In the final stretch of His public ministry Jesus spoke with a plain edge that cut through ceremony and went straight to the heart. He had already told why He used parables: to reveal the Kingdom’s secrets to those who would hear and to confirm hardness in those who would not (Matthew 13:10–13; Isaiah 6:9–10; Matthew 13:14–15). By the time He reached Jerusalem, the charge that He cast out demons by Satan’s power had been hurled, and opposition had hardened into a settled refusal to believe (Matthew 12:24; Matthew 12:31–32). In that tense air He told a brief story about a father and two sons that exposed the difference between polished words and true obedience, and it pressed a choice on every listener gathered in the temple courts (Matthew 21:23; Matthew 21:28–32).
The setting matters. Jesus had entered the city to shouts of “Hosanna,” cleansed the temple, and cursed a leafy but fruitless fig tree as a living picture of show without substance (Matthew 21:9–13; Matthew 21:18–19). When the chief priests and elders demanded to know His authority, He asked them a question about John the Baptist that revealed their fear of people and their refusal to answer truthfully (Matthew 21:23–27). Then He told this parable. It is short, sharp, and unforgettable. A son says, “I will not,” then goes. Another says, “I will, sir,” then does not. The King then declares that those who had been written off by the religious elite—tax collectors and prostitutes—were entering the Kingdom ahead of them because they repented at John’s preaching while the leaders would not (Matthew 21:31–32; Luke 7:29–30).
Words: 2730 / Time to read: 14 minutes
Historical and Cultural Background
Jesus told this story on what is often called “Temple Tuesday,” the day of searching questions and public clashes after His entry into Jerusalem. The argument over authority frames the parable. He had just overturned tables and stopped commerce, citing Scripture: “My house will be called a house of prayer… but you are making it ‘a den of robbers’ ” (Matthew 21:13; Isaiah 56:7; Jeremiah 7:11). The leaders demanded His credentials; He answered by testing theirs with a question about John’s baptism—was it from heaven or from human origin? (Matthew 21:23–25). Their refusal to answer showed the very fault the parable names: a willingness to say what suits the moment without doing what truth requires (Matthew 21:27).
The vineyard image ran deep in Israel’s mind. Isaiah had sung of God’s carefully tended vineyard, which stood for Israel and Judah, only to find sour fruit where justice should have grown (Isaiah 5:1–7). To be called to work in the vineyard evoked national calling, covenant responsibility, and the daily obedience of God’s people in God’s land (Psalm 80:8–11; Isaiah 27:2–6). In a household economy sons were expected to honor their father’s voice not only with their lips but in their labor, and refusal to work brought shame on the family while obedience honored the father before neighbors and God (Exodus 20:12; Proverbs 10:1). Against that backdrop, the contrast between the two sons lands with force.
The mention of tax collectors and prostitutes stung the crowd because those groups symbolized public sin in first-century Judea. Tax collectors were seen as collaborators with Rome and often as extortioners; prostitutes embodied open moral failure. Yet many of them had flocked to John the Baptist at the Jordan, “confessing their sins” and submitting to a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, while many leaders “rejected God’s purpose for themselves” by refusing John’s call (Matthew 3:5–6; Luke 7:29–30). John had come “to prepare the way for the Lord,” calling Israel to turn because the Kingdom of heaven was near (Isaiah 40:3; Matthew 3:1–3). Those who believed him aligned with God’s plan; those who dismissed him stood exposed as hearers who would not do the will of God (Matthew 21:32; John 5:35).
Biblical Narrative
Jesus’ story moves with the ease of everyday life. “There was a man who had two sons. He went to the first and said, ‘Son, go and work today in the vineyard’ ” (Matthew 21:28). The first son answered, “I will not,” bluntly rejecting his father’s authority. Later, he changed his mind and went. Jesus uses a verb for turning that matches the path of repentance: a change of mind that leads to a change of way (Matthew 21:29; Acts 26:20). The second son said, “I will, sir,” a courteous reply that sounded right in public, but he did not go (Matthew 21:30). The question is obvious and inescapable: “Which of the two did what his father wanted?” They answered, “The first” (Matthew 21:31).
Jesus then turned the parable into a verdict. “Truly I tell you,” He said, “the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you” (Matthew 21:31). He anchored that claim in the ministry of John. “For John came to you to show you the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes did. And even after you saw this, you did not repent and believe him” (Matthew 21:32). The indictment cuts to the core. The leaders had the right words and the revered positions, yet they would not do the Father’s will when it came to the concrete act of turning to the message God sent them through His prophet (Matthew 3:7–8; Luke 3:7–14). Meanwhile, people whose first lives shouted “I will not” to God’s law heard John, turned, and went into the vineyard of obedience.
The parable sits between the question about authority and another vineyard story, the Parable of the Tenants, in which the owner’s servants and son are rejected and killed and the vineyard is entrusted to others who will produce its fruit in season (Matthew 21:33–41). Together the two parables expose a pattern: refusal to do the Father’s will and refusal to receive the Father’s Son. Jesus concluded the second parable by citing Psalm 118—“The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone”—and by declaring that the Kingdom would be taken from those leaders and given to a people who would produce its fruit (Matthew 21:42–43; Psalm 118:22–23). The two sons set the terms; the tenants show the end of obstinate refusal.
Theological Significance
This parable speaks first and foremost to Israel in history. The father stands for God. The vineyard represents Israel’s calling under covenant to be a people who bear the fruit of justice and righteousness under His rule (Isaiah 5:7; Deuteronomy 7:6–8). The first son pictures those within Israel who had lived in open disobedience yet repented at the call of John and then of Jesus, entering the Kingdom’s blessings by doing the Father’s will (Matthew 21:31–32; Luke 19:9–10). The second son embodies leaders and others who pledged loyalty to God with their lips while resisting His messengers and refusing to obey His call to repent and believe (Isaiah 29:13; Matthew 15:7–9). In the plain logic of the story, true sons are known by doing the Father’s will, not by the smoothness of their words (Matthew 7:21; James 1:22).
From a dispensational reading—God’s plan unfolds in stages—the timing is crucial. Jesus told this story during His presentation to Israel as her King, in the season when the offer of the Kingdom stood open and the nation’s leaders were deciding against Him (Matthew 21:5; Zechariah 9:9). The immediate judgment for their refusal would fall within a generation as the city was encircled and the temple destroyed, a bitter harvest for polished words that never became obedient lives (Luke 19:41–44; Matthew 24:2). Yet that judgment did not erase God’s promises. Scripture teaches that after an age in which the gospel goes to the nations and the Church is formed from Jew and Gentile in one Body, there remains a future season of pressure—tribulation, future worldwide distress before Christ’s reign—in which God will again deal directly with Israel to bring a remnant—the faithful few God preserves—to repentance and faith (Jeremiah 30:7; Revelation 7:4–8; Revelation 11:3–6). In that season, as in John’s day, some will say “I will not” and then turn, while others will say “I will” and persist in refusal. At the King’s return, Israel will look on the One they pierced and mourn, and a nation will be born in a day under the mercy of God (Zechariah 12:10; Romans 11:25–27; Isaiah 66:8).
The parable also clarifies the Israel–Church distinction while highlighting shared moral truth. The Church does not replace Israel or seize her national promises; rather, in this present age the Church bears witness to the King and lives by His word, awaiting His appearing and the fulfillment of all that was spoken by the prophets (Ephesians 3:6; Acts 3:19–21). Yet the moral line of the story runs through every heart in any age: repentance is real when it goes to work; obedience is the proof of faith and the fruit of grace (Acts 26:20; Titus 2:11–12). God is not looking for perfect pasts but for present hearts that turn and hands that go into the field He points out (Psalm 51:17; Ephesians 2:10).
At its core, the parable reveals the Father’s heart and exposes ours. The Father still calls, “Go and work today,” a word that locates obedience in time and place rather than in talk and plans (Matthew 21:28; Hebrews 3:15). The Son still confronts religious pride that can applaud sermons and refuse repentance. And the Spirit still grants the change of mind that becomes a change of path so that former rebels become true sons and daughters who do the Father’s will (Ezekiel 36:26–27; Romans 8:14).
Spiritual Lessons and Application
This story teaches us to prize repentance over rhetoric. It is easy to answer God with respectful words and go on with life unchanged. Jesus said plainly that not everyone who says “Lord, Lord” will enter the Kingdom of heaven, “but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 7:21). That is not a denial of grace; it is the test of reality. Real repentance is a turn that shows up in concrete obedience—the apology made, the restitution offered, the secret sin cut off, the neighbor loved, the path of righteousness entered when the Father points and says, “Today” (Acts 26:20; Luke 3:10–14). God’s kindness is meant to lead us to that turn, not to help us talk around it (Romans 2:4).
The parable also warns against hiding behind religious status or past decisions. The leaders Jesus addressed wore the right clothes, knew the right words, and held the right seats, but they would not bow to God’s voice when He spoke through John and through His Son (Matthew 23:2–4; John 5:39–40). The danger remains. We can mistake proximity to holy things for holiness: hearing sermons, knowing verses, serving on teams, even teaching others, while refusing to submit to a clear command of God in our own life (James 1:22–24; Luke 6:46). The second son’s “I will, sir” is chilling because it sounds right. Jesus presses us past the sound to the step. “Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say?” (Luke 6:46). The way back is not swagger but humility: confess, turn, and go.
There is hope in this parable for the worst of sinners and for the weary of soul. The first son said, “I will not,” then went. Jesus held up tax collectors and prostitutes not to shame them but to invite others through the same door of repentance. He had said before that He came “to seek and to save the lost,” and He kept that aim to the end (Luke 19:10; Matthew 21:31). No past disqualifies the person who heeds God’s call today. When the Father speaks, “Go and work today,” the right answer is not a polished vow for tomorrow but a step now, however halting, into the field of obedience. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive and cleanse, and He also empowers new obedience by His Spirit so that grace trains us to say “No” to ungodliness and “Yes” to self-controlled, upright, and godly lives (1 John 1:9; Titus 2:11–12).
Finally, the parable sends us to the vineyard with the gospel itself. We do not become true sons by our effort, as if obedience could erase guilt; we become true sons by faith in the Son who always did His Father’s will and who died and rose for those who said “I will not” and for those who said “I will” and did not (John 4:34; Romans 5:8). His grace both saves and sends. We trust Him for mercy, and then we go where the Father points, confident that every act of obedience becomes a testimony to the King who changes hearts (Ephesians 2:8–10; Philippians 2:12–13). Words alone wilt under the sun; obedience rooted in grace bears fruit that lasts (John 15:5; John 15:16).
Conclusion
In a few lines Jesus made a straight path through pretense and pride. A father spoke. Two sons answered. One refused, then went. One agreed, then stayed. The first did the will of his father; the second did not (Matthew 21:28–31). Then the Lord turned to men in fine robes and declared that the very people they despised were entering the Kingdom ahead of them because they repented at John’s call while the leaders would not (Matthew 21:31–32). The warning is as clear as the promise. God welcomes repentant sinners, and He resists those who honor Him with lips while hearts stay far away (Isaiah 29:13; Luke 18:13–14). He is not moved by polished speeches; He delights in contrite hearts that obey.
For Israel then and for Israel yet to come, the parable names the dividing line: those who turn when God speaks enter the blessings He promised; those who refuse stand outside until they are ready to say “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord” (Matthew 23:39; Romans 11:26–29). For the Church now, the story keeps us honest and hopeful. We are not saved by our obedience, but the obedience of faith must follow if our confession is true (Romans 1:5; James 2:17). Every day the Father still says, “Go and work today in the vineyard.” The right response is not a new layer of words but the simple, costly step that matches His call.
If your past has been a loud “I will not,” hear the mercy in this story and go. If your mouth has made many “I will” promises while your feet have stayed still, hear the warning and turn. The door is open today. The King who told this parable walked from the temple to the cross so that rebels could be forgiven and sons could be made new. He calls. Answer Him with your feet as well as your lips, and you will find that the vineyard is a place of grace.
“ ‘Which of the two did what his father wanted?’ ‘The first,’ they answered. Jesus said to them, ‘Truly I tell you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you. For John came to you to show you the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes did; and even after you saw this, you did not repent and believe him.’ ” (Matthew 21:31–32)
Want to Go Deeper?
This post is adapted from my book, The Parables of Jesus: Covert Communication from the King (Grace and Knowledge Series, Book 7), where I explore each parable’s dispensational significance and prophetic meaning in greater depth.
Read the full book on Amazon →
All Scripture quoted from:
New International Version (NIV)
Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Related
The Parable of the Two Sons – Matthew 21:28–32
Published by Brother Woody BrohmIn the final stretch of His public ministry Jesus spoke with a plain edge that cut through ceremony and went straight to the heart. He had already told why He used parables: to reveal the Kingdom’s secrets to those who would hear and to confirm hardness in those who would not (Matthew 13:10–13; Isaiah 6:9–10; Matthew 13:14–15). By the time He reached Jerusalem, the charge that He cast out demons by Satan’s power had been hurled, and opposition had hardened into a settled refusal to believe (Matthew 12:24; Matthew 12:31–32). In that tense air He told a brief story about a father and two sons that exposed the difference between polished words and true obedience, and it pressed a choice on every listener gathered in the temple courts (Matthew 21:23; Matthew 21:28–32).
The setting matters. Jesus had entered the city to shouts of “Hosanna,” cleansed the temple, and cursed a leafy but fruitless fig tree as a living picture of show without substance (Matthew 21:9–13; Matthew 21:18–19). When the chief priests and elders demanded to know His authority, He asked them a question about John the Baptist that revealed their fear of people and their refusal to answer truthfully (Matthew 21:23–27). Then He told this parable. It is short, sharp, and unforgettable. A son says, “I will not,” then goes. Another says, “I will, sir,” then does not. The King then declares that those who had been written off by the religious elite—tax collectors and prostitutes—were entering the Kingdom ahead of them because they repented at John’s preaching while the leaders would not (Matthew 21:31–32; Luke 7:29–30).
Words: 2730 / Time to read: 14 minutes
Historical and Cultural Background
Jesus told this story on what is often called “Temple Tuesday,” the day of searching questions and public clashes after His entry into Jerusalem. The argument over authority frames the parable. He had just overturned tables and stopped commerce, citing Scripture: “My house will be called a house of prayer… but you are making it ‘a den of robbers’ ” (Matthew 21:13; Isaiah 56:7; Jeremiah 7:11). The leaders demanded His credentials; He answered by testing theirs with a question about John’s baptism—was it from heaven or from human origin? (Matthew 21:23–25). Their refusal to answer showed the very fault the parable names: a willingness to say what suits the moment without doing what truth requires (Matthew 21:27).
The vineyard image ran deep in Israel’s mind. Isaiah had sung of God’s carefully tended vineyard, which stood for Israel and Judah, only to find sour fruit where justice should have grown (Isaiah 5:1–7). To be called to work in the vineyard evoked national calling, covenant responsibility, and the daily obedience of God’s people in God’s land (Psalm 80:8–11; Isaiah 27:2–6). In a household economy sons were expected to honor their father’s voice not only with their lips but in their labor, and refusal to work brought shame on the family while obedience honored the father before neighbors and God (Exodus 20:12; Proverbs 10:1). Against that backdrop, the contrast between the two sons lands with force.
The mention of tax collectors and prostitutes stung the crowd because those groups symbolized public sin in first-century Judea. Tax collectors were seen as collaborators with Rome and often as extortioners; prostitutes embodied open moral failure. Yet many of them had flocked to John the Baptist at the Jordan, “confessing their sins” and submitting to a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, while many leaders “rejected God’s purpose for themselves” by refusing John’s call (Matthew 3:5–6; Luke 7:29–30). John had come “to prepare the way for the Lord,” calling Israel to turn because the Kingdom of heaven was near (Isaiah 40:3; Matthew 3:1–3). Those who believed him aligned with God’s plan; those who dismissed him stood exposed as hearers who would not do the will of God (Matthew 21:32; John 5:35).
Biblical Narrative
Jesus’ story moves with the ease of everyday life. “There was a man who had two sons. He went to the first and said, ‘Son, go and work today in the vineyard’ ” (Matthew 21:28). The first son answered, “I will not,” bluntly rejecting his father’s authority. Later, he changed his mind and went. Jesus uses a verb for turning that matches the path of repentance: a change of mind that leads to a change of way (Matthew 21:29; Acts 26:20). The second son said, “I will, sir,” a courteous reply that sounded right in public, but he did not go (Matthew 21:30). The question is obvious and inescapable: “Which of the two did what his father wanted?” They answered, “The first” (Matthew 21:31).
Jesus then turned the parable into a verdict. “Truly I tell you,” He said, “the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you” (Matthew 21:31). He anchored that claim in the ministry of John. “For John came to you to show you the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes did. And even after you saw this, you did not repent and believe him” (Matthew 21:32). The indictment cuts to the core. The leaders had the right words and the revered positions, yet they would not do the Father’s will when it came to the concrete act of turning to the message God sent them through His prophet (Matthew 3:7–8; Luke 3:7–14). Meanwhile, people whose first lives shouted “I will not” to God’s law heard John, turned, and went into the vineyard of obedience.
The parable sits between the question about authority and another vineyard story, the Parable of the Tenants, in which the owner’s servants and son are rejected and killed and the vineyard is entrusted to others who will produce its fruit in season (Matthew 21:33–41). Together the two parables expose a pattern: refusal to do the Father’s will and refusal to receive the Father’s Son. Jesus concluded the second parable by citing Psalm 118—“The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone”—and by declaring that the Kingdom would be taken from those leaders and given to a people who would produce its fruit (Matthew 21:42–43; Psalm 118:22–23). The two sons set the terms; the tenants show the end of obstinate refusal.
Theological Significance
This parable speaks first and foremost to Israel in history. The father stands for God. The vineyard represents Israel’s calling under covenant to be a people who bear the fruit of justice and righteousness under His rule (Isaiah 5:7; Deuteronomy 7:6–8). The first son pictures those within Israel who had lived in open disobedience yet repented at the call of John and then of Jesus, entering the Kingdom’s blessings by doing the Father’s will (Matthew 21:31–32; Luke 19:9–10). The second son embodies leaders and others who pledged loyalty to God with their lips while resisting His messengers and refusing to obey His call to repent and believe (Isaiah 29:13; Matthew 15:7–9). In the plain logic of the story, true sons are known by doing the Father’s will, not by the smoothness of their words (Matthew 7:21; James 1:22).
From a dispensational reading—God’s plan unfolds in stages—the timing is crucial. Jesus told this story during His presentation to Israel as her King, in the season when the offer of the Kingdom stood open and the nation’s leaders were deciding against Him (Matthew 21:5; Zechariah 9:9). The immediate judgment for their refusal would fall within a generation as the city was encircled and the temple destroyed, a bitter harvest for polished words that never became obedient lives (Luke 19:41–44; Matthew 24:2). Yet that judgment did not erase God’s promises. Scripture teaches that after an age in which the gospel goes to the nations and the Church is formed from Jew and Gentile in one Body, there remains a future season of pressure—tribulation, future worldwide distress before Christ’s reign—in which God will again deal directly with Israel to bring a remnant—the faithful few God preserves—to repentance and faith (Jeremiah 30:7; Revelation 7:4–8; Revelation 11:3–6). In that season, as in John’s day, some will say “I will not” and then turn, while others will say “I will” and persist in refusal. At the King’s return, Israel will look on the One they pierced and mourn, and a nation will be born in a day under the mercy of God (Zechariah 12:10; Romans 11:25–27; Isaiah 66:8).
The parable also clarifies the Israel–Church distinction while highlighting shared moral truth. The Church does not replace Israel or seize her national promises; rather, in this present age the Church bears witness to the King and lives by His word, awaiting His appearing and the fulfillment of all that was spoken by the prophets (Ephesians 3:6; Acts 3:19–21). Yet the moral line of the story runs through every heart in any age: repentance is real when it goes to work; obedience is the proof of faith and the fruit of grace (Acts 26:20; Titus 2:11–12). God is not looking for perfect pasts but for present hearts that turn and hands that go into the field He points out (Psalm 51:17; Ephesians 2:10).
At its core, the parable reveals the Father’s heart and exposes ours. The Father still calls, “Go and work today,” a word that locates obedience in time and place rather than in talk and plans (Matthew 21:28; Hebrews 3:15). The Son still confronts religious pride that can applaud sermons and refuse repentance. And the Spirit still grants the change of mind that becomes a change of path so that former rebels become true sons and daughters who do the Father’s will (Ezekiel 36:26–27; Romans 8:14).
Spiritual Lessons and Application
This story teaches us to prize repentance over rhetoric. It is easy to answer God with respectful words and go on with life unchanged. Jesus said plainly that not everyone who says “Lord, Lord” will enter the Kingdom of heaven, “but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 7:21). That is not a denial of grace; it is the test of reality. Real repentance is a turn that shows up in concrete obedience—the apology made, the restitution offered, the secret sin cut off, the neighbor loved, the path of righteousness entered when the Father points and says, “Today” (Acts 26:20; Luke 3:10–14). God’s kindness is meant to lead us to that turn, not to help us talk around it (Romans 2:4).
The parable also warns against hiding behind religious status or past decisions. The leaders Jesus addressed wore the right clothes, knew the right words, and held the right seats, but they would not bow to God’s voice when He spoke through John and through His Son (Matthew 23:2–4; John 5:39–40). The danger remains. We can mistake proximity to holy things for holiness: hearing sermons, knowing verses, serving on teams, even teaching others, while refusing to submit to a clear command of God in our own life (James 1:22–24; Luke 6:46). The second son’s “I will, sir” is chilling because it sounds right. Jesus presses us past the sound to the step. “Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say?” (Luke 6:46). The way back is not swagger but humility: confess, turn, and go.
There is hope in this parable for the worst of sinners and for the weary of soul. The first son said, “I will not,” then went. Jesus held up tax collectors and prostitutes not to shame them but to invite others through the same door of repentance. He had said before that He came “to seek and to save the lost,” and He kept that aim to the end (Luke 19:10; Matthew 21:31). No past disqualifies the person who heeds God’s call today. When the Father speaks, “Go and work today,” the right answer is not a polished vow for tomorrow but a step now, however halting, into the field of obedience. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive and cleanse, and He also empowers new obedience by His Spirit so that grace trains us to say “No” to ungodliness and “Yes” to self-controlled, upright, and godly lives (1 John 1:9; Titus 2:11–12).
Finally, the parable sends us to the vineyard with the gospel itself. We do not become true sons by our effort, as if obedience could erase guilt; we become true sons by faith in the Son who always did His Father’s will and who died and rose for those who said “I will not” and for those who said “I will” and did not (John 4:34; Romans 5:8). His grace both saves and sends. We trust Him for mercy, and then we go where the Father points, confident that every act of obedience becomes a testimony to the King who changes hearts (Ephesians 2:8–10; Philippians 2:12–13). Words alone wilt under the sun; obedience rooted in grace bears fruit that lasts (John 15:5; John 15:16).
Conclusion
In a few lines Jesus made a straight path through pretense and pride. A father spoke. Two sons answered. One refused, then went. One agreed, then stayed. The first did the will of his father; the second did not (Matthew 21:28–31). Then the Lord turned to men in fine robes and declared that the very people they despised were entering the Kingdom ahead of them because they repented at John’s call while the leaders would not (Matthew 21:31–32). The warning is as clear as the promise. God welcomes repentant sinners, and He resists those who honor Him with lips while hearts stay far away (Isaiah 29:13; Luke 18:13–14). He is not moved by polished speeches; He delights in contrite hearts that obey.
For Israel then and for Israel yet to come, the parable names the dividing line: those who turn when God speaks enter the blessings He promised; those who refuse stand outside until they are ready to say “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord” (Matthew 23:39; Romans 11:26–29). For the Church now, the story keeps us honest and hopeful. We are not saved by our obedience, but the obedience of faith must follow if our confession is true (Romans 1:5; James 2:17). Every day the Father still says, “Go and work today in the vineyard.” The right response is not a new layer of words but the simple, costly step that matches His call.
If your past has been a loud “I will not,” hear the mercy in this story and go. If your mouth has made many “I will” promises while your feet have stayed still, hear the warning and turn. The door is open today. The King who told this parable walked from the temple to the cross so that rebels could be forgiven and sons could be made new. He calls. Answer Him with your feet as well as your lips, and you will find that the vineyard is a place of grace.
Want to Go Deeper?
This post is adapted from my book, The Parables of Jesus: Covert Communication from the King (Grace and Knowledge Series, Book 7), where I explore each parable’s dispensational significance and prophetic meaning in greater depth.
Read the full book on Amazon →
All Scripture quoted from:
New International Version (NIV)
Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Related