Matthew 21:28-31. Jesus said, “What do you think of this? A man had two sons. He approached the first and said, ‘Go today and work in the vineyard.’ He answered and said, ‘I go Sir,’ but went not. And approaching the second he said likewise, and he answered and said, ‘I will not,’ but later repented and went. Which of the two did the will of the father?” They said, ‘The latter.’ Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, the tax-collectors and harlots are going into the Kingdom of God before you .”
Here is a well-known parable, the meaning of which is easy to determine. But let us focus on just one word – “before“. This isthe word that seems to be ignored by the expositors. In what sense did Jesus intend them to understand His parable? The verb “To go before” is proago in Greek, and it occurs 18 times in the N.T. from which its clear meaning may be understood. One reference will be sufficient to pin it down. Matthew 26:32. After His resurrection, Jesus said, “I will go before you into Galilee.” In other words He was to go first , but without question, it is implied that they, the disciples, would follow.
Going back to Matthew 21:31, we ask, to whom was Jesus speaking? In verse 23 we learn that He was in the Temple precincts, and was approached by none other than the Chief Priests (Annas and Caiaphas) and Elders of the people (i.e. the non-priestly members of the Sanhedrin, belonging to the nobility.) They had approached Jesus saying, “By what authority do you perform these miracles?”
These were the religious men , who were always talking about the coming Kingdom, and expecting, not only to be included in it, but to have superior positions of authority within it. But Jesus told them that the despised tax-collectors and contemptible harlots would enter the Kingdom before them. They would be the front runners who were deemed by them to be the scum of the earth.
No doubt all that I have said thus far is easy to follow and accept. But the fact is, Jesus said that the harlots would go into the Kingdom before the Chief Priests and Elders, and this means they were to follow! But are we not taught in the best of evangelical circles that men like Caiaphas and Annas would never be allowed into God’s Kingdom? Is it not a foregone conclusion that such wicked men, who had been personally responsible for the Lord’s crucifixion, would spend the rest of eternity in hell? How come the Lord was saying that they would follow on behind the harlots, at the “back of the queue”, maybe, but nevertheless allowed to enter?
Going back to Matthew 21:31, we ask, to whom was Jesus speaking? In verse 23 we learn that He was in the Temple precincts, and was approached by none other than the Chief Priests (Annas and Caiaphas) and Elders of the people (i.e. the non-priestly members of the Sanhedrin, belonging to the nobility.) They had approached Jesus saying, “By what authority do you perform these miracles?”
These were the religious men , who were always talking about the coming Kingdom, and expecting, not only to be included in it, but to have superior positions of authority within it. But Jesus told them that the despised tax-collectors and contemptible harlots would enter the Kingdom before them. They would be the front runners who were deemed by them to be the scum of the earth.
No doubt all that I have said thus far is easy to follow and accept. But the fact is, Jesus said that the harlots would go into the Kingdom before the Chief Priests and Elders, and this means they were to follow! But are we not taught in the best of evangelical circles that men like Caiaphas and Annas would never be allowed into God’s Kingdom? Is it not a foregone conclusion that such wicked men, who had been personally responsible for the Lord’s crucifixion, would spend the rest of eternity in hell? How come the Lord was saying that they would follow on behind the harlots, at the “back of the queue”, maybe, but nevertheless allowed to enter?
Did not the Lord say in other of His parables that a man was cast into “outer darkness” for not having a wedding garment? Did He not speak about a sorting out process, good fish and bad from the dragnet, the sheep from the goats? How then can we say that the really bad guys will be allowed in at the back of the queue?
But there’s no getting away from it. We cannot just brush difficulties under the mat as though they don’t exist. The very word the Master used demands our attention, and possibly a very different interpretation than is comfortable to our theology.
The trouble is generated, not from the text of the Gospels, but from our own faulty traditional theology, which divides mankind into just two classes, those who “make it” and go to heaven, and those who “miss the bus” and go to hell. But this is a fence of human construction, and we need to scale it or demolish it, to retrieve the truth the Master implied.
The Kingdom of God begins with each individual in an unseen and very real transformation of life. This has been going on throughout the centuries and millennia, and is the individual aspect of the Kingdom. But Jesus spoke of the Kingdom in a more open and manifest form, and encouraged us to ask the Father, “Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” That aspect of the Kingdom is not yet with us.
It may be called the Millennial Kingdom. But after the 1000 years the Kingdom doesn’t end. God the Father asks His Son to reign UNTIL all enemies are under His feet, and this is by no means accomplished in 1000 years. So we may anticipate the “Annas-and Caiaphas” type of person arriving within the Kingdom at some late stage, after the delights of the Great Sabbath Rest of the Millennium are over, eventually to experience a change of heart if they haven’t already done so. I can see no other interpretation which does justice to the Master’s words, and would encourage my readers to have the courage to move out into the larger place of God’s heart, rather than to limit Him by false theology, simply because it was promulgated by such notables as Saint Augustine.
