MATTHEW
22
No more questions
There
is a relentlessness about the account now. It feels like Jesus' enemies are
circling like sharks around a wreck, or, as Psalm 22 describes, like strong
bulls with opened mouths like a ravening and roaring lion. No sooner have the
Chief Priests ended their confrontation then the Pharisees step in to trap him.
And when they have failed, the leaders of the Sadducee party launch an attack. All of them hope for
drawing Jesus into saying something incriminating that will fit into a charge they can
bring. They want Jesus to damage himself. But all that happens is this country
preacher beats them at their own game, sending his various opponents off
speechless. And at the end of this episode, they stop asking questions for good;
for his opponents are unwilling to lose face in public anymore, says Petersen’s
paraphrase.
As
the road to Calvary gets closer, so Jesus' parables get tougher. There may be
something about attending to these teachings that is harder to bear as the
shadow of the cross gets stronger. Jesus is in the equivalent of a debating bearpit
in the temple precincts. He is surrounded by the crowd and stage left and right
are different wings of the theological movement that is Judaism.
Jesus
responds to this claustrophobic situation of being surrounded by telling yet
more stories. This time it is of a wedding banquet being organised by a king
for his son. But none of the invited guests show up. In fact, they even kill
the messengers bearing the message (the prophets and John the Baptist) that
everything is ready. So instead of seeking the guests already invited, the king
spreads the invites around the streets and anyone, good or bad, is urged to drop
everything they are doing and attend. One comment on custom is needed here. It
is suggested by every scholar that we need to understand that it was normal for
all guests to be given their clothes for the celebration by the one responsible
for the wedding.
So,
when we get to the king’s inspection of the guests, he is not being as unjust
as we might have thought at first sight – his question is justified: Why are
you not wearing the right clothes? What are these clothes signifying,
however? Some commentators suggest they
are ‘the garments of salvation’ (Isaiah 61.10): "He has clothed me with the garments of salvation, he has covered
me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself with a garland,
and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels."
Many are invited to the wedding
feast of the king of the Great Reversal, but only a few make it, is Jesus’
interpretation. Jesus challenge to the holders of power in the Judaic religious
system is this: ‘I am the gate, the door – not you. I am wresting control back
for God. God invites. God decides. Not you. Every place at the banquet of the
kingdom of the Great Reversal will be filled. But those who refuse to wear the
garments of salvation will, by their own decision, be cancelled out of the
celebration.’
This parable is received and
understood and immediately the Pharisees go on the attack with their question
about taxes, which Jesus nimbly deflects, leaving them speechless. The
Sadducees then ask their clever question about the resurrection, something they
don’t believe in – and again, Jesus sees through their deceit and not only
refutes their rejection of the resurrection but makes it all about God being
the living God who is in a living relationship with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob
(who are of course dead to this earth but alive with God). Finally, the
Pharisees return with another verbal assault. But Jesus, after an elementary
exposition on the law, turns the tables and asks them their interpretation of
Psalm 110 and the relationship between the longed-for Messiah (who had to be a
Son of David according to the Prophets) and David, who called him his ‘Master’.
How can a son be a master? Petersen suggests that what stumped the Pharisees
was their literalism. They did not have the tools to interpret the scriptures
because they were hidebound by literalism. Literalism may lead to extremism. Extremism
leads almost inevitably to violence. And in their case, because they could not
battle with Jesus on his terms, the only action left was to plot his death.
They had no more questions
because they could not get the answers they wanted.
Faith is about questions. When
we run out of questions, perhaps we run out of faith. When his opponents ran out of
questions, Jesus ran out of life.
How often have we heard this year, both in the UK and in the US, the demand that "we get back control"?
ReplyDeleteJesus' teaching in this chapter reminds us that it is God who reigns, and we fool ourselves if we think otherwise. The Kingdom belongs to God not to us. It has God's face or image stamped all over it not ours. The Kingdom is an invitation. The Kingdom is life, and life giving. The Kingdom is love.
Jesus constantly challenges the Pharisee and us to relinquish the illusion of control we live with, and are fooled by. The Kingdom is God's.
So when I walked, today, to what has recently become for me "my" place of sanctuary in the Woods I was disturbed to find a large group of alcohol enlivened, selfie-taking, music blaring, swearing teenagers already there. Who'd invited them to this meeting place with God? I admit I felt put out. With the wedding hall full I still decided to take my usual seat, realising how easy it is to fall into the trap of thinking we are in control. God's Kingdom is so much bigger, so much more gracious. so much more loving than we naturally are. We can either choose to let our hearts become hardened, cling on to control, and resist grace, or let ourselves be gently transformed by Jesus whose arms of love will soon be opened wide on the cross.
In his time at Jerusalem Jesus increasingly has to refute the criticisms of the Pharisees, Sadducees and other religious leaders, although he knew that he was not going to sway many, if any, of them. Time is running out to convince the people and the disciples of the central message of his mission, so he increasingly concentrates on the main points, and his discussions with the authorities usually end with a memorable sound-bite. After the parable of the king’s banquet we get ‘For many are invited, but few are chosen.’ The parable is quite complex, relating to God’s dealing with Israel, and is dealt with in the main blog. But this is one of those unnerving statements made by Jesus – at face value a bit like ‘The Apprentice’; have we got hired or fired? Are we chosen to join the Lord and go into business together? Have we really heard and responded properly to the message of Jesus? But it doesn’t work like that; we are the ones that really choose ourselves, because God’s grace is freely given, and we exclude ourselves by not accepting it. The invitation is there, but we have to make the choice to come along to the banquet clothed in God’s grace.
ReplyDeleteThen came the question of paying one’s taxes to Caesar. Back in 17, 24 we met Jesus being challenged whether he paid the local temple tax in Capernaum, and he duly did (via the type of fish we would all like to catch). Jesus neatly side-steps the trap set by the Pharisees and ends up with the sound-bite, ‘Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, but to God what is God’s’. It’s clear throughout the gospel that Jesus was not denying the importance of this material world and the way people are treated in it. His love was expressed in acts of healing, mercy and kindness, and he urged his hearers to do the same. So it is not a case of rejecting life in this world and seeking only the spiritual. It is more a case of rejecting those practices that deny the spiritual world, and encouraging those life-enhancing actions that build up the common life of love and compassion and justice. When we do this, we give to God the qualities of God that come with grace (if we have chosen to accept it). The challenge Jesus issues is to avoid choosing the actions that deny love – in his specific context including much of what the Pharisees were doing. We are back to making a choice again!
Jesus is tackled by the Sadducees, who were ‘resurrection-deniers’ with a spurious question about marriage after the resurrection. [My RE teacher told us to remember for ‘O’ level they were the group that denied the resurrection because they would be ‘sad, you see?’, and I have never forgotten it.] Another critical sound-bite results for the listening crowd, ‘He is not the God of the dead, but of the living’. God is vitally important for us in the here and now. God is the centre of our living now. It was so for Jesus, and he commends it to us.
The Pharisees decide to ask another loaded question about which is the most important commandment – pick one of the ten! Jesus does better and gives them two that encompass the ten, two that have become a cornerstone for Christians in living their life on earth, ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind’. Do this and there’s not much of a person left over not to love God! But it has a companion commandment of equal status, ‘Love your neighbour as yourself’. These are unbeatable as a summary of what Jesus is all about in showing how to follow his way. Do you remember the comments on Chapter 18, and the song ‘I did it my way’? Here’s the essence of ‘doing it God’s way’.
So with time running out we have these wonderful truth-filled sound-bites, and they continue in the next couple of chapters leading up to the climax of the gospel story. Listen to them as Jesus utters them, absorb them and treasure them. Empty your phylactery and refill it with them – sorry, that’s the next chapter!
This Christmas, we will be getting ready for our own banquets; Christmas banquets. We will don our finest and sit down to meals with those who have been invited wholeheartedly, those with whom we will be glad to share the banquet. Some will be sharing the banquet with those whom they would rather not. It will be a challenge to love our neighbour as ourselves. I ponder that commandment often. Does it really mean what it says? How is it possible to love people who have wounded us beyond our ability to endure. What does it mean to love? I recollect reading about the Greek words for love that are used in the Bible, so I looked this up. Here is what I found from Wikipedia and The New Open Bible.
ReplyDelete"Physical love- Eros
Used mostly in the Old Testament referring to lovers
Family love- storge
Today , as the Christian family is under attack by secular and humanistic forces, the fondness people share for their relatives, especially love between parents and children, is very crucial. Paul uses the negative form of the word in Rom1:31 and 2Tim 3:3
Philostorges combines two words. ( philia and storge) Paul uses it to command us to be kindly affectionate to one another. Rom 12:10
Affectionate love- philia
This is where the name Philadelphia comes from: city of brotherly love. This city's name (from Rev3) speaks of warm hearted , spontaneous affection, liking, attractive, appeal and friendship.
Fortunately for us, God never commanded us to have this kind of love for everyone, because our reactions to different kinds of people are often beyond our control. However if we do obey the commands to choose love we often end up liking and being fond of the people who originally turned us off.
God the Father loves the son in both this affectionate way - John 5:20- and in the love of choice. John 3:3
Love of choice-agape
Commonly agape is called " divine"love. This is misleading because it is used for love from man to God and from God to man. It is also used for love between people. It is divine in the sense that it is the love that God commands, the love of choice. Even if someone does not appeal to us we can still show agape to that person- accept him, treat him right and do all we can to help build up that person in the faith.....
In John3:16 the verb "loved" expresses this concept of agape. God ( even in our sin) decided to love us, because it is His nature to love..."
Love and forgiveness and intertwined. I don't think they are separable, so what does forgiveness mean? I recollect hearing, a few years ago, of an organist who was murdered on Christmas eve as he walked back home from church after one of the services. His wife was interviewed a year or two later. She said she had forgiven the murderer of her husband. Does that mean she could share a banquet with them? What does forgiveness mean? Does Jesus accept that forgiveness and love mean different things to different people? Maybe, I should say," I need to accept Jesus' definitions of love and forgiveness".
I remember a lady who told me she had been sexually abused by her father. What would forgiveness and love mean to her? Would Jesus hold it against her if she said she could never forgive?
Let us pray for all the banquets, that the " joy of the angels, the gladness of the shepherds, the worship of the wisemen and the peace of the Christ child " ( from the Christmas blessing) may be ours this Christmas...