It’s debate season again. As the political campaigns continue to rage we get a double dose of political talk. For the most part, the way that politicians speak is carefully scripted so that they don’t step on too many toes and don’t take too firm of a stance on unpopular issues. When asked a question, politicians rarely answer with a simple yes or no. Everything is qualified with situations and examples.

In some way, it feels as though Jesus is engaging in his own form of political talk – but then again so are the chief priests and elders. The chief priests and elders come up to Jesus and instead of asking him the question they want to ask him, they beat around the bush. Instead of asking him simply if he is the Messiah, they ask him about where his authority comes from. They hope to trap Jesus in his answer.

However, they didn’t realize whom they were dealing with. Jesus, in true rabbinic style, answers their question with a question. Many times, rabbis would answer questions with questions.

There is a story about a student who went up to his rabbi and asked, "Rabbi, why do you always answer my questions with a question?"

The rabbi looked at his student and said, "What’s wrong with a question?"

But in the question that Jesus asks the chief priests and elders, he gives them their answer. We the reader have known from the beginning of Jesus’ ministry that he is indeed the Messiah. From the moment of his baptism, we know that Jesus has been claimed as God’s Son. We also know the role that John the Baptist played.

However, the chief priests and elders do not have the advantage of the knowledge that we the readers have but I’m sure they had some suspicions. Now one thing that is important to realize is the relationship between the chief priests and the elders of the people. These groups had strong ties to the Roman occupiers. They were gaining a great advantage from the Roman occupiers. Therefore, any threat to Rome was a threat to their position. This is the real motivation for questioning Jesus. They want Jesus to say something that could get him in trouble with the Roman authorities. Then, they could get rid of him and their position could once again be secure.

Jesus had already caused quite a disturbance since he came into Jerusalem the day before this passage. He had a parade into the city with all the people gathering around him proclaiming him to be the "One who comes in the name of the Lord." Then, he had come to the Temple and disrupted everything there by driving away all of the merchants and turning over their tables, dumping their wares all over the place. He had caused a royal mess and the chief priests and elders were certainly ready to rid themselves of this disturber of the peace.

So Jesus answers their question with a question and forces the chief priests and elders to look like fools when they are stuck answering that they don’t know the answer. In front of all these people they were supposed to be leading, the chief priests and elders feign ignorance in order to save their own skin.

But Jesus doesn’t stop his interactions with the chief priests and elders there. He goes on to tell them three parables, each of which is meant to show where the chief priests and the elders have gone wrong. We read the first of these parables today.

In the parable we have two sons. The father asks each of his sons to go and work in the vineyard. The first son says no but then he changes his mind and ends up working in the field after all. The second son tells his father that he will go but then he never did.

Jesus seems to be saying that the chief priests and elders are like the second son. They said yes to God but they lacked the follow through. In most sports there is some form of follow through required. In golf, you must follow through with your swing in order to get the most out of your drive. In baseball, the pitcher has to follow through with the pitch in order to get the ball to the plate and the batter has to follow through with swinging the bat in order to hit the ball any distance. In basketball, when shooting a basket, you have to follow through by rolling your fingers along the ball to guide it to the net. In figure skating, you can’t just take off for a jump, you have to follow through and land it.

But then Jesus insults the chief priests and elders by telling them that not only are they like the second son and lack follow through but then he tells them that tax collectors and prostitutes are going to enter the kingdom of God ahead of them. The tax collectors and prostitutes are like the first son who said no at first through the living of sinful lives but then turned around and followed through with God’s will.

Ouch! Can’t you just imagine the look on the chief priests and elder’s faces? Can’t you just see that look of horror at being put down in front of this crowd of people by some upstart preacher from Podunk nowhere? And underneath that embarrassment, the anger started to rise. As we read further, we see that their anger leads to Jesus’ arrest and crucifixion.

Has this ever happened to you…? You decide that today is the day you’re going to clean out the garage. So you open up the door and begin to sort. As you take out the lawnmower you park it on the grass only to see that the grass needs to be mowed. So you hop on the mower and mow the lawn.

When you’ve finished that, you go back to the garage and begin your clean-up again. You look around and take out the weed eater. That’s when you notice that there were some places in the yard you just couldn’t get to with the lawnmower. So you start up the weed eater and touch up the places the mower missed.

Then you come back to the garage and take out that old bicycle that has been gathering dust. You look at it and it needs a little bit of air in the tires so you rummage around and find the tire pump. Once you pump up the tires you realize that the chain needs a little grease so you take out your tools and grease the chain. Then of course you need to test out the bike to make sure there’s nothing else that needs to be done with it. So you grab your helmet and go for a ride.

When you come back from your ride, it’s dinnertime. So you put the bike, the tire pump, the tools, the weed eater and the lawnmower back into the garage. Then as you look at the garage just before you shut the door, you realize that you didn’t get around to cleaning out the garage after all. Has anyone had something similar to that happen to you?

We all have the good intentions of following through but sometimes things just get in the way and we don’t get around to it. I wonder if that’s what happened to the second son in the parable. He truly intended to go out and work in the vineyard for his father but first he couldn’t find his work clothes. Then finding that they were dirty, he decided to do some laundry. Then he noticed his work boots needed cleaning. So he carefully cleaned off the mud from the last trip into the vineyard. Then by the time the laundry was washed and dried, the workday was pretty much over so he just decided not to go out into the vineyard at all.

With the person who wanted to clean out the garage and the second son, they didn’t just sit around and do nothing. They did indeed accomplish many things. However, they never quite accomplished what they set out to do.

Following Christ can be like that sometimes. We have the best of intentions, indeed we said yes when we were asked to follow, but sometimes things just keep getting in the way. Sometimes we’re running behind and don’t have time to look for the face of Christ in others. Sometimes we are so busy with something else that we just don’t see the needs surrounding us.

We can keep ourselves busy. As a nation, we do not like to do nothing. Even our time off from work is occupied in various different pursuits. We can indeed keep ourselves busy. But one of the things that I would like us to challenge each other with is this: Ask yourself if what you are doing is truly going out into the vineyard to tend the grapes or are you just rearranging the stones on the walkway?

We have all said yes to God. We have said that we will and tend to the needs of God’s people. So the question remains: will we go out into the world and tend to the needs we see? Can we say "yes" and go and work in the vineyard?