Matthew 21: 28-32 -- Devotional II

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Matthew 21: 28-32 Devotional from January 16 2020

Preparation

This is further preparation work for a writing project at church in the Spring, that I am contributing to.

This will feature more of a devotional focus than most of my work.

Matthew 21:28-32 English Standard Version (ESV)

28 “What do you think? A man had two sons. And he went to the first and said, ‘Son, go and work in the vineyard today.’ 29 And he answered, ‘I will not,’ but afterward he changed his mind and went. 30 And he went to the other son and said the same. And he answered, ‘I go, sir,’ but did not go. 31 Which of the two did the will of his father?” They said, “The first.” Jesus said to them, “Truly, I say to you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes go into the kingdom of God before you. 32 For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes believed him. And even when you saw it, you did not afterward change your minds and believe him.

Matthew 21: 28-32 -- Devotional II

Meyer opines

Cited

Matthew 21:28-32. Peculiar to Matthew, and doubtless taken from the collection of the sayings of the Lord. Jesus now assumes the offensive in order to convince His adversaries of their own baseness. 

Cited

The publicans and harlots are represented by the first mentioned son; for previous to the days of John they refused to obey the divine call (in answer to the command to serve Him, which God addressed to them through the law and the prophets, they practically said: οὐ θέλω),('I will not' translation from Marshall, my add) but when John appeared they accorded him the faith of their hearts, so that, in conformity with his preaching, they were now amending their ways, and devoting themselves to the service of God. 

The members of the Sanhedrim (Sanhedrin my correction) are represented by the second son; for, while pretending to yield obedience to the law of God revealed in the Scriptures (by the submissive airs which they assumed, they practically uttered the insincere ἐγὼ, κύριε), ('I go, Lord' translation from Marshall, my add) they in reality disregarded it, and, unlike the publicans and the harlots, they would not allow themselves to be influenced by the movement that followed the preaching of the Baptist, so that neither the efforts of John nor the example of the publicans and harlots had any effect upon them in the way of producing conversion. To understand by the two sons the Gentiles and the Jews, is entirely against the context.

MARSHALL, ALFRED (1975)(1996) The Interlinear KJV-NIV, Grand Rapids, Zondervan.

MEYER, HEINRICH, AUGUST, WILHELM (1884-1887) Meyer's Commentary on the New Testament, New York, Funk and Wagnalls.

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Devotional 

Conflicting Kingdoms

Again, as I noted in the previous article, using other words, these two categories are generally true. But, not all followers of Judaism, prior to the ministry of Jesus Christ, were outside of the Kingdom of God. Therefore, some within Judaism have accepted the gospel from Jesus Christ's time until now.

I do not understand the text as a ticket to villainize all within Judaism, or all leaders within.

At the same time, not all publicans/tax-collectors and harlots/prostitutes would accept the ministry of Jesus Christ and the gospel. Not all were eventually divinely persuaded and regenerated (John 3, Titus 3) to be within the Kingdom of God.

In my many years of studying the Hebrew Bible and New Testament, admitting via manuscripts extant that there are scribal errors and likely scribal harmonization, at parts; biblical theology is logically consistent. It is also without theological or philosophical error, in my view, in the original documents.

The example from Matthew 21, like others in the Scripture is noting what is generally true in regard to human nature via story, in the New Testament era that Jesus Christ lived in.

At the same time, there are essential New Testament doctrines that are always true such as (non-exhaustively) that there is only one God, the triune nature of God, and that human salvation is by grace through faith, alone, in the applied atoning and resurrection of God the Son, Jesus Christ.