Which of the two did the will of his father? (Matthew 21:31).

Jesus tells a parable about two sons. One son refused to obey, but then changed his mind and obeyed. The other son committed to obey, but then did nothing about it. The former is commended for actually obeying the father's will.

Jesus relates this parable to the message of John the Baptist. The religious leaders, who had committed themselves to obeying God, did not follow through with their commitment by believing the message of God as spoken through John the Baptist. Yet, tax collectors and prostitutes, who by their lifestyle had initially rejected God's will, now embraced His will by believing the message of John the Baptist.

What is the lesson here? Initial enthusiasm for God is not what matters. Making many sacrifices to the Lord is not what is most important. Doing miracles and performing signs in God's Name is not what counts. What matters is to obey His Word. What is most important is to obey His Word. What counts is obeying His Word. 

When God commands us to simply believe (cf. John 6:29), we should not be asking, "What else?" When God gives us His Word as the sufficient guide for all godliness (cf. 2 Timothy 3:16-17), we should not be pursuing things to add to His Word. Knowledge is more important than zeal (cf. Romans 10:1-3), for it is better to know and do what God actually desires rather than expending all our energy and faith on something He doesn't want.

Friends, let us learn this lesson from the parable of the two sons. It is more important to obey than to promise obedience. It is more important to obey than to offer sacrifices to God. It is more important to obey than to go to lengths to show our measure of devotion. This is why it is absolutey critical that we know His Word. Only through His Word do we know what to obey. His Word acts as a boundary to keep us from getting caught up in needless and empty professions and practices. Through His Word we understand our total failure with respect to obeying His Law, and we are driven to simply trust in His grace. 

Consider this dialogue between Jesus and the Jews, who had followed him, listening to His teaching and going without food for some three days. They also experienced the spectacular miracle of Jesus feeding five thousand of them with just five loaves of bread and two fish. It was entirely appropriate for them to ask Jesus how they should now obey God:

Then they asked him, “What must we do to do the works God requires?” Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.” So they asked him, “What sign then will you give that we may see it and believe you? What will you do? (John 6:28-30).

Do you notice something odd here? They ask Jesus what they should do. And Jesus tells them. They should believe in Him, the One God has sent. The One, who has just fed all of them with a few loaves and fish. The One, who has mesmerized them with His teaching, so that they went without food for days to listen. The One, who has performed the signs of the Messiah. Yet, now, they are asking for another sign? They are seeking something more from Jesus?

Jesus would go on to rebuke them. For all their show of devotion, they were not truly willing to obey God's will. They were interested only in their idea of what God is like and in their idea of what God should want from them. 

Friends, I hear people every week express their devotion to God, yet they are not daily and deeply in His Word. They are quick to get offended when their experience is challenged, even when it is challenged by something in God's Word. They spout all kinds of spiritual sounding words, all the while taking verses out of context, running roughshod over Scripture to find some interesting turn of a phrase, and at the same time forgetting the purpose and message of both the divine and prophetic authors. What is the end result? God's will is not done. Oftentimes, something heretical is declared and with conviction. It was only a few weeks ago that a woman declared in a Sunday School class, "I believe God can sin." Yet, no one spoke up to silence her misguided words. 

"Which of the two did his father's will?" Jesus asked. Will we truly obey or just give lip service?

Two of Jesus' disciples (James and John) would like to sit at His 'right' and 'left' in His Kingdom. Wanting a special place of importance at His side.

"Then the mother of Zebedee�s sons came to Jesus with her sons and, kneeling down, asked a favor of him."What is it you want?" he asked. She said, "Grant that one of these two sons of mine may sit at your right and the other at your left in your kingdom." "You don�t know what you are asking," Jesus said to them. "Can you drink the cup I am going to drink?" "We can," they answered. Jesus said to them, "You will indeed drink from my cup, but to sit at my right or left is not for me to grant. These places belong to those for whom they have been prepared by my Father." (Matt 20:20-23)

This is an interesting request as the sons are not (yet) aware that to sit at Jesus' kingdom they would have die first. When Christ talks about the cup he refers to 'God pouring out his cup of wrath' and he asks the disciples if they will drink from this cup - he is asking 'will you suffer a martyrs death?' . According to Christian history all ot the disciples suffered martyrdom, accept John.

The selfishness of this request is contrasted to a statement Jesus makes just after to the other disciples.

".... Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave� just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many." (Matt 20:26-27)

So while the disciples squabble over their place in Christ's kingdom, Jesus' reminds them to be great or first you must first be a servant, for Christ himself came as a servant to give his life for ransom.

Friends, Jesus concludes the parable about the workers in the vineyard with these words: "So the last will be first, and the first last" (Matthew 20:16).

What did Jesus mean by this? The most direct meaning comes for within the context of the parable itself. At the end of the parable the employer says to the one first hired, "I wish to give to this last man the same as to you" (Matthew 20:14). While there is theological disagreement as to who the first and last man are, there seem to be consensus that the employer is God. If so, we can draw from the employer's response that one understanding of the expression "the last will be first, and the first last" is that the last will receive the same as the first and the first will receive the same as the last. One might, therefore, conclude that in some aspect of the kingdom the amount of work done or effort expended has no bearing. God gives in keeping with His desired will. 

Now, if we look a little further back in the context, the employer also said, "Call the laborers and give them their wages, beginning with the last to the first" (Matthew 20:8). This action also seems to have a direct bearing on the expression "the last will be first and the first last," for that's what happened. The last got paid first. However, there doesn't seem anything in the text to suggest that the last were more or less worthy to receive payment first. Also, there was no contractual obligation for the employer to pay the first workers first. Again, what we conclude is that, as before, the employer, God, freely acted according to His own will.

Finally, we are also given a commentary on the incident:

Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with my own things? Or is your eye evil because I am good?’ (Matthew 20:15 NKJV)

The one who complained had a wrong perspective. In his view the employer was being unfair. But the employer showed him his wrongful thinking by reminding him, "Did you not agree with me for a denarius?" (Matthew 20:13). He was fair with this worker, but he was also very generous toward the last workers. Therefore, overall the employer was both fair and good. 

Furthermore, we get a sense of why the employer did what he did. If you read the parable carefully, you will notice that while the first worker made an agreement with the employer to work for a denarius, the later workers were willing to work for whatever the employer would give them (Matthew 20:4,7). Could there be a hint of God's grace here? Grace is simply defined as undeserved favor. The first worker received what he deserved, picturing justice. The latter workers got what they did not deserve, picturing grace.

What is the overall lesson here, for Jesus spoke this parable about the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 20:1)? Since there is no explanation by Jesus, I cannot be dogmatic about the meaning; however, the parable seems to affirm the sovereignty of God, as well His justice and grace in His sovereign acts. This is punctuated in the NKJV, which follows up "last shall be first" expression with the words, "For many are called, but few chosen" (Matthew 20:16). Rather than a general comment on God's character, this parable may be a further affirmation of the justice and grace of God in His soveriegn election of some for salvation.