March 29, 2020 Lent 5 Matthew 23:1-12

You’ve probably heard this tired joke before, but I think it sets us up to understand our gospel reading. 

A DEA officer stopped at a ranch in Texas , and talked with an old rancher.  He told the rancher, "I need to inspect your ranch for illegally grown drugs."
The rancher said, "Okay , but don't go in that field over there.....", as he pointed out the location.
The DEA officer verbally exploded saying, "Mister, I have the authority of the Federal Government with me!"
Reaching into his rear pants pocket, the arrogant officer removed his badge and proudly displayed it to the rancher.
"See this badge?! This badge means I am allowed to go wherever I wish...On any land!  No questions asked or answers given!! Have I made myself clear...do you understand?!"
The rancher nodded politely, apologized, and went about his chores.
A short time later, the old rancher heard loud screams, looked up, and saw the DEA officer running for his life, being chased by the rancher's biggest breeding bull.
With every step the bull was gaining ground on the officer, and it seemed likely that he'd sure enough get gored before he reached safety. The officer was clearly terrified.
The rancher threw down his tools, ran to the fence and yelled at the top of his lungs..  "Your badge, show him your BADGE!!"

Arrogance takes many forms.  And it can get us into trouble! 

When I imagine the religious leaders as Jesus describes them in the gospel I get the image of people walking around each and every day with their heads stuck in their air looking down upon all those around them.  Indeed you do seem to meet some people like that.  But I don’t think that’s what Jesus was seeing.  I think he was pointing out something along the lines of the DEA agent in the story.  The idea that something somehow in your job position or your intelligence or your wealth that you are somehow substantively above others.  And a person may not be stupid enough to go into a pasture with a bull, a person can think that they deserve what they have.  When I say deserve I don’t necessarily mean a big house or a nice car or a sizeable stock portfolio.  I mean deserve in such a way as where you build your self-esteem.

In other words, what makes you… you?

Let me read an excerpt from some reflections on this text by M. Eugene Boring.  I don’t usually read out long excerpts from books but I think he’s really onto something:

“A closer reading may reveal that something near the center of our own life and being is here addressed, something that seems so right and human.  We all like to be acknowledged at social gatherings; we all like to be greeted by friends in the marketplace.  It is not a matter of being hypocritical, but of being human: We are social creatures, and we like to be known and liked; it strikes at our sense of self-worth to be ignored or subtly put down socially.  All of us live under internally imposed constraints of peer pressure and the desire to be accepted by others, to be insiders, to belong.”

Maybe we don’t wear long robes or clothes that make us stand out.  Maybe we don’t have a badge that gives us prestige.  But what makes us, us? 

More from Eugene Boring: “… are we all sentenced to playing out our lives as responses to these pressures for place and recognitions?  [The gospel writer] Matthew proposes an alternative world, a world seen from the perspective of the kingdom of God, an alternative family where the approval of God removes the heavy yoke of self-justification.  There is more here than cheap shots at religious phonies in their long robes.”

(New Interpreter’s Bible, Volume 8, Pg. 432-33)

Keep that thought in mind and hear Jesus again in verses 8-11, “But you are not to be called rabbi, for you have one teacher, and you are all students.” 

(Actually I disagree with the NRSV translation here.  It is more literally, “… you are all brothers.”  Students fits the teacher/pupil model better.  And students is gender-neutral, a in Greek masculine is gender-neutral, but students misses the next relationship Jesus brings up.)

“And call no one your father on earth, for you have one Father – the one in heaven.  Nor are you to be called instructors, for you have one instructor, the Messiah.  The greatest among you will be your servant.  All who exalt themselves will be humbled and all who humble themselves will be exalted.”

I want to end by looking at this bit of humbling and exalting.  It is easy to think of humbling as humiliation.  And it is easy to interpret this as Jesus saying in eternal life the tables will be turned.  But I don’t think that’s what Jesus intended.

If you truly build your self-esteem and your self-worth upon being made in the image of God, valued by God, and wanted by God then your life direction will be significantly different than everyone who builds their lives on human approval.

And this goes deep – deep into ourselves.  As an example of how deep, I’m reminded of something shame therapist Brene Brown teaches.  I wish she was wrong, but I find her to be right.  She says women tend to build their sense of self-worth by getting the approval of men who are strong.  And she says that feminism will never go anywhere until it addresses that fundamental tendency.  On a different, but related note, she says that for men the deepest shame comes not from other men – like fathers or brothers or coaches.  The deepest shame comes from women – like mothers, sisters, and wives – when men are weak.  In other words, when men fail to be the strength women want for them to build their self-worth.  And that is true regardless of a person’s sexual orientation.

Now this is a whole different issue we could get into.  Let’s just use it as an example of what Jesus is getting at – using the approval others to build our self-worth.

Again, if you truly build your self-esteem and your self-worth upon being made in the image of God, valued by God, and wanted by God - then your life direction will be significantly different than everyone who builds their lives on human approval.

Doing that is really hard!  But it is God’s freeing gift to us.  God did not make us to judge each other.  God did not make us to look to each other for approval.  God made us.  God is God.  God is where we all turn.  And when we all turn there we are not judging each other, but being together in God.

Assuming you are like me, then I can guarantee that you will fail at letting God be the only one to define you.  However, it is worth striving for.  Pray that God may be gracious enough to give you the a sense of his presence so that you do not doubt.  But know and live in certainty that God makes you you in a way that you cannot lose, and cannot be taken from you.  God is good, very good!