Brief synopsis of the readings: God, speaking through the prophet Ezekiel, answers those who believe God’s ways are not fair: “Is it my way that is unfair, or rather, are your ways unfair?” He goes on to say that when someone turns away from virtue he will die because of his iniquity. But someone who turns away from wickedness to do what is right and just “shall surely live, he shall not die.” In Matthew’s Gospel Jesus posed a question to the chief priests and elders of the people. He spoke of a man with two sons who he asked to work in the vineyard. The first said he wouldn’t but changed his mind and went to work. The other promised he would but didn’t. Jesus asked which did the father’s will. The chief priests and elders answered that the first did his father’s will. Jesus then turned on them and said that “tax collectors and prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God before you.” He told them that when John the Baptist preaching righteousness “you did not believe him; but tax collectors and prostitutes did.” He concluded with “even when you saw that, you did not change your minds and believe him.”

When Jesus spoke to the chief priest and the elders of the people, don’t you think they should have seen the trap? That was a pretty obvious question and they were the most educated men in the rrom. Maybe they took the bait because they thought Jesus was stupid and this was the kind of question he would ask. Yeah, not so much.

Nobody really believes that words are more important that actions and we don’t respect someone who regularly breaks promises. But Jesus significantly raised the ante here when he elevated that choice to the level of salvation and how it determines our place in the kingdom of God.

It’s worth noting that Jesus here said that tax collectors and prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God before the chief priests and elders, not instead of. This is a continuation of what I wrote last week, but if we are granted salvation should we care who else is? If Heaven is infinitely large then property values don’t matter and we’re never going to be excluded or crowded out. On the other hand I’m not sure that would be satisfactory to the chief priests and elders who would expect to be first.

We don’t know their reaction but it’s safe to say that they did not appreciate what Jesus told them. They were intelligent and well educated and that brought with it respect and adulation and they likely looked down on the tax collectors and prostitutes. They probably thought of them as less deserving of God’s love because of the choices they made. They probably balked at the idea that these people were included in God’s plan at all, let alone ahead of them in line.

We know enough about that society to know that while they were intelligent and well educated they likely had the good fortune to have been born into a wealthy enough family. And likely the tax collectors and prostitutes weren’t. We’ve learned a lot about human trafficking in the last few decades and hopefully that translates into a higher level of compassion for those in the sex industry. Also, tax collectors back then weren’t like IRS agents today; many of them were corrupt and collected more than the taxpayers owed (and pocketed the rest) and they were hated by most ordinary citizens. We can assume at least some of them worked these jobs because nothing else was available to them.

This may be troubling to think about (and frankly I hope it is) but this hierarchy is a human construct and it shows a high degree of smugness among the chief priests and elders. Last week I spoke about the woman in my parish who I infuriated by suggesting that birth control users might share in God’s kingdom. I was troubled by her anger because it appeared that part of her enjoyment of God’s kingdom was the belief that “those people” weren’t included. “I’m here because I followed the rules and they’re not because they didn’t.”

In reading the Gospels there are few things Jesus disliked more than hypocrisy and he was always closer to those who recognized their need for redemption. He had little patience for those who believed their wealth, intellect or status translated to a higher place with God. He also recognized that those on the lower rungs of society brought with them a hard earned and hard worn wisdom that comes from hard life experiences. Lepers got good at getting what they needed on the fringes of society and refugees learned how to live in a foreign land with different customs, expectations and languages.

Here’s where I’d like to say that 2,000 years of reading this Gospel has convinced us and I can proclaim “Mission Accomplished.” But we still need the lessons Jesus taught. We live in a world where good people flee political oppression and starvation only to be labeled criminals and terrorists where they find refuge. Others are deemed to be sinners because of their skin color, sexual orientation or gender identity. While others of us are told that God loves us better because we have the “correct” attributes, and I say this as a white, heterosexual male.

Please understand I’m not suggesting we treat chief priests and elders with contempt and I’ve had the good fortune of learning from some pretty smart people. But I am suggesting that if we’re all going to end up in the same heaven we shouldn’t care much about who gets ahead of us in line. And I think this Gospel calls us to see wisdom and intelligence in people who didn’t have the good fortune of formal education.

I also hope that once they got into heaven the chief priests and elders figured this out and aren’t spending eternity thinking that they deserve a “better heaven.”