After forcing the Jewish religious leaders to declare their attitude towards John the Baptist – which they refused to do – Jesus pressed them further with the parable of the two sons. Both were told to go work in their father’s vineyard. One said, “I won’t go,” but “afterward he regretted it and went.” The other said, “I go, sir,” but didn’t. Jesus asked, “Which of the two did the will of his father?” The chief priests and elders replied with the obvious answer, “The first.” Jesus then explains His point: Notorious “sinners” like men who collected taxes for the Roman government and prostitutes, who had been in open rebellion against God, heard the preaching of John the Baptist, repented, and received baptism for the forgiveness of sins. The religious elite, however, who appeared to be doing the will of God, refused to accept John’s message. Sure of their own religious rightness, they would not repent and ask forgiveness. The result: The “bad” people who repented were admitted to God’s favor, and found a true Friend in Jesus; the “good” people who said they wanted to do God’s will further rejected both His prophet John and His Son Jesus, showing that their hearts were full of hypocrisy, pride, and violence. We have here another illustration of Jesus’ dictum, “The last shall be first, and the first last” (20:16; see 19:30). Those whom the world considers to be privileged, or righteous, may end up perishing, rejected by God and excluded from His Kingdom. Notice that the key is repentance and faith. The Jewish religious leaders did not believe John the Baptist, while the “sinners” did. Outwardly, the clergy may have seemed more moral than the crowds of disreputable folk who flocked around Jesus, but inwardly they were far from Him, for they were stuck in their own self-righteousness. They did not know that they were sick, desperately in need of a Physician (9:12). They were not poor in spirit, to whom alone the Kingdom belongs (5:3). What about us? Have we made a profession of faith in Christ? Then we have started well. But now what do we rely on for our sense of worth and moral value? Church attendance? Going to retreats and conferences? Service in the church? Or our “good works”? If we have turned our attention away from the sacrifice of Jesus on behalf of our sins, and are seeking to establish our own righteousness, then we are enemies of the Cross and of God! (Romans 10:3; Galatians 1:7; 2:11-21; 3:1-3; 4:9-15; Philippians 3:1-3).