One of the great challenges of preaching is that the order of our readings is not always helpful when we consider the calendar of our time and the calendar of the Gospel we are reading. We all know that this is the first of October, and that the season is fall. Therefore, we are coming to the end of our year 2017. There will be some conferences coming up for me, there will be the 500th anniversary of the Reformation, deer hunting, Thanksgiving, and did you know that there are only 84 days before Christmas? Yet this text pulls us back to Holy Week and Easter.
This text immediately follows Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. In trying to be in both places at the same time, we experience a kind of spiritual whiplash. It is both spring and fall; it is Holy Week, and yet, we live with the knowledge and promise of Easter resurrection; it is a time of already but not yet. So, we come to this text with the chief priests and the elders dazedly asking, “By what authority are you doing these things?” And in order to get our feet under us more firmly, we need to understand that Jesus has just come into Jerusalem, he has just cleansed the temple, he has been healing the blind and the lame in the outer courtyard of the temple, that is, the courtyard of the Gentiles, and now we come to this question: “By what authority are you doing these things?”
I think that it may be helpful to see in our mind’s eye the place of this confrontation because its architecture has something to do with the situation. The architecture has something to say about the authoritative holiness of the place.
In Josephus’ history of the Jews, he describes the temple of the Jews as this magnificent structure. It was a major architectural feat of the time. It was built on the top of Mt. Zion and was cantilevered off the top of the mountain over the marketplace below. From a distance, the temple seemed to float in space above the city. In order to get to the highest place of the temple, the Holy of Holies, which was just behind the high sacrificial altar, you entered through the Courtyard of the Gentiles. From there, one went up a flight of steps to the Women’s Courtyard, and then up a flight of steps to the Men’s Courtyard, and from there to the high sacrificial altar and then to the Holy of Holies that was entered only once a year. This whole structure was built out of white limestone, and the tops of the walls were covered in gold so that when the sun shone on it, Josephus said it hurt the eyes to look at it, reminding all of the people that to look on God’s self was to be blinded and die.
So, the building itself had this holy authority over the people. As a symbol, it reminded all who looked upon it that the Jewish people, in the words of Isaiah, were to be “a light set upon a hill and a light unto the nations.” The building complex itself was a reminder to the people that, as God’s word had been brought down from Mt. Sinai, had been given to the people, and had become the central identity of who God’s people were, so now God’s word continued to come down to them and remained at the center of all that they did. It embodied the witness of God’s presence in the world. This word and witness came down from on high, from the Holy of Holies, past the high altar of sacrifice, through the men and the women of God’s chosen people, into the courtyard of the nations, more commonly referred to as the Courtyard of the Gentiles (ethnos), this place where everybody could come. For its time, it was like our United Nations. It was a place where all could come in peace to learn of God’s plan for all of God’s people.
Having learned of God’s plan, the Courtyard of the Gentiles was the place where one could begin to cast off the signs of the world and enter into the presence of God’s holiness. In the process of leaving the world behind, even the money that could be used needed to be changed from the worldly Roman coins to temple coins. You see, the Roman coin carried the head of the emperor stamped upon it, and, as such, it was regarded as idolatrous. We will hear more about this problem later this month.
In this courtyard of exchange, this place where sin offerings and other ritual practices began and led to becoming right with God; in this place that provided the means for initiating the progressive process of being cleansed and lifted up before God as a righteous follower, worthy of being in relationship with God; in this world-gathering-place known as the Courtyard of the Gentiles, that is, the nations, Jesus disrupted the rhythm and order of daily living. This courtyard is the one Jesus cleansed just before today’s reading.
In this Holy Week time, and in this autumntide, we are confronted with Jesus, healing and teaching, not from on high, but from the bottom of the temple complex, from the outer limits of the temple, from the world itself. In essence, Jesus is saying that God’s work begins at the root of life, in the foundations of daily living, and does not depend on the power of the chief priests and elders bringing God’s word down from on high.
Instead, relationship with God is about living amid the struggles of the world, gathering together, worshipping and praising God for the gifts of life. God’s relationship with the people is not something to be imposed, but expressed like the Psalmist’s words, “Let my prayers rise up, like incense before you; the lifting up of my hands as an offering to you.”
As such, the ritual practice of cleansing one’s money and one’s self is not something for the profit of the temple, but for the benefit of God’s people. It is a benefit that begins with repentance and right relationship with God and God’s people. It begins with forgiveness that allows us to forgive, not changing coin for coin, but changing the way we live, and, through believing, understanding that even tax collectors and prostitutes have a privileged place in the kingdom of heaven.
This is the context of the confrontation we witness today. The chief priests and the elders have come down from the highest places of authority, knowing where their authority comes from (“We are children of Abraham, and we’ve been elected.”), but they were not clear about Jesus’ authority, so they asked, “By what authority are you doing these things, and who gave you this authority?” It was an amazing question for the day.
What they were not prepared for was Jesus’ confidence in his authority and the condition Jesus put on his answer. “Was the baptism, done by John, divine or of human origin?” These chief priests and elders were unable to come to consensus, so Jesus told them this parable, “A householder had two sons….” When he was done telling the parable, he asked the priests and the elders which one did the will of his father? And they answered the first one, right?
What I find interesting about this answer is that really neither son did the will of the father. The first son shamed his father by publicly refusing to work in the vineyard. Even though he changed his mind and went to do the work, his public shaming of his father remained. The second son, who said that he would go, but didn’t, also shamed his father by not living up to the commitment he had made. So, neither son did the will of his father.
But, by answering Jesus’ question the way that they did, the chief priests and the elders set themselves up for the final answer that Jesus gave. Their answer here also answered the question they did not want to answer. The tax collectors and the prostitutes, the ones who believed John and came to him in faith in the wilderness, were like the first son.
Let’s be very clear here. Jesus was not lifting up being a tax collector or a prostitute as being somehow praiseworthy. What he was lifting up was their willingness to change their lives, to turn their lives around, in faith. The chief priests and the elders who also came out to see John in the wilderness at the Jordan affirmed him there, but did not change their ways. They were like the second son.
Now, if the chief priests and the elders had said that the second son had done the will of the father, Jesus could have said, “Then look at yourselves in the mirror; you that claim to do the work of the Lord, but don’t.” Or If they had remained uncertain, Jesus could have said, “So now you understand, it is not by what you do, but by what God does for you, that makes all of the difference, that allows you to be saved.”
As we continue to read these parables from Mathew, we hear how they were answered and therefore believe that this is the way they have to be answered. But there are more ways to answer these parable questions, and it is why they continue to speak to us over time. It is why these parables continue to be alive for us, offering us the possibility of, “What if the people had answered these questions differently? Could the kingdom of heaven look different today? If it could, then are we able to change what the kingdom of heaven looks like for others? Might we make that kingdom look more inviting yet real?”
The chief priests and the elders asked, “By what authority are you doing these things, and who gave you this authority?” Yes, it was an amazing question for the day. It is also a question we need to ask ourselves today: “By what authority did Jesus do these things, and who gave Jesus this authority?”.
We know where Jesus’ authority comes from. The answer is not brought down to us from on high, from chief priests and elders, but through the witness of some very common people—from women who went to care for his body and witnessed the events of the open tomb. Because of their witness, we recognize, claim, and give authority to Christ in our world and in our lives.
Jesus’ authority came from the people he healed and taught. They had firsthand knowledge that God’s love and caring is not something to be mediated by priests and elders, or by anyone else for that matter. Christ comes down to us directly.
Next, why am I standing here before you today? What authority do I have? We might immediately run to Jesus for this authority, but I tell you today that the authority I have from Jesus is no greater than the authority you have from Jesus in Baptism.
So why is it that I have the authority to stand before you and speak? It is because you have called me to be your pastor. You have given me the authority to speak in your midst and to publicly proclaim the Gospel and our ministry together. So then, this authority that I have is not something I get to claim for myself, but this authority is something that is given or conferred.
In addition, “By what authority are we doing what we do, and who gives us that authority? By what authority do we sit and judge the rightness or the wrongness of the answers that have been given in the parables? By whose authority do we speak of, bear witness to, God’s work in the world?” We are given this authority by gathering together here each Sunday morning affirming each other’s faith and supporting one another in our daily ministries as we go out into our daily work. Here we gather to be forgiven for our shortcomings and empowered for the work ahead of us proclaiming what we have been given.
So, we come; we come to this hungry place seeking God’s words of hope for us, “The body and blood given and shed for you”, and seeing God’s vision of hope ahead of us. Our paradise that we look to, our hope for the world, is not some building, some construct, some architectural feat of simulation, it is a vision of hope that depends on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness. We are then sent out into the world to proclaim what we have seen and heard with the authority from Christ’s work for us and the assurance of that authority through the faith and confidence of one another.
So, it is that our authority comes from God and from one another, not always for the public ministry of the church, but for our individual ministries in our daily lives; in our relationship with our neighbors, our families, and our assembly. As Jesus is sent by his father, so through baptism, we are sent into the world being lifted up with Christ in the authority of the resurrection.
With the authority you have given me, I now affirm in you, the authority to go in God’s gracious love to love and serve the Lord. Thanks be to God.
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