‘Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus’.
In nomine Patris…
‘Andrew, will you do this for me?’
‘Yes, of course I will.’
You hear the words coming out. Perhaps you really do mean to do what
you say you will, and then find that, somehow, it just never happens. Perhaps
something deep down tells you that you never intended to do it in the first
place, but your words get ahead of your actions.
It’s not that you didn’t want to do it, it’s not even that you
consciously decided not to, it just didn’t happen: a sin of omission not
commission.
Jesus’ parable of the two sons cuts to the quick of human motivation
and action. I wonder if this parable inspired the words of a Book of Common
Prayer Confession: ‘we have left undone those things we ought to have done, and
done those things we ought not to have done’.
The parable should prompt us to examine our motives and actions.
Of course the parable also points to the possibility that we might
equally refuse to do something but then do it. It may be a little perverse, but
at least it’s done. This is a time when we ‘may turn from our wickedness and
live’.
The irony of the parable is that the unwilling son is found to be
willing and the willing is found to be unwilling.
Parables open up possibilities of interpretation. The two sons could
represent two aspects of our personality; the bit of us that is willing and the
bit of us that is grudging; the bit of us that acts and the bit of us that
fails to act.
The two sons could be the Church at times, talking a good Gospel of
love, faithfulness and holiness then reining back on that; or at other times,
not trumpeting significant acts of mercy and love that we know do happen.
In the context of Matthew’s gospel the target of the parable is thinly
veiled. The two sons represent the ‘righteous’ in the guise of the religious
authorities – the chief priests and elders - and the ‘sinners’ in the guise of
tax collectors and sex-workers: the righteous who say ‘yes we’ll do that’, and
don’t; and the sinners who actually do it despite their words.
The two sons were asked to go to work in the vineyard. Herein lies a
clue of Jesus’ intent to that first audience. The vineyard is code for Israel.
Go and work amongst the people of Israel: recall them to the Covenant; recall
them to works of justice, mercy and truth, their first love.
Reflection on the two sons cajoles us into asking ourselves a question:
what is my response to God’s call on my life?
Another way Jesus approaches this question is to ask ‘can you drink the
cup that I am about to drink?’ Am I willing to shape my life according to the
way of Jesus Christ, the one who walked the way of the cross?
The parable asks us to examine our hearts as followers of the way of
Jesus Christ. It asks us to reflect on our deepest desires as children of a
loving heavenly Father. This is what St Paul is getting at when he shares with
the Christians of Philippi his own search, ‘Let the same mind be in you that
was in Christ Jesus’.
The use of the word ‘mind’ implies that this is all in our heads; that
it is something we decide through rational processes. But we are so much more
than being thinking animals. We are desiring, yearning animals: we desire and
yearn for love, protection, intimacy, forgiveness. That is not a mind thing;
that is about tapping in to our deepest desires.
Our translation of the Bible lets us down when it says that the son who
said ‘I will not go into the vineyard ’changed
his mind (verse 29). It’s much deeper than that. A more literal translation
is ‘change what one has at heart’. He came to realise what he truly had at
heart, which is to do his father’s will, despite his initial words.
A change of heart is so much
deeper than a change of mind.
 |
| Icon of the Parable of the Prodigal Son |
There are uncanny echoes in this parable with another parable involving
two sons. In the parable of the Prodigal Son, told in St Luke’s gospel, one son
goes off the rails and the other stays dutifully attentive. And there’s a
twist.
It is the son who rejected his father who learns true repentance and
knows abundant forgiveness by overcoming what he thought he wanted to do
through a deep change of heart – conversion of life – and what prompted it was
‘when he came to himself’ (Luke 15.17).
Body and mind and heart came together and he returned to his family
home to pursue his deepest desire for love, protection, intimacy, forgiveness.
The dutiful son – the one who stayed around - revealed that his heart
had not yet caught up with the joy of the love, protection, intimacy,
forgiveness that he had already had.
In St Luke’s gospel Jesus beautifully tells us that ‘it is out of the
abundance of the heart the mouth speaks’ (Luke 6.45).
Out of the abundance of the heart Jesus speaks: he speaks out of his
love for the Father and the Father’s love for him. His speaking, his acting,
his mind is all prompted by where his heart is: which is deep in the heart of
God. As he reminds us elsewhere, our treasure and our heart are co-located: what
we treasure most is deep in our hearts.
This parable of the two sons
speaks to our personal discipleship – our ‘yes’ to God – it searches it out and
examines it. It also speaks to our commission to go out into vineyard, whose
boundaries stretch beyond God’s first-chosen people to the ends of the earth.
This is the Spirit’s gift that our thinking, speaking and acting is
shaped by Jesus Christ coming from the very core of our being: our guts; our
hearts. That is the Spirit in which we proclaim the Creed, pray the Lord’s
Prayer and respond to the dismissal, ‘In the name of Christ. Amen.’ It’s from
our guts.
To know the mind of Christ is to be filled with love for the Father, a
love poured out in service of the world.
Today let us commit ourselves to take into this new week, both in our
words and in our heart, a renewed commitment to Christ: by saying ‘with the
help of God, I will’:
Those who are baptized are called to worship and serve God.
Will you continue in the apostles’ teaching and fellowship,
in the breaking of bread, and in the prayers?
With the help of God, I will.
Will you persevere in resisting evil,
and, whenever you fall into sin, repent and return to the Lord?
With the help of God, I will.
Will you proclaim by word and example
the good news of God in Christ?
With the help of God, I will.
Will you seek and serve Christ in all people,
loving your neighbour as yourself?
With the help of God, I will.
Will you acknowledge Christ’s authority over human society,
by prayer for the world and its leaders,
by defending the weak, and by seeking peace and justice?
With the help of God, I will.
May Christ dwell in your hearts through faith,
that you may be rooted and grounded in love
and bring forth the fruit of the Spirit.
Amen.
