes or figs from thistles? 17 Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. 18 A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. 19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 Therefore by their fruits you will know them. 21 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. 22 Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ 23 And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!”
In our study through the Gospel of Matthew we had just covered the religious leaders confronting our Lord Jesus as to His Authority. In other words, they tried to trap Him in front of the crowd of people. Our Holy Master turned the tables on them by answering their question with a question. The bottom line was that the phony religious men were the ones who were caught in their very trap. Today we are going to learn through a Parable of our Lord where He Is going to expand on these hypocrites’ ways.
Jesus now follows up His challenge concerning the source of John’s authority, to face the religious leaders more emphatically with their failure to respond to God’s message through John. He points out that John had brought them truth, but that they had failed to respond to that truth, and were even now failing to do so. In contrast some of those whom religiously they most despised, the public servants and the prostitutes, had responded to John, and had repented and believed, and had thus gone into the Kingdom of Heaven before them. They had discerned that John’s authority was ‘of God’ even if the leaders did not (the crowds would have been nodding in approval).
That being so the religious leaders were like a son who pretended to his father that he would do what he wanted, but in fact failed to do so. While the public servants and prostitutes who had previously been disobedient, had now become obedient sons. They were like a son who at first had been rather rude to his father, but had in the end fallen in line with his wishes
28 “But what do you think? A man had two sons, and he came to the first and said, ‘Son, go, work today in my vineyard.’ 29 He answered and said, ‘I will not,’ but afterward he regretted it and went.
We note here that once again we are faced with the challenge of the two ways (7.13-14). For this father has two sons who must choose which way they will take. But in this example a new element will be introduced, and that is the element of appearing to choose the one while in fact choosing the other.
The first son is called to work in his father’s vineyard, but rudely refuses. However, afterwards he changes his mind and goes. He is a picture of all who for a time rudely defy God but afterwards repent and begin to obey Him.
30 Then he came to the second and said likewise. And he answered and said, ‘I go, sir,’ but he did not go.
The second son is full of expressions of willingness. His answer is immediate. ‘I go, sir.’ But the problem was that he did not go. He is like all those who are outwardly religious from the beginning, but who do not really obey God from the heart. They are those who do not hear the will of God and do it.
31 Which of the two did the will of his father?” They said to Him, “The first.” Jesus said to them, “Assuredly, I say to you that tax collectors and harlots enter the kingdom of God before you. 32 For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him; but tax collectors and harlots believed him; and when you saw it, you did not afterward relent and believe him.
Jesus then asked which of the two sons did the will of his father, the one who had refused, but had then gone, or the one who had expressed all willingness, but had not gone. Even the religious leaders knew the answer to that one. It was the son who had repented and had then done it.
Jesus then applies the parable in terms of the response of people to the ministry of John. John had come in ‘the way of righteousness’. He had walked righteously. He had taught righteousness. But above all He had brought God’s active righteousness and deliverance to the people. And many of the public servants and the prostitutes, the lowest of the low, those who would have been those least likely to respond to God, had believed him. And they had repented and had been baptised, declaring their desire to take part in the future drenching of the Holy Spirit, declaring that they wanted to be God’s ‘holy ones’ (saints). Thus, they had ‘gone into’ the Kingdom of God. They had begun to live anew and had wanted all that God could give them. They had begun to obey Him and acknowledge Him. They were no longer what they were, but were now seeking to live their lives in a way which was pleasing to God. And the same was true of all who had responded to God’s message through John.
But the religious leaders had not responded in this way. They did not believe him. They did not repent. They did not go into the Kingdom of God then. Nor had they done so since, even when they had seen the repentance of others whom they had castigated as sinners. They had remained unmoved. Thus they were still outside the Kingdom of God. The former had responded to God Himself, the latter had turned from God.
The contrast would have been startling to all who heard it. Being a public servant meant that a man was having betrayed his country and his friends and as having consorted with the enemies of his people. He was engaged in the service of those who served Rome. He was thus seen, even by the ordinary people, as a traitor towards God and towards his people. He was universally despised in Israel. Being a prostitute was similar for a woman. She was encouraging men into adultery (see Proverbs 7.10-23). She betrayed all that a decent woman stood for and prostituted the relationship that lay at the basis of all decent society. Along with the public servant she was openly defying God, and as being therefore, of all people, the most displeasing to God. Both would have been the last ones who could ever have been expected to find acceptability with God. Thus, the thought that such people might have entered the Kingdom of God would have seemed almost unbelievable. It would open the door of hope for all, again based on repentance. For it must be recognized that they were only accepted because they had repented and believed.
The leaders of the people on the other hand saw themselves as not only respectable, but as thoroughly pleasing to God, as pleasing as a man can be. Were they not able to prove by their genealogies that they were sons of Abraham? Was His favor towards them not evidenced by their wealth and position, which were both popularly seen as tokens of such favor? And the people overall would have agreed with them. They therefore saw no need to repent. Thus, what Jesus was suggesting was almost shocking. It was turning the Jewish world upside down. But here again was Jesus’ confirmation that the new age had begun, and that the Kingdom of God was already here, and had been since the time of John. For the whole point of what He was saying was that the sinful who have repented at John’s preaching have entered the Kingly Rule of God, and are therefore now God’s true people, while the outwardly righteous who have not responded to John’s preaching, have not entered the Kingly Rule of God, and are even now unwilling to do so.
Please notice again the words ‘go before you’. It signifies present experience, for the assumption of ‘before’ (which always in its use here indicates ‘before’ in time) is that there is still opportunity for those who have not yet entered to do so, while once the time for entering the future comes, all decisions will have been finalized, and those who have not believed will not be entering at all. There will be no question then of ‘before’ for them, for their opportunity would have gone. Thus, present experience is what is in mind. And this is confirmed not only by the use of ‘before’ but by the whole argument. It loses most of its strength if it only refers to entry into the Kingdom of God in the distant future.
Note the huge implication of what Jesus is saying in all this. He is declaring that all men, even the chief priests and the aristocracy, are to be tested by how they have responded to John’s preaching. And that is because John was not to be seen as just another preacher. He was to be seen as an eschatological figure. He was the forerunner of the Coming One. In him God was thus challenging the world. He had come representing the full truth of God. And thus, all men of whatever level were judged by their response to him, in the same way as they will be judged by their response to the Coming One Who will follow him. For John was inescapable. In him God’s truth was polarized. Through him God had broken in on the world. Thus, to not believe him was to not believe God. And to believe him or otherwise was therefore the same as believing in the Coming One. It divided the righteous from the unrighteous. (And the corollary of this was that believing in the Coming One would also be vital, for there is salvation in no other than the One to Whom John pointed, and no other Name under Heaven given among men by which men and women can be saved (Acts 4.12)).
By this parable therefore Jesus rams home the failure of the chief priests and the aristocracy to respond to John and his message, reinforcing their failure to appreciate that his baptism and his message was from God.
The son who said he would obey and then didn’t represented the nation of Israel in the earthly time of our Lord Jesus. They said they wanted to do God’s Will, but they constantly disobeyed. They were phony and just wen through the motions. Having a form of Godliness but denying the real power thereof.
It is dangerous to pretend to obey God when our hearts are far from Him because God knows our true intentions. Our Actions must match our words.
