The Parable of the Two Sons

This week on Cultivate, Charlie and Abigail work through one of the shortest and sharpest parables Jesus ever told — the Parable of the Two Sons in Matthew 21. It's four verses. Jesus gets an immediate explanation in. And it lands like a slap.A father asks two sons to go work in the vineyard. The first says no — and then goes anyway. The second says yes — and never shows up. Jesus asks the chief priests which one did what the father wanted. They answer correctly. And then Jesus tells them: tax collectors and prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you.Charlie and Abigail dig into why this parable lands so differently than the ones with weeping and gnashing of teeth, what John the Baptist actually has to do with it, what a prophet actually is (versus the Harry Potter definition), and why the Pharisees' entire problem was that they couldn't humble themselves all the way down. They also get into economy of words, Charlie's discomfort being photographed loading backpacks at staff meeting, the correct plural of moose, and a preview of next week — the Parable of the Tenants, where Jesus unloads the whole magazine.