Talker or Doer?

“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.’ And he answered, ‘I will not,’ but afterward he changed his mind and went. And he went to the other son and said the same. And he answered, ‘I go, sir,’ but did not go. Which of the two did the will of his father?”

Matthew 21:28-31

A young man applied for a job as a farmhand. When asked for his qualifications, he told the farmer about his previous experience then said, “I can sleep when the wind blows.” This puzzled the farmer, but he took a liking to the young man and hired him.

A few months later, the farmer was awakened in the night by a violent storm. He ran outside to make sure that everything was secured. He found the barn doors tightly shut and the shutters closed. The storage shed and machinery was already properly taken care of. That was when the farmer realized the significance of the statement, “I can sleep when the wind blows.”

This parable that Jesus tells is an interesting one on Christian service and the kind of attitude to service that pleases Him. A father approached two of his sons and told each son to go and work in the vineyard. In other words, the father asked the sons to go and occupy for him, his vineyard. Same assignment, same instruction, different response, different attitude.

When the first son was asked to go and work in the vineyard, he categorically told his father no, "I will not work in the vineyard." His answer appeared disrespectful but he didn’t want to deceive his father. He didn’t want to give his word that he would do something when he knew he wouldn’t. The son must have had a reason for answering his father the way he did. The son wasn’t being rude; he just wasn’t up to the task. Perhaps he was going through some personal issues and challenges at that time and going to work on the vineyard was the last thing on his mind. It could have been that he was going through some financial issues and didn’t have transport money to go to the vineyard. Or it could be that the day the father told him to go and work in the vineyard, was on one of those days that he just wasn’t in the mood.

Whatever the reason, the son while thinking things through, realised that no need, issue or challenge of life is more important than a divine instruction. He realised that you don’t place anything or any situation before God. When God asks you to do something, when he comes knocking and calling at the door of your life, irrespective of how difficult or inconvenient that thing He wants you to do is, you put everything aside to follow God. This is the mindset of those that occupy for the Lord, those that stay busy for God and focused on God.

For as long as we are wrapped up in what we are presently facing or going through, we will keep putting off the work of God until a more ‘convenient’ time. But the truth of the matter is there will never be a convenient time. Jesus said “In this world you will have trouble…” (John 16:33). Meaning that there will always be something we are battling with or going through. Today it may be a financial issue, tomorrow a marital issue. The next month a health issue. Life will always bring issues and challenges our way. But like the first son did, we need to make God more important to us than anything and anyone.

Working in God’s vineyard is getting involved in a service that brings glory to God Almighty, and lifts up, encourages and edifies another person. The call to work in God’s vineyard, to occupy for the Lord, is a call to get our focus and attention off ourselves and focus on other people, focus on spiritually uplifting things. This was what the Father was trying to achieve when He told His sons to go and work in His vineyard. It was a strategic move on the part of the Father aimed at removing every form of selfishness and being self-centered from His sons. It was to make His sons understand that life is not all about our own needs, issues and challenges, and there’s no other place like God’s vineyard that can make us come to terms with the needs and problems of other people.

Both sons in the parable Jesus told in Matthew 21:28-31, at some point did what was wrong. The first son initially refused to heed to his father’s call. He refused to do what his father had requested him to do. The second son told his father a lie; he made an empty promise to his father. They both messed up but only one son retraced his steps and ended up doing the right thing. One repented of his wrong actions, the other remained in that wrong action; he remained a wrongdoer for life. If the second son after lying to his father had come back to say Dad, I’m sorry I lied to you, please forgive me, I’m now ready to follow your instruction, the father wouldn’t have resisted him or ignored him. But the son never did this. He didn’t have a change of heart unlike the first son.

The first son had a change of mind because his heart wasn’t hardened. He had a heart that God’s word and voice could penetrate. He had a heart that recognised and acknowledged his error and sinful ways not a heart that made excuses for and justified sinful behaviour.

It is not sin that keeps us from God and His kingdom or prevents God from using us in His vineyard, it is the failure to acknowledge and repent of our sins.

Dear Friends, It’s so easy to make statements like I love You Lord, You are everything to me, I will go wherever you want me to, I will use my resources to build churches for You, I will pray and fast for the next seven days, I won’t gossip or say bad things about anyone. But we can’t occupy for the Lord with mere words. 1 Corinthians 4:20 tells us “For the kingdom of God does not consist in talk but in power.”

This Lenten Season who are we? A talker or a doer? Positive words are good. Visions and plans are good. But what value are grandeur visions and plans if there is no action, no execution to back them up? Let’s not be like the second son that was all talk and no action. Let’s have actions empowered by the infilling of the Holy Spirit that will point people to Christ and shake our generation.

God Bless You.