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Let This Mind Be in Us Text:
Matthew 21:28-32 The author of the text of today's hymn of the day, F. Bland Tucker, echoes the words of St. Paul in today's Epistle, “Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus” [Phil. 2:5 (ESV)] as he writes: Let this mind be in us which was in Thee, Who wast a servant that we might be free, Humbling Thyself to death on Calvary. [HS98 862:3] The mind of Christ is the mind of the child of God who knows the will of the Father and does it. “Blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it!” said Jesus [Luke 11:28 (ESV)]. It is the loyal relationship of faith in God's Word. Christ, the obedient Son of God, knew the will of His Father and came to lay down his life as the one-and-only perfect sacrifice for the sin of the world, through Whose blood, then, all may be saved from sin and death and given the abundant, eternal life God originally intended for you. Today's Gospel is all about that relationship of faith, founded in the revelation of God's Word concerning faith in His Son, Jesus Christ.
Today's parable—spoken in the temple during “Holy Week” when Jesus would be crucified, spoken to those who would turn the tide of popular opinion, in a few short days, from “Hosanna to the Son of David” to “Crucify Him”—appears, on the surface, to speak of only two responses to God's offer of salvation, one of saving faith and the other of damning rejection of Jesus. But, as we shall see, there are two other unspoken responses possible.
It's Holy Monday morning, the day after his “triumphant entry” into Jerusalem when he brought judgment to the temple driving out the moneychangers. Today, the chief priests and elders ask him by what authority he is preaching and healing and judging. Knowing their hearts, Jesus plays a little game with them—not because he wants to dodge the question, but because his opponents are dodging the inevitable answer of Who Jesus is. He offers to answer them if they will answer a question of his. So he asks them about John the Baptist and whether his authority was from heaven or from man (Mt. 21:25). Caught between the popular opinion of the people that John was a prophet sent by God and admitting their own rejection of John, they played the politician refusing to answer, saying, “We do not know.” Fair enough. “Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things,” said Jesus (Mt. 21:27).
But then he sort of did answer them, but with a parable, the parable of the man with two children. He asks them, “What do you think?” The parable is about a father who told both of his children to go and work in his vineyard. The first one says “No way,” but then, feeling bad about saying “no” to his father, ended up going anyway. The second one says, “Okay, I'll go!” but then never goes. The simple question, “Which of the two did the will of the father?” Then they fell for it. Logically, it was the first one that, though he initially said “no,” ended up doing what his father said. Then Jesus explains the parable.
Who are those who have said “no” to God all their lives, maybe for a long time, and whose lives show that they have said “no” to God? Remember, this is the one in the parable whom his interrogators have just identified as the one who did the will of the father. It was the tax collectors and prostitutes! Then who are those who have said “yes” to God but who ended up not doing the will of the father? The chief priests and elders took no little pride in their religious piety, their saying “yes” to God. But here they were saying “no,” “no” to John the Baptist, “no” to Jesus, “no” to all the prophets of God who had foretold the coming of the Savior. “Truly I say to you that the tax collectors and prostitutes are going ahead of you into the reign of God because they believed John, repented and believed in the One John pointed them to as the Savior.”
What is doing the will of God the Father? It is not in doing any particular works of piety or righteous acts. Works serve only as the evidence of the true work. In St. John's Gospel, when Jesus was asked, “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?” Jesus said, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent” [John 6:28-29 (ESV)]. Now I said earlier that this parable appears to describe only two responses, faith and unbelief; the person who initially says “no” to God but later repents and is saved, and the person who initially says “yes” to God but later turns away and rejects God and “him whom he has sent.” In a way, all we who believe are like the first son. All of us have said “no” to God in some way or another, the old, sinful nature resisting his Word and preferring our own agendas. Yet we have also been given the gift of repentance of our sin, turning to God because of his gracious invitation to salvation through simple faith in his Son. And because the forgiveness and love of God is so great, so complete, there is no end, no limit to how many times we may and must repent, return and believe. In fact, this is the pattern, the Standard Operating Procedure of the baptized life, as the little catechism says, “that the Old Adam in us should by daily contrition and repentance be drowned and die with all sins and evil desires, and that a new man should daily emerge and arise to live before God in righteousness and purity forever” (Small Catechism, Baptism); confession and absolution, repentance and forgiveness.
Could there be some among us, on the other hand, who are like the second son? who have initially said “yes” to God but who have turned or are presently turning away, in danger of losing God's gift of salvation? Of course. When Jesus told this parable to the chief priests and elders he wasn't just being coy or snotty. It was the old “two-by-four” over the head in hopes that they, too, may wake up, repent and believe. And we, too, need the Law of God to “hit us upside the head” once in a while to bring us to our spiritual senses, repent, return and believe. The New Testament tells us that a few from their number did repent and believe like Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea.
But there are two more categories, two other possibilities in this parable that are unspoken. We have the first, saying “no,” but then turning (repenting) and going; the “no,” “yes” answer. Then we have the second, saying “yes,” but then turning and not going; the “yes,” “no” response. But what about those who say “no,” and never do turn or repent and go, the “no,” “no” answer? And then, are there any who say “yes,” and follow through and go, the “yes,” “yes” answer?
We live in a society and a time when a lot of folks are being born and growing up to adulthood having never been baptized, having never even heard God's call to repentance and faith to salvation. Now, though it takes the hearing the Word of God first in order to say “no” to it, those who have never heard are in the same boat, for it is of the fallen nature to have no interest, to say “no” even to that “built-in” knowledge of God. Yet, in order for them to have any hope, they need to hear the Word, in order that the Holy Spirit may, just may enlighten, convict of sin and give the gift of faith in Christ. Still, there are those who say “no” to God and never do repent or believe, saying “no, no.”
Well then, finally, are there any who have said “yes” and have faithfully followed through? We might think of the person who was born to Christian parents, was baptized as an infant, brought to Sunday school and the Divine Service, to confirmation instruction and who have remained faithful to the hearing of the Word all their lives. Yet, as we said, because of sin which “doth so easily beset us” [Hebrews 12:1 (KJV)], at best the faithful can identify only with the first son in the parable. This last category of “yes, yes” belongs to only one person—solely and alone to the Son of God, Jesus, our Savior. And so this parable, finally, is not so much about us as it is about Jesus. Who is he? He is the faithful and obedient Son of the Father Who came to do the Father's will, to save sinners. He is the One to Whom John the Baptist pointed, Whose way he prepared. He is the One in Whom to place all your faith and trust, for only in Him is there forgiveness of all your sins and the gift of abundant, eternal life and salvation.
To have this mind, the mind of Christ, in you, is to live in repentance and faith; that by daily repentance and faith to be enabled to say “yes” to God and to do the work of God, namely, to believe in Him Whom He has sent. Then it is to reflect the humble obedience of the crucified one knowing that this is the only Way to the glory of heaven.
Christians follow where their captain trod primarily by remaining in connection with the Word and Sacraments of Christ, that life-giving interaction of receiving the forgiveness of sins, life and salvation here in His Divine Service. There is no other place where this happens, there is no other place I would rather be, “that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life” [Psalm 27:4 (ESV)]. For all the times we have said “no” to God by our words, thoughts or deeds, the Lord has sought us out, brought us back to live our baptism, and given us the faith, made us His new creation to say “yes,” to work in his vineyard and to be welcomed into the eternal courts of His praise.
So shall our song of triumph ever be: Praise to the Crucified for victory!
Lift high the cross, the love of Christ proclaim Till all the world adore his sacred name. [LW 311]___________________
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