October 1, 2017 – Matthew 21:23-32
Matthew 21:23-32
The Authority of Love
Lectionary 26A – October 1, 2017
First Lutheran Church – Winnipeg, MB
I am so glad I didn’t get into conversations with Jesus,
like the poor chief priests and the elders on that day long ago in the temple!
Okay: I will set the scene for you – it might give you some sympathy for why they ask Jesus
by what authority he is doing “these things,” whatever they may be.
After healing and teaching and forgiving and including all over the countryside,
Jesus finally arrived in Jerusalem yesterday.
It was the Palm Sunday scene with people welcoming him on a donkey.
There is a lot of excitement – and a lot of nervousness.
Many are excited that Jesus is the one who will set things right and
maybe get rid of the occupying Romans.
But others are nervous that Jesus will indeed stir the people up and make trouble,
people like the chief priests and elders,
many of whom are profiting from Rome’s occupation.
Still, they are the ones who are nominally in charge.
They are the authorities of the temple, where the people worship and sacrifice to God.
Well, Jesus immediately goes to the Temple to establish his authority there.
And what does he do?
He makes a big scene!
He overturns the tables of the money changers and throws them out!
He says he’s cleaning his father’s house! Making it a place of worship again!
Rather than a place where people are exploited!
And, naturally, the people in charge, the chief priests and the elders,
want to know by what authority he is doing these things.
Just like if someone came in and went down to the kitchen where our counters count
the offering after worship and overturned our retro formica table –
we’d want to know by what authority he or she was doing that!
So that is what they ask him today: by what authority are you doing these things?
He asks them in turn a question that roots the authority of what he is doing
in the ministry of John the Baptist.
That is a weird thing to do.
So let’s unravel that answer, because it’s important.
John announced that God was doing a new thing.
He announced that God’s reign of justice and healing and love and forgiving and sharing
was coming into the world in a new, dramatic way.
And he invited everyone to be part of that.
And who responded to that invitation?
Not maybe the people you’d expect, at least not right away:
not the religious leaders, not the well-to-do, not the respectable.
But rather the misfits, the outcasts, the looked-down-upon: as Jesus says,
tax collectors and prostitutes and such-like.
As Jesus says in the story he tells to illustrate:
The ones who responded were those who initially said “no” to God’s invitation to do God’s will.
And the ones who didn’t respond were those who had presumably accepted the authority of
the Bible and its teachings, who but who said “no” to John’s invitation.
Now the interesting thing about the parable is this:
It sounds kind of harsh on first reading,
like Jesus is rebuking or admonishing the chief priests and elders.
The point, certainly, is the doing of God’s will:
doing those things that the tax collectors and prostitutes accepted the invitation to do:
participating in God’s mission to share generously, to heal, forgive, and include.
They get it.
Those who have become followers of Jesus are doing it.
They said “no” with the first part of their lives, but are saying “yes” now.
They are, as Jesus says, “going into God’s reign” ahead of the chief priests and elders.
But there is a lot of grace in Jesus saying that “they are going in ahead,” right?
They are going in ahead, but it’s not too late for you chief priests and elders,
just like it wasn’t too late for the tax collectors and prostitutes.
It’s not too late.
There is still time.
There is still time to have a change of heart, a change of mind, and join the tax collectors and
the prostitutes in doing the will of God,
which is the will for justice, and equity, and healing, and sharing, and forgiving.
It’s not too late for anyone.
The thing is, we don’t really know the motivation for any of the characters in the story,
as Pastor David Lose points out in his commentary on this story this week.
Jesus doesn’t provide a backstory for anyone.
We don’t know what led the prostitutes and the tax collectors to become
tax collectors and prostitutes in the first place.
And we don’t know what led them to change their minds.
We don’t really know what motivations and circumstances led them to say yes.
And we don’t really know what motivations and circumstances let the chief priests and
elders to say no.
We don’t really know all the circumstances of other peoples’ lives.
We don’t know what ultimately motivates some people to come to worship and
be part of community or why some people don’t.
We don’t know why some are unimaginably generous and others are not.
We don’t know all the reasons why some will bend the knee during
the American National Anthem and others will remain standing.
We don’t know why some recognize Jesus to be the one who will turn things in this world
around and why some do not.
That is one of the great mysteries of Christian life.
Luther struggled with the question and got angry.
Jesus undoubtedly struggled with the question of why some responded to the call and
invitation of him and John the Baptist and why others did not.
But it’s so important to really pay attention to what Jesus is saying here in this story.
It is of paramount important in this moment in history that we are going through.
This story is usually interpreted as illustrating the heightening tension and
divisiveness between Jesus and the chief priests and elders.
And undoubtedly there was tension.
But Jesus’ response in this parable is not intended to heighten the tension.
For sure: he is trying to get the attention of the religious leaders,
as they are undoubtedly capable people who have resources and who are
well placed to be able to help people and participate in God’s coming reign.
But he is not so much here, I don’t think, chastising them or admonishing them as much as he is
telling them: it’s not too late. The invitation still stands. The door is open.
He is saying: look at the tax collectors and prostitutes:
you maybe thought it was too late for them.
But look! It wasn’t! They are doing God’s will.
They are doing the same things I have been doing.
Healing the sick. Feeding the hungry. Caring for the lonely. Forgiving the sinful.
It was not too late for them – and it is not too late for you to have a similar change of heart.
You and them: you are all God’s children, you are all God’s sons and daughters.
You are all made for apprenticing to God’s tasks of loving in the world.
Jesus does not condemn.
Jesus does not judge.
Even Jesus does not presume to know everything that is going on these people’s lives.
So neither should we.
Our only response should be to re-affirm our commitment to
the mission that Jesus invites us into, the mission to
love bless heal and set free this whole world and every person in it.
And to look at others with the same eyes of compassion as Jesus,
and not presume to know their motivations but to respond with encouragement and
compassion.
This is hard.
Jesus knows it is hard – he ultimately suffered death on a cross rather than judge anyone.
But he moved forward with compassion – he always moved forward with compassion.
Even for those he disagreed with, even with those who put him to death.
Because ultimately that was his authority: Jesus had the authority of love.
Love for those who did God’s will – and for those who did not yet do God’s will.
This is such an important story in our time and in our place,
when we live in a culture that is increasingly divided and increasingly judgmental.
With Jesus we must continue to look at our neighbours with love –
those sitting beside us as well as
those across the aisle from our own political perspective.
We must continue to speak out and we must continue to invite rather than judge.
We must continue our work as a witness to the great love we claim to work on behalf of.
So together, let us say, “Amen.”
Pastor Michael Kurtz
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