Matthew 21: 23-32 (Common English Bible)
In today’s gospel reading the elders and the chief priests confront Jesus at the Temple in Jerusalem, and conflict is expected. The crowds who support Jesus expect a contentious debate, and isn’t that what we enjoy. Jesus had already forced out the money-changers in the Temple and overturned their tables. He then began to heal the blind and those who couldn’t walk. There was so much excitement over this, the crowd began to shout, “Hosanna to the Son of David.” “Hosanna” means to rescue and in this context it meant, rescue us from the Roman occupation. Needless to say, the chief priests and elders were not amused. They were very satisfied with the way things were.
From the point of view of the chief priests and elders, Jesus is an insolent upstart threatening the established system. In their theology only the High Priest had the authority to control what goes on in the Temple. And the only rightful person above him would be the Messiah himself. Who is this upstart who has whipped the city into a frenzy they asked? As they confront Jesus, their aim is to undermine his supposed authority and unmask him as a pretender.
The religious authorities try to entrap Jesus asking, by what authority do you heal those who are blind and cripple. But Jesus was the master of deflecting questions and turning the question on his accusers and skeptics. Remember the story about the coin with Caesar’s image? So Jesus asks them, “Where did John get his authority to baptize? Did he receive it from Heaven or from humans?” This question absolutely brain locked the religious authorities. If they say John got his authority from Heaven, it makes them look like hypocrites, because they refused baptism from John. And if they say John the Baptizer got his authority from humans, it would enrage the crowds who believed that John the Baptizer was a prophet.
A cognitive neuroscientist might say the chief priests and elders suffer from “confirmation bias.” Confirmation bias is a tendency to take in only the data that confirms a person’s prior idea and to discount information that does not conform to what the person already believes. For example, Jesus dared to interpret and follow the Torah (the first five books of the Bible) in a new and challenging way in transforming God’s justice. Another example was when Galileo was condemned by the Inquisition, because he challenged the common inaccurate view the sun circled the earth. It is also why some politicians today continue to debate global warming when the evidence is right before their eyes. Same with skeptical parents whose pediatricians still have to explain vaccine safety for their children. And confirmation bias happens all the time in churches, when new songs are used instead of the old songs and the wording of the Order of Worship is changed to something new.
When a person receives new information that contradicts a long held belief, that individual will usually make every effort to reject that information. As Jesus said to his skeptics in Matthew chapter 21, verse 32, “For John the Baptizer came to you on a righteous road, and you still didn’t believe him. But the tax collectors and prostitutes believed him. Yet even after you saw this, you didn’t change your hearts and lives and believe in him.”
It was not so much about the chief priests and elders being worried about losing their power and influence, it was the radical new ideas from Jesus were so far removed from their strongly held beliefs. The Protestant Reformation of the 16th century challenged the long-standing power of the Pope and the doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church. And in the 20th century there was still a lot of resistance from women becoming ministers. Unfortunately, this prohibition of keeping women from the ministry still continues in many conservative churches.
In the parable about the two sons, both fall short of their father’s wishes for them to work in his vineyard. The first son originally resists his father’s request, but after a change of heart, he does work in the vineyard. The second son agrees to the work, but he never shows up. When Jesus asks the crowd, which of the two sons did his father’s will. And the crowd unanimously say, the first son.
The first son represents the outcasts, the prostitutes and tax collectors who are shunned by the religious society. The second son represents the religious society who go to worship every Sabbath, but who do not follow the teachings of God or the prophets.
Viewed in its 1st century context, this is the reason why Jesus was killed. Those in power, both the religious establishment and the Roman imperial government, didn't want the status-quo to change, so they mobilized together to stop the threat. The “threat” was Jesus because his teachings are world-changing. The gospel should still be considered as a world-changing event, instead of just a way to get to Heaven.
Now to view this reading about the two sons in a 21st century context, Christian leaders are very concerned about the young adults, called Millennials and Generation Z. They’re not going to church. Many of them identify as “nones” when it comes to religion. But there is a lot of evidence that young adults, with green or purple hair and rings in their nose (not that there's anything wrong with that), are generous with their time and money. They seek out ways to connect with those in need and other social-justice activities. In several ways, they are an example of the first son in today’s parable. They have no interest in going to church. But at the end of the day they do the work that Jesus would be proud of. I’m proud of this younger generation, more so than my own. This younger generation that insists on putting their values into action may have something to teach to regular church-goers. The Millennials and Generation Z youth see a lot of social hypocrisy in most churches.
Jesus was trying to open up the religious leaders of his time, to an expanded understanding of how God’s Kingdom on earth works. We need to ask ourselves, are these young people who never attend church, still doing the will of God? Before we answer, we should ask ourselves are there churches out there who ignore the teachings of Jesus? Are they doing the will of God? Maybe this is one reason these young adults are not church-goers.
Each year, on the first Sunday of October, we observe World Communion Sunday, a day that was organized around the idea of sharing a meal together. It was first celebrated at the Shadyside Presbyterian Church in Pittsburg in 1933, a year that’s been called the darkest year of the Great Depression, and the rise of evil fascism in Europe. So the plan of the Shadyside Presbyterian Church was to emphasize unity through the sharing of a common meal that could break down division and barriers.
When we eat together, we bring together the fragments of our individual lives and experience communion, both physically and spiritually. On this World Communion Sunday, we gather around what tables we have, remembering Jesus’ call to love our neighbors both local and foreign and to serve them. And may our tables circle the entire earth.
AMEN
