Nobody likes waiting in a line, especially not a line where people cut in ahead of you at the invitation of someone further up. So imagine how happy the Jewish religious leaders were when Jesus told them,
“Truly I tell you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are going into the kingdom of God ahead of you.”
This was how he summed up the parable of the two sons. The tax collectors and prostitutes presumably represented that first son, who said he wouldn’t work for his father, but then changed his mind and did. Sinners who repent, Jesus suggested, are closer to God’s heart than do-gooding, self-righteous holy people. As he saw it, the scribes and Pharisees were more like that second son, who mouthed the right words but didn’t give his heart to the father’s vineyard.
The leaders saw their fidelity in keeping the Torah, the Law, in minute detail, as evidence that they were more righteous than anyone. But Jesus had a different angle – for him what mattered most was how they responded to the revelation he brought, which he said was in line with what John the Baptist taught, and what the prophets before him had foretold for centuries. “For John came to you in the way of righteousness and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes believed him; and even after you saw it, you did not change your minds and believe him.”
The failure for which he knocked the religious leaders was their refusal to recognize that God offered righteousness through his Son, a redemption of the heart much deeper and longer-lasting than mere law-keeping could ever bring. They thought they’d be first in line by virtue of how well they stood in line! Jesus suggested that God was more interested in those who genuinely saw their faults and God’s mercy. If the leaders had acknowledged their need for God’s mercy, he would have liked them more.
We now live in a culture filled with people who have not been raised with church or with knowledge of God or God’s transforming love. We live in an age when churches are often seen as smug, rigid, prejudiced, oppressive, not to mention dull and irrelevant.
We need to be committed to our faith communities not because it’s the right thing to do or will “get us into heaven.” We need to help turn them inside out, making them incubators for new life, spiritual growth, transformation and healing. We need to make it easy for people with no church background whatsoever to find meaning and life in our midst. That means rethinking the way we worship, give, govern, preach – everything.
Today, let’s think of someone we wouldn’t be so thrilled to see jump the line on us, whether an individual or a type. Let’s pray for them, and let’s pray for us - and invite them.
Each year during Ramadan, our Interfaith Council joins with local Muslim communities to host an interfaith Iftar, the meal Muslims enjoy at the end of each day in that season of fasting. And, though many of them have had no food and water since daybreak, the leader always tells his congregants to go last in the food line, to let us non-fasters fill our plates first. This is the kind of grace to which we are called.
As far as we know, everyone who wants to be a part of God’s worldwide, time-and-space-encompassing community of love, is welcome. We’ll know we’re steeped in God's love when, no matter how long we’ve been in line, no matter how hungry we are, we’re delighted to let someone get to that feast ahead of us. There will be plenty, and to spare.
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