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Facets of Faith
Join Pastor Katie, Keith, and David as they explore the gospel reading for the coming Sunday and how facets of our faith can be strengthened in the message of Scripture.
Pastor Katie, Keith, and David are all members of St. John Lutheran Church in Mars, a congregation in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.
Facets of Faith
By what authority...?
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As we get closer and closer to the crucifixion in our gospel readings from Matthew, tensions are rising between Jesus and the chief priests. In these tensions, the question of "by what authority are you doing these things?" is posed to Jesus. His answer puts the listener on their heels a bit as he challenges people to live a life worthy of the gospel (to use a phrase from last week's reading from Philippians). And even still, there is good news to be found here!
Let us know what you think or send us a question!
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Scripture quotations from the COMMON ENGLISH BIBLE. © Copyright 2011 COMMON ENGLISH BIBLE. All rights reserved. Used by permission.
Well, welcome back, listeners, to another week of Facets of Faith as we continue our journey through the Gospel of Matthew. This time we are entering into the story after Jesus has entered in Jerusalem before his crucifixion. So the rubber is really hitting the road here, and things are getting tense, things are getting uh very serious, and this text for today, Matthew 21, verses 22 or 23 to 32, is full of so much to talk about. Um so I hope you enjoy the conversation. I hope it maybe invites you to wrestle a little bit with your own faith and your own relationship with God in Christ, and I hope it encourages you to reach out and engage others in this conversation as well.
SPEAKER_00So this is from Matthew 21, verses 23 to 32. When Jesus entered the temple, the chief priests and elders of the people came to him as he was teaching. They asked, What kind of authority do you have for doing these things? Who gave you this authority? Jesus replied, I have a question for you. If you tell me the answer, I'll tell you what kind of authority I have to do these things. Where did John get his authority to baptize? Did he get it from heaven or from humans? They argued among themselves. Then they replied, We don't know. Jesus also said to them, Neither will I tell you what kind of authority I have to do these things. What do you think? A man had two sons. Now he came to the first and said, Son, go and work in the vineyard today. No, I don't want to, he replied. But later he changed his mind and went. The father said the same thing to the other son, who replied, Yes, sir, but he didn't go. Which one of these two did his father's will? They said, The first one. Jesus said to them, I assure you that tax collectors and prostitutes are entering God's kingdom ahead of you. For John came to you on the righteous road, and you didn't believe him. But tax collectors and prostitutes believed him. Even after you saw this, you didn't change your hearts and lives, and you didn't believe him.
SPEAKER_02Okay. So this is coming on not quite the heels of last week's reading. Last week's reading, if you recall, was when we talk about Jesus talking about the workers in the vineyard and getting paid the same amount despite how often or how much they worked. We have about a chapter's worth of material from then until now. In that chapter, um, Jesus foretells his death for the third and final time in the Gospel of Matthew. We have a request from the mother of some of the disciples that they'll be, you know, put in places of position places of power and authority in the kingdom of heaven, and Jesus reminds them again the last will be first, the first will be last. Then do Jesus does some healing, and then we get to the story that we often read on Palm slash Passion Sunday, Jesus' entry into Jerusalem. So that's when Jesus is riding on the donkey, they're waving the branches or putting coats at his feet, depending on which gospel you're reading. Um and right from there in Matthew, Jesus goes straight into the temple and he does what's known as like the quote cleansing of the temple, where he's turning over the tables because they're changing money in the temples, and he's they're um they're not treating the temple as they should be. And so Jesus calls them out on it, flips some tables, and then he storms out of the temple, curses a fig tree because it's not producing some fruit, and then he comes back to the temple, and now we're in today's reading. So this is all starting to get to the point where we are really coming to a crisis moment, really, for the gospel, because we are, you can feel the tensions are rising. I mean, if Jesus flipping tables doesn't tell you tensions are rising, I don't know what will, but the tensions are rising, things are getting more and more fraught, the crucifixion is becoming more and more inevitable as we go through. And so we are now kind of in those last in that last week of parables, storytellings, um, Jesus explaining things before everything comes to a head at the crucifixion. So that's where we are in the scripture. And because we're in this moment of such high tension and uh crisis moment for the following of Jesus, this is a deep text. There's a lot happening here. There's a lot to talk about.
SPEAKER_00A lot of meat on the bone here. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02So I'm curious. You said you were doing a little bit of prep work and reading and things like that.
SPEAKER_00Well, I just because I was curious about it, but uh uh one of the commentaries I was reading was that um, you know, Jesus uh kind of had the upper hand since he was in the temple doing the cleansing. And the uh this is like one of, I guess, five trials that um the the Jewish leaders were trying to bring, you know, trip him up on because they didn't know how they were going to get rid of him. They couldn't just say, hey, we want you crucified. They had to have some reasons. And so this whole, I guess, question of authority really is at the crux of it, because he turns it around just like a good lawyer would and turns it on them and says, Hey, well, wait a minute. You had John here. By what authority did he preach? And now he's got him in a bind. Because if they say one thing, then it it validates him, if they say another thing, it valid it invalidates their authority too. So it was a clever, clever little question.
SPEAKER_02It really, it really was a very clever little question. Um, and and not to be discounted as who's asking this question and who he's talking to, because we have the chief priests and the elders of the people. Throughout much of the Gospel of Matthew, we talk about the Pharisees. Since I think it's like the second chapter of Matthew, this is the first time the chief priests are coming back into the picture.
SPEAKER_00Okay, yeah.
SPEAKER_02And the chief priests would have been people who were sympathetic to the powers of Rome, to the authority of Rome. And so they were in a very tenuous position between um holding their position of power and authority that was given to them by Rome, while also making sure that they don't have, you know, a mutiny on their hands with the people. And so Jesus is kind of at this point telling them, you gotta pick Rome or the faith of the people or the people. Like, where do you where does your loyalty stand? And where and so then that question of authority pops up. We actually had a question of authority several times in Matthew before this, where he's kind of continually asking people, where's your loyalty? Where do you drive your sense or derive your sense of uh quote rightness from? Where do you derive your sense of um how to act, how to behave? Where is it all coming from? Is it coming from Rome or is it coming from the scriptures, from Jesus, from God? From God, yeah.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and and uh something else that I had read too was that um these chief priests and and elders were property owners. And you know, here is Jesus challenging the authority of not only their heavenly kingdom, you might say, but also their earthly kingdom as well. And so they they need to be careful. They're they're walking a tight rope, like you said, balancing between Rome and and and between the faith of the people, too, and they don't want to lose either one of those. So this is a very tenuous kind of a and this also I think was like the longest um dissertation of of tests in the gospels that that they have. So a lot of a lot of uh importance is hit right here in this authority question.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, so when Jesus comes, I always find it funny that he comes back to the temple after cursing the fig tree. You can just see him like storming back, and another thing. Um but so Jesus comes back into the temple, he's holding his space there, which means he's holding his authority there. He's he cleansed the temple, he turned the tables over, which means he has kind of reclaimed the temple for God's purposes. Um, and by staying there, he's not being pushed out, bullied out, whatever. And so once Jesus gets back into the temple at this point, he's there for I think it's almost two chapters, which in in the gospel time in the gospel sense of time is a long time. There, like you said, there's like five challenges where the chief priests keep coming up to him and saying, Well, well, and Jesus keeps pushing back. And then you get this sense of the this is the straw that breaks the camel's back, so to speak, where the chief priests are like, There's no redemption here, he's gotta go. Because if he doesn't, we're either gonna get a mutiny from the people or Rome is gonna take our land and our prestige away. Neither of which sounds good. So, because if the people mutiny, Rome's still gonna kick them out.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so they're kind of between a rock and a hard place here. Yeah, yeah. And I and I love uh just how he turns it around and uses that parable too to kind of because I know the uh when they refer to the vineyard, it a lot of times that's referring to the Israel. Yeah, you know, to the people of Israel. So now he's challenging them to say which which son was what what was he like, were they like? You know, the one that said yes, but then didn't do it, or the ones that, you know, like the prostitutes and tax collectors who they they repented, you know, and now they are accepted into the kingdom.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, it's you you can't just talk the talk, you gotta walk the walk. And if rubber hits the road, Jesus would far rather you walk the walk.
SPEAKER_00Oh yeah.
SPEAKER_02Yeah because anyone can talk the talk.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, the the actions speak louder than their words. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Exactly. And they're just kind of on their heels now. And actually, to pull this out of its very specific context here, if we think about Matthew being put into writing, um, in the time frame we think the gospel was actually put into actual writing, it was probably 8090 CE, something like that, which would have been after the destruction of the temple. And so now for the first listeners, not only are they reflecting on the chief priests who have since lost all authority, um, but now they're looking at the Pharisees and they're looking at other religious leaders of their time, and they're saying, Are you walking the walk, talking the talk? What are you? And so this question, it's very poignant in its space and time with the specific chief priests here, but knowing that the chief priests are gonna be ousted by the time we get to the writing of Matthew, I think adds some oomph behind what's being said here for the first listeners of this particular writing. Um, just because they can they know the story, they know what's gonna happen. And then it kind of puts a little more emphasis as we the listeners are thinking about our own questions and how are we responding to the gospel? Are we saying yes and then not doing? It's it's got a little more of that timelessness to it, also.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it echoes through the time through time and space because that was the message, you know.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, because the whole question is you have heard that God's love is for you. You have heard that you have fallen short of the expectations of response to that love. Do you repent and want to move forward in a new direction? If the answer is yes, then you gotta show it. Yeah, and the tax collectors and prostitutes would have been the last people, chief priests, Pharisees, even regular citizens would have expected to be recipients of the kingdom of heaven or citizens of the kingdom of heaven. These would have been people that a lot of the population didn't even necessarily regard as human. Like they were very bottom of the barrel. Um they were not well regarded. They really were, and it it's not because that they chose those positions. A lot of the time those positions were positions of slavery, and so people were forced into prostitution, they were forced into being tax collectors. Um, and so these are people who are have their agency stripped away from them, and even they are able to respond to the gospel in a way that these people who have so much privilege have been unable to respond.
SPEAKER_00Here's a question. Yeah, does Jesus ever say where he gets the authority?
SPEAKER_02So he does in a way. Um, at the very end of the gospel of Matthew, and he he might say it in other places, I just can't recall off the top of my head, but in Matthew 28, verse 18, this is after the resurrection, after the post-resurrection appearance to the disciples, Jesus came and said to the disciples, All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Yes. And that's right before the Great Commission, which is the go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always to the end of the age. So we do kind of get the final answer there.
SPEAKER_00Well, I think that's that's kind of important. I mean, you know, the listener might be saying, Yeah, but did he ever actually say where he got the authority? That's right.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, because it's there are a number of schools of thought out there that do the thought experiment of kind of what if Jesus was just a really cool guy. Um which is, I mean, that's fair. There are many people that would say that um our Jewish siblings in faith, our neighbors in faith, um, they don't see Jesus as son of God, but they do see Jesus as a really impactful prophet.
SPEAKER_00Even in the Quran, he talks about Jesus being a prophet.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Yes. And so uh yeah, I won't discount that, but it's just for us as Christians, right? This is how we identify with Jesus, and this is how we are um seeing ourselves being reconciled with God is through Jesus.
SPEAKER_00We know that he has the ultimate authority.
SPEAKER_02Right now, yeah, so we align Jesus with with God and that authority, and so therefore, every time this question comes up, we hear that in the back of our ears. Um, but even still, prophets, when prophets would go amongst the people and say, excuse me, say their message, they would say it with the authority of God because it was God's message to the people, saying repent, or saying, um do do better, or or whatever the message was, they said it with the authority that God has given them this message.
SPEAKER_00Why do you think Jesus wanted to focus all of this attention at the temple? I mean, it seems, I mean, he could have done this in the streets, he could have done this, you know, over a dinner table, like he did a lot of things. He he decided to do this at the temple. So he's he's challenging not only their authority, but I guess their vision of who they are and how they're validated by what they do for the temple.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I mean, if you think about it, so Jesus' ministry um in the Gospel of Matthew at least, it starts on um this mountain where he starts off by saying, Blessed are the poor, blessed are the meek, blessed are, blessed are, blessed are. Um, and he starts off with this huge speech. He starts off by feeding 5,000 people, and he starts off by saying, You're not gonna see God, you're not gonna see the work I do in gilded palaces. You're gonna see it doing this stuff, feeding the people, healing the lame, uh promising and making blessing happen through his very word to those who would be assumed to be the last to receive blessing. And so now, as we're kind of coming, everything's coming to a head, we're coming full circle on a lot of that stuff. And so Jesus has been traveling the countryside, he's been going up and down roads, he's been eating lots of dinners and eating just in general. Um and so now Jesus comes to the temple and it's kind of a signifier that it's coming to a head. The there is no more just meandering about grassroots stuff. It's time to kind of shout it from the mountaintop, so to speak. Uh he started on a mountain, this is a different kind of mountain, but it we're we're back here. And so Jesus is coming there to reclaim how the temple is being used and seen also, because if you think about it, chief priests and and the elders of the people, of the people, in quotes, um that they were like the landowners, so they weren't really like of the people. Um, but the chief priests, these are people who had gotten their authority partially from Rome, and they viewed their position in the temple as being markers of status and as creating status for them. They could now walk in the streets with their nose maybe a little high and kind of, you know, I'm the chief priest, what I say goes, and blah blah blah. And Jesus is kind of reclaiming the temple as not some political pawn that they can use. The temple is meant to be where we connect with God. The temple is meant to be where we hear God's word for us.
SPEAKER_00Place of worship. It's a place of worship, not a symbol of authority.
SPEAKER_02Exactly. And so when Jesus flips over the tables, he's it's a very grand gesture, a very big symbol of doing exactly that. And then when he stays in the temple for these next couple of chapters of discourse with the chief priests, over and over again he's reminding them that their authority does not come from Rome. It does not come from the temple, it does not come from even their job. Authority comes from being a beloved person of God. And so, therefore, even the prostitutes and tax collectors, their voice matters because they are beloved children of God. And that's where the power comes from, is God. And we can't manufacture that as much as we try. So we have this reading. We have this reading that is at this point of massive tension, of crisis, of pivot, um, that is full of deep questions and uh conviction and putting people kind of uh to test and all that kind of stuff. But the task of any preacher is to look at this reading and say, here's the good news. Where do we hear the good news in this? I feel like this is one of the gospel readings where after I read it from the pulpit, when I say the gospel of our Lord, I should have a question mark at the end of it a little bit. Okay, yeah.
SPEAKER_00Where is the good news here?
SPEAKER_02Because it feels like it's full of challenge. It's full of putting the mirror up to us and saying, are you walking the walk or are you just talking the talk? And that's that doesn't feel very good newsy to me.
SPEAKER_00Maybe it it's just that uh this is not the end of the story. You know, this is this is uh Jesus asking all of us the question. You know, if you if you believe in me, then you have to acknowledge where my authority comes from. So maybe maybe the good news is simply uh have you examined your own life? And um not that we would ask ourselves where do you fall on that question of the parable, but do you accept Jesus because his authority is from God and you recognize that? See the the the chief priests and the and the elders, they didn't recognize that. Do we recognize that? There are a lot there are a lot of people that actually, I'm sorry to say, question the divinity of Jesus. You know, even they call themselves Christians. We know that from polls, and so you know, do we do we accept Jesus and his divinity and his authority coming from God as God?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, and I I like that you specifically denoted Christians because obviously that's the conversation we're talking about here. We I mean I fully affirm and support our Jewish neighbors and and Islam neighbors and faith and other faith traditions. God's much bigger than any one box, and I'm not gonna be the one to say God can't be in some other religion. I I will not say that because it's above my pay grade. Right. It is, but I can speak for Christianity. More specifically, I can speak for Lutherans. Um, but you're right, there are a lot of Christians and Lutherans who will name themselves as Christian, but if you say is Jesus Christ the Son of God, they'll waffle, even though that's like the one thing we have to actually agree on. Yeah, that kind of is pretty important. But but that's where I think it's important to come back to that word um believe. So we say um he's talking about John, but at the end there on verse 32, for John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes believed him, and even after you saw it, you did not change your minds and believe him. That word believe comes up multiple times. Um but this is a reminder that belief is not just a brain thing, it's not just a thinking thing. It's belief is about trusting, it's about following, it's about taking the next step with God in this space. And so I think sometimes when people say, I don't know if I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, I'm gonna give them the benefit of the doubt, assume the best of them, and I'm gonna say, I wonder if they're thinking belief as in I understand to be like I understand that Jesus is, or or there's a mental, like academic side of it almost. Because I feel like for us to say Jesus Christ is the Son of God, our human brains are like, what does that really mean? How does like I don't I don't understand. How that works. I don't have a scientific approach to that kind of a statement. And so therefore we say, I don't believe it. But belief is more about how we behave. And does our experience and encounter with Jesus change the way we behave? And that's that's what's getting happening in here, right? The chief priests and the elders of the people, they had this encounter and nothing changed for them. Whereas the tax collectors, the prostitutes, they had this encounter and something changed. They found a joy that they didn't know they had. They found purpose in life that they didn't know they had. They found that they had an identity and a value that they didn't know they had. And so their whole personhood and I and sense of personhood changed in this encounter. And and I think I wonder sometimes if we talked more about belief in that sense.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it's not just an academic thing. Like you said, it has to be the a way of life. You know, if we believe, then we will act. Right. You know, and and that that's the crux of it.
SPEAKER_02Right. Because do I, I mean, I've been studying this stuff for years, right? Do I understand how Jesus rose from the dead? No. No. I do not. Do I understand how biologically, you know, the cells in his body stopped replicating and then after three days they started replicating again so that he could eat food? I don't I don't have a clue. But I don't need to because that's not what belief is. Belief isn't that scientific approach to it. Belief is how does this encounter with the risen Christ who brings life out of death, hope out of despair, joy out of suffering, how does that encounter change me? And it changes everything. It changes the way I understand my relationship with God, it changes the way I understand my relationship with others, it changes how I deal with people who frustrate me. Sometimes a little after the fact, but you know, we're working on it. It's a work in progress. But I think that that's that's maybe where some good news can come from this is hearing that sense that belief happens because of the way we're acting.
SPEAKER_00So there's the answer to your question. What is the good news? Yeah. The good news is in understanding what belief is all about and its acceptance too. Yeah. You know, because if I believe, that means I may not have uh a mental idea or an understanding intellectually, but I accept it. Right. And so by accepting that, I live that. Right.
SPEAKER_02So there you have it. Uh that is our kind of brief approach to some of the highlights that we saw in this text. There is more that we could talk about. This is certainly not an exhaustive conversation, but like I said at the beginning, I hope this gave you something to inspire some questions, inspire some conversations in a way that can help you connect with your own faith, with your own sense of, or with your own relationship with God and Christ, and therefore with your own belief and the following of Christ that is on your heart. With that, I invite you to say a word of prayer with me. Let us pray. God of love, giver of life, you know our frailties and failings. Give us your grace to overcome them. Keep us from those things that harm us and guide us in the way of salvation through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord. Amen.