Matthew 21:23-32 - "Powerful Word of God" (9-28-08)

It was only Monday of Holy Week when Jesus is greeted on by these religious leaders. There was a slow leak taking place in the power of the religious leaders. So they confronted this road hazard Jesus who threatened their power as God was doing something new in growing the vineyard bigger than they could imagine.

Jesus was teaching in the temple without any seminary training. The kingdom vineyard was expanding beyond the traditional expectations. The religious leaders felt deflated with this frontal attack by Jesus on the practices and rituals of a faith rooted not in the promises of God’s word but in the practices. Was Jesus from heaven or from man? The week had only just begun.

Who do you think you are? By what authority do you preach? We should be cautious if someone were to just come up front in the middle of the worship service and start preaching. We would think that is rather odd if someone would boldly claim to have a word from God.

Yet the vineyard of faith was growing and they didn’t know how this could happen? They are driven to drive Jesus off the cliff; knock him off the road because Jesus calls into question the very authority by which they have based their entire system of beliefs. God was acting and they were going to focus only on that past experience with God; doubting that God will act again.

So they ask Jesus where he got his authority. Jesus then asked them about John the Baptist – was he from God or from man. For John the Baptist, repentance was free; John’s message was heard and accepted by two groups whom the temple authorities and the people believed to be outcasts: tax collectors and the harlots. They were left speechless; deflated; and without a spare. They don’t want to answer and Jesus said he will not answer them. Yet this is not a judgment against Israel but against religious leaders. They were a small percentage of the Jews living in the entire middle east and Mediterranean basin.

I had doubts about today when Tammy left to teach a class at McHenry Community College this morning. She informed me that the van had a flat. I figured if I could just take care of it by 1pm and finish to get back to church by 2pm to prepare for our once a month Saturday night worship service, I’d be fine in my preparation. So after breakfast and three different games this morning with the kids, I sought to change the tire and have it fixed. It was flat. The spare took me an hour to get out from underneath the car because the cable and the piece that held it up wasn’t releasing. I laid there and said, “Dear God help.” The first thought was to call my father in law. He would help. But I then studied it more and could tell the piece of metal seemed rusted ant not releasing. So I moved my face from the path where the tired would descend and started pulling on a screwdriver I had wedge in there. Finally it did release and it was replaced. By then it was 12:30pm. I took it to NTB with Nathan where we walked to Chili’s to use up Nathan’s gift certificate for lunch. I returned one hour later. I arrived home by 3:15pm – five hours for a flat tire change and repair. I needed to repent and turn around, even though I did the will of my wife.

So there were two sons called by the father to work in the vineyard. God is calling us to work in the vineyards. One said yes and didn’t - law givers perhaps kept the letter but not the spirit of law. One said no and then did: Tax collectors and prostitutes were the sinful Jewish folks. Yet they were seeing that God was doing something new. Religious leaders are challenged to give up the security which their job as leaders supplied. We are called to look afresh at how this vineyard is called to grow. Our vested interests are called to grow the kingdom. Authority and power are re-defined in terms of the new tradition Jesus would demonstrate

We are called today even when we say NO to God. We believe that it is the Holy Spirit that inspires us to say YES. When we stray – God calls us back through the word! When we stray – the word is powerful gift of Grace. When we stray – the power of God’s word reminds us that we are week and deflated. Paul said, the power of God is made perfect in weakness. When we admit we don’t have any strength to work in the vineyard yet again this next week, God provides. We stake our claim to a unique mission, a mission that relinquishes power in order the share the grace of Christ to those around us. That means we must relinquish power over others and over what God is doing in the world. Christ relinquished power in bringing himself to the world. It was only Monday and we know how it ended on Good Friday. But we are here on Easter again. To believe the word is living and powerful, we must still believe that God is not finished with us.