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Respectability Isn’t Righteousness: The Parable of Two Sons

Respectability Isn’t Righteousness: The Parable of Two Sons

Last updated on: September 27, 2026 at 10:18 am by Herb Montgomery

Respectability Isn’t Righteousness: The Parable of Two Sons 2026-09-27T10:18:43-04:00 Herb Montgomery

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Two Sons and a Vineyard

Photo Credit: David Kohler

Two Sons and a Vineyard

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.’ Matthew 21:28 (NIV)

Next in this reading, we encounter Jesus’ story of the two sons. This story carries a powerful message because it challenges the tendency of religious and political authorities to judge people by their social status, reputation, or outward words rather than by their lived transformation. Jesus tells the story as his response to the chief priests and elders, the powerful leaders of the temple state. These leaders were not merely religious figures in the modern sense. They also possessed social, economic, and political influence. Their authority allowed them to define who was righteous, who was sinful, who belonged, and who stood outside the boundaries of respectable society.

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This is Part 2 of the series Actions Over Words

(Read this series from its beginning here.)

One Son Follows with Action, the Other with Words

In Jesus’ story, the first son initially refuses his father’s request to work in the vineyard. His words are disobedient. Yet he later changes his mind and goes to work. The second son gives the correct answer at first. He says, “I will, sir,” but his words are never followed by action. Jesus asks which son actually did what the father wanted, and the answer is obvious: the one whose actions ultimately answered the father’s request, even though his first response in words was wrong.

Overturning the Social Hierarchy

The significance becomes unmistakable when Jesus identifies tax collectors and prostitutes as those entering the kingdom of God ahead of the religious authorities. These were people whom the elders and chief priests had labeled as morally inferior. Tax collectors were often associated with exploitation and collaboration with systems of imperial domination. Prostitutes occupied a deeply stigmatized social position and were frequently treated as though their identities could be reduced entirely to their social status. Both groups were marginalized, judged, and excluded by those who considered themselves righteous.

But Jesus’ words radically overturn that social hierarchy. He refuses to accept that social respectability is the same thing as righteousness. Those who have been publicly labeled as sinners are capable of hearing a call to justice and participating in the work of justice. Meanwhile, those with religious authority may speak the language of obedience while refusing to change their behavior.

Saying “I Will” Without Entering the Vineyard

This story therefore warns against a faith that is satisfied with correct language, public declarations, performance, religious credentials, or moral reputation as ends in themselves. Justice requires more than saying the right things. It also requires concrete choices toward justice and away from injustice. So a person or institution may claim to love the poor while supporting systems that keep people poor. They may speak about peace while benefiting from violence. They may proclaim equality while excluding marginalized people. Like the second son, they may say, “I will,” while never entering the vineyard.

The vineyard in the story can be understood as a symbol of the work necessary to create a more just world. We have work to do: feed people, challenge oppression, repair harm, dismantle systems of exclusion, and build communities where those pushed aside are welcomed and valued.

The story calls us to actions rather than to mere claims. The first son changed in his choices, not just in his words. The tax collectors and prostitutes labeled sinners by the elite power brokers of Jesus’ society responded to Jesus’ calls to justice. Those whom society deems as “less than” are often the first ones to do so. This story challenges communities today to stop confusing respectability with righteousness and to measure faith not primarily by what people claim to believe but by whether they are willing to change and join the work of love, justice, and liberation.

Justice for Sex Workers

I want to share one last word regarding one of the two communities that are specifically named in this week’s reading: sex workers. The spirit and example of Jesus in the Gospels should lead us to pursue justice for sex workers by refusing to treat anyone as disposable, morally inferior, or beyond the reach of dignity and compassion. Again and again, Jesus moved toward people pushed to the margins by religious and social systems. Rather than condemning them, he shared tables, restored dignity, and challenged those who used morality to justify exclusion. Following Jesus in this context means listening to sex workers, defending their humanity, and working for their safety and freedom from violence and exploitation. It means challenging poverty, stigma, and systems that deny people meaningful choices. Jesus calls us to stand with those society marginalizes and to build a world where every person is treated with compassion, justice, and sacred worth.

Justice for sex workers begins with recognizing their full and equal humanity. Too often, sex workers are spoken about as problems to be solved, moral failures to be condemned, or victims without agency. When we commit to justice, we reject this dehumanization and insist that no person loses their dignity because of how they survive economically.

Sex workers, like all workers, deserve safety, freedom from violence, access to health care, housing, and legal protection. They should be able to report abuse, exploitation, assault, or theft without fearing humiliation, discrimination, or punishment. Justice also requires confronting the economic conditions that produce poverty, homelessness, inequality, discrimination, and lack of opportunity and so make survival increasingly difficult. A just society should expand people’s options rather than punish them for the options available to them. Justice must also distinguish between respecting the agency of adults and opposing exploitation, coercion, trafficking, and abuse for everyone. Protecting vulnerable people should never require stripping others of their humanity.

At its heart, justice asks us to see sex workers not as disposable people at the margins, but as neighbors. Their safety matters. Their voices matter. Their needs matter. Liberation means creating a world where no one is exploited, criminalized for surviving, or denied dignity, and where every person has the resources, justice, and freedom necessary to flourish.

Begin each day being inspired toward love, compassion, justice and action. Free.

.Begin each day being inspired toward love, compassion, justice and action. Free.

General Christian

Politics and Religion

About Herb Montgomery

Herb Montgomery, director of Renewed Heart Ministries, is an author and adult religious educator helping Christians explore the intersection of their faith with love, compassion, action, and societal justice. You can read more about the author here.

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September 22, 2026

By Whose Authority?

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September 29, 2026 The Parable of the Vineyard and the Politics of Justice

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