Theophylact Bulgarian. Interpretation of the Gospel of Matthew
Matthew 21:28. How do you think? One man had two sons; and he, going up to the first, said: son! go today, work in my vineyard. Matthew 21:29. But he answered, I don’t want to; and then, repented, he went. And going up to another, he said the same. This one answered and said: I am coming, sir; and did not go.
Matthew 21:30. Which of the two fulfilled the will of his father? They say to him: first. Jesus says to them: Truly I say to you, the tax collectors and harlots are marching ahead of you into the Kingdom of God,
Matthew 21:31. for John came to you by the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the publicans and harlots believed him; But you, and seeing this, did not repent afterwards in order to believe him.
The Lord cites here two kinds of people, some of whom first made a promise - these were the Jews who once said: 'Everything that God said, we will do and we will be obedient,' and others are people who initially did not obey, what are harlots and publicans, equal and pagans; all these people at first did not obey the will of God, but, in the end, repented and obeyed. Notice the wisdom of Christ here: He did not say to the Pharisees at first: 'The tax collectors and sinners are better than all of you,' no, He first caught them. They themselves admitted that of the two sons, the more submissive is the one who actually fulfilled the will of his father. When they recognized this, the Lord added: “John came by the way of righteousness,” that is, he lived blamelessly; you cannot say that his life was in any way reprehensible. However, while the harlots listened to him, you did not; therefore they precede you, that is, they enter the Kingdom of God forward. Try, then, you, having believed, to enter at least after them. If you don’t believe, you will not enter at all. And nowadays many vow to God and father to become monks or priests, but after the vow they do not keep zeal, while others did not take a vow about monastic or priestly life, but spend their lives like monks or priests; so they turn out to be obedient children, since they fulfill the will of their father, although they did not promise anything.
