I don’t have a story or a movie scene to get us started today or TV show to talk about. I just have a question. By what authority are you here? By whose authority are you sitting in this church this morning? Maybe you could ask it as “Who authorized you to be here?”
There are several meanings you can attach to authority in that sentence. Authority can be power. Authority can be influence or ability. So it’s a question that could be asking more than one thing. “Who told you to be here?” Or “Who made you want to be here?”
I think the question, at its core, is this: Why are you here? Why on a sunny Sunday morning are you sitting in an uncomfortable pew, listening to a bald guy you barely know talk for 30 minutes?
Let’s read today’s scripture.
Matthew 21:23-32
The question is not a general, rhetorical one. This is a specific question asked of Jesus for a specific reason. Jesus and his disciples have come to Jerusalem. Now they stand in the Temple, or attempting to enter the Temple anyway.
Just the day before Jesus rode into town on the back of a donkey. Hundreds, maybe thousands, of people greeted him. Waving palm branches. Shouting, “Hosanna.” Then Jesus and his disciples, and likely a large part of the crowd that welcomed him into town went to the Temple. And there, in front of everyone, he flipped over tables, kicked over chairs, and drove out those who were buying and selling in the Temple. He came to town and immediately challenged the leaders of the Temple.
This was a system the approved of, they authorized. And this hick, country preacher saunters into town, sways the crowd with his slick words and then comes in and attacks the Temple itself. The nerve!
Then he stayed there a while. After driving out merchants and moneychangers, and accusing the Temple leadership of corrupting the Temple, the ‘House of Prayer,’ he didn’t run away. He stayed in the Temple court and began healing the sick and the blind and the lame. The gall!
How dare he! How dare he come in and challenge them like that and then rub their noses in it by teaching and healing. And then allowing people to call him “Son of David.” They knew what that meant; the people wanted a Messiah. They wanted someone to lead them to freedom from Rome.
And now, a day later, he’s back. He comes along with his band of merry men. Sauntering along like nothing happened. And he expects to get back in the Temple?
The chief priest and elders weren’t going to allow that. They wanted to know why he did such things. They wanted to know by what authority he did what he did. Sort of a “What gives you the right?” moment. So they ask, “By what authority do you do these things?”
They ask this question to try their best to discredit him. I’m sure they stayed up all night trying to figure out how to get the crowds to turn on him. So now, in the crowded Temple court they approach and they ask their question.
And they probably expect him to answer with the name of a teacher. They want to know who his teacher is, because if you know someone’s teacher then you can better know what they are about. And you get a good idea of how to counter their claims. Because no matter whom your teacher is, their authority cannot trump that of the priests and elders. Their authority comes from God through a long line of Temple leaders dating all the way back to Moses & Aaron, sort of. There were a couple of hiccups in the pedigree, but in essence their authority came from the priestly lineage.
So they ask for the name of Jesus’ teacher.
But Jesus, being a good rabbi, answers their question with a question of his own. In a split second, Jesus turns the tables. The Temple leadership sought to discredit Jesus, but he turned it into a fight for their own credibility.
Jesus asks them a question he feels certain they will not answer. And he’s right. He asks them about John the Baptist. He basically asks them the same question about John that they asked of Jesus.
They can’t answer it because they know if they answer heaven, then Jesus will call them hypocrites for not believing him. If they say it was of human origin then they fear the response of the crowd. Because John was popular. Many Jews viewed John as a prophet. He still, even after his death, had a huge following. He was very popular. So they didn’t want to upset the crowd.
So they cop out. “We don’t know.”
So he tells them a story. A parable. A father tells his son to go work in the vineyard. He says no. The father tells his other son to go to the vineyard to work. He says OK. The first son changes his mind. He said he wouldn’t go, but he does. The second son, well, it depends on your perspective I guess whether he changed his mind or lied. Either way, one son did the father’s will. The other did not.
Jesus asks, “Which one?” The Temple leaders answer, “The first.”
Jesus tells them, yep. And by the way, you are the second son. And the tax collectors and prostitutes who listened to John and repented are going to the Kingdom before you will. Because you heard John, but you didn’t believe him. They changed their minds, you didn’t. They believed him and repented, you, not so much.
You know, this is another one of those stories where the Jewish leaders get a bad rap. Yes, Jesus calls them hypocrites. Yes, they really act like hypocrites. But we are so quick to read this story and to judge them as evil and think, “Boy, I’m glad I’m not like them!” But are we any better?
All of us here have told God, “I will do your will.” Or if we put it in the context of Jesus’ parable, “I will go to the vineyard.” And all of us have just like the second son in the parable, forgotten or lied or somehow not followed through on that promise to do God’s will. To follow God’s call for our lives.
What is our call? What is God’s will for us? Well, it’s individual. It depends on your call. But we have some guide lines.
At the end of Matthew, Jesus talks again about the Authority he is given. Matthew 28:16-20. Making disciples. That’s our call. We have other hints.
Matthew 25:31-46.
Make disciples. Help the least of these. That is our vineyard.
You may be thinking that this sounds like salvation by works instead of by faith. No. It’s not. Living out God’s call for us is not the source of our salvation. That comes by faith.
We simply accept God’s gift of grace. Know that we are sinners, know that we cannot save ourselves, know that Jesus death and resurrection are the source of our salvation and accept God’s gift of grace.
But, by accepting God’s grace, we are saying, “I will go into the vineyard.” “I will do your will."
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