Jesus challenges the Temple leaders to change. And we’re being invite to do the same. Even in the midst of a pandemic.
Jesus and the desire to protect what’s normal
Proper 22A | Matthew 21:33-46, Exodus 20:1-20
Let’s start with a contrast.
Two weeks ago, we heard a parable about a landowner. Jesus is telling people that the Kin-dom is like a landowner who keeps going out into the town square to find laborers for the vineyard. All day long, he goes out, finds all the people he can find, and puts them to work. And at the end of the day, he pays them all the usual day’s wage.
This week, we’ve heard a parable about some wicked tenants who keep getting chances to exploit the landowner. They are so greedy, they are willing to kill the man’s son in an attempt to steal the land.
Quite the contrast, right?
You might recall that the former parable came after a pious young man came looking to inherit eternal life by simply being a good person.And Jesus said that this, of course, was good, but he’d need to sell his stuff, give the proceeds to the poor and follow Jesus to get what he wanted.
Peter hears this and is like Great, but we’ve given up so much already! What is ours? Jesus pushes them to see that it isn’t about competition; our competitive spirit. That’s when he says the Kin-dom is like a generous landowner. Because the disciples, like those first laborers to get in, aren’t competing with the last ones in. Or getting more for the trouble.
The Kin-dom is for everybody. For our daily bread.
Entering Jerusalem
After Jesus tells that parable, he heals some people, rides a donkey into Jerusalem, and drives some moneychangers out of the Temple. You know, like you do.
The chief priests confront him over these radical actions. Which is when Jesus tells them a parable of two sons: one who does the will of the Father and one who doesn’t.
Today we get the follow-up. A parable about tenants who don’t do the will of the Father. Remember, he’s still talking to the chief priests and the Pharisees. The ones confronting him about authority. And when he’s done:
“When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they realized that he was speaking about them. They wanted to arrest him, but they feared the crowds, because they regarded him as a prophet.”
Now recognize that where you are sitting in the story is not as a neutral observer. You don’t get to be on the sidelines in matters of the Kin-dom. We are all the children of God called to this way of love.
So then, are we the chief priests and Pharisees, who are obsessed with authority and who have the power to make decisions and fix the things around us? If so, then Jesus compares us to wicked tenants who steal, cheat, and murder.
And if we are the disciples, who are trying to wrap our heads around this way of love, we are compared with laborers who think we ought to be paid better than our neighbors.
The Ten Commandments
Let’s jump back to today’s Hebrew Scripture reading. The Ten Commandments serve as important background for why Jesus is directly confronting the chief priests and Pharisees. His critique is based on their tendency to follow the letter of the law while violating the spirit of it.
Consider the material of the commandments:
Love God alone. Not idols. Don’t swear by God’s name. Keep the day God hallowed as holy. Love God. And honor your parents like your divine parent. And treat everyone with divine grace. Don’t be stealing, defrauding, exploiting, murdering other people. That’s off limits!
This is their central teaching. So Jesus tells a story about people willing to defraud and steal and murder. And the chief priests and Pharisees know that Jesus is talking about them.
Nice White Parents
This week I started binging a podcast by Serial called “Nice White Parents”. It’s an exploration of segregation and education inequality by looking at the history of a New York school. Inequality is not preserved by chance.
We want equality. But we want success for our children more.
And like the Pharisees, we see ourselves being called out for this inequality when we don’t believe we’re racist. It isn’t us, we say. Except that we also think the song is about us.
What they do
And what do the Pharisees do? They start conspiring. Not openly, but behind the scenes. Not as a democracy, where all might be heard. Because they knew they’d lose. Not academically, because Jesus had them dead to rights.
They were looking to cheat. Steal. And eventually murder. Just like Jesus said they would.
And why? To preserve their way of life.
And they’ll claim it is what God wants.
Don’t avoid
In Matthew’s gospel, these parables Jesus tells in Jerusalem at the end of his life are terrifying. They highlight the dark side of those going against the will of God. This isn’t territory we like to mine. None of us.
But this is avoidance. We don’t want to see ourselves a certain way and we certainly don’t want to see God in that way. Judging, vengeful, manipulative, evil.
We are heroes in our story. We want to be good.
But I don’t think Jesus tells this parable because he thinks the Pharisees are bad (and wants to tell them so). He calls them to repent and turn from sin and toward God. That’s his big move.
They don’t have to cheat and steal and eventually murder to have their way. Just like we don’t have to have racism and bigotry define our world.
Jesus names the problem of having something worth killing for knowing God has commanded you shall not kill. This whole line of thought is off track. We’re building entire legal structures to justify what God has plainly called wrong.
So what do we do? What Jesus has said from the beginning.
Repent.
We’re here to hear a good word of God’s grace. We’re gathering here to share in that grace knowing that this pandemic has been long and our eagerness to resume is enormous.
But Jesus didn’t come into the world two thousand years ago to confirm the status quo is just fine. He didn’t show up because we had things under control. We didn’t get the Incarnate Word, the Bread of Life, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, the Son of God, the Child of Humanity to show up here to be like Just go about your business like its normal.
Jesus embodies change. Not just then, in that moment. But now.
Change.
Some of what we’re doing, some of what we’re trying to do is just not right. Change and return to what God is calling us to do.
Returning to God is not the same as returning to the stuff we did at a different time with different circumstances. Return to God so we can hear what God is telling us for now.
That is the work of repentance. Bringing us in alignment with God, not our norms. Not our vision of the Law and its rules.
This is about asking ourselves:
- How might we embody putting God first, not our desire to see each other or our weariness about masks?
- How are we learning from the Hebrews wandering in the desert and demanding food and water, believing God had abandoned them. When God was with them the whole time? Can we learn from this?
We are gathering now utterly unsure of what the future holds, what we will be able to do, or what the next six months will bring us. But we can be sure that God is here. God is with us. Feeding us the Bread of Life.
We are already being nourished.
And as difficult as this moment might be, we are not separated. Not from God. Not from each other. Even when we can only communicate through screens. Even as we feel lonely. We are made one by the grace of God.
This my friends is the good news of repentance. Change. Grace. That the love of God is with you anyway. At your best? Yes! At your worst? Yes! What about at your can’t get out of bed because everything seems terrible? Yes! Or I’m so lonely, I just need to find somebody to talk to? Yes! God is in it with you.
The people wandered so long in the desert, not because they couldn’t find the promised land or because God was torturing them. But because they spent 40 years wanting to go to the Promised Land by returning to Egypt.
We will get through this with God. And that is the only real normal.