what's it going to be?

Jesus started another story:
"Tell me what you think about this: there was a man with two sons. He went to one and told him to get to work. His son refused, reconsidered later, and went to work. He went to his other son and also told him to go work. This son said he would go and did not...so which son actually did what his dad wanted?"
His disciples answered that the first one did the right thing.
Jesus said, "Right. If you understand that, then listen. Theives and whores are coming into the kingdom of God before you are. John came to pave the way for righteousness, and you didn't listen. These same theives and whores did believe, and even when you saw how much their lives changed, you still chose not to believe."
matthew 21:28-32 [very, very roughly]

It's taken me a long time to understand the significance of this story. The more you read the gospels, the more you understand that we are a LOT like Jesus' disciples: kind of dumb and naive and blind and in desperate need of everything to be explained to us (at least, all of these things are true for me. No offense to you, smartypants).
The man's first son did the right thing. He chose the wrong path, but he thought it over. He saw his mistake and decided to correct it and make it up to his father by doing the work he was asked to do. The second son put on a good show by automatically agreeing to what his dad asked of him. He also decided that he'd rather just not do it.

It's just another story of how people put up facades and play the role of a good Christian and skip out on the work of it and the real living of faith. It's about dead faith. It's about saying "yea, I believe in God. He's cool" and living a life that shows the opposite.
So even though the first son came off rude and wrong by saying no, he ultimately chose the right path. He, like those same whores and crooks, repented and chose to do what was right. While we are like the disciples, and even though we should be hardcore about our faith, we only are on the surface. We think we're so righteous sometimes...

I love learning.
:]