Lesson Focus:
Proper
belief in Jesus mandates that we are obedient, even when it goes against what
we are accustomed to believing and doing..
Catch up on the story:
Since
we last looked at Matthew’s narrative Jesus has predicted his death at the
hands of the chief priests and scribes, fielded a question from James and
John’s mother asking that they be in positions of power in Jesus’ coming kingdom,
and healed two blind men. He has also
entered Jerusalem for the last time.
Crowds of people shouting “Hosanna to the Son of David” greet him! While in Jerusalem he cleans out the Temple
and curses a fig tree. Even though
Jesus’ death will soon take place, Jesus has much more to teach.
Critical Questions:
1. How
does this text reveal to us the nature and character of God/What is God doing
in this text?
- What does holiness/salvation look like in this text?
- How does an encounter with this story shape who we are and who we should become?
The Text:
The
location for the next couple of passages remains the same. Jesus is in Jerusalem and will spend a good
deal of his time in the Temple. This
will provide an opportunity for the Jewish religious leaders to engage Jesus in
serious conversation. The nature of the
following conversations between Jesus and the religious leaders is rather
antagonistic. This will be plain to see as
we move into this week's text.
Our
text begins with Jesus entering the Temple.
It isn't long before the chief priests and elders of the people lay a
trap for Jesus. They approach Jesus and
put a question to him. Unlike the
questions that others have put to Jesus over the last few chapters, this
question, "By what authority are you doing these things, and who gave you
this authority?" is meant to trap Jesus.
The religious leaders hope that his answer would allow them to publicly
discredit him (i.e., to get him to say he is not the messiah) or that would
allow the religious leaders to bring charges of sedition against Jesus (Jesus
claims to be the messiah which has huge political implications. Rome did not like anyone who claimed to be
King. This is, ultimately, what
happened.)
The
question itself is interesting. The religious
leaders want to know who gave Jesus this authority to teach and preach. It is important to keep in mind that Israel's
religious teachers were officially sanctioned teachers. John Wesley says this, "Which also they
supposed he had no authority to do, being neither priest, nor Levite, nor
scribe. Some of the priests (though not as priests) and all the scribes were
authorized teachers."[1]
So,
if Jesus is not teaching with authority that was officially sanctioned by the
Jewish religious establishment, someone or something else must be giving him
authority to teach with great authority.
Douglas Hare, a commentator on Matthew suggests that the "Question
assumes that there are different kinds of authority and that Jesus is
exercising authority of some kind (this is implied by the second question, 'Who
gave you this authority?'). It asks,
'What is the nature of the authority you exercise?"[2] For the religious leaders there are, most
likely, three sources of authority, God, Satan or Jesus himself. The religious leaders question seems to imply
that they do not believe that the authority that Jesus is exercising comes from
God.
Jesus,
rather than answering the question directly, offers his own question and issues
a challenge. Jesus will ask a question,
and if the leaders are able to answer it, Jesus will answer their question. The religious leaders accept the
challenge. The question that Jesus puts
to the religious leaders is every bit as much a trap as the question that the
religious leaders asked. Jesus wants to
know what they think of John's baptism.
Is if from heaven (of divine origin), or is it of human origin?
The
religious leaders put their heads together and begin to work on an answer. The way the text reads makes us feel that
they know what they want to answer but cannot answer it. Matthew tells us that they are caught in
between a rock and a hard place. If they
say that John, who was loved by the crowds, baptized people with power from
heaven, then Jesus would question them as to why they did not believe. Additionally, John proclaims that Jesus is
the messiah, the one for whom they all have been waiting. If they affirm that John's baptism was from
God then they would highlight, before everyone, their own unbelief. On the other hand, if they deny that John's
baptism is from divine origin the crowds would turn on them. Either way the religious leaders lose credibility.
Finally,
the religious leaders answer Jesus' question.
They take the safest route and declare that they do not know from where
John's baptism came. Since they will not
answer the question, neither will Jesus answer their question. Bruner, and others, believe that Jesus' non-response
hides yet mysteriously announces Jesus' true authority. It also highlights the incompetence of and
illegitimacy of Israel's first-century leadership.[3]
Jesus
is not yet done asking questions. He
immediately asks these religious leaders what they think about this next story
he will tell. There was a father who had
two sons. He approaches the first son
and tells him to go work in the vineyard.
The first son responds that he will not go, but later on he changes his
mind and goes out to work in the vineyard.
So, the father goes to the second son and tells him to go to the
vineyard and work. Immediately, the
second son says that he will go, but then never does. Jesus wants to know who the religious leaders
believe actually did the will of the father, the one who said he wouldn't go
but then did, or the one who said he would but then did not go?
The
religious leaders actually answer this time!
They believe that the first son, the one who eventually went into the
field is the one who did his father's will.
Many of the church fathers have read this story and decided that the
first son represents the gentiles while the second son represents the Jewish
people. After all, Gentiles existed long before Israel became God’s
chosen people. The gentiles rejected God at the first, but
now that Jesus has shown them they way, they are responding.[4] If Israel is the second son, then the story
is fairly condemning of the religious leaders.
They have said they believe and follow God, yet their actions show
otherwise.
It
is also likely that the first son represents the "tax collectors and
prostitutes" Jesus will speak about in just a moment, while the second son
represents the religious leaders themselves.
Either way, the news is not good for the religious leaders who seem to
have missed something very important about who John and Jesus are and what they
are doing.
I'm
not so certain it matters who exactly these two sons represent for this story
to speak to us. For us, our belief that Jesus actually does exercise authority
to teach and direct our lives morally and ethically will be proved true when we
actually do what Jesus commands us to do.
If we truly believe that Jesus has authority, then we will do what Jesus
wants. For Matthew, discipleship always
entails a significant level of obedience.
After
the religious leaders answer the question correctly, Jesus brings some rather
harsh judgment down on the religious leaders.
Even the extortionist tax collectors and prostitutes will enter the
kingdom of heaven before them! It was
people like them who have responded to John's message and now Jesus'
message. Not only have they believed and
repented, but they have begun to be obedient as well. Meanwhile, the religious leaders think they
have belief all figured out, they think they have ethics all figured out too,
but in the end they have rejected John and Jesus. Not even the turning of the most undesirable
people in society to God was enough for the religious leaders to consider that
God might be working in new ways through John and Jesus.
It
is important to note here that Jesus is not making a blanket statement about
all Jews. After all, the tax collectors
and prostitutes that Jesus referenced were part of Israel. Jesus is making a very specific argument
about those who fail to believe even after seeing the work that God was doing
through John and Jesus. This is not the
end of the road for those in Israel who refuse to believe.
So What?
What
does this mean for us? The Jewish
religious leaders where caught in the trap of religious correctness. They held their beliefs very closely. But their determination to believe correctly
caused them to be blind to the new way that God was working through John and
then Jesus. They had become so focused
on one way of seeing the world and one way of seeing God and how God relates to
them and the world around them, that when God began to move in unexpected ways
they were blind to see it. So, they
perceived Jesus as a threat.
Often
times, I believe that this is the temptation for us, to become so focused on
religious orthopraxis, or right practices that we fail to see how it is that
God is working in our world here and now. What put the religious leaders
at odds with Jesus was that they had an alternative vision of what it meant to
be the people of God: rigid conformity to purity codes over compassionate
embrace of the outsider. Perhaps the problem is that we become so locked into
certain traditional ways of being the people of God that we do not see the new
thing God is doing. Perhaps we don't often
recognize that there are "tax collectors and prostitutes" who are
entering into the kingdom of heaven before us because they have recognized the
authority of Jesus when we have not.
What I'm not saying is that we abandon orthodox Christian belief or
traditional practices. No, rather what I
am saying, is that we become more open to different ways that God might be
calling us to go to work in his vineyard.
Critical Questions:
1.
How
does this text reveal to us the nature and character of God/What is God doing
in this text?
a. God
desires that we keep a sufficiently open mind so that we can see where it is
that God is working in our world so that we might respond with faithful
obedience. God is far more gracious than
we often imagine, allowing those who for so long have refused to do his will to
enter into the kingdom.
- What does salvation look like in this text?
a. Salvation
demands that we not only believe with our minds and confess with our mouths
that Jesus is Lord, but that we faithfully answer the call to go to the vineyard
and do the work God is calling us to.
- How does an encounter with this story shape who we are and who we should become?
a. This
passage should cause us to pause and ask ourselves if we are too wrapped up in
maintaining in maintaining the status quo, or certain church customs, or
a hyper-concern with our own personal salvation that we miss out on the new
ways God is working
Our stance should always be one of looking for the work of God in
unexpected ways and through unexpected people.
Specific Discussion
Questions:
Read the text aloud. Then, read the text to yourself
quietly. Read it slowly, as if you were
very unfamiliar with the story.
1.
Why do you think the religious leaders want to
know by whose and what authority Jesus is operating? Under whose authority could Jesus possibly be
operating?
2.
Why doesn't Jesus just come out and say that his
authority comes from God in heaven?
3.
Why does Jesus respond to the religious leaders
question with a question of his own? Why
does Jesus want to know from where John got his authority?
4.
Who and what were the religious leaders afraid
of? Why?
5.
How are we like the first son? How are we like the second son?
6.
Jesus declares that the "tax collectors and
prostitutes" will enter the kingdom before the religious leaders. If the story were set today, who are our
"tax collectors and prostitutes?"
7.
Where is God working in unexpected ways and in
unexpected people in our own community? Are we (the people of God) involved
with his work there?
[1] John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the New Testament,
Fourth American Edition (New York: J. Soule and T. Mason, 1818), 72.
[2] Douglas R. A. Hare, Matthew:
Interpretation: A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching (Louisville:
Westminster John Knox Press, 1993), 245.
[3] Frederick Dale Bruner, Matthew:
A Commentary: The Churchbook, Matthew 13-28, Revised & enlarged edition
(Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 2004), 372. See also: Donald A Hagner, Matthew. 14-28, (Dallas, Tex.:
Word Books, 1995), 610.
[4] Thomas Aquinas, Catena Aurea: Commentary on the Four
Gospels, Collected Out of the Works of the Fathers: St. Matthew, ed. John
Henry Newman, vol. 1 (Oxford: John Henry Parker, 1841), 725.
No comments:
Post a Comment