Matt 21:28-32
At 9:00 AM the radio operator on a ship in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean received a radio message. He dutifully gave it to the captain of the ship who posted it on the bridge. This was one of five separate messages received by this ship this day; 14 April 1912, warnings of field ice and icebergs encountered by other ships along their projected course.
One of the warnings was discussed by the captain and the designer of the ship before it too was posted on the bridge, where the officers made light of them, for they were on the most modern, most technologically advanced transport ever conceived; an unsinkable ship. There was no need to worry.
The last message received at 9:40 PM never made it to the bridge.
Two hours later at 11:39 PM, a lookout in the crow’s nest warned the bridge of an iceberg dead ahead. 37 seconds later the ship struck the berg along the starboard side.
A few hours later this unsinkable ship, known of course to history as the Titanic, in which so many trusted for their security, slipped into the cold darkness of the Atlantic waters ushering some 1500 souls to their deaths.
History is replete with examples of warnings proclaimed and discounted, either because they deny the authority of the messenger, or trust too much in human ability or achievement for their security.
This is the sense in which we hear Jesus engaging the Pharisees and the Jewish leaders in the gospel lesson this morning. God, through the ministry of John the Baptist, sent the warning: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
The Pharisees and Jewish leaders had somewhat enculturated themselves and their religion. They had established the boundaries as to who was in or out, and had no heart to bring those who were out, in. They had systemized their worship in ritual and beauty that in some sense set them apart from the rest of the people, insulating themselves from the very people they were to be influencing.
They were comfortable and confident in whom they were as a religious people. They were secure in what they had created. They felt religiously safe. Looking good on the outside they were really empty on the inside. They had lost sight of the purpose given to them by God to be a light to the world, to make their God known to all the outsiders, to minister God’s grace and mercy. So they ended up doing the right things for all the wrong reasons.
So when John came warning of the coming of the kingdom of God, calling people to repent—literally calling people to change their minds and hearts to refocus their lives from self to one’s need for God’s mercy, they had problems accepting that message.
then when Jesus comes fulfilling John’s message –proclaiming the arrival of that kingdom by his life; his words and acts; and calling people to believe in him, they not only doubt the message but inherently distrust the messenger.
To challenge Jesus, it is not the evidence they challenge. Jesus’ actions and teachings stand as true—so instead, they challenge Jesus’ authority. Who says you can do this?
Jesus connects his actions to the message of John the Baptist, and throws them into a conundrum. To acknowledge that John the Baptist’s message comes with God’s authority raises the question why they did not believe John and be baptized.
On the one hand, they are concerned about their identity as the righteous ones—those who have their relationship to God all under control, and it was the sinners; roman soldiers, harlots and tax collectors who were going to John to be baptized, not the Pharisees—they could not understand how God would do that.
On the other hand they were also worried about their credibility with the Jewish people because they knew John was from God, and to deny that was to make themselves irrelevant to the people. So, as educated experts in the law, they plead the fifth: We don’t know who authorized him.
And as Jesus applied this argument to John the Baptist, so both Jesus and the Pharisees knew it was also being applied to Jesus himself.
Jesus then amplifies the issue with the parable about the two sons commanded to work the vineyard. In the Jewish mind the vineyard represents the ideal of the kingdom of God: the concept of being saved.
One son says he will not go; disobedience to the father in the Jewish mind was a serious thing, punishable by death by stoning. The son is being rebellious, disrespectful of the father’s authority. How could he say this to his father?
You might almost hear a sigh of relief as Jesus goes on to say that this son changes his mind—he changes his heart to be obedient to his father, he repents and goes to work in the vineyard. He is thus saved in a very real sense.
Now the other son: He says he will be obedient, but he does not go. He lies to his father, he distains his father’s authority, trusting his own authority as enough.
Jesus asks these teachers and leaders which of the two did the will of the father?
There is no question that the first did.
Jesus doesn’t question that initially the son wanted his own way, but the important thing was that he changed his mind—he recognized his father’s authority.
He willfully changed his mind and heart to be obedient—he repented—and that is what Jesus holds up to the Pharisees and leaders.
Recognizing God’s authority in life and submitting to his authority and will over our authority and will turning from self-directed life to God directed life is the nature of repentance. In the Old Testament view it is to enter the vineyard—in the message of the New Testament it is to believe in Jesus—it is to understand you are saved.
Further reinforcing his argument Jesus notes that it is the harlots and tax collectors—blatant sinners –who primarily respond to John’s call and to Jesus, Matthew himself being one, as akin to the first son. It was they who knew they were living life in a way that rejected the authority of God, knowing they had no claim to righteousness, no claim to be in the vineyard, but they repented – they turned their hearts, they turned their minds, they turned their wills to believe the message John proclaimed; to then believe in Jesus and thus enter the vineyard.
The Pharisees and leader are convicted as being akin to the second son-they say they are one thing but by what they do prove to be rebellious and contemptuous of God. They do not turn their will to God. They reject his authority to trust in themselves. They are too comfortable, too established, too secure in the unsinkable boat they have created. There is no need to change course, no need to pay attention to the warnings, we are safe.
What about us? Where do we find ourselves in this story? Do we find ourselves like the Pharisees and elders, satisfied in the comfort of our lives? Too secure in our philosophical, intellectual, financial, or material positions to be bothered by any spiritual warning given to us—that we might need to repent, to change our hearts and minds, to submit our wills to God’s authority in some area of our lives; to turn to Jesus?
Or might we see ourselves as the harlot, the tax collector recognizing that there is nothing in ourselves worthy to gain our salvation, our security. And humble enough to hearken to that warning, repent, change course.
Jesus only presents two options here, trust in ourselves and our own constructs, or abide the warnings, change course, and find safety. We know how it worked out for the Titanic in their situation but how will it work out for each of us? Jesus gives us the ability to change our course.
Sermon preached by the Reverend Richard C. Marsden
The Church of the Redeemer
Sarasota Florida
The 16th Sunday after Pentecost
September 28 2014