Seventeenth Sunday
after Pentecost (Proper 21A)
September 27, 2020
Text: Matt. 21:23-32
By
what authority are You doing these things?
Who gave You this authority? Just
who do You think you are? That is
ultimately the question the Chief Priests and elders are asking this
morning. There is no question, Jesus has
been teaching the people with authority, and not as their scribes (Matt.
7:29), who would cite all the varying opinions of the rabbis, but couldn’t give
a firm answer to save their life. And He
acted with authority, healing diseases, cleansing lepers, casting out
demons. He had authority over
life and death, raising the widow’s son, Jairus’ daughter, His dear friend
Lazarus. And He had the authority
to forgive sins: “Take heart, my son; your sins are forgiven… But that you
may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins… Rise, pick
up your bed and go home” (Matt. 9:2, 6; ESV).
Now
our Lord has come into Jerusalem to the exultant cries of the people: “Hosanna
to the Son of David! Blessed is he who
comes in the name of the Lord!” (Matt. 21:9). “Behold, your king is coming to you,
humble and mounted on a donkey” (v. 5).
He is riding in to set things right.
He is riding in to die. And the
people spread their cloaks before Him, in deference to His authority. He comes into the Temple like He owns them
place. He drives out those buying and
selling and overturns the tables of the money-changers. He upsets the whole system of righteousness
by the Law, the big business of sacrifice.
“‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you make it a den
of robbers” (v. 13). And now it is Tuesday
of Holy Week, and here Jesus is in the Temple, teaching the people with authority,
as though there were nothing wrong with the events of the previous two days,
and the Chief Priests and elders want to know: Just who do You think you
are?
For
if Jesus has the authority to do these things, they do not have
the authority. Jesus has authority over
them. He’s a threat! He is a threat to their power. He is a threat to their way of life. He is the true High Priest, the Good Shepherd,
the Pastor, the King. He is Messiah, the
Son of God. So there is only one thing
to do to mitigate this threat. Kill Him. Who do you think You are? We’ll show you the truth of it. You are nobody. You are nothing. Not before our authority and power. And to make this clear to all, we’ll crucify
You.
And what about you? You understand, do you not, that as Jesus
comes to you, He will drive out your own greed and lust and upset your own way
of life, your whole system of self-righteousness? When Jesus comes to you to make you His
Temple, He comes in like He owns the place, and He teaches you with authority
and expects that His Word will transform you.
It will break you down and be the death of you, that He may rebuild you
in His own image and raise you to new life.
If Jesus has such authority, you do
not. Jesus has authority over you. And Old Adam understands, He is a
threat! He is a threat to Old Adam’s
power. He is a threat to Old Adam’s way
of life. He is the true High Priest who
makes the sacrifice for your sins, to purchase you as His own, to live under
Him in His Kingdom. He is your
righteousness. Your own good works and
sacrifices are not. He is your Good
Shepherd, which means you are His sheep.
He is your Pastor, and He insists that you hear His sermon. He is your King, the Messiah, the Son of your
God.
What can you do to mitigate this
threat? Well, you cannot crucify Him
anew. That is over and done. The sacrifice is complete. But you can, as the Chief Priests and elders
did, as did the Pharisees and the whole Jewish religious establishment, deny
Him. Reject Him. Plug your ears to Him. Not allow His Word free course. In other words, refuse to repent and believe
the Gospel.
The Chief Priests and elders rejected
God’s preacher, St. John, and his baptism of repentance. While they feared the crowds, who considered
John to be a prophet, they would not acknowledge John’s authority from heaven. So it is no surprise that, having rejected
the preaching of God’s Word, they rejected the Word Himself as He came
to them in the flesh.
Now, understand, these were the
great religious men of their day. They
were respected, revered as holy men. But
they were like the son in Jesus’ parable who said he would go and work
the field, be faithful, be obedient, but did not go. So it is with Old Adam when he poses as a
pious Christian. He says all the
right things pertaining to faithfulness.
He positions himself as an upstanding citizen, perhaps even a
regular Church-goer. He even does
some really good stuff that puts a shimmer and shine on his
reputation. But he will not hear this
preaching of repentance. For that
would mean the death of him. It would be
to submit to an authority not his own. And
he will not receive Jesus as his righteousness and life, for that would
mean a whole new creation emerging and arising to live in his place.
The man who insists on living by his
own authority, his own righteousness, his piety, and the illusion of
autonomy… The man who will not hear
John’s preaching of repentance or follow his bony finger pointing to the Lamb
of God who takes away the sin of the world… That man will be shocked to see tax
collectors and prostitutes entering the Kingdom of God before him. For real sinners know what they
are. They know who they are and
they know what they’ve done.
There is no denying it. So they
simply confess it. They make no claim to
any authority of their own in spiritual matters. They’re just desperate to be saved. And John points them to the only One who can
do it, and there He is, arms extended to receive them as His own and eat with
them. He teaches them what it is to
belong to Him, and He forgives their sins.
And He has authority to do it.
To that the miracles attest.
These tax collectors and
prostitutes, these sinners, are like the son who says he will not
go and work. After all, they went their
own way. They broke the Commandments of
God. They lived and unclean life. And that is sin, make no mistake about
it. But that’s just it. They confess it as such. They don’t dress it up. They don’t try to excuse it. They hear and believe the preaching. Repent and behold the Lamb of God who takes
away your sin. And they do. They run to Him. They follow Him. They go the way of faithfulness. They go out into the field. Which son did the will of his father? The one who went and did the work. Who does the will of our heavenly
Father? The great religious men of
the day? Or the tax collectors and
prostitutes who repent and believe the Gospel?
It is the repentant sinners!
The reality is, they are all
sinners. There are no great
religious men. There are only sinners who
confess their sins, and sinners who deny their sins. It is better to confess them and run to Jesus
for forgiveness, for that is the will of your Father in heaven. To deny your sins means death. To confess your sins, and hear and believe
the forgiveness of your sins in Jesus, that means life.
This happens when the authority
of Jesus takes possession of you in the preaching of His Word. It is a complete renovation. You are crucified with Christ. In Baptism, you die with Him. As He died on the cross for the forgiveness
of your sins, you now die to your sins within yourself. Your whole way of life is turned upside
down. It is Jesus in the Temple all over
again. But so also, in Baptism, you are
raised with Christ. You are His New
Creation. The old has passed away. The new has come. He already gives you His life as He teaches
you and feeds you with His Body and Blood.
And there is the Promise of the resurrection of the body on that great
Day.
And He has the authority to
do it, because He is risen from the dead.
That is the answer to the question posed by the religious leaders this
morning. Jesus doesn’t answer the
question directly in our text. No, the
answer must wait for the great surprise ending of the Gospel. They crucify Him, dead and buried. But on the Third Day He rises from the
dead! And if there is any doubt as
to His authority, it is annihilated in that earth-shattering moment. Who do you think you are? I AM the Risen One, Jesus says. And “All authority in heaven and on earth
has been given to me” (Matt. 28:18).
By what authority are you doing these things? And who gave you this authority? God did. I do these things by the authority my
Father has given me. And I now
bestow that authority upon my disciples, my Church. “Go therefore and make disciples of all
nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the
Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you” (vv.
19-20). And these are now the marching
orders for the holy Church, for you and I, beloved. Upset the whole world. Turn the whole thing on its head. Preach my Word. Take them captive with my Gospel. Do it with all my authority. For “behold, I am with you always, to the
end of the age.” So we preach. So we believe. In the Name of the Father, and of the Son X, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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