Twenty-Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time

“Have in you the same attitude that is in Christ Jesus … who emptied himself taking the form of a slave.” Phil. 2:5

“What is your opinion?”

Today’s Gospel begins with this question – asked by Jesus himself. Amazingly enough, he seems to want feedback!

Jesus wants to know, not just what the leaders of the Temple back then thought, but what you and I think right now.

So, what is your opinion?
What do you think of this story that he proceeds to tell about the two sons who are sent out to work in a vineyard? One immediately tells his father that he will not go – but then does. The other son replies: “Yes, sir,” but then refuses to go.

Here’s my opinion:
You and I are both of these sons.

At times we’re people who say all the right things, follow all the right rules, profess a belief in all the most important ideas about God and church, and present ourselves as upstanding citizens for all to see.

At other times, we change our minds and find ourselves slipping into behaviors that imply a denial of all that we profess to believe.

In other words, we’re the “Yes, sir” people who then “did not go” in today’s Gospel.

Sometimes.

At other times, we’re the people who resist what we know to be the right thing to do, the “I will not” person of today’s Gospel who “afterwards changed his mind and went.”

So, we’re a mix. Sometimes we say one thing and do another. Other times we refuse to do the right thing, but then repent and seek forgiveness.

Here’s another opinion of mine:
Where you and I stumble the most is precisely in the area that Jesus keeps emphasizing over and over – our attitudes and behaviors toward the very people Jesus claims will be “first” in the kingdom of God – the people the Jewish leaders at that time considered “unclean;” the people they believed should be avoided at all costs, ignored, dismissed from the Temple, and viewed as “impure.”

Two millennia later from the time in which this Gospel was written, these very same people are the ones we still tend to designate to be “impure”:
The homeless, the mentally ill, the imprisoned, the immigrants, the impoverished.

And yet, these are precisely the ones Jesus embraced: the ones he allowed to wash his feet with their tears and dry them with their hair; the ones he told us would be “first” in the kingdom of God.

How can this be? Why would Jesus choose them?
Most of us, after all, would have the opinion that we’re the hard-working ones; we’re the ones who have demonstrated willpower and obedience and strength of character – and all those other qualities that make for good citizens and loyal church goers.

Perhaps the opinion of St. Paul in the poignantly beautiful reading from Philippians we heard today will suggest an answer to these questions:
“Have in you the same attitude that is in Christ Jesus … who emptied himself taking the form of a slave.”

All the people listed in the Gospel by Jesus as being “first” are those who are power-less, “emptied” people. They are the people who have been brought to their knees by terrible hardship even to the point of being forced to take the “form of a slave.”

But here’s the great surprise:
What little they do have in their lives is the very thing Jesus is most looking for – room for God. They now have the space for the Spirit to become operative so that true transformation can take place.

This was the opinion of Jesus:
The people most pre-disposed to radical change in their lives were those who had nothing to lose. They were people who were not just hungry but starving for liberation and transformation.

So, in the end, my opinion is still the same as that of St. Paul:
“Have in you the same attitude that is also in Christ Jesus … who emptied himself taking the form of a slave.”

What is your opinion?

Ted Wolgamot, Psy.D.