26th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A. Ezekiel 18:25-28 · Psalm 25 · Philippians 2:1-11 · Matthew 21:28-32
A father has two sons. He goes to the first and says: go and work in the vineyard today. The son answers: I will not. Later he thinks better of it and goes after all. Then the father goes to the second and says the same. That one answers: Yes, sir. And does not go. Which of the two did his father's will, Jesus asks, and the answer is quickly given.
I do not read this as a story about obedience but about what is contained in an answer. The second son's yes costs him nothing at that moment. It spares a conversation, it keeps the peace, and nobody has to explain himself. The first son's no costs him at once. It is contradiction, against his father, at the start of a day that brings work.
Only the yes is not always the easy way out. Sometimes it is the only thing that can be said. Someone facing an overwhelming demand, someone who is afraid or simply cannot find the words, says yes because no is not available. It is striking that the second son addresses his father as sir, while the first says only: I will not. From outside it is easy to say he could have objected, as long as you do not have to pay the price yourself.
Meetings have both. At the end of a discussion the tasks are handed out, and almost everyone nods. The nodding is not a lie, it is honestly meant in that moment; only nothing hangs on it. And then there is the one who says, I can't do it like that, or, I think this is wrong. It goes quiet, somebody sighs. Two weeks later she is the only one with anything to show, because she was the only one who really engaged with it.
In the parable nobody stays with their first word. One says no and changes, the other says yes and changes too, only for the worse.
The first reading says the same thing more fundamentally. If the righteous turn away from righteousness and do wrong, they shall die for it. If the wicked turn from their wickedness, they shall live. Ezekiel leaves nobody sitting on their past, neither the good nor the bad. What counts is where someone goes next. And the people he says this to find it unfair: the Lord's way is not right. Whoever has a good record wants it to count.
In organisations what usually wins is what the people in Ezekiel demand. There everyone has a reputation, and the reputation decides what they are trusted with. Whoever is once thought unreliable gets no chance to do it differently, and whoever is thought reliable no longer has their yes checked.
At the end of the gospel there is a sentence that stays with me. You saw it, Jesus says to those who had said yes, and still you did not change your minds and believe him. They stood by while others moved, and they stayed where they were. Changing one's mind is possible, that is the good news of this Sunday. That it happens by itself, the text does not say.
This is a reading aid, not a second full version. Zugemutet reads the four texts of the Catholic lectionary each Sunday for what they say about living together. The texts are given; I listen for what comes across.