March 19, 2023 Lent 4 Matthew 21:23-22:46

 (Introduction to the Text)

Politics – it’s a dirty word.  But we all do it.  I’m not talking about politics in its proper and exact sense – which is debate and conflict in government.  I’m talking about the way we will go along with what a friend believes or wants because there is some long-term benefit for us.  Or those times when we decide it is better not to damage or risk a friendship over something.  It’s whenever we compromise or bend the truth for strategic purposes.  Those strategic purposes may not be bad.  They may, in fact, be very good.  Perhaps the ends truly do justify the means.  But all of politics has at its center an attitude of anxiety, scarcity and limits. 

We’re about to read Matthew 21:23-27.  It sets the scene for the rest of what we’ll read today.  The whole thing is set on Monday or Tuesday of Holy Week.  Jesus’ teachings and actions in the temple have gotten the attention of the chief priests and the elders.  They are concerned.  They’ve probably heard about this itinerant preacher from Nazareth but they have not met him until now.  His teachings pose a threat to the foundation of their faith.  They confront Jesus wanting to know who he is and why he is claiming the things he is claiming.

Jesus will call them out on their limited thinking.  He’ll ask, “Did the baptism of John come from heaven or was it of human origin?”  There we’ll see the beginnings of their political strategizing.  Rather than being open to the reality that God can do (and does do) new things, they stay limited to the thinking that keeps them in power.

After that initial foray we’ll see that a series of religious groups take shots at Jesus, trying to limit him and trap him into being within the bounds of what they believe is possible for God.  Jesus, however, wants to open them to something beyond that.

(Read Matthew 21:23-22:46)

Hidden Brain is a radio program that explores the way our minds work.  It explores beliefs, perceptions, and how we make sense of the world around us.  I rarely listen to it.  The one thing the show will absolutely not do is acknowledge God or the validity of a religious belief system.  But a colleague recently pointed me to the episode called “How Your Beliefs Shape Reality.”  It’s available as a podcast and so I listened.  Condensing an hour-long episode down to one thought it boils down to this: If you see the world as safe, enticing, and alive with meaning then you are almost certainly optimistic and nothing will be able to truly knock you down – no matter how painful and enduring a hardship can be.  But contrast, if you see the world as dangerous, dull, and mechanical, then you will be pessimistic and no amount of good events will be able to change your mind.

True to what I know of this show, it conveniently overlooked the idea that God religious beliefs could have anything to do with it – even when the research tied those who saw the world as safe, enticing, and alive as having religious beliefs.

It told two stories of people who had been through World War 2.  One was a dentist who helped to piece back together mouths and faces after battle injuries.  He had a negative view of life and the world and often pointed back to that experience as to why.  Then there was a second story of a woman named Sarah who was a Polish Jew.  When she was a little girl the Nazis came into her town.  They rounded up the Jews and split them into two groups.  One group was put on one side of the street.  They other group on the other side.  Then they gunned down one of the two groups.  The other group, which included Sarah and her family were sent off to concentration camps.  She was moved through a total of four camps over the years of the war, ending up in the biggest and worst - Auschwitz.  All her family died along the way.  It was Christmas Eve 1944 and she became sick.  She was put in the infirmary.  Placed on a cot beside another girl of the same age they reached out to each other and held hands.  And she said that in that moment she realized, the world was full of love and connection, and it was massive and impossible to stamp out.  And the world was so wondrous, so wondrous, that she had no choice but to believe there was a God and to be grateful.

Now of course the program, having the biases that the program does, would not pick up on the idea of faith being at the center of her optimism, but that was really the key.  I like to use that story when thinking about our texts today because it is the perspective of someone who is Jewish.  We make a mistake if we take Jesus’ Jewish opponents in the gospel and apply them across the board.

When I read the collection of teachings, and parables, and debates Jesus has with the religious leaders in the temple I think it comes down to those two things: the religious leaders who saw the world as dangerous, dull, and mechanistic; and the way of living that Jesus was inviting them into – that the world was safe, enticing, and alive with purpose.

I don’t want to boil the benefits of faith down to some psychological self-help strategy.  To do that is to miss the point.  But I do think it overlaps perfectly.

Jesus came teaching people to embrace the world as a place of wonder and possibilities.  He preached of God’s boundless grace and delight – even for those society thought were worthless.  He preached of abundance.  He preached of purpose.

We are invited to see that our lives have purpose and meaning.  Or rather, that God is an active and dynamic presence at work doing meaningful things, and God invites us to be a part of the work.

Jesus preached forgiveness – abundant forgiveness.  Why?  So that we could be lazy and constantly indulging in unhealthy and destructive things without consequence?  No.  Although many people see forgiveness operating in just that way.  The purpose of forgiveness is to help us realize that the world is a safe place – regardless of what happens.  Take risks.  Make mistakes.  Try again.  Don’t be afraid to fail.  No one who is successful makes it there without mistakes.  I’d say the most successful people I know are the ones who have also make the most mistakes.  Ironically those who do not make mistakes are almost certainly failures.

The chapters from Matthew that we read today are serious, and yet they are kind of silly.  It’s like one of those old western movies where the hero takes on each and every bad guy one at a time and bests them in whatever it may be: cards, fist fights, gun fights, you name it.  Jesus just keeps on winning in contest after contest.  His opponents end up with egg on their face on more than one occasion.  There is also a little joke in 22:29.  It’s the scene where the Sadducees tried to trap Jesus about the resurrection.  The bring up the hypothetical situation of a woman who has had seven husbands because they keep dying on her.  Which of the seven would be her husband in eternal life?  I’d say that such a woman must be bad news and no one would want her for eternity!  But that’s my sarcastic side getting loose.

Jesus replies, “You are wrong, because you know neither the scriptures nor the power of God.”

We’ll see that point proven in 27:65.  The words are the same.  Jesus has died.  He’s been buried.  The chief priests and the Pharisees go to Pontus Pilate and say, “Sir, we remember what that impostor said while he was still alive, ‘After three days I will rise again.’ Therefore, command the tomb to be made secure until the third day; otherwise his disciples may go and steal him away and tell the people, ‘He has been raised from the dead.”

Pilate replies with the punchline to what Jesus said, “you know neither the scriptures nor the power of God.”  He says, “You have a guard of soldiers; go, make it as secure as you know how.”

Obviously they do not know the power of God, and their abilities can’t begin to stop what God has going!

May you see the world as safe, enticing, and alive.  That is God’s wonderful gift regardless of how hard things are.  And may you be like the woman who in the midst of no hope find that you can’t help but be grateful for the abundance of life.