Yes and No or No but Yes

 

“Better late than never!”  “You’re just paying “lip service”.”  “You can talk the talk, but you don’t walk the walk.”  How many of us have heard these sayings at one time or another in our lives?  How many times was it directed at us?

Throughout the Scriptures God gives us great advice on when to change our minds, and when not to.  If we're pretty well secure in habits of virtue, then it's not a good idea to give in to the persuasions of friends who call us old-fashioned or foolish for following the teachings of our parents and childhood religion classes - and act contrary to our principles.  To change because of fear of losing face or being the butt of ridicule could risk God's displeasure, loss of grace, and even loss of eternal happiness.

There's another kind of change, too; the kind of change that may be defined as conversion—from sinful ways to virtuous ones.  For instance, the prophet Ezekiel (Ezekiel 18:25-28) tried to persuade his fellow exiles in Babylon that, as long as they persisted in their sinful rejection of God's commandments, God would continue their exile.  When they refused to change, God allowed the destruction of the Temple as well as the whole city of Jerusalem.  Eventually, they stopped blaming God for their crimes, repented of their stubbornness, and again followed the commandments.

That's the kind of change that also won the approval of Jesus in Matthew’s Gospel (Matthew 21:28-32). The first son in the parable stubbornly said "no" to his father's request.  He was ready to risk the father's displeasure and even punishment.  Then, wisely, he began to feel guilty.  He decided it wouldn't kill him to cut short a good time with his friends to work for his father.  We hope that it was really love that made him change his mind.  But even if it was just shame, and maybe a little fear of the consequences of his refusal, he did change his mind.

The entire 18^th chapter of Ezekiel reads like a textbook from a law school.  The sections cover various eventualities, but always the theme is that there’s life for those who choose righteousness and death for those who don’t.  We hear kind of an argument which God, through the prophet, is having with Israel. God isn’t fair?  God reverses this and asks the House of Israel if their ways are the “unfair” ways by their turning from God’s love to serve false gods and their own false sense of what life is.

There’s a secondary theme in Ezekiel as well.  Israel as a collective nation has been addressed often as sinful and have been threatened with total national abandonment or exile.  We find the prophet addressing the question of the individual’s personal freedom to turn from God’s ways and then turn back again.  The father isn’t guilty because of his son’s sin, but only the son.

There are consequences to actions.  Israel as a nation is compared to one person who by choosing wickedness chooses death.  As well, a person who chooses virtuous living chooses life.  God is seen as fair by allowing free choices to worship and serve God or false idols.

The Gospel (Matthew 21:28-32) is one more “stick-it-to-me” parable which was slowly getting Jesus in deep trouble with the religious leaders of his day.  They had seen and heard John and said “no” to and about him and then didn’t change their minds.  John had invited them into the “new vineyard” of which he was the announcer.  While they continued to say “no” to Jesus, tax collectors and prostitutes who in former times had said “no” did change.  They were living their “yes.” 

This is essential Christianity.  The tax collectors, prostitutes in their pasts, and we too have, in our lives, said “no” to God’s call to “Act justly, love tenderly and walk humbly with our God.” (Micah 6:8) Perfection is our origin and orientation, but not our practice.

I once had a guy tell me that he didn’t go to church anymore, because there was nothing but hypocrites in there.  I told him there’s always room for one more; he didn’t like that.  I guess I was stepping on his toes a little bit.  We are indeed holy hypocrites; we’ve said one thing and done the opposite.  If we’re to live gracefully into our futures, we’ll have to live gracefully with our pasts.  Hypocrites seem not to be able to admit and live with their histories.   By our believing in Jesus’ call of mercy we admit our having said “no,” but in another sense, we admit Jesus into our present that we might more eagerly go into His “vineyard.”

With us it’s sometimes “yes” and sometimes “no,” but for Jesus it always was, is now, and ever will be, “yes!”  Our futures don’t redeem our pasts; Jesus is the Redeemer.  Our futures will need redeeming as well and Jesus’ “yes!” allows us to walk His ways and not fear our stepping on anybody’s toes nor tripping over our own perfectionistic feet.

So often we say “no” to God’s call, because we hear our fears to trust.  With prayer and reflection our actions reverse our natural fearful hesitations and we do say “yes.”  Trust in God’s love doesn’t do away with our natural timidity.  Even when our actions are a fearful “no” Jesus is the eternal redemptive “yes” which frees us to rise again to go into the Owners vineyard.