Twenty-Sixth Sunday of Ordinary Time

September 27, 2026

Matthew 21: 28-33

Today’s readings give us an insight, oddly enough, not only into who is the better son, but also into why Jesus preferred the company of those on the margins of religious society. We noticed this last Sunday when we saw that he was drawn more to the tax collects, prodigal son, the woman bathing his feet, or even the Samaritan woman at the well. These people do not deceive themselves so much as the religious leaders of Jesus’ day, or even many of the ordinary people. The marginalized sinners who have a better understanding of what their relationship with God is. They are more able to see their need for mercy and forgiveness. The actions of the first son in gospel today are not fully expressed by English translation of “change of mind.” The Greek word used has the meaning of remorse, a consciousness of having fallen short of what is called for in a relationship. As we have said, those who oppose Jesus seem to lack this awareness. They cannot even imagine themselves as sinners in need of a savior. They do understand themselves or what their relationship to God is.

So in Ezekiel, the people apparently can not understand how God thinks. They feel that they have a right to life in God, since after all, they are the ones who follow the Law. It does not matter that they manipulate the Law and use it to their own advantage. But God tells them that a person who does right and then turns away from virtue, dies to life in God. Yet, a person who lives a wicked life, then turns to doing the good, will die with God. Note that none of these people are the ideal. Jesus builds on these ideas of the prophet in today’s gospel. Matthew is the only evangelist to include this story.

Jesus, in his prophetic way, turns the world of his hearers upside down. His words apply in the first place to the religious leaders of the Jewish people in Jesus day; of course they apply to any of his hearers, and to us today. Jesus presents two scenes to the religious leaders in his audience. Like in the reading from Ezekiel, neither of the two sons is the ideal son. They are both asked by their father to go work in the vineyard that day. After all, the sons benefit from the produce of the vineyards. It is not an unreasonable request.

One son says in a disrespectful way, “No, I will not.” But, then, he decides later to go to the vineyard and do as he was asked. The other son is very respectful, and says, “Yes, sir,” but he did not go. In front of others the disrespectful son embarrassed his father greatly, especially in that time when respect and honor were very important; yet in the end, he did what his father asked. The polite son showed respect to his father, but did not do what he wanted. It must have been a difficult decision for the leaders to decide which son did the better thing. But it is clear that Jesus thought that the disrespectful son who did the father's request, was the better son. Neither son was the ideal; the ideal son would have said, “Yes, sir,” and gone to the vineyard.

The point Jesus is making to the leaders, and to us, is that those who were supposed to recognize John the Baptist for who he was, did not. John did not fit their idea of a prophet; he said the wrong things, and kept the wrong company. The leaders were so blind and set in their ways, that they could not recognize God’s word being preached in their midst. The were the sons who said yes, but did not go to the vineyard. Yet the tax collectors and prostitutes were caught up in the radical message of John; they heard God’s word and changed their lives. Yes, the were the son who said, “I will not,” and went out into the vineyard.

We today, in our sureness of the word of God, have to be careful, lest we slip. Are we so set in our ways that we cannot hear the freshness of God’s word? We do not want to be the son who says ‘yes’ and does nothing. We at least want to be the one who says ‘no,’ and answers the father call. Better yet, we want to be the perfect child which is the Jesus in Paul’s letter to the Philippians. We do not want to hang on to our title as child of God, but rather “humbly regard others as more important than ourselves, each looking out not for his own interests, but also for those of others.” We are called to give the continual “Yes” to the Father. Our relationship to the Father cannot fall short.

Fr. John Tran