16th Sunday after Pentecost, 09/28/2014

Sermon on Matthew 21:23-32, by Andrew Smith

²³And when he entered the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came up to him as he was teaching, and said, "By what authority are you doing these things, and who gave you this authority?" ²⁴Jesus answered them, "I 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. ²⁵The baptism of John, from where did it come? From heaven or from man?" And they discussed it among themselves, saying, "If we say, ‘From heaven,' he will say to us, ‘Why then did you not believe him?' ²⁶But if we say, ‘From man,' we are afraid of the crowd, for they all hold that John was a prophet." ²⁷So they answered Jesus, "We do not know." And he said to them, "Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.

²⁸"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.' ²⁹And he answered, ‘I will not,' but afterward he changed his mind and went. ³⁰And he went to the other son and said the same. And he answered, ‘I go, sir,' but did not go. ³¹Which 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 the prostitutes go into the kingdom of God before you. ³²For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes believed him. And even when you saw it, you did not afterward change your minds and believe him.

Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

The text for the sermon is the Gospel reading for today.

We have skipped ahead chronologically in the Gospel of Matthew from where we have been. Just last week, Jesus was teaching in Galilee. In our reading, Jesus has already triumphantly entered Jerusalem. If we were going to read this passage according to when it happened, we would read it during Holy Week, probably on Tuesday, if Mark is correct. There is this growing antagonism between Jesus and the Jewish authorities. Within a few days, of course, the chief priests and the elders will have succeeded in their plans to do away with Jesus. But not before we get this teaching from Jesus about His authority and its source.

The Jews who began to follow Jesus were very familiar with what we know as the Old Testament today, but they then became familiar with the writings of the Gospel writers and the apostles' letters. They would hear large portions of the Gospels or even an entire Gospel read at one service. And when we do this, we get a sense of a bigger picture. Words start popping up and we can draw connections and equivalencies with them. Authority is one of those words. It pops up throughout Matthew. Early in Jesus' ministry people recognized that Jesus taught with authority. Remember? "You have heard it said, but I say to you..." It was the pagan centurion who first recognized Jesus authority to heal with a word. The centurion knew what authority was because he had it. He could say to this one, "Come" and to that one "Go." And they did. Certainly Jesus could heal with a word. When Jesus forgave the sins of the paralyzed man and the argument broke out about whether He could do that or not, it was an argument about Jesus' authority. Do you remember what He did to prove that He had authority to forgive sins? That's right, He healed the man. Part of the reaction of the religious leaders against Jesus is that the day before this run-in with Jesus in our reading today, He had cleansed the temple, which caused quite a ruckus. They wanted to know, perhaps rightly, by what authority He claimed to do these things. But they also wanted to give Jesus enough rope to see if He could hang himself too and so they tried to trap him with this question.

Jesus has authority to do what He did to teach what He taught because He had come from God; Jesus was God's own Son. Jesus had unique divine authority. So did John the Baptist. That's why Jesus answers them the way He does. He responds to their question with a question about the ministry of John the Baptist. Jesus asks whether that ministry was from heaven or from men. He doesn't ask this question as a simple rebuke-as if to say that if the authorities cannot make up their minds about John, neither will they be able to do so about him. Jesus question is far deeper than that. If they answer Jesus' question correctly, they'll have the right answer to their own question. See, if they respond, "From heaven," then they have to validate John's ministry and recognize that John pointed to Jesus. Jesus is not avoiding the question by asking one of his own. He's not a political candidate. Jesus answers the way He does so that the honest seeker of truth cannot but see who He truly is. At the same time Jesus' question rather strongly hints to the rulers that their false step goes back to broader issues than Jesus' identity. If they cannot recognize Jesus' authority, it is because their unbelief has blinded their minds to God's revelation. They are not just misinformed, they're unbelievers. Failing to recognize the authority of Jesus is failing to believe in God.

We often reject Jesus' authority every bit as badly as the temple authorities. We do it all the time without even realizing the seriousness of our rebellion. Jesus commanded us to pray and yet we too often don't and we certainly don't do it daily and if we do pray we try to cram it in while doing something else. That's like trying to have a conversation with someone when you're watching television. It doesn't work. It's not what we call quality time. We're not just too busy to pray; we've stacked our lives with activities and hobbies that leave us no possible time to do it properly. In what way is that not rejecting the authority of Jesus? And that's just one example.

There's a strong streak of anti-authority among us today. There's an anti-government streak out there because so many in government have abused governmental authority and I'm talking about both political parties, by the way. All it takes is one corrupt policeman or one corrupt governor and the whole system is in question. The most shameful examples of the abuse of authority lie within the Church, not just those other Christians, those Roman Catholics with their abusive priests and their enabling bishops but in our own church body too. There is terrible abuse of authority aplenty even among us. But should that cause us to reject even the authority of Jesus? Or the even authority of those who exercise authority rightly? I want to point out all policeman are not corrupt nor are all governors nor are all pastors or church leaders. In our reaction against the abuse of authority by others we reject even the authority of the one to Whom all authority on heaven and earth has been given and we end up judging God. Look at the language of the Old Testament lesson today. God has the same problem with His people in Ezekiel's day as in Jesus' day as today. "Yet you say, ‘The way of the Lord is not just.' Hear now, O house of Israel: Is my way not just? Is it not your ways that are not just?'" We're not actually anti-authority; we are in fact claiming all authority for ourselves.

Jesus continues this interaction with a parable which to anyone is a thinly veiled criticism of the religious leaders that are accusing Him, "the good son." And they understood that Jesus was talking about them. Jesus compared them to tax collectors and the prostitutes and said these bad people will get into the kingdom of God first. Jesus, presents such vile characters as more worthy of salvation than the "so called" good people.

I think many Christians don't think very seriously or don't think seriously often enough about the battle we're up against every day. I think we've lived for years in this religion we've constructed for ourselves that I might call, the I'm a good enough religious person religion. I'm a good person. I do good things. I come to church, at least sometimes. I sing in the choir. I pray, at least occasionally. I read Scripture, of course not every day but hey, I'm not one of those religious nut jobs. I got confirmed! At one point I learned the catechism, of course don't ask me about it now. I could go on. I think you know the people I'm describing. We've been going through the kingdom teachings of Jesus all summer and one thing that has been working on me the whole time is how much I that kind of religion just doesn't measure up to what Jesus taught. Jesus came from heaven to bring with him the active reigning of heaven again on earth. Jesus is radically reordering the world by His presence and His Word. His idea of authority is so radical that Jesus, the one to Whom all authority had been given actually submitted Himself to the authority of those who falsely accused Him and unjustly condemned Him to death. That's a radical submission to authority. And so my job is not to help you become a member of the good enough religious person church but rather to preach the kingdom of heaven into you. That's our salvation itself-the submission of Jesus even unto death.

I should also not the flip side to the I'm a good enough religious person religion and that's the I'll never be a good enough religious person. Jesus very clearly says no repenant sinner is ever turned away, even tax collectors and prostitutes, even the repentant abuser, even a repentant I'm a good enough religious person who realizes they're not good enough. Turn and live. Turn and live. Amen.

Would you pray with me? "Chief of sinners though I be, Jesus shed His blood for me, Died that I might live on high, Lives that I might never die. As the branch is to the vine, I am His, and He is mine." Amen.

The Rev. Andrew Smith
Heavenly Host Lutheran Church
Cookeville, Tennessee, USA

E-Mail: smithad19+prediger@gmail.com

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