"'What do you think? A man had two sons; and he went to the first and said "Son, go and work in the vineyard today." And he answered "I will not"; but afterward he repented and went. And he went to the second and said the same, and he answered "I go, sir," but did not go. Which of the two did the will of his father?' They said 'The first.' Jesus said to them 'Truly, I say to you, the tax collectors and harlots go into the kingdom of God before you.'"
I found it important to read this mindful of the context of the verses: More than any of the synoptic Gospels, Matthew is about Jesus' confrontation with the traditional religious authorities of his time, and his confounding of their hypocrisy, abuse of power, collusion with occupying authorities, and insensitivity to the poor and dispossessed (of which there were many, in an occupied territory.) Earlier, the powerful and self-righteous local authorities had called out Jesus for dining with tax collectors and sinners. In the verses just prior to this, they were attempting to get him to say something blasphemous or self-incriminating.
My reading is actually the opposite of yours: With these words, Jesus points out that those who are regarded as sinners by traditional authority, and who rebel against traditional authority ('I will not') may actually be doing the work of God, and thus become part of the kingdom of God. And those who pay lip service to the work of God, but actually do nothing to advance it, will take longer to become part of the kingdom of God.
On edit: An alternative but related reading (and I like this one just as well, maybe even better, but find it less apposite with the context, as well as potentially offensive to non-believers,) is that those who rebel against, ignore, or reject God, but do work that God wants done, are of the kingdom of God before those who profess obedience to God but do nothing of his work.
He goes on to say, 'For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him. But the tax collectors and harlots believed him; and even when you saw it, you did not afterwards repent and believe him.'
hermaneutically,
Bright
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