The Parable of the Two Sons

The questions we wrestle with as Christians about who God is, how do we live out our faith, what is the Bible, what is the truth of the Bible, what are we supposed to believe? How are we supposed to live? There are really big, deep questions that we ask each other, that we ask God, that we wrestle with ourselves. And that's why the Cultivate podcast exists, to help us go deeper in our understanding of who God is, his word, and the way that he's called us to live. Everyone, welcome to the Cultivate podcast with The Grove Church.

I'm Charlie Loften. I'm the lead pastor there, and we are here with Something about

my hat.

We've done that. We've done that. It's the female coffee producers, and you didn't even And when I talked about it, you didn't even know what it was. No.

But we're repping Boulder today. I went to Boulder recently.

Do they have moose there?

I actually don't know. Whenever I saw it, there was so I was there for a bachelorette trip. People from all over the country, a couple people from overseas that came in for it. So a bunch of people who had no touch with Colorado, in Boulder specifically, and they saw it, and one of them was like, wow, I haven't seen any moose since I've been here. And I was like, I've never seen a moose, I've been in Boulder, Colorado.

So that's not crazy, but maybe you see this and you actually think there should be more.

Yeah, like you see that and you're like, Oh, I guess Boulder is known for its No, it's known for being a college town.

Yeah, yes. Right. Yes, I never saw a moose while I was there.

It would be like having a Fayetteville, Arkansas shirt with a bunch of bears.

Or if there was a hog. Like, yeah,

I've I've never seen seen a a is the mascot of the university. That makes sense. And Colorado Boulder, that's the What aren't they? Buffalo.

Oh. That

also would make sense. Moose makes me think there's there's moose around here. He's like They kind of look like Maybe, but not in Boulder.

Do you remember the life is good shirts? Yes. Do they I they may not even make those anymore. Yeah. They do.

Though they do? Okay. It reminds me

of Silver Dollar City. That is the first thing, like, in the little gift shop that you have to walk through. There's always

Life is

good. A good section.

That's hilarious. I had a ton of them when I was a kid. But I think this reminded me of those. And so it's just

It definitely gives off

the font,

the picture, everything about Yeah. It gives

So I didn't get any other, like, Colorado merch, but I saw this one. I have a friend that lives out there, your same friend. And so it's one of those trips where everybody wanted, like, a momentum from being there. But I've been there a bunch of times and I don't feel the need to get a Colorado shirt every time I go. Right.

And so this is the first Colorado Momentum that I've bought.

Okay. You said it twice now. Momentum. Nope. Momento.

Momento. Yes.

What did I say first?

Momentum.

I I said momentum for twice.

Mhmm. You said momentum Momento. Both Momento. Okay.

Yeah. Does that sort for anything?

No? No. Just a word. Just a word. Okay.

Yeah. Okay. Due to two completely different words, memento and Momento means Ma, m e. Momento. Oh, really?

Momento. Interesting. Yes. Yes. Two completely different words.

Very interesting. Yes. Learn something new every Normally,

I've worked really hard over the years to not be somebody who feels like I have to correct every mispronounced and But misunderstood she dropped it twice, so that wasn't just a, she didn't just mess up, she thinks the word

is memo. I think I was thinking memo in my mind, but But you know

I could just tell you were just kind of in Yeah. Between four

No, I always I'm trying

to help you out without being that guy.

No. I have a couple of friends that I've been friends with them for way too long to now correct something, but they have specific words that I'm like, that couldn't be more wrong. But I'm not the oldest friend in your life, so people before me have not corrected this, but I've known you for, like, ten years or too long to just now be correcting you on it. That's good. But it's really rough,

That's so tough.

That's tough. I should take your point and just quickly adjust it with them and not let it hang for years at a time.

Yeah, I was thinking about taking it offline or doing the thing where if, like, one of us coughs and I clap and we have to stop and go back, go on. Sure there

Most might do. The amount of times that I'm watching podcasts or listening to them and they're saying something and they're just not quite saying it right, but I know what it is, and I feel like I'm shouting at my phone of like, No, it's this. But they're just not quite getting there, and I wish they had the person in the moment be like, Let's just look it up real quick.

It's real quick.

It's like it's right there.

Right there. Just not quite getting it. Memento. Yeah. All right.

We are now five away from the end of the parables.

Okay.

And this actually, this one right here, we're still in the ones that are going to be about the kingdom and who's good in the kingdom, who's not in the kingdom, here's what the kingdom looks like, these sorts of things. And this one is actually one of my favorites.

Okay.

But it's for a funny reason, not the actual meaning reason. So, anyways, the parable of the two sons, Matthew chapter 21. To set it up here, let's go ahead and set it up a little bit. We'll go back a little bit further. We have just had Palm Sunday.

Matthew 21 · chapter mention

Okay. Jesus has now come into Jerusalem. Okay. And he is bantering back and forth with the Chiefs. With with with yeah.

With with with The chief priests. Not chiefs. Priests. Okay. This is kind of a pretty famous story before where they ask you know, they ask him, Hey, by whose authority do you think that you can do the things that you're doing?

And he's like, Well, I'll answer your question if you answer this one. John the Baptist, was he from God or from men? They start talking and they're like, Well, if we say he's from God, he's going to say, Why didn't we believe? But if we say he's from men, we're going to be in trouble with the crowd because the crowd thinks he's a prophet.

Okay.

And so it's a lose lose situation for them, and they're like, we don't know. It's like, Well, if you can't answer that, I'm not going to answer your question.

Tricky guy.

Tricky guy. And so he's still bantering with them. In the temple courts. Verse 28. What do you think?

What do I think the temple courts mean?

That's what 28. That's how birth starts.

Wait, let's just set the scene for one more second. Are they, like, literally, like, in a church courtyard or something and they're talking?

Yeah, they're just hanging out in the courtyard outside of the temple.

Okay, so there's, like, people listening to them.

Yeah, just imagine, like, some really big museum, and then there's outside of it. There's, you know, it's it's really it's really nice out there, little courtyard areas and so Tuscany? Yeah. Sure. Okay.

I mean, it is first century Jerusalem, so not necessarily Tuscany.

But But that historical vibe.

Sure. Sure. Sure. What do you think? There was a man who had two sons.

He went to the first and said, son, go and work today in the vineyard. I will not, he answered. But later he changed his mind and went. Then the father then the other son then the father went to the other son and said the same thing. He answered, I will, sir, but he did not go.

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 in the king entering the kingdom of God ahead of you. For John came 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.

So this is one of those rare, parables where, immediately afterwards we get, and here's what I mean

by So what explanation?

In case you missed the subtlety of this, you're the bad son. Right. So let me just first just get this out of the

way. Okay.

This is why I like this.

Okay. Because it feels like you're getting slapped with two hands at one

Like if you were to ask me to, I do this, I don't know if I've ever done this to you, do this to my wife plenty, where she'll ask me to do something and I'll say, No, I'm not doing that. Stochastically. Then I'll get up and go do it. Right. It's like, Why are you like that?

I'm like, it's biblical. That's the good son. It's the good. That's what the good son does. The good son says no, but then does it Pastor joke.

A pastor

joke. Was like only pastors that many people make that joke.

Pastors make it biblical. A very narrow, very narrow group.

Explanation. Yeah.

I'm just trying to be like the person that Jesus said was the good son. That's fair.

Seems like he answered something they weren't asking though.

Oh, no, no. This this is this is him taking back control of the The whole dialogue. Of the dialogue. Okay. You you you thought you were gonna trap me with your question, and I unmade you, and now you're kind of tongue tied.

How are you going to follow-up with another question when I just dominated you? So now I'm in charge. So he drops this parable, he drops the parable that we're going to talk about, next week, And then, I mean, again, now he's just going parable, parable, parable, parable. Then so

Riffing.

Yeah. Now now it's my turn. I showed that you're dumb and I'm smart, I'm good and you're not, and so now allow me to just dunk on you. Just have a little bit of a dunk fest here on you.

Okay. So he's comparing the two different sons to the first son would be the prostitutes and tax collectors, and then the second son, he's comparing to them.

Yeah. So you go to you imagine all of these people were part of Israel, right? God's children in that sense. And one group of them, Hey, here's how you're supposed to live. And they're like, Ah, no, I'm not going to do that.

And they became prostitutes and tax collectors and lived very poor lives. John the Baptist comes and says, Call them back. Listen. And like, Oh, yeah, okay. So they said no initially, but then ultimately chose to repent and live a life that honors God.

Okay. These people were like and then on the other hand, you got the the chief priests, the Pharisees.

The do gooders.

Oh, yeah. We're we're we're we're gonna do exactly what you say.

And then

John the Baptist comes and says, this is what you now need to do. I'm like, I ain't doing that.

Yeah. Okay.

And so the the idea being

So a lot of this hinges on them asking John the Baptist, and then he's using that as like a

Yeah. That was kinda that was kind of a, like a turning point. John the Baptist's message that leads then to me, you believe in John, then you believe in me, and now you're part of the this new kingdom that God is building. How you respond to that is ultimately determining whether or not you're going be a part of the kingdom or not. So that was a turning point.

Your acceptance or rejection of John's message is a turning point. Up until that point, you have said you were the yes, son. Then God gave you a very specific message and you bailed. Up until that point, the sinners were the bad son, but then they heard this and said, I need to do right. I need to do right.

I change my mind and they get up and they go do. And by getting up and going and doing the thing, work in the vineyard, that is essentially, like, in in in this metaphor, believing in what John the Baptist said and repenting of

has come. Yeah. And okay.

Yeah. So

So wait. This is not show

you the way of righteousness, and you did not believe Him. And so John's message of repentance and then putting their faith and trust in Jesus, that was essentially John's message. John's message was, Repent of your sins. Everybody here, whether you're like a traditional sinner, a Roman soldier, a Pharisee, a religious leader, all of you have missed the mark. You need to repent, you need to get right, and you need to follow the one that's going to come after me.

And they didn't believe in the one that came after

you. And the tax collectors and the prostitutes were like, Absolutely. And so even though their life had been no up until that point, now it was yes. And theoretically, the Pharisees, the religious leaders, they were yes people, but then when it came down to it, okay, here is what I need you to do.

And they never

actually And did they they chose to not do it. Yeah. They chose to reject John and ultimately Jesus. And so therefore, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you. They're already there.

They have already taken the step they need to to get into the kingdom. You're still hovering over here in the house, not going to work in God's vineyard.

See, that's interesting because so many of these, he ends it with, like, the gnashing of teeth and da da da. Terrifying yeah. Terrifying language. But this, he just says they're entering the kingdom before you. Does that feel different to you?

Or is it still the same kind of idea?

Well, this is not a prophetic

Okay.

Thing. This is not him saying, And because what you're doing right now, you're going to end up in this bad place. This is an in this moment. In this moment, there are people who are outside the kingdom and inside the kingdom. You think you're the yes son, and you've got great favor with the Father, but the Father has asked us all to do something very specific, and you right now are the one who says yes, but won't do what God asked.

So meanwhile, right over here, entrance into the kingdom, tax collectors and prostitutes, they're already there. They have already repented. They have moved ahead of you to be people who are honoring God in this moment, and you are like the son who says that you're on board but won't do what you're supposed to do. And so you're on the out, and they are the ones that are in. So really more than, Hey, if people like you are the ones that are going to get gnashing of teeth, it really is more of an invitation.

They're right, you could still be a son that says yes.

Yeah. Is there still time for you to actually turn around and go do the job? I feel like it's well, I guess back to the humor end. Very funny to imagine a kid being like, nah, I'm not doing that. And then after a while being like, okay.

I'll come around. I guess I'll go to work.

Right. One's easier to imagine. Yeah, yeah, yeah, Right. No worries. No worries.

No worries. And then Nah. Never really was intending or just forgot or whatever. Yeah. And just we're just really wanting to escape a difficult conversation.

Uh-huh.

Like, said to your kid, hey. Go to your room and clean your room. Like, okay.

Right.

And then they go to their room and close the door. And the other like, in a book or a puzzle or Right. Whatever it is they're doing. Yeah.

And then the other one just being like, oh, okay. I was just kidding.

I don't know. Saying no was an option. I was like, I need you to go work in the vineyard today. And the son said no, and then the father took action. But now I was

like, Just okay. So I've never thought of this as maybe wild of me to not, but I've never considered John to be a prophet. Is that what he is?

What do you think the word prophet means?

They prophesied? Does that mean? Was a lot of, like, end time stuff.

Okay. Yeah. So you'll you'll have what we'll just kinda call the more the pop definition of prophet, which is predicts future. Yes. Prophecy is someone who predicts the future.

Okay.

Right? So that is, we'll call that kind of the pop culture definition of that, the Harry Potter definition of that, right? I mean, a prophecy is something that you say and then it will It's come

gonna come true.

Yeah. Okay? That is an aspect of what the Bible calls a prophet. Okay. But really what prophet is, where God has a message, it's a very specific message that I'm going to give to this prophet for him to give to someone else.

So I'm now coming to you with a message God gave me directly for you. Abigail, God told me you need to blank. If you don't blank, then this bad thing will happen to you. If you do this, God will prosper you. And this is a very specific message direct from God to me to you.

So the prophets in the Old Testament were people that God specifically called out to give messages to groups of Israelites at a particular time.

So then John was a prophet in that context.

Yeah. So in that context, he was given a specific message of repentance and coming before Jesus. He was giving that message directly by God to give to a specific group of people at a specific group of Which is different than, say, what I do, which is

You give messages every week, though.

I teach. I teach or preach, depending on those different words. Right? Like, it's like teach. I I I look at an existing message that has already been given Mhmm.

And I'm trying to explain it to

you. Okay.

But it is not the the the the the prophecy happened in the scripture.

Mhmm.

Somebody wrote down the Bible,

and God that was

said, write this down, and they wrote it down. Prophecy happened there. I'm trying to help explain Mhmm. The prophecy and help you understand it. Yeah.

So I'm not a prophet. I'm a teacher and a preacher. Mhmm. But I'm not a prophet. But the person who had the message and wrote it down, that person Okay.

Is the

At first, thought you were gonna ask me what do I think he is, and I was like, I have no definition for what the Baptist is. But now I'm thinking none of the other prophets were like Isaiah the prophet.

Right. Baptist was just kind of what he was most known for because that's what he was encouraging people to do Baptism. As an act of symbolism for their repentance. Okay. You need to repent of your sin, and as a symbolic act of your repentance, I'm gonna put you in this water, and you're gonna in the same way that repentance makes you clean splash splash, baptism makes you clean.

Yes.

Yeah. So it was an, even then, an outward declaration of a public commitment to repent. And so that's just kind of what he did. His messages were out there by the river and he just told people what the message was, and then as acts of repentance, he would baptize them. So that's why he is referred to as John John the

the Baptist, Charlie the preacher.

Sure. Abigail, the podcast producer. I

mean, this is one of the ones that we've done that's shorter that if you don't I think at the very beginning of this whole series, we were kinda giving the framework of, like, who's what context is it in? Who is he talking to? And what's the main point? And those are, like, great guidelines to go on with all of them. But some of these get so short that you could read it and be like, that's a good moral message, but like, it breaks down a ton about the kingdom.

Right. And like the difference of like when that happened of not he's basically calling them out for not believing in who he says he is, and they have not heeded that warning or heeded that call actually turn, like, there there's a that's a lot. It's not a very long parable, but it's actually saying a ton. I mean, that's

the thing that's the thing about Jesus, man. He just the punch per word. I mean, just I mean, it's like a really good writer that can say something in seven that would take me 50 words to describe. Jesus' teaching is the same way.

There is a whole segment as an art major and a whole segment of stuff called economy of words or economy of design, any of the economy, fill in the blank. But that was what I was always worst at, of like, I'll just give him a paragraph and be like, what if you just gave them a title? I don't think he's gonna communicate the same thing. But his, like, you couldn't pay someone enough, I feel like, to describe the profound shift that happened when Jesus came

Mhmm.

In this small little nugget of a story.

Yeah. And and he he is okay with you walking away Being confused. Yeah,

not

fully understanding. Which I'm not. Like, I can be on stage and I'm talking and I'm like don't get it. They're not tracking with me right now.

So you keep going?

And I don't think, but what I said was good, what I said was important, and if we just kind of let it marinate with them for a few days, by Wednesday they'll be like,

Got it. Wait a second.

I think it's in part because I don't necessarily trust people to Keep thinking about it. Keep thinking about it. And plus, I mean, it's like, to me, I just have this real urgent, I have an urgency of the moment. I'm trying, my objective is to teach you something, I can tell you haven't learned it yet, so I am currently And I've got to keep going until

Until actually My wife will be like, How do

you feel like that went? I like, I don't know if they were tracking. Yeah. Like, that's the worst thing that I can say in an evaluation of my own message.

I'm like, that's what he felt every single time he walked away of like, They didn't get that.

That wasn't his goal. Right. My goal was, he was more, especially with his parables, he was more of a disruptor. I need to disrupt your way of thinking. Yeah.

And again, that's exactly what's happening here. You think of yourself as the good son because you theoretically are the yes son.

But you didn't

But have when it listen came right down to it, you stayed at your seat

and

did not go out into the vineyard to work. Yeah. When it came right down to it, you were too prideful to admit that you also needed to repent and be baptized and look for the Messiah to come. Your hearts were too hardened, you're too full of yourself and your own importance, and you have elevated yourself to a degree that to actually humble yourself and say, I'm a sinner too, and I need this message, it was too much for them. I don't need somebody to teach.

I'm the teacher. I don't need to learn. You need to learn from me. And so this message came, and they were like, actually, actually, no.

Yeah. Well, is completely humbling to have a whole because I'm assuming if you're a chief priest or whatever it was saying, you have a little bit of time under your belt of commitment to some type of something to make you think that you're not needing to humble yourself before this new guy that just came on the scene.

And I wonder, like, was this intentional, or is this just kind of me reading into it? Like, well, I mean, your sister's already cleaned her room. And so she and I are about to watch a show

I would do the rage bait.

And have ice cream, but, I mean, you do you, right? It's like, the prostitutes have already made it

in. Right.

What are You're you gonna lagging behind the tax collectors, actually. Yeah. Like, wonder if he meant that as an insulting motivator or just, you're dropping hot takes on him. Yeah. Because, I mean, there theoretically a motivating tactic, but I think actually what you're saying is right.

I think he's probably feels more like rage bait to them.

Yeah. Well, especially that they're basically flipping the floor over because they would have assumed prostitutes, tax collectors, any other category that goes into that is under here, and they're standing up here.

They are a long they are a long way from entering God's kingdom.

And then Jesus is.

They're walking in. You're actually, you're not the king of the in group. You're actually still in the out group. Yeah. And the people who you think the most are on the out group are beating you to the door.

Yeah. But it's interesting because a lot of it comes down to them being humble enough to kind of the way that you described John the Baptist talking to the crowds of doesn't matter who you are. You could be Roman soldier. You could be your stereotypical sinner, could be any of the bunch, you're all needing to be humbled to the same extent and repent and follow this teacher that's coming.

Everybody's gotten it wrong in different ways. Humble yourself, repent, and be ready to hear the message of the kingdom.

Whereas they're like, Well, I'm already to this point. I don't need I'm

already an elite status. Why would I need anything from this guy? And so what we're about to do, you said this is not a gnashing teeth. We're about to launch straight into and let me explain even further how big of a jerk you are.

Yikes, okay.

It's not just that you're not humble enough, let me just kind of go in-depth as to what you and your yes but no people are like, and then again, and then it's going to end with, And what do you think's going to happen to someone like that? The weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Yeah. Do you think they're meaning like they're chewing on things or like they're so in pain that all they can do is clench their jaw?

Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Yeah.

That'll be the podcast cover? Do. Do the gnashing? The weeping and gnashing of teeth. You did it better.

You did it better. Yeah. Yeah. That's the cover. I'll just delete it It sounds like the other day when we were doing something at a staff meeting and you had your camera, was like, don't

was oh, we were loading backpacks. Don't take my picture. Unfortunately, you did I make it into did. A

You did a really good job in that video of us putting in the backpacks of making me feel like minor character.

That's good.

That was good.

Issue was that you were doing the full scope of what we

were doing. Right, I was loading backpacks into the truck, so. But I want to feel, Oh. Because it just feels a little

That's too Charlie's at everything.

Oh, look. Pastor Charlie is taking the backpacks and putting them in the truck. What a great pastor we have. He cares enough.

When really the stark child of the moment was Zoe. Yeah, Carrying all of it. She picked out And one, but

Dallas all the way back under his truck

bed That really cover worried her.

Stuffing the backpacks all the way

in Zoe didn't like that. I

wasn't loving He's young. Hot enough just standing outside. Anyways, so it'll be the Parable of Tenants next where he's just gonna build on this.

We have all Tenant. Tenant. We did talents.

We already did a talent. This is

not a tenant. Tenants.

Okay. Like you, you're a tenant.

Am I? Yes. Oh, like a renter?

Like a renter. Okay. Right. And again, it's going to immediately take from here and just kind of build even further on this profile of you imagine yourself this way, when it came down to it, you made the wrong decision. Semi Cola, furthermore, comma, bam, bam, bam, bam.

He's about to unload magazine

on him.

That's next week.

Let's do it.

Let's do it. And again, hey, thank you. Of course. Thank you. And the moose.

And the moose. Always the moose. How do you say the plural?

That is why I struggle. Is the plural word. Moose, two moose. Hey, look, look at the moose on your shirt. Could be talking about one of or all four of them.

I don't like it. I don't like words that are the same singular.

So there's no scenario where you would add an s or anything Moose. Like No. If someone said that to me, I'd be like, cool. I would not question.

Or like, mouse, mice, moose, meese. That's what a lot of

people wanna do. Yeah. That make more sense?

Moose. Four moose, one moose. Thank you for the moose, and thank you for joining us. I encourage you to come back, and we got a few more left here of the parables. I encourage you to keep coming back.

We'll be back in Matthew chapter 21 with the parable attendance next week, and we look forward to talking to you then. Thank you for listening to the Cultivate podcast. Our hope is that you are taking steps to go deeper in your faith, that you're asking big questions, and you're looking resource for you through our podcast and any other way that we can help you. You can find all our episodes anywhere that you can find podcasts, including YouTube. And again, thank you so much for joining us.

Matthew 21 · chapter mention