A sermon preached by Pastor Lewis Polzin on September 27, 2020 at St. Peter–Immanuel Lutheran Church in Milwaukee, WI, on Matthew 21:23-32. You may play the audio of the sermon here.
A mostly unedited transcript of the sermon follows the jump:
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
The text this morning is from the Gospel according to St. Matthew, the 21st chapter:
When [Jesus] entered the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came up to him as He was teaching, and said, “By what authority are you doing these things, and who gave you this authority?” Jesus answered them, “I also will ask you one question, and if you tell me the answer, then I also will tell you by what authority I do these things. The baptism of John, from where did it come? From heaven or from man?” And they discussed it 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 man,’ we are afraid of the crowd, for they all hold that John was a prophet.” So they answered Jesus, “We do not know.” And He said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.
“What do you think? A man had two sons. And He went to the first and said, ‘Son, go and work in the vineyard today.’ And He answered, ‘I will not,’ but afterward He changed his mind and went. And He went to the other son and said the same. And He answered, ‘I go, sir,’ but did not go. Which of the two did the will of his father?” They said, “The first.” Jesus said to them, “Truly, I say to you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes go into the kingdom of God before you. 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 when you saw it, you did not afterward change your minds and believe him.”
Thus far the text.
My dear friends in Christ,
It’s the day after Palm Sunday. Jesus has just entered into Jerusalem. The Pharisees have watched all the crowds gathered around Jesus walking into the city. It's been an amazing sight, and now they come to Jesus. Feeling threatened for years now, they've been trying to kill this man, trying to figure out how to trap He and they've been daunted by that. In fact, so daunted that the crowds follow Jesus even more than when they started.
They must have seen this as an affront to their own power, to their own authority. You see, their authority was derived from a book called “The Traditions of the Elders.” It said that this book was written by the elders that Moses invited up on the mountain with him to witness the power and the majesty and glory of God. These elders then took all the commandments of Moses and nudged them a little bit. If they were not to work on the Sabbath, if they were to take it as a day of rest, they put in there that they should only go about a mile a day on a Sabbath. If the Lord says, don’t eat pigs, then they should not even touch them. They came up with all kinds of nudges. They were trying to make sure that they and the people who followed them obeyed the Law of God. They really did try. They were good men and they were seen by all as good men, and their authority was derived from this book said to be thousands of years old.
Now whether it is or not, we're not sure, but I will say this: they didn't really understand the meaning of the Word of God, did they? We know this because all that Jesus says to them. And this passage is no different. They really didn't understand the Word of God. If they did, they would understand by what authority it is that Jesus comes to them. If they understood the word of God, they would have seen Jesus standing in the Jordan River, being baptized byHiscousin John three years ago, and they would have seen the Holy Spirit descend on Jesus like a dove and they would have heard the voice of God the Father speak from Heaven, This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. But they didn't understand the Word of God.
Their idea of the Law was that you could obey it in order to be saved. Now, you can't really fault them for that. You can’t, because God does says, Do this and you shall live. The people of Israel said, All that you have commanded we shall do. The Pharisees were just trying to live out the promise that the people made to God.
The problem is they did not understand the Law's effect on themselves. They did not understand that, even if there were outward obedience to the Law, the inner self is still disobedient, the inner self is still sinful, the inner self is still self-focused. We call that the flesh. The flesh is still sinful.
It's a sad thing, because they thought they had it all down. They thought they were good enough. They thought they were smart enough. They thought that people liked them for that and that God would like them for that, but they were wrong. The Law accuses us in every way possible and Jesus comes not to abolish the Law but to fulfill it, and in fact, if you follow Jesus’ teachings, He not only gives you again the text of the Law, but He gives you the sense by strengthening the force of it. If the Law says do not commit adultery, Jesus says it is unLawful also then to have lout in your heart. If the Law says do not murder, Jesus says then it is also unLawful to have hatred for your brother in your heart. Jesus intensifies the Law so that there is no escape. All are condemned under the Law of God.
Again, the Pharisees, they should know that. But they don’t. They are so focused on the outward sense of themselves that they miss the inner condemnation of God.
So, when Jesus enters into the city, when He comes teaching marvelous things, when He comes doing signs, when He comes seeming to break the very Law that they say they should hold, things like picking grain on the sabbath, things like eating with tax collectors, eating with prostitutes, touching the unclean, they look at Jesus and say, Surely, He could not be the Messiah, for He has defiled himself in every way possible.
Again, Jesus has intensified the Law. He is not committing sin, for, if He were, He certainly could not be the Messiah. Instead, we see Jesus telling us that the Law was made that we might be accused so that the mercy of God would shine through even more. The Law need not be obeyed perfectly by us, but, in the mercy of God, the obedience of Christ has been laid upon us. We need to obey to live, we live because He obeyed.
You see Jesus’ authority was set up from before the foundation of the earth. Jesus has always been the Son of God and Jesus will always be the Son of God. When He speaks we should listen. But, outward appearances are deceiving, are they not? Jesus did not shine like the sun as He walked around Israel. Jesus did not have that angelic halo that we see in all the paintings of Him. Jesus looked like one of us, and so to show His authority to mankind, God descended upon Him in His baptism showing us exactly who He is and, in case we had any doubt, God told us who He is. This is the authority by which Jesus comes doing these things and teaching these things. So, when the Pharisees asked Him what authority He has, He says, Fine, I'll tell you, but I'm going to ask you a question first: the baptism of John (and Jesus is giving them a clue, is He not, as to where His authority comes?), The baptism of John, is it from God or is it from man? You see if it was from man that John did his baptisms, then there really would be no point to it whatsoever. It would just be a sign, it would be a signal, it would be a symbol of our repentance. But if it came from God, then the baptism of John actually did something, that, in repentance, God forgave the sins of those who came to be washed.
The Pharisees were unwilling to say that it was from God because if that was the case, then their authority was gone; that living according to the Law was no longer necessary for salvation. And if they said it was from man, then the people would have revolted, for John was greatly beloved by the people and they grieved over his death when Herod killed him. So they gave a dishonest answer. They knew what their answer should be, from God, and what they wanted it to be, from man, so they didn’t give Jesus a real answer. Thus, Jesus would not give them a plain answer either. They have resisted the will of God in everything and this here is no different. They know it's from God, but they refused to say it, and so, Jesus, being God himself, refuses to give them the answer they seek, but He tells them a parable presumably to give one more chance.
Now, the whole structure of the parable is based on John's baptism, that where there is repentance there is the forgiveness of sins. We all have gone astray. We all have lived to ourselves and not for others and for God. We all are sinners and God calls to us in the water and the Word, baptizing us and forgiving our sins. We should seek this out. And many in Israel did. Many in Israel were baptized by John. They repented of their sins and were forgiven. They had done the wrong thing and came back to the right thing and Jesus's parable then goes along with this.
A man came to his two sons. To the first he said, Go out and work in my vineyard, and the son said, I'm not going to do that. He's doing the wrong thing. He doesn't want to go. Today, he'd be too busy playing his video games, he’d be too busy surfing the web, just being busy busy busy, but then, finally, as he considers the fact that this is his father, this is the one who loves him, this is the one who gives to him all good things, he finally ascents and goes and does what the father has asked. For the second son ,the father goes to him and says, Son, go and work in my Vineyard today, and the son says, I surely will. Maybe he had good intentions, but then we find that he did not go.
Jesus asks, Which one of these did the will of the father? The Pharisees said the first. And Jesus looks at them, and in a very judging tone says, The tax collectors and the prostitutes are going to enter Heaven before you ever will, which is true, for who else was baptized in the waters of John, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes.
You see, the reality is neither son did the will of the Father. The first ignored him, the first did what he wanted, and the first eventually, called by the Gospel, repented and did the will of his father in his repentance. The second son didn't even do it at all. He gave him lip service, and failed utterly on the follow-through. Which camp do you think that the Pharisees fell into? Certainly the second one. They said, yes to the will of God, and then they utterly ignored him.
While neither son actually did the will of the father, the first did eventually go out and work in the field, and in this you have to believe that the father showed him mercy, and He did not punish the son for being late and he did not punish the son for having done the wrong thing first. This first son came before his father and begged his forgiveness and showed that He was sincere by diving into the work set before him. But son number two went on his own way.
The tax collectors and the prostitutes had gone their own way. They were traitors to Israel. They were traitors even to their own bodies. Yet, in repentance, they found the mercy of God. Even in Jesus’ own midst, among His own disciples, the tax collectors and the prostitutes sat with Him. The tax collectors like Levi, Matthew, and the prostitutes, and I suppose this isn't a bit of an apocryphal story, but the prostitutes, like Mary of Magdala, Mary Magdalene. It's possible she was one of the prostitutes who heard Jesus’ Word and followed Him. And it's possible that even more were gathered around Jesus, for they crowded around John, and John pointed to Jesus and said, Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world. If they went down into the water, it is Jesus who forgives their sins. Certainly, they shall enter the Kingdom of Heaven before the Pharisees because John came in the way of righteousness from God.
The Pharisees refused to believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes heard the word of God flowing out of John's mouth and they went down into the water. If only the Pharisees who had been so chided by John, You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee the wrath to come, if only they had changed their minds and believed John and in his baptism, which came from God, then they, too, should be saved. Yet, they rejected him.
It is a sad state of affairs when we consider that there are those who hear the word of God and turn from His ways. But, it’s true and they shall get exactly what they deserve. They shall get exactly even what they ask for. Our God is a good and gracious God, and He will give to us exactly what we ask. When it comes to the Eternal Day, we shall either stand before God and ask to be judged by our own works or we shall ask to be judged by the works of Jesus Christ. And if it is that we ask to be judged by our own works, then our works are weighed against the perfection demanded by the Law and there is no fudging that. The scales of justice will fall in favor of the Law and they will fall against us. And so those who ask to be judged by their works will be ushered into the hell that they themselves are asking for, there to suffer eternally. But those of us who sit there and beg to be judged by the obedience of Jesus Christ, who declare that we are forgiven, who remind God that He has claimed us as His own, then we shall enter into the rest that has been prepared for us since before the foundation of the earth. God will give us what we ask for.
If only the Pharisees had turned, they indeed would be given salvation with even the worst sinners among them. Some Pharisees did repent, Pharisees like Nicodemus. They went and followed after Jesus and we have great confidence that we shall see them face-to-face when we come into our rest. But others rejected Him and continue to reject Him. And it is sad. It is horrible. We look at that second son and we think, What are you doing? Why would you do this? Why would you disobey your father? Why would you go against what He commands?
The sad reality is, if we're honest with ourselves, we are wont to do the same. We are wont to forsake Christ and seek our own works as proof of our obedience or our love for God. But Jesus Christ has had mercy on us, for we have gone into the same water of baptism that John baptized with, we have done down into the same water that Jesus was baptized in, taking our sin away from us and giving us His righteousness, that we may be clean forever. We, my friends, are counted along with the tax collectors and the prostitutes for we are great sinners, even greater sinners than they.
If God can save us, then He can save anybody.
By what authority is it that Jesus does and teaches all these things? It is by the authority of God. It is because Jesus is God himself that He does these things. When Jesus elsewhere says, Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand, then it is by His authority that it is true.
Let us stand before Him in repentance, and sorrow over our sins. Then let us confess those sins to Him that we might also find the mercy of God and the forgiveness of sins, which has no end. That forgiveness, that mercy, my friends, is yours, for Jesus has authority and He has declared it over you this day and every day. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Now may the peace of God which passes all human understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord! Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment