Fr. Lawrence Jagdfeld, O.F.M., Administrator
The parable of the two sons in St. Matthew's Gospel has a parallel in St. Luke's parable of the Prodigal. As is so often the case, however, St. Matthew takes the parable and uses it to advance his own theme and to accommodate his own audience.
Jesus asks the question: "Which has done the will of his Father?" Doing the will of the Father is a particular theme that runs throughout St. Matthew's Gospel. However, it is an unexpected question. After telling the story, his audience would probably have been expecting the question: "Which has 'honored' his father?" Remember that St. Matthew writes for a Jewish-Christian audience. The commandment given by Moses states "Honor your father and your mother." However, by asking a different question, Jesus has confounded the audience. For the answer to which has "honored" his father is the opposite of the one who has "obeyed" his father. By saying what the father wanted to hear in a public forum, the disobedient son has honored his father. The son who said that he would not do his father's bidding but then did it anyway has dishonored and shamed his father because others have heard and witnessed the shame.
In our society, where honor and shame are not the driving forces of our culture, this point might escape us. However, St. Matthew is laying the groundwork for the climax of the Gospel, a climax which will see Jesus die a shameful death at the same time that he obeys the will of his Father. This point is clearly made in St. Paul's Letter to the Philippians and the famous "kenotic" hymn of Philippians 2. Jesus humbles himself, accepting death on a cross, death as a criminal. The depths of shame to which he sinks by emptying himself of all that is honorable and powerful about his divinity is rewarded by greater honor as God exalts him. Jesus is the actor of the first verses of the hymn; the Father is the actor in the final verses. Jesus is glorified, honored, set about all of creation because he has obeyed. God is the one who bestows true honor, not society, not our fellow human beings. It is only in God that we find true honor. It is only in obedience that we fulfill the will of God.