Collision course
Lines
are being drawn in the sand. A collision course is being set. Jesus arrives in
Jerusalem to public acclaim and to the outrage of powerful opponents. Yet the religious
elite are afraid of the crowds, for now. Jesus is brazen in his critique of
their stewardship of the temple and the teaching of the Torah. The holiness of
God’s temple has been defiled by traders. The authority of Jesus is again
questioned, this time by the High Priests, the true power behind the temple
cult. Yet the eagerness of the lowest of the low to enter into the kingdom life
(the crooks and whores who changed their lives at John’s baptism, for example)
is where true holiness and godliness resides, says Jesus. These ordinary people
whose lives have been transformed by the generous grace of Jesus are the last
who shall be first.
It
struck me today that we should pay special attention to the teaching of Jesus
in this his last week before his crucifixion. And so we will shortly look at
the parables and conflicts of this chapter.
But
first, how bewildering it must have all been for the disciples? The tension
must have been unbearable. They must have been hoping that the triumphant
arrival in Jerusalem signalled that Jesus’ dire predictions were out of step
with the reality. He WAS being hailed a king, a messiah. Perhaps there would be
a bloodless coup? Perhaps the High Priests and Temple Guard would welcome him
after all? But Jesus does not help himself. In this chapter, he goes out of his
way to provoke further hostility and opposition. In Matthew’s account, Jesus,
fresh from fulfilling yet more prophecies (by entering Jerusalem on a donkey),
heads straight into the temple precincts and effectively throws down the
gauntlet to the High Priests. Here is the Son of God raging against an economic
system that had been built up around the religious obligations for sacrifices. He
is raging because every soul should have unfettered access to a place of
prayer. Yet here the outer courts have become a marketplace where quick-witted
sharp-minded traders were making a mint out of slower country folk coming to
the temple to carry out their obligations. As we commit ourselves to opening up
our church to the community so it is a place of prayer for all people, what
obstacles do we still need to demolish? Everyone has a yearning for prayer.
We
are in the last week of Advent as we cover the last week of Jesus’ life. We are
strangely anticipating the birth of Jesus, with the angel’s chorus (at least in
Luke) praising God and whispering news of peace and goodwill to all people. And
here we read that the goodwill of the Passover pilgriming country people and
their praise of Jesus, with their loud hosannas, unnerves the city folk. The
whole city is shaken up by Jesus’ arrival, asking ‘who is he?’ (how I will
always remember Joan Davies in our Passion Plays asking that question at the
very beginning of each play).
Then
the High Priests, who jolly well know who he is, because their spies have been
following his progress up from the country, ask him what authority he has to
teach the stuff he teaches. Jesus, now in pugnacious mood (after the withering
of the fig tree incident and overturning the tables) will only answer if they
answer his unanswerable question – or, at least, a question they know they
cannot answer without falling into a trap. They form a huddle but cannot win.
These men, so well-versed in disputation and the law and the prophets, were
shown up to be fools by a country preacher. And worse is to come: Jesus has
them in his sights with his two stories. He reels them in and then hits them
with the punchlines.
In
the first teaching, Jesus highlights the importance of kingdom action over
words that are not converted into action. A son who says ‘no’, changes his mind
and does what his father asks him. The other son, who says ‘yes’ fails to take
any action. One flatters to deceive – these are the High Priests. The others experience
a conversion of attitude and take action – these are the lowest people whose
lives have been truly changed by the kingdom. Jesus pulls no punches. The High
Priests and the religious leaders are the former. The thieves and prostitutes
who responded to John’s baptism of repentance, these are the ones guaranteed to
get into the Kingdom of the Great Reversal first.
And
then, as if to rub their noses in the humiliation, Jesus tells another parable
against them – with his role as Son of God in the spotlight. He winds
them up completely with this teaching. He tells a story of injustice and
murderousness, where a son sent to collect rent from tenant farmers is killed
after they had disregarded previous servants sent to receive what was owed. He
gets them to comment on what should happen to those tenants – they should be
evicted and better tenants brought in, ones who will pay their rent on time.
And then he turns the tables again, and says that this is what is going to
happen to them.
And
they get it! And they want to get him arrested. But they are afraid of the
people because they know him to be a prophet. And so the drama is suspended for
another episode. Matthew seems to portray Jesus as still very much in control
of events. He knows he is heading for the cross. Yet, he is doing all he can to
provoke those who will take matters completely out of his control. He is moving
into the Passion, when he becomes the one who is done to. There appears to be
no turning back now.
Those last words remind me of the Sunday School song I learned as a child and which effected me deeply as a nine-year-old, when I first began to realize to be a Christian had to be a conscious choice.
I have decided to follow Jesus;
I have decided to follow Jesus;
I have decided to follow Jesus;
No turning back, no turning back.
I have decided to follow Jesus;
I have decided to follow Jesus;
No turning back, no turning back.
Though I may wonder, I still will
follow;
Though I may wonder, I still will follow;
Though I may wonder, I still will follow;
No turning back, no turning back.
Though I may wonder, I still will follow;
Though I may wonder, I still will follow;
No turning back, no turning back.
The world behind me, the cross before
me;
The world behind me, the cross before me;
The world behind me, the cross before me;
No turning back, no turning back.
The world behind me, the cross before me;
The world behind me, the cross before me;
No turning back, no turning back.
Though none go with me, still I will
follow;
Though none go with me, still I will follow;
Though none go with me, still I will follow;
No turning back, no turning back.
Though none go with me, still I will follow;
Though none go with me, still I will follow;
No turning back, no turning back.
Will you decide now to follow Jesus?
Will you decide now to follow Jesus?
Will you decide now to follow Jesus?
No turning back, no turning back.
Will you decide now to follow Jesus?
Will you decide now to follow Jesus?
No turning back, no turning back.
Until I got my my student Bible , I didn't understand why Jesus opposed the merchants. Where were people meant to get unblemished animals from? I didn't understand what money changers were either. Sacrificial animals were sold to pilgrims at inflated prices. Roman coins that were in circulation,at the time, could not be used in the temple. The coins had on them the head of the Roman emperor, an affront to the Jews who looked to God as their King. This currency could not be used as an offering in the temple; it had to be exchanged for temple money, and extortionate profits were made when the money was exchanged. Everyone involved with the temple benefitted from these profits, so by his actions, Jesus threatened their livelihood. Little wonder his actions caused such a stir. I wonder what we would think of Jesus if he came into our houses, churches or places of work and started throwing things out.
ReplyDeleteWhen I have read the second parable of the vineyard in the past, I have thought to myself that I would not have given my farm to tenants. I would have farmed the place myself. I missed the point completely. The tenants are us (not just the pharisees) and the servants are the prophets who have been sent to tell us about God. I also would not have sent my only son to face these men. I would have had them punished long before that. How merciful God is, how loving. When I reflect on Jesus teachings, I feel like the disciples who said ,
" This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it."
How often we act without thinking. How often we reject God in our actions without realising it. How do we treat the earth, whose tenants we are?
Psalm 8, part of which Jesus quoted in this chapter, is a psalm that marvels how wonderful God is:
Psalm 8
Lord, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!
You have set your glory in the heavens.
Through the praise of children and infants
you have established a stronghold against your enemies,
to silence the foe and the avenger.
When I consider your heavens,
the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars,
which you have set in place,
what is mankind that you are mindful of them,
human beings that you care for them?
You have made them a little lower than the angels
and crowned them with glory and honour.
You made them rulers over the works of your hands;
you put everything under their feet:
all flocks and herds,
and the animals of the wild,
the birds in the sky,
and the fish in the sea,
all that swim the paths of the seas.
Lord, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!
We are approaching the time for Christmas carols, and churches will be starting their service with ‘Once in Royal David’s City’. We shall be reflecting on ‘that child so dear and gentle’, and ‘love’s pure light radiant beaming from his face’. Unless we are careful, the picture we paint will be just one of Jesus ‘meek and mild’. Such a picture of humility and meekness may even stray into the triumphal entry into Jerusalem. Great leaders don’t enter cities on donkeys, they come with fanfares of trumpets and riding huge horses to make an impression, not with cries of ‘Hosanna’ from the people and riding a donkey and a colt; such rides are seldom dignified! What sort of a leader is he going to be?
ReplyDeleteWe read on to the arrival at the temple and the attack on the money-changers. Who is this angry young man? Where did all this rage come from? Is this really the donkey man? When I first started reading about Jesus, I was puzzled by this story. If Jesus was going to get angry, there had been many earlier events that could have provoked him; what about his rejection by his friend and neighbours at Nazareth, or the constant needling of the Pharisees’ questions, or the slowness of the disciples to learn, or James and John asking for places at his right and left hand. There had been plenty of opportunities in the last three years for him to ‘lose it’, but no record that he did. There have been odd times when he has been sharp, as when he first told the disciples what would happen to him, and Peter said it mustn’t be so. Jesus spoke sharply to him then, ‘Get behind me, Satan’.
So why the apparent failure of anger management now? Jesus vented his anger not on the sellers of sacrificial animals, but on the people who changed the money into the temple coinage, and so exploited the worshippers for their own profit. In so doing, they profaned the Temple as a house of prayer and worship. Jesus was angry at the cheating, exploitation, and desecration. In contrast, when I get angry, it’s usually because I feel slighted and my ego is dented; I usually rage at something that hurts me. But that is not Jesus’ motivation – he is angry at bad actions that hurt others. That is a wholly different reason to get angry than a wounded ego.
If we are trying to be like Jesus, we too should get angry at actions that hurt, cheat, degrade and lessen others. We have a right to watch the news bulletins and seethe at the selfishness and hypocrisy we see, the cruelty and self-interest, the lack of compassion and humanity. As Christians, it is more than a right to seethe, it is a duty to seethe! Provided that we go further and act to remove the cause of the anger – that’s Christian anger management, a great spur to action. Such anger can be a great driving force for good, and it often stems from a deep-felt compassion for those injured; it is a sharing of the pain.
But his anger towards the money-changers doesn’t last long, and it doesn’t deflect Jesus from the work of establishing the kingdom. As we read on, we see him healing those brought to him, and urging people to greater faith through the curious story of the withering of the fig tree. In Mark’s version (11, 12-14 & 20-24), unlike Matthew’s, the tree was cursed one day, and withered the next, but both writers ascribe its destruction to it being barren of figs when Jesus was hungry. It seems like a rather petulant act by Jesus, so what can we make of it? The fig tree had long been used as a symbol for the nation of Israel, which was not producing good fruit at the time of Jesus, and may be taken, with the cleansing of the temple, as indicative of the new start being offered by Jesus and the superseding of the old rather barren religion.
The disciples were amazed by the speed at which the tree withered, and Jesus used this mastery over nature to urge his hearers that anything was possible for someone with faith. And so the kingdom work continues right into the heart of Jerusalem.
My immediate reaction to this chapter was to be reminded of both Jesus and John the Baptist's call to "Repent, for the Kingdom of heaven has come near". Jesus has arrived at the heart of Jewish worship, at the Temple in Jerusalem, and his Kingdom has come very near, and yet the religious leaders do not want to change, refuse to repent and accept his teaching of grace, and opposition increases.
ReplyDeleteThe simple, yet powerful, short parable of the man with 2 sons (v.28-32) is, I think, only found in Matthew's Gospel. And it makes me question how truly obedient are we to the will of the Father? How often do we say one thing and do another? How often do we say one thing and actually think another? Advent is a time to repent: Lord have mercy.
Matthew shows us repeatedly that Jesus is for those who know their need for help, those who want to change, those on the edge and beyond, the last, and Jesus' love will never stop reaching out to them, whether those in power like it or not. No wonder MMJ ends with a psalm of praise, and I'm grateful that someone at church this morning encouraged me to keep praising. So as we begin to draw near to the manger at Bethlehem our voices and hearts can join the infants and nursing babies in praise (v16).