A father was trying to teach his young son the evils of alcohol. He put one worm in a glass of water and another worm in a glass of whiskey. The worm in the water lived, while the one in the whiskey curled up and died. “All right, son,” asked the father, “what does that show you?”
“Well, Dad, it shows that if you drink alcohol, you will not have worms” (taken from an unknown source)

Today’s reading uses the vineyard metaphor in a culture where sons are to respect and obey their fathers.

How the two sons respond to their father represents how two groups of people in Jesus’ time responded to God.  Eventually, this story also describes two directions in our spiritual journey.

The first son, who initially replied,” No,” then later changed his mind and helped represent the tax collectors and the prostitutes—two general classes of people regarded as immoral during Jesus’ time. Tax collectors cheated by taking money from the Jews for the Roman government. Prostitutes committed sexual sins and would often offer their services to Roman soldiers. At the onset, this group may not be on the right track regarding living a sound spiritual life. However, they heard the exhortation of John the Baptist.  They responded to Jesus’ message of repentance.

The second son responded, “Yes,” but eventually failed to help represent priests and elders. They possessed high stature in society and worked in the Temple. Their status was acquainted with a rightful way of life. However, this group was less responsive to God’s prophets, particularly John the Baptist and Jesus.  They maintained the status quo because they feared that responding to Jesus would harm their relationship with the Roman authorities.  They affirmed the law but did not believe in Jesus and his message. 

What Jesus says next would have surprised the second group—the priests and the elders.  He said, “Tax collectors and prostitutes will enter the kingdom before you.”

In general, there are two directions in our spiritual journey. As you can see, there is no perfect response. Neither of the two sons was perfect. An ideal response would have been “yes” from the beginning until the end.  Given our imperfections, God cares that we do our best to be transformed as persons of faith. He cares that we change our response from No to Yes in his invitation to us.

This change from “no” to “yes” is familiar to ordinary people that Jesus has chosen. A tax collector, Matthew responded Yes, when Jesus invited him to be His disciple. Peter denied Jesus, not once, but thrice, and then later repented. Paul persecuted early Christians but then converted and died as a martyr.

Let us not allow our past to determine our direction in life. The Lord always allows us to repent and to change, from saying no to yes in response to the invitation to work on His great vineyard.

Examining which direction we are heading in our spiritual life is essential.  Are we moving backward or moving forward? Are we like the first son or the second son?