After three years of ardent ministry, Jesus knows His end has come. With the Passover approaching, He and His disciples trek to Jerusalem. Along the way, Jesus tries to prepare them for the events of the week. This doesn’t go very well, but you can tell that Jesus’s impending death weighs heavily on His mind.

Then they come to the edge of the city and the disciples fetch a donkey and a colt for Jesus (Matt 21:1–7). On Monday of the Passion Week, Jesus rides in as a crowd gathers to cheer Him on as the Son of David—in other words, the Messiah. The denizens of Jerusalem who do not know Him learn quickly and start keeping an eye on Him. It’s late when they arrive, so they turn around and return to Bethany (Mark 11:11).

Each morning, they return to the Holy City and Jesus preaches in the Temple. On Tuesday, Jesus clears out the Temple, which was and incredibly public scene! The entire nation is in town, preparing for one of the most important holidays of the calendar.

Then on Wednesday, the chief priests and elders confront Him. This entire day is spent arguing with the scribes, Pharisees, Sadducees, chief priests, elders, and Herodians. I want you to imagine the frustration of Jesus—this is His last chance to preach to a crowd, and He keeps getting interrupted by the religious leaders—whose only goal is to stop Him!

In fact, Jesus knows that by the next evening, Judas will have betrayed Him and handed Him over to the Sanhedrin (the Jewish Supreme Court). With this in mind, we can see that He actually handles them with a great deal of patience.

The Rebuff

“And when He entered the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came to Him while He was teaching, and said, ‘By what authority are You doing these things, and who gave You this authority?‘” (Matt 21:23)

Exactly why do the religious leaders hate Jesus so much? It’s hard to say. It seems that they are mostly motivated by jealousy.

Jesus’s fame has really increased. While passing through Jericho, some blind men (how ironic!) recognized Him as the Son of David. Now He’s making a scene in the Temple and little kids are calling Him the Son of David, too. They’re not even calling Him the Son of God here; just the Messiah.

But the Messiah was a polarizing figure.

The Pharisees claimed to be intensely hopeful of a Messiah who would overthrow the Romans…but this Jesus figure seems more interested in overthrowing their traditions. By sharp contrast, the Sadducees (and therefore the chief priests) didn’t believe in the Messiah, nor did they want the Romans gone. So they felt threatened by Jesus too!

Regardless of exactly their motives, they interrogate Jesus for His source of authority. In response, Jesus poses to them a dilemma:

“I will also ask you one thing, which if you tell Me, I will also tell you by what authority I do these things. The baptism of John was from what source, from heaven or from men?” (Matt 21:24–25a)

Now, Jesus means by this that His authority is the same as John’s. Both prophets were sent by God and speak only from Him. Now these religious leaders had rather prominently rejected John’s preaching, and Jesus knows that. He is cornering them so that they cannot claim anything against Jesus.

“And they began reasoning among themselves, saying, ‘If we say, “From heaven,” He will say to us, “Then why did you not believe him?” But if we say, “From men,” we fear the crowd; for they all regard John as a prophet.’ And they answered Jesus and said, ‘We do not know.’

He also said to them, ‘Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.'” (Matt 21:25b–27)

Now, the chief priests are trapped. Not just by the question about John—they cannot accuse Jesus of having only human authority either—for all regard Him as a prophet too—and John endorsed Him during his ministry.

This is certainly brilliant debating, but Jesus isn’t done yet!

The Return

He then turns the entire discussion onto them with a parable! (Actually, Jesus continues with another parable or two as well, but we’ll look at those later this month.)

“He also said to them, ‘Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.

But what do you think?

A man had two sons, and he came to the first and said, “Son, go work today in the vineyard.” And he answered and said, “I will not”; but afterward he regretted it and went.

And the man came to the second and said the same thing; and he answered and said, “I will, sir”; but he did not go.

Which of the two did the will of his father?’

They said, ‘The first.’

Jesus said to them, ‘Truly I say to you that the tax collectors and prostitutes will get into the kingdom of God before you. For John came to you in the way of righteousness and you did not believe him; but the tax collectors and prostitutes did believe him; and you, seeing this, did not even regret afterward so as to believe him.'” (Matt 21:27–32)

This parable is pretty clearly about repentance. It feels safe to assume that the man represents God, and the two sons represent different kinds of people.

Some folks are initially resistant to God. Like a rebellious and indolent teenager, they refuse to submit to any kind of authority other than their own minds. Yet eventually, they come to see their wickedness for what it is. They change their minds, humble their hearts, and start doing what God wanted all along.

On the other hand, not every Goody Two-shoes stays that way forever. Some people may grow tired of obeying someone else all the time and wonder why they can’t set their own rules for once!

This is not to say that there aren’t righteous people who stay faithful till death—Jesus is making two points to the religious leaders at once.

They convict themselves for refusing to repent.

Luke 7:30 says “the Pharisees and the scholars of the Law rejected God’s purpose for themselves, not having been baptized by John.”

If we turn back to Matthew 3 and read John’s interactions with the religious leaders during his own ministry:

“But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming for his baptism, he said to them,

‘You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?

Therefore bear fruit in keeping with repentance; and do not suppose that you can say to yourselves, “We have Abraham for our father”; for I say to you that from these stones God is able to raise up children to Abraham.

And the axe is already laid at the root of the trees; therefore every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.'” (Matt 3:7–10)

They were totally unwilling to change or even admit their sins. The sinners and commoners however, were like the first son.

“And the crowds were questioning him, saying, ‘Then what should we do?’ And he would answer and say to them, ‘The man who has two tunics is to share with him who has none; and he who has food is to do likewise.’

And tax collectors also came to be baptized, and they said to him, ‘Teacher, what should we do?’ And he said to them, ‘Collect no more than what you have been ordered to.’

And soldiers were also questioning him, saying, ‘What should we also do?’ And he said to them, ‘Do not take money from anyone by force, or extort anyone, and be content with your wages.'” (Luke 3:10–14)

I find that people who are terrible sinners usually know it. Twice a week, in the building behind us, a group of drug addicts meets to discuss their recovery. They’re all there voluntarily. They follow a twelve-step system. I suggest to you that while the twelve-step system isn’t inspired or inherently Christian, it’s a very good description of what repentance requires. It matches up very well with John’s teaching here on repentance.

In case you don’t know, I’m going to share the twelve steps with you. (See attached file.)

They convict themselves for refusing to hear John.

Additionally, when Jesus told this simple story, the chief priests could immediately convict the second son and exonerate the first. But when He had asked them about John, they waffled.

Jesus concludes,

“For John came to you in the way of righteousness and you did not believe him; but the tax collectors and prostitutes did believe him; and you, seeing this, did not even regret afterward so as to believe him.” (Matt 21:32)

It was bad enough that they didn’t repent at John’s preaching…but they didn’t repent of not repenting either!

They are experts in the Law of Moses and know what God’s will is. On top of that, Jesus says that John came “in the way of Righteousness”. So when John called them to repentance, they should have known exactly where he got his authority—from God!

“Now in those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea, saying, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.‘” (Matt 3:1–2)

What’s even more interesting is that Jesus used the same words in His ministry:

“From that time Jesus began to preach and say, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.‘” (Matt 4:17)

And therefore, they prove that they are guilty in their rejection of Jesus as well.

They refused to repent. Then they refused to accept John. Now they refuse to accept Jesus. And on top of it all, they are trying to stop others from listening to Jesus.

I certainly hope none of us are ever guilty of preventing someone from submitting to the Lord. If you ever behave in such a way, God will not hold you guiltless.

“Whoever therefore will humble himself as this child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoever receives one such child in My name receives Me; but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it is better for him that a heavy millstone be hung around his neck, and that he be drowned in the depth of the sea.” (Matt 18:4–6)

I ask you now: Will you repent of your sins? Or will you harden your hearts as the Pharisees? It’s never too late…until it’s too late.