Matthew 22:15-22
Asking in Order to
Learn
One of the promises we make, upon
ordination, is to identify and support potential future leaders for the
church. That is a promise to equally
support all leaders, but there is at least one line in there that highlights
the importance of identifying professional leaders – Pastors. I try to do that. And have done quite a bit of it. We were putting together a grant application
and one of the things it asked was for number of pastors who have come through
the ministry group. That number is
eleven, since 1993.
I do try to encourage them. I also discourage others. Some realize on their own that being a pastor
is quite different than they imagined it would be, and decide on their own this
isn’t for them. It isn’t always the
case, but often is, that the discouragement comes from being invited into the
lives of folks enough to see that seldom do parishioners come to ask the Pastor
what it is they ought to do, rather they come looking for the courage to do
it. We know what God would have us do;
we simply aren’t prepared (yet) to do what it is that God would have us do. When this occurs during a pastoral visit,
nothing is more painful than to see the ways in which someone tries to twist
the words of scripture in order to justify what it is that they would prefer to
do.
The Pharisees sent their disciples,
along with the Herodians, to Jesus. They
came, supposedly, to ask a question. But
they weren’t interested in learning anything from Jesus. They came hoping that his answer would
justify what they already thought. They
didn’t want to learn; they wanted support for their own position. They didn’t come asking him what they ought
to do; they came looking for justification to do what it is that they wanted to
do.
Here is another instance where it
is really handy to have your bible with you.
We need to set the stage for this week’s reading before we can
appreciate what is going on here. We are
now in the 22nd chapter of Matthew, for the past three Sundays we
have been reading lessons which all arose from a question put to Jesus by the
chief priests and elders. They were
questioning Jesus’ authority, what right did he have to consider himself a
teacher of the people. Jesus rebuffed
them, by a piece of trickery. He said he
would tell them the source of his authority if they would tell him where John’s
authority came from. The chief priests
and elders wouldn’t answer Jesus. As the
text states, The argued with one another, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will
say to us, ‘Why then did you not believe him?’
But if we say, ‘Of human origin,’ we are afraid of the crowd; for they
regard John as a prophet.”
The chief priests and elders
weren’t interested in knowing the source of Jesus’ authority. They wanted an affirmation of what they
already thought. The parable of the man
who sends his two sons into the vineyard; the story of the vineyard whose
caretakers beat and murder the owner’s son in hopes of obtaining the vineyard
for themselves; and last week’s reading of the Great Banquet to which the
honored guests turn up their noses so that the giver of the banquet sends
messengers into the streets to invite the good and the bad to the
marriage feast - all of these are told in response to the attempt to discredit
Jesus and turn the crowd against him.
These attempts began with a
question, a question posed by those who came to Jesus with no interest in
learning from him. They came only in the
hope of entrapping him in his answer - they were trying to twist his words in
support of their own positions.
All of this is acknowledged in the
opening line of today’s Gospel. Matthew
begins this chapter by acknowledging The Pharisees went and plotted to
entrap [Jesus] in what he said. So
intent are they in getting the goods on this itinerant street preacher that
they even fall into cahoots with their enemies.
See that line about the Herodians? The Herodians were the staunchest of the
supporters of Roman oversight. Remember
that Rome had been asked to take over governance of Israel by those who were
concerned with the infighting and disorganization of this tiny nation. The Herodians were a party among the Jews who
gladly paid the census tax and were grateful for the order Rome brought to
Jerusalem.
Herodians and Pharisees didn’t see
things eye to eye. The Pharisees had
gained in popularity with the people because (in principle) they resented and
resisted the tax. While not quite as
radicle as the nationalists who publicly resisted paying, the Pharisees were
known to be in opposition to the paying of this tax. They further resented Roman’s insistence that
the tax be paid in Roman coins. They
considered it sacrilege to handle the coins which bore the inscription of
Caesar, the god of Rome. The Pharisees
and the Herodians were not popular with one another.
Yet, together, they come. They utter all sorts of platitudes to Jesus
and then they ask their question. But
they aren’t looking for an answer; they are hoping for a response which will
cause Jesus to fall out of favor with the people.
This next part of the story is
tricky. In doing some background reading
I gained an insight I had overlooked before.
Advocates of this story as an endorsement of the separation of church and
state have repeatedly pointed out that Jesus himself doesn’t have one of the
coins. He asks for one from his
questioners. Their ability to produce
one illustrates the gap between what they say and what they do. They say one should resist paying the tax,
resist handling the coins which bear the image of Caesar, and yet they continue
to participate (and probably to benefit) from the economic system which they
verbally deplore. They have a coin in
their pocket. They come, trying to
entrap Jesus. Their ability to produce a
coin which bears the image of another god exposes their lack of integrity.
I have to be careful, because this
text will come up in a few weeks – and I haven’t looked to see which of the
three of us is preaching. But in the 23rd
chapter, Jesus is going to summarize his encounters of the 21st and
22nd chapters. He is going to
point out that the Pharisees and the scribes sit in the seat of Moses. They have the authority to be teachers of the
Torah. Somewhat surprisingly, Jesus is
going to affirm the job they do as teachers
of the law. He is critical of
the way they live. There is a huge gap
between what they say you should do and what they do. They know what Jesus would do - they simply
have trouble doing it. They have
confused knowing the correct response with living a faith-filled life.
There lies the difficulty – for all
of us. Pastors see it, are painfully
aware of it, but hopefully remain pastoral in dealing with it. It is a difficult thing – to not only KNOW
what Jesus says, but then to take those words and make them part of our lives.
We just concluded our stewardship
campaign, right? Any doubt as to the
level of giving that scripture says is appropriate? 10% right?
You know that. Don’t worry, I
won’t ask you to raise your hands on the question which follows – i.e. “How
many are giving at that level?”
What does scripture say about our
neighbors? Know that one? But how many of us have a neighbor with whom
we can’t get along? Or, if we accept
Jesus’ definition of neighbor (the one whom we encounter who have the means to
help) what of the way we treat our neighbors to the south; all those fleeing lives in the regions of
Central America where the demand for illegal drugs in the US makes life
hellish.
Who can tell me what the scriptures
say about visiting the sick or those in prison?
Anyone want to compare and contrast the hours you have spent visiting
with the hours you have spent watch college football? (I should add NASCAR – for my humiliation.)
We continue to attempt to entrap
Jesus. We continue to look for ways to
wiggle out of his instructions.
Today’s section of Matthew’s Gospel
ends when them “going away.” They were
down, but they were not out. They will
return. And when they can’t outwit Jesus
or entrap him, they will decide to kill him.
Maybe that is the final tragedy of those who know what God asks of us
but can’t find the courage to do it.
Eventually, they do find courage.
But that courage results in putting Him to death, silencing him, rather
than doing what it is that he calls upon us to do.
Amen.
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