The Passage<\/p>\n
And when he entered the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came up to him (Jesus) as he was teaching, and said, \u201cBy what authority are you doing these things, and who gave you this authority?\u201d\u00a0 Jesus answered them, \u201cI also will ask you one question, and if you tell me the answer, then I also will tell you by what authority I do these things.\u00a0 The baptism of John, from where did it come?\u00a0 From heaven or from man?\u201d<\/p>\n
And they discussed it among themselves, saying, \u201cIf we say, \u2018From heaven,\u2019 he will say to us, \u2018Why then did you not believe him?\u2019\u00a0 But if we say, \u2018From man,\u2019 we are afraid of the crowd, for they all hold that John was a prophet.\u201d\u00a0 So they answered Jesus, \u201cWe do not know.\u201d\u00a0 And he said to them, \u201cNeither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat do you think?\u00a0 A man had two sons.\u00a0 And he went to the first and said, \u2018Son, go and work in the vineyard today.\u2019\u00a0 And he answered, \u2018I will not,\u2019 but afterward he changed his mind and went.\u00a0 And he went to the other son and said the same.\u00a0 And he answered, \u2018I go sir,\u2019 but did not go.\u00a0 Which of the two did the will of his father?\u201d\u00a0 They answered, \u201cthe first.\u201d\u00a0 Jesus said to them, \u201cTruly I say to you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes go into the kingdom of God before you.\u00a0 For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes believed him.\u00a0 And when you saw it, you did not afterward change your minds and believe him.\u201d<\/p>\n
[English Standard Version]<\/p>\n
\u201cTherefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for God is at work in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.\u201d<\/p>\n
[Philippians 2.12-13]<\/p>\n
In the Name of Christ + Jesus Our Lord<\/p>\n
You may have noticed this past week how the world\u2019s life is junky and mis-directed; its gods hamper the lives of its people because their presence is continuously streaming from those focusing on themselves.\u00a0 You can select any media and immediately become aware of the wrongs in the world\u2019s life.\u00a0 We fully understand how the world struggles to meet such wrongs with its built-in solutions, solutions whose tendency is to be not that much better or helpful; rather, they tend to dispirit our lives and wear us out.<\/p>\n
As we come into the Church\u2019s Liturgy this weekend, we are well aware that the Lord\u2019s people need a time-out from all this junk, mis-direction and wrong! \u00a0Thankfully, the Lord gives us that time-out in today\u2019s Gospel!\u00a0 The passage is made up of two paragraphs, the first one is dominated by a key biblical word \u2013 \u201cauthority;\u201d the second one is dominated by another key biblical word \u2013 \u201crighteousness.\u201d<\/p>\n
Our Lord, with his unique and eternal way, weaves the impact of these two paragraphs into our lives through very clear illustrations that communicate the vitality and the \u00a0necessity of the Life he brings to this world through his birthing, dying, rising and ascending.\u00a0 His Life contrasts sharply with the life given us by the world at birth, a life shaped by the gods we create and maintain, a life that always appears attractive and compelling, a life reeking of destructiveness and death.\u00a0 This contrast is very important to note as the Lord\u2019s Life spills out from today\u2019s Gospel.<\/p>\n
Today\u2019s conversation between Jesus, the chief priests and the elders of the Jewish tradition is taking place after Jesus entered Jerusalem the previous Sunday (the Sunday we remember every year at the beginning of Holy Week).\u00a0 Since our Lord made his triumphal entrance on that day, the following events have occurred \u2013 He has cleared the temple of its income-producing businesses; He has healed blind and crippled people; He has been confronted with the anger of the chief priests and scribes; He has cursed a fig tree so it won\u2019t produce fruit anymore; He has been talking with his disciples about faith in him and the Father.<\/p>\n
These events provide the context for the two-part question hurled at him by the chief priests and the elders \u2013 \u201cBy what authority are you doing these things and, who gave you this authority?\u201d\u00a0 It is important to note that the Greek word here for \u201cauthority\u201d is \u201cex-ou-sia,\u201d a meaning that it is a reality unique to the persons of the Holy Trinity.\u00a0 It is not \u201cauthority\u201d as the world understands it, it is an \u201cauthority\u201d displayed most vividly in the cross of the Son!<\/p>\n
Jesus then responds with a question of his own \u2013 \u201cDid John\u2019s baptism come from heaven or from the world?\u00a0 He is trying to get these Jewish leaders to see the difference between the two realities, but they don\u2019t catch it.\u00a0 So they proceed to not answer him while giving their excuses and acknowledging they don\u2019t know from where John\u2019s baptism comes.<\/p>\n
It is intriguing that the Greek word for \u201cknow\u201d suggests a knowing which is different from the world\u2019s usual way of understanding.\u00a0 The world bases its knowledge on five senses \u2013 seeing, hearing, feeling, smelling, touching \u2013 while the Lord\u2019s \u201cknowing\u201d pushes far beyond those senses.<\/p>\n
Based on the responses of the Jewish authorities, Jesus informs them that he will not reveal the authority that is driving his actions.\u00a0 Instead, he relates a parable of two sons, pressing the authorities to see the difference between the realities of his Life and the world\u2019s.\u00a0 The story of this parable is well known: one son first says \u201cNo\u201d to his father, but changes his mind and says \u201cYes;\u201d the second son first says \u201cYes,\u201d but forgets it and lets it slide into a \u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jesus turns this parable against the chief priests and elders by commenting that the people who are collecting taxes for the occupying government (the Roman Empire) and are making a handsome living for those collections as well as those people who sell their bodies for sexual reasons will make their way into his Life before they do!<\/p>\n
This is startling because the chief priests and elders are extremely sure of their status<\/p>\n
before the LORD God.\u00a0 They consider themselves much better individuals than the<\/p>\n
prostitutes and tax collectors!\u00a0 On the surface their lives look that way.\u00a0 They do not participate in questionable or immoral activities, they support the temple and all its activity, they understand well the teachings of the Torah, they worship the LORD God on a steady basis.<\/p>\n
This is the problem, however, their \u201cYes\u2019s\u201d to the LORD God are automatic, they look at their lives and see no need to change their minds or anything else about those lives.\u00a0 They see no difference between their lives and the Life Jesus is proclaiming. \u00a0Through this parable, however, he is holding them responsible for such seeing \u2013 eternally!<\/p>\n
On the other hand, those collecting taxes for the Roman government and those selling their bodies for sexual reasons see a huge difference between their lives and the Life Jesus is proclaiming.\u00a0 Confronted by him, they change their minds and they are brought into his new Life \u2013 eternally!<\/p>\n
This parable takes our breath away, but it has no problem slamming into the lives of Jesus\u2019 people then and his people now!\u00a0 It does so with Jesus stating that John the Baptizer came to them in a way of righteousness.\u00a0 The Jewish authorities did not believe him, but the tax collectors and prostitutes did! \u00a0\u00a0Jesus also comments that when the authorities saw John\u2019s way, they did not change their minds and believe.\u00a0 It is important to note that the Hebrew word for \u201crighteousness\u201d is much more than a person living a clean, proper life; it is the Life pouring out from an individual who is being rescued by the Lord\u2019s saving and sustaining activity.<\/p>\n
We are afflicted with the same \u201cNo\u2019s\u201d and \u201cYes\u2019s\u201d as the Lord\u2019s Life surfaces from his Scriptures along with the Sacraments of Baptism, Forgiveness and Supper.\u00a0 Some of us see no difference between our lives and the Life Jesus proclaims.\u00a0 We could call ourselves \u201clapsed Christians,\u201d that is, people who are pulling away from their baptismal promises.<\/p>\n
This occurs when we consider ourselves the Lord\u2019s people even though we don\u2019t take part in his Scriptures and Sacraments!\u00a0 This occurs when we confirm our baptismal promises just as we\u2019re becoming teenagers and the world\u2019s life begins to lean on us so we can make our way out of the Lord\u2019s Life!\u00a0 Lapsing occurs when we honestly think that the way we live makes it possible for us to stand in the Lord\u2019s presence without any repentance or confession!\u00a0 We are quick to note that we\u2019re not on same level as those individuals whose personal activity puts them in the local news!\u00a0 Lapsing occurs when we eat the Son\u2019s Body and drink the Son\u2019s Blood while resisting and ignoring our Lord\u2019s attempts to break our lives down so they can be restored to his own Life!<\/p>\n
These occurrences, along with many others, create people who become \u201clapsed Christians,\u201d that is, people who don\u2019t see any differences between their lives and the Life that Jesus proclaims!\u00a0 They don\u2019t even shudder that they may be falling out of the Life into which they were baptized!\u00a0 Such people are quick to say \u201cYes\u201d when their Lord comes calling (the world birthed them to respond that way!), but the reality is that they ignore him!<\/p>\n
Thankfully, though, there are people who do see the differences between our lives and the Life Jesus proclaims.\u00a0 We call such individuals \u201cfaithful Christians,\u201d that is, people who work hard to have their lives crossed steadily by the Lord\u2019s Scriptures and Sacraments!\u00a0 This occurs when we are startled that the Lord has marked us as his people because we know we are not worthy or deserving of his Life!\u00a0 This occurs when we recognize that our natural, self-seeking ways create and maintain the rocky relationships we have with one another!\u00a0 This occurs when we are aware that the Lord\u2019s dying and rising breaks the grip placed on us by sin, Satan and death!\u00a0 This occurs when we, along with all the other redeemed people, realize it is the Life given at Baptism which takes hold of us, steers us through this world\u2019s life and carries us into eternity!<\/p>\n
These occurrences create people who become \u201cfaithful Christians,\u201d that is, individuals who see the enormous difference between their lives and the Life Jesus proclaims.<\/p>\n
Such people are quick to say \u201cNo\u201d when their Lord comes calling, but then the Lord stirs them to change their minds and say \u201cYes!\u201d\u00a0 Remember, too, that the \u201cYes\u2019s\u201d which give way to the \u201cNo\u2019s\u201d always draw us further into the eternal life headed by the unholy trio of sin, Satan and death!\u00a0 Remember also that the \u201cNo\u2019s\u201d which give way to the \u201cYes\u2019s\u201d always draw us further into the eternal Life headed by the Father, Son and Holy Spirit!<\/p>\n
The LORD God continuously pushes his Life into a world where people think it is normal to wrap their lives around themselves.\u00a0 The LORD God steadily pushes his Life from his holy places into the lives of people seeking relief from a junky, distracted and wrongful world.\u00a0 That is why there are \u201cfaithful Christians\u201d who realize they have been grasped by his Life and are not willing to walk away from it!<\/p>\n
Now may the peace of the LORD God, which is beyond all understanding, keep our hearts and minds through Christ + Jesus Our Lord<\/p>\n
—<\/p>\n