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Sermon for the week of Lent 1
Matthew 21:23-32
For the next five Wednesdays, including today, I’ll ask you to fast-forward in your mind to Holy Week, specifically, to the Monday and Tuesday of Holy Week. During Holy Week itself, we’ll hear again the account of Jesus’ ride into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, and about all the events of Maundy Thursday and Good Friday. But we’re going to devote these five Wednesdays, and the Monday and Tuesday of Holy Week, to hearing some of Jesus’ teaching in the earlier part of the week, as the Pharisees and other Jewish leaders were making their final plans to get rid of Him.
On Monday, the day after Palm Sunday, Jesus went to the temple with His disciples. He was there to teach, and this teaching was urgent, because He knew that these two days, Monday and Tuesday of Holy Week, were His final opportunities to speak to the people. But He found it impossible, because the temple was full of moneychangers and buyers and sellers of animals. So He threw them out of His Father’s house, even overturning the tables and chairs of those who had so desecrated it. And then He began to teach the people, and many gathered around Him to listen.
After a while, though, the chief priests and the elders of the people confronted Him as He was teaching, and said, “By what authority are You doing these things? And who gave You this authority?” Doing what things? Well, publicly teaching the Word of God, but also the cleansing of the temple. Neither teaching nor clearing out the temple was the automatic task of every Israelite. You had to have authority to do such things. So there were really only three possible answers to their question. Either the Jewish priests or council had given Him the authority; they knew that wasn’t the case. Or, God had authorized Jesus directly; they were sure that wasn’t the case. Or, Jesus had simply taken it upon Himself, as a man, to do things He had no authority to do. That’s what they assumed. And they were ready to pounce on Him, no matter which answer He gave.
But Jesus saw right through their trap. He answered and said to them, “I also will ask you one thing, which if you tell Me, I likewise will tell you by what authority I do these things: The baptism of John—where was it from? From heaven or from men?” The answer to both questions was, of course, the same, that both John’s authority to preach and to baptize and Jesus’ authority to preach and to baptize had come from heaven, directly from God the Father. But instead of making that lofty claim for Himself, Jesus sought a reply from the Jews. An honest reply for an honest reply.
But honesty often doesn’t fit into politics, and that’s all these men were about. They reasoned among themselves, saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ He will say to us, ‘Why then did you not believe him?’ But if we say, ‘From men,’ we fear the multitude, for all count John as a prophet.” So they answered Jesus and said, “We do not know.” And He said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.” Jesus dealt with them masterfully. They refused to say what they believed, namely, that John’s baptism was from men, that is, that John just got up one day and decided all on his own to preach and to baptize. They believed that John had made up his message, and that his preaching was worthless. But they wouldn’t say it out loud, because the people loved John, and all the more since he was put to death by King Herod. And the religious leaders, like most men in power, knew that their power depended on convincing the people to follow them. So they couldn’t say anything that the people would disagree with too strongly. Since they didn’t answer, Jesus didn’t have to answer, either.
But Jesus wouldn’t let them off the hook so easily. “But what do you think? A man had two sons, and he came to the first and said, ‘Son, go, work today in my vineyard.’ He answered and said, ‘I will not,’ but afterward he regretted it and went. Then he came to the second and said likewise. And he answered and said, ‘I will go, sir,’ but he did not go. Which of the two did the will of his father?” Well, that’s a question they thought they could answer. They said to Him, “The first.” Jesus said to them, “Assuredly, I say to you that tax collectors and harlots enter the kingdom of God before you. For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him; but tax collectors and harlots believed him; and when you saw it, you did not afterward relent and believe him.
You see, the tax collectors and harlots were like the first son in the story. God told them, as Israelites, “Keep My covenant! Keep My commandments! Love Me with your whole heart, and love your neighbor as yourself! And believe in My promise to send a Savior to you!” And they at first said, “No!” They turned away from God’s commandments and committed theft and all kinds of sexual immorality, among other sins. They walked away from God’s covenant. But then John the Baptist came and called them to repentance, and to the baptism that God had sent him to perform, a baptism for the forgiveness of sins. And then he called on the baptized to produce fruit in keeping with repentance, to mend their sinful ways, to stop stealing and committing adultery. And the tax collectors and prostitutes believed him, that they were sinners, but that God had provided a way for them to be forgiven, and, once forgiven, a way forward, walking no longer in the darkness of their sins, but in the light of God’s children. In the end, they did the Father’s will.
Meanwhile, God had said the same thing to the chief priests and elders, “Keep My covenant! Keep My commandments! Love Me with your whole heart, and love your neighbor as yourself! And believe in My promise to send a Savior to you!” And they immediately said, “Of course we will! We’re good Israelites. We’ll do everything you say, Lord!” And they thought they were doing everything, keeping the Law as well as a human being could keep it (especially compared with those horribly sinful tax collectors and harlots). But when John the Baptist came, calling them to repentance also, accusing them of not reaching the perfection that God’s law required, they didn’t believe him. Which was fine, if his authority to preach to them only came from men. But if his authority came from God, and they refused to listen, then they were like the second son in Jesus’ story, who ended up not doing the will of his father.
Yes, Jesus was praising the tax collectors and harlots over the religious leaders of the Jews. Those horrible sinners were actually doing the will of God more than the chief priests. How that must have stung those priests! But they would have their revenge. By the end of the week.
Now, here’s the lesson everyone can take away from this Holy Week encounter. Whether you’ve been living like the first son, or like the second son, it isn’t too late to listen and do the will of your Father. God isn’t authorizing prophets directly anymore, as He did with John the Baptist, and with Jesus. But He is still authorizing ministers to speak to His people on His behalf. As Jesus said to His chosen apostles after His resurrection, All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me. Therefore, go, and preach, and teach, and baptize. And what did the Apostle Paul tell us in Sunday’s Epistle? But we, as workers together with him, urge you not to receive the grace of God in vain. For he says, “At the acceptable time I heard you, and in the day of salvation I helped you.” Behold, now is the acceptable time! Behold, now is the day of salvation!
Now is the time to admit that, no matter how well you’ve lived, it isn’t good enough to earn God’s favor. Now is the time to admit that you need a Savior from sin—One who does live up to God’s righteous standards, One who can suffer what you deserve to suffer, and who can restore your relationship with God. Now is the time to realize that Jesus is that Savior. So hear God’s call, today, to repent and believe in Him, and then to go and sin no more. Through faith in Jesus, you have a gracious Father in heaven who forgives you, and who now sends you out again to work in His vineyard, not as a slave, but as a son or daughter. It isn’t too late to listen. It isn’t too late to do the will of your Father, which means, first and foremost, to believe in the One the Father sent to suffer and die for your sins. Amen.
