Matthew 21d

Matthew 21 is an important chapter, so I want to review what was said and done there. Jesus has arrived in Jerusalem and has begun his last week, what we sometimes call his ‘Passion Week’ that ends with his crucifixion. His resurrection comes at the beginning of the next week. How did Jesus get to this point?

 “From that time on, Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and undergo great suffering at the hands of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised” (Matthew 16: 21). 

 Jesus has a strong sense of the mission of God on earth. God has a long-term plan of salvation and the restoration of relationships that began with the creation story. The plan centered on Abraham, then moved forward through his grandson Jacob who was renamed ‘Israel’. The children of Israel were called out of slavery to become a people through whom God could reach the nations (the Gentiles). Sometimes Israel did remember the nations. Isaiah had such a vision: 

 “On that day Israel will be the third party with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the earth, whom the LORD of hosts has blessed, saying, “Blessed be Egypt my people and Assyria the work of my hands and Israel my heritage” (Isaiah 19: 24). 

 However, most of the time, instead of the other nations coming to worship Yahweh,  Israel wanted to become like the other nations. They wanted a king and an army so that they could make a name for themselves. But the divided kingdoms fell prey to nations that had larger armies. The remnant that returned to Jerusalem and Judah turned inward, set up boundaries, and became fiercely anti-Gentile. They restricted access to worship so much that Jesus was disappointed when he entered the temple. The poor, the sick, and the non-Jews were not being cared for by the temple authorities. This is why Jesus had to go to Jerusalem.  

 But we are getting ahead of the story. In today’s lesson, Jesus is moving south toward Jerusalem and there have been opportunities for ministry along the way. As he walked along, Jesus told parables, preached to the people, and healed those in need. 

 “When Jesus had finished saying these things, he left Galilee and went to the region of Judea beyond the Jordan. Large crowds followed him, and he cured them there” (Matthew 19: 1-2).

 Jesus preaches and heals, but he also teaches the disciples apart from the crowds. 

 “While Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, he took the twelve disciples aside by themselves, and said to them along the way, ‘See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be handed over to the chief priests and scribes, and they will condemn him to death; then they will hand him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified; and on the third day he will be raised” (Matthew 20: 17-19). 

 This is news that the disciples do not want to hear, so they don’t hear it. After all, what does God’s plan have to do with suffering? It is the nations (the other people) that will suffer, isn’t it? The idea that Jesus followers serve and suffer is still a hard sell among some so-called Christians today. Despite Jesus’ words to the contrary, they claim that they are not lambs, only Jesus their savior was a lamb, but they are warriors who follow Jesus when he said, “Sell everything you own and buy a sword.” 

 Except, Jesus never said that. Jesus’ only mention of buying a sword involves selling a cloak, but this is a metaphorical way of saying that difficult and hostile times are coming. As Joel Green points out, “The possibility that Jesus’ followers are literally to respond to hostility with a sword–that is, with violence–is negated in {Luke) 22: 49-51 [and in the parallel passage from Matthew below] … the disciples manifest their dullness when they suppose that Jesus opposes his own extensive and emphatic teaching by encouraging them actually to possess (or to purchase) weaponry. His words, “it is enough” are an expression of his exasperation” (Joel Green, The Gospel of Luke, 1997, pages 774-775). 

 Jesus said: “Put your sword back in its place; for all who take the sword will perish by the sword. Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels. But how then would the scriptures be fulfilled, which say that it must happen in this way?” (Matthew 26:52-54).

 Jesus was not going to arm himself and his disciples to fight the Jewish leaders, much less the whole Roman army. Why should he? In the first place, both of these ‘enemies’ have now disappeared from the world stage; but Jesus is still here. Second, scripture is clear that Jesus the Messiah is a different kind of king who brings peace by suffering for his people. The followers of Jesus are not called to kill; instead, they are called to die (Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship, 1958, page 99; see also Matthew 16: 24). 

 Arriving on the outskirts of the city, they “came near Jerusalem and had reached Bethany, at the Mount of Olives” (Matthew 21: 1). In Jerusalem, the chief priests, elders, and scribes ruled temple worship while the Roman army controlled and patrolled the city itself. Jerusalem was a place full of tension, and the Jewish leaders were concerned that what Jesus is doing will make it worse. Jesus entered the city with some of the trappings of a king; but there was no earthly king in Judea any more. Not even King Herod. Jesus has arrived to invite the leaders and the people to repent; Jesus is not there to fight a physical battle but rather a spiritual battle. 

 Then Jesus entered the temple like a prophet who speaks the word of God: “My house shall be called a house of prayer; but you are making it a den of robbers” (Matthew 21: 13). The blind and lame we set free to come into the temple where they had not been allowed to come before; and children began chanting “Hosanna to the Son of David.” 

 This was too much for the priests and scribes who asked Jesus to stop them. Jesus reminded them that Scripture said, “Out of the mouths of infants and nursing babies you (God) have prepared for praise for yourself” (Mattew 21: 16). That was a lot for one day, but the point was made that Jesus, the Messiah and the king that Jerusalem had been waiting for, was also a prophet who was critical of the way the priests and scribes were managing the temple worship and ministering to the people.   

 The next day, presumably Tuesday, the chief priests and elders challenged Jesus to prove his authority to do these things. Jesus silenced them with a counter-challenge asking them to confirm first the authority of John the Baptist, which they refused to do. Then, apropos of this incident, Jesus tells three parables in a row: The Parable of the Two Sons (Matthew 21:28-32), The Parable of the Wicked Tenants (Matthew 21: 33-44), and The Parable of the King’s Wedding Banquet and the Rude Guests (Matthew 22: 1-14). 

 Jesus’ presence in Jerusalem created a crisis for the chief priests, elders, and scribes. Jesus uses the three parables to clarify for them that they are balancing on a knife blade and must fall one way or the other. Since the time of John the Baptizer, who quoted the prophets to challenge them, the ruling elite have been nervous. John invited them to repent along with the more obvious sinners. Now Jesus offers them another chance to make God’s house, the temple, a place of healing for the sick, inclusion for the outcasts, and a house of prayer for all the nations (see also Mark 11: 17).

 To make that clear to them, Jesus offers them three different ways to look at it. First, pretend that a man had two sons, and he told one to go wash and wax the car. That one refused and walked away. Then the man saw his other son, and told him to wash and wax the car. That one said yes, but he got distracted by his news feed and so sat for hours looking at his phone. The first one was shooting baskets, but got to thinking about how he had treated his father, and felt bad about it. So, he changed his mind and washed and waxed the car after all. Jesus asked the elite (in his audience): “Which one of the two did the will of the father?” 

 Or, pretend that you own some land in Indiana, which I do, but you live in Florida, as I do. The harvest is over, but you have not received your share of the sale of the crop. So, you contact your accountant in Indiana to go over and settle accounts with your tenants. The tenants abuse her and send her packing. Then, you contact your lawyer, but he too is roughed up and rudely sent away. 

 Finally, you call your son in Indianapolis and send him to the farm. The tenants think, wrongly, that if they dispose of the son who is heir to the property, then they will own the land. After all, possession is nine-tenths of the law, isn’t it? Actually, not really, although that is a commonly quoted myth. They abuse and end up killing the son. The tenants are going down the wrong path; something is wrong. Perhaps they have turned the corn into moonshine and they drink too much. 

 As the owner, you then make the trip from Florida to Indiana. Jesus asked his audience, including the elite, this question: “Now when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?”  

 Like the disciples, the elite did not consider that these stories have a deeper meaning. The audience answered quickly: “He will put those wretches to a miserable death, and lease the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the produce at harvest time” (Matthew 21: 41). Only too late, “the chief priests and the Pharisees … realized that he was speaking about them” (Matthew 21: 45). 

 The parables are pretty clear. The one who is acceptable to God is not the one who talks a good line but then fails to act as God requires. Religious leaders often succumb to the temptation to build their own little empires, like a mega-church or a TV show or a denomination, and then they become obsessed with their own power. Jesus says that these will not enter the Kingdom of God. The kingdom belongs to God, not to any man or woman. 

 So, the question comes to us. If those tenants were kicked out then because they did not produce as the owner expected, then will the new tenants, today’s Christian leaders, also be kicked out if they do not produce the fruit of the Spirit, which is Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Generosity, Kindness, Faithfulness, Gentleness, and Self-control? (Galatians 5: 22-23; see also Matthew 21: 24-26). 

 Don’t be fooled. There is only one Kingdom worthy of our allegiance, and only one King whom we must follow in every way. If we really follow Jesus, we will produce fruit and avoid the fate of the fig tree. If we are distracted by the lure of temporary earthly power, over our own lives or over other people, then we will soon be kicked out.  

 Remember that there is one more parable to this trilogy; and that comes next week when we examine Chapter 22. (Another example of a chapter break in the wrong place.)