“Truly I tell you the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you.” Matthew 21:31
Faith is the center point of our religion. To trust is Jesus is what we believe and what we proclaim. “For by grace are you saved, through faith…” Paul says in Ephesians 2:8. John declares, “For God so loved the world that He gave His Son so that whoever believes in Him will have eternal life.” But true faith produces true fruit. As James reminds us, “faith without works is dead” (James 4:17).
Matthew tells the story of the religious leaders, once again, attacking Jesus and questioning His authority (Matthew 21:23-32). This story gives an outline for true faith.
True faith begins with an authentic assessment of who we are and how we need Jesus. The religious people who challenge Jesus cannot even think of answering his question honestly. They just think about how other people will respond to their answer. They cannot admit who they really are. We are often in the same place. We cannot admit we really need Jesus, so we cannot find true faith.
Jesus tells them a story with an obvious point. Two sons, one says he won’t work for his father but then decides he will, the other says he will work for his father but he never does. Which one really does what his father wants? It’s what you do that demonstrates your faith. We are not saved by faith as Ephesians 2 reminds us but we are saved for “good works” as verse 10 also says. When we really trust Jesus, we do what he says.
One of the things that Jesus calls us to do is to follow Him to the homes of the “tax collectors and prostitutes.” Jesus was friend to these people, his critics saying of him, “The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners’” (Matthew 11:19). If we have real faith we will follow Jesus in reaching out in friendship and ministry to people that the religious people tell us to avoid.
Love in Christ,
Greg
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