“God does not hold our past against us”
So far in our ‘Lost and Found’ series we have heard how God treasures all his people. He searches for the lost until he finds us and rejoices over all those who are his. Today’s parable shows this same divine grace, but it introduces a new theme: the place of repentance in the life of faith. God is not interested in how we honour him on the outside, but how we honour God in our heart.
The audience to whom Jesus tells the parable were the moral gatekeepers of the religious community. They embedded their interpretation of God’s law as ultimate law and woe betide anyone who didn’t measure up! They proudly put their piety and ritual performance on full display, seeking to win the approval of others—especially to win God’s approval. Their whole spiritual worldview was that the better one performed, the more God would show his favour to them. There was no room for grace, and certainly no room for immoral people in the kingdom of God.
These same leaders grumbled against Jesus: “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.” Surely any self-respecting rabbi would never lower himself by associating with such unclean people! The religious leaders resented Jesus as one who was undermining the standards they had worked so hard to set, immunising the community from these unholy people. So Jesus tells this parable:
“What do you think? There was a man who had two sons. He went to the first and said, ‘Son, go and work today in the vineyard.’
“‘I will not,’ he answered, but later he changed his mind and went.
“Then the father went to the other son and said the same thing. He answered, ‘I will, sir,’ but he did not go.
“Which of the two did what his father wanted?”
“The first,” they answered. (Matthew 21:28-31).
Seeing as obedience was such a high priority to the religious leaders, it is master stroke by Jesus to tell a story that uses a father figure calling for obedience from his sons. Jesus was showing the religious leaders just how disobedient to the Father in heaven they were, and therefore their own need to repent. By their own answer, the religious leaders convict themselves. They were like the son who said to his father “I will” but did not go. They disobeyed the Father in Heaven by refusing to listen to the prophets who warned of God’s judgment against his rebellious people. They disobeyed the Father in Heaven by not listening to John the Baptist who preached in the wilderness: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near”, urging people to turn to Jesus to receive the grace and forgiveness of God. And they disobeyed the Father by resisting Jesus himself. If they really were children of the Father, they would listen to Jesus. Deluded, they believe that the external image they portray and their pious works will win God’s approval.
By contrast, who did listen to the message from heaven? All those whom the religious leaders judged as immoral and no longer saw as people but objects of wrath and condemnation. Yet it was these who recognised where divine mercy could be found. Guilty and ashamed, they saw their own desperate need to turn to God for forgiveness and grace in the same promised Saviour who stood before the religious leaders and taught this parable and then the punchline: “Truly I tell you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you. For John came to you to show you the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes did. And even after you saw this, you did not repent and believe him.”
What does Jesus say the true way to righteousness is? There is nothing Jesus mentions here about good works. What does Jesus say? “John came to you to show you the way of righteousness and you did not believe him.”
The way of righteousness is believing the word of God. Righteousness is not by effort, holy living, good morals, religious performances, praying the right prayers or signing the right hymns. It is not by how many times we help our neighbour, or by how nice we are towards others. It is not by how neatly we dress or how many times we come to worship, how well spoken we are. It is hearing God’s word, obeying it, and trusting in Jesus as the Christ God has sent, for our righteousness, and the approval of God. It is submitting to it and living by it and repenting when God points out our sin and turning to him with it for him to free us from it.
The inference in these verses is that the tax collectors and prostitutes did not remain in their sinful way of living, but when they heard the message of grace, they changed their way of life with the help of God. Jesus told the religious leaders that they were worse than those with obvious sins, because the religious leaders hid their sins and didn’t believe they needed to change.
Today, Jesus issues the same challenge to us as forgiven and free children of God: to walk by the Spirit and live by God’s word, and not use our freedom to gratify sinful desires, but to live by the way of righteousness. God is a loving God. He is a gracious God. But he is also a holy God with divine truth who asks us to obey him as our Father in Heaven. Like the tax collectors and prostitutes Jesus speaks of, we also trust God when we believe his Word and are honest in seeing where our lives need to change.
But today’s text tells us something else. God does not hold our past against us but gives us a new future.
The tax collectors who collaborated with the oppressive Roman government and collected money dishonestly, lining their own pockets by raiding the purses of the vulnerable, pushing them over the brink financially…they had a past. The prostitutes, vulnerable themselves, trapped in a lifestyle of making a living in an unholy way and polluting marriages with unholiness…they had a past.
We don’t know what led the tax collectors and prostitutes into these lifestyles. But they had a past. An unholy past. A past without righteousness. A past without peace and blessing. A past without knowing God and the fullness of life he brings. A past without hope of anything ever being different. It was a past that they felt so guilty about, a past which caused them to look down in shame, and a past they so longed to be freed from, that they came to John the Baptist. They heard his call to repent, for the Kingdom of God—the gracious rule of Jesus—was near in his word of absolution. They came to Jesus himself, just as the religious leaders complained: “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.”
We all have a past. Maybe it is an addiction to gambling or retail therapy, or hoarding, or work, or money, or alcohol or pornography. Maybe it is the damage we have done to relationships in our family, workplace, and even in the church. We might not have been tax collectors and prostitutes…but we might have lived such a past that we would be ashamed if the secrets we guarded so closely in our hearts ever got out. There are the so called ‘good’ sinners too. Maybe we have been like the religious leaders, craving approval from others, trusting in what’s on the outside; trusting in our appearance and performance, our piety and morality, rather than trusting that in Christ we are already have God’s total approval and favour. Maybe our idol is wanting to control our lives, and the lives of others around us, when everything else seems out of control. Maybe we may have made poor choices with judgment, gossip and slander, resulting in reputations being destroyed, and others being hurt and losing trust in us.
Whatever it is that causes us to carry around our guilt and shame, we’ve all had a past where we have not lived by the way of righteousness.
But with today’s parable, Jesus shows that God does not hold our past against us. Jesus has come to free us from it, that we might have his own peace and fulness of life for the present, and for the future, that we may have a home in heaven forever.
Maybe you know someone who has had a past that they are ashamed of, a person who thinks that they could never have God’s approval or favour. Maybe they think that their past is too big to overcome, for them, for others, even for God. That comes from the default human mindset that we are only deserving of God’s favour and blessing if we have lived a good life, because God does good to those who are good, and punishes those who are evil.
That’s nothing other than the Hindu and Buddhist concept of Karma, which although is popular in modern thinking is nothing new, for it was the same thinking of the religious leaders in today’s text. But there is no room for such thinking in Christianity, because it is not our past that determines God’s blessings for the present. It is God’s love and grace in Christ that is the basis for our lives now, and into the future. Righteousness comes through faith—the same faith of the tax collectors and prostitutes who heard the call to repentance, and submitted to it.
We too must seek the Lord while he may be found—now. We too must call on him while he is near—now. For he will abundantly pardon.
How do we know? Because it was during our past as sinners that another Son was obedient to his Father’s call to work in his vineyard. It was the Son who did not change his mind and went, when he was born in a stable for animals. The Kingdom of God’s gracious rule reigned everywhere Jesus went and ministered, as he proclaimed freedom for the oppressed, brought healing to the ill, raised the dead to life, and freed people trapped in the kingdom of darkness. Jesus is the obedient Son who did not change his mind, but said ‘yes’ to his Father straight away, and all the way, humbling himself, and being obedient to death, even death on a Cross.
It is when we look to the Cross that we see God does not hold our past against us, but he holds it against Jesus his Son who was crucified in our place. In baptism he makes this a personal reality for us, uniting himself with us, clothing us with his own righteousness, and covering over all our shame. In Colossians 2 Paul puts it this way:
“Your whole self ruled by the flesh was put off when you were circumcised by Christ, having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through your faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead.
When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having cancelled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross. And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.” (Colossians 2:11b-15). And,
“Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behaviour. But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation—if you continue in your faith, established and firm, and do not move from the hope held out in the gospel.” (Colossians 1:21-23).
Our past life of sin, guilt, shame and death has been done away with, crucified with Christ Jesus and buried in his tomb. Everyone who trusts in him are free for a new present with him, and a new future with him, since our robes have been washed white by the blood of the Lamb. The Father says to all who believe in Jesus: “You are my beloved son, my beloved daughter, with whom I am well pleased.” Amen.
Pastor Tim Ebbs
St Paul’s Lutheran Church, Glenelg
Ordinary Time, 2025
Application points: how could this parable help you respond to someone who feels like God would never forgive them for their past?
Note: this is not intended to be an exhaustive list or a perfect step-by-step instruction of how to get results, but just ideas and suggestions as a guide only that needs to be adapted to each context
Pray for an opportunity to share your faith and tell this parable with someone who needs to hear it!
Study this parable and know it. You won’t be able to help someone else engage with the Good News of this parable if you don’t know it and how it applies to you yourself!
Work on building positive relationships with those around you—those you are friends with, your neighbours, work colleagues, the retail attendant who you recognize serves you regularly. Ask them how they are. Be intentional about showing care and concern for them. This kind of relationship building takes years, but it is worth it!
Keep praying!
Look for openings to share the practical aspects of your faith when the opportunity presents itself—for example, when those you talk with ask if you have a busy week, tell them what you’ll be doing in your volunteering capacity at St Paul’s. If they ask if you’re doing anything on the weekend, tell them that you’ll be going to church, and explain where St Paul’s (or whatever your local congregation) is.
Invite them to come with you to one of the activities of the congregation. Note: one of the main reasons people feel uncomfortable in coming to worship on Sundays is that it is a completely foreign environment to them, in which they know no one else. We would feel the same about going to a new facility on our own for the first time without anyone with us!
Of course, invite them to come with you to worship, but inviting them to come to one of the activities of the congregation (e.g Music nite, Latte Ladies, Wednesday community meal) might be a more appropriate first step of connecting with a church for them, where the goal is to meet some more people from the congregation without the added pressure of navigating through an entire worship service.
If they share a difficult situation in their life with you, welcome this! Be patient and non-judgmental with them. Give them permission to share further with you, if they are comfortable doing so.
Offer to pray for them If the situation allows, it would be ideal if you are able to pray with them, asking God who is everywhere present, to help, bless and comfort them.
If the person bears some kind of great guilt and/or shame, it is crucial that you validate what they feel! Not to do so would make you just another person in their life they feel they cannot trust. They may likely assert that God has given up on them (this would most likely come to the surface somewhere between points 6-8 above). At this point, validate what they feel! (“I’m so sorry to hear what has happened and that you feel like that…”). Avoid moralizing (“You should forgive and forget…you shouldn’t feel that way…you just need to…”).
The person would most likely not welcome prayer or accept an invitation to come to church because their sense of guilt and shame is great. Many people in these circumstances have a mental image of the church only heaping more condemnation and judgment upon them, and the thought of coming is unbearable. They may likely express that there is no way God would ever forgive them for their past.
Ask if you may share the hope you have—that God does not hold our past against us, but gives us a new present, and new future, in Christ!
- Jesus told a story about that once—about a father who had two sons and asked them to work in his vineyard.
One answered, ‘I will, sir,’ but he did not go. This is a picture of all those who thought God was pleased with them because of their good works.
One answered: “I will not” but later changed his mind and went. This is a picture of all those who knew they needed to turn to God for forgiveness. It was these who enter the Kingdom of Heaven, even despite the worst things they have done in life.
- God does not hold our past against us, but for all who turn to him he grants forgiveness and blessing for a new present, and new future, with all his favour.
- God does not hold our wrongs against them, but holds them against his own Son who was put to death on the Cross to pay the penalty of sin for us and make us right with God. In baptism God brings this saving help to us personally and makes us his holy children, with whom he is well pleased!
Don’t focus on results, but on the relationship…and keep endeavoring to strengthen it. Follow up with them through the week. Remember it is all up to God, and he delights to use all his children in his work of building up his kingdom. God bless you in the opportunities he brings you!
