BY WHAT AUTHORITY
Text: Matthew 21:23-32
I once heard the story about a young man who wanted a custom paint job on his car. He wanted the car to be two different colors. He wanted the whole right side to be one color and the left another color. When asked why he wanted his car painted like that his answer was that he did not want anybody to be able to identify him by his car and it’s color. He sounds like a young man who was paranoid or running from something or someone. He also sounds like a young man who could not make up his mind about whether to be on one side of the fence or the other.
When the leaders---the chief priest and the elders tried to ask Jesus a trick question about his authority, they had hoped to make a fool out of Jesus. The only problem was that their question became a boomerang when Jesus met their challenging question with a question of His own. When Jesus asked them His question it was clear that either way that they answered the question would be incriminating.
This text is about how our words match our actions when it comes to obedience to the will of God. It is both our actions and our words that communicate on which side of the fence we are standing whether it be obedience or rebellion.
PLEADING THE FIFTH
Nobody wants to be a witness against himself or herself. In our country, whenever a person is put on the witness stand and asked a question that could be harmful to his or her own case in court, he or she can plead the fifth. Usually such people will say something like, "I plead the fifth", or "I refuse to answer that question on the grounds that it might incriminate me". In their own way, that is what the chief priests and elders were doing when they refuse to answer Jesus’ question by saying, "We do not know".
We might plead the fifth from time to time with our words, but our actions sometimes speak louder than words. There is the story about two farmers who were rivals. "Two Kentucky farmers who owned racing stables had developed a keen rivalry. One spring, each of them entered a horse in a local steeplechase. Thinking that a professional rider might help him outdo his friend, one of the farmers engaged a crack jockey. The two horses were leading the race at the last fence, but it proved too tough for them. Both horses fell, unseating their riders. But this calamity did not stop the professional jockey. He quickly remounted and won the race.
Returning triumphant to the paddock, the jockey found the farmer who had hired him fuming with rage. "What’s the matter?" the jockey asked. "I won, didn’t I?"
"Oh, yes," roared the farmer. "You won all right, but you still don’t know, do you?" "Know what?" asked the jockey. "You won the race on the wrong horse." While this situation does not occur often at horse races, it happens in every human life. Each of us, trying hard to win the race, tends to climb on the wrong horse. If we do not discover our error, we cross the finish line a triumphant failure. Jesus labels this faulty human reflex with a noun from the Old Testament: sin. He says an Old Testament verb is the only cure for it: repent". (Herb Miller. Actions Speak Louder Than Words. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1989, p. 15). The main reason that the chief priests and the elders had to say that "they did not know" when they did indeed know the answer was because they would have been admitting that they were sinners who had neglected their need to repent.
TAKING OUR STAND
Everything that we do says something about who we are and what we believe. Consider Matthew 12:37: "… for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned" (RSV). Keep that in mind as Jesus tells this parable and they give their answer. Right after the chief priests and the elders refused to answer Jesus’ question, Jesus told them a parable about two sons. A father of two sons bids them to go to work in his vineyard. The first one said no and then later changed his mind and went. The second one said, yes but refused to go and work. So when Jesus asked them which son did the will of their father, they naturally answered the first. It was then that Jesus told them, the chief priests and the elders that there were sinners who were going ahead of them in to the kingdom of God. Jesus was pointing out to them that they were like the second son in the parable who said that he would go and did not live up to his word.
There are two ways that we can take our stand. We can be like the chief priests and elders who talk the talk but did not walk the walk. Or, we can realize that the work that awaits us in the vineyard is a harvest that is plentiful and the laborers are so few (Matthew 9:37). Oftentimes, we will find that we are the answer to our own prayers that God would send more workers to help bring in the harvest (Matthew 9:38 paraphrased). When we work in the vineyard, we are touching those that others say are untouchable, reaching those that others say are unreachable and helping them to realize that God is calling them to both salvation and to service in His kingdom. When we work in God’s kingdom we are authentic in talking and our walking.
BEING FRUITFUL
The Chief priests and elders were not fruitful. They were in the positions that they were in and made little impact upon the world that they lived in. They were instead ineffective. They liked being in charge of religious matters. Jesus and His views were a threat to their way of doing things. Their views were, it seems, shaped by their own agenda. They seemed to exhibit a behavior that acknowledged God and their obedience to God. Yet, their actions---their seeming promise was lacking in performance. They were all about works without faith, it seems.
The chief priests and the elders would more than likely be the kind of people that Jesus was talking about when He said, `It is not anyone who says to me, `Lord, Lord,’ who will enter the kingdom of Heaven, but the person who does the will of my Father in heaven. When the day comes many will say to me, `Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, drive out demons in your name, work many miracles in your name?’ Then I shall tell them to their faces: I have never known you; away from me, all evil doers! (Matthew 7:21-23 NJB).
It is God’s will that we work and be fruitful in His kingdom. I once heard a fellow minister say, "We often sing about "Standing on the Promises", while we are sitting on the premises". In order for us to be fruitful we must have faith that acts and brings forth fruit because "faith without works is dead" (James 2:26). The Amplified Bible translates James 2:26 this way: "For as the human body apart from the spirit is lifeless, so faith apart from its works of obedience is also dead".
We cannot be fruitful in the spiritual aspect of life unless we obey God’s will. There are times when we might delay before we decide to obey. The time for us to obey is now. If we were to delay in obeying a stop sign, then one of three things might happen. We might get a ticket. We could get in an accident. Or, we could have a close call where we just do wind up just barely escaping an accident. The point of the matter is that we are fruitful when we are obedient and we are not so successful when we procrastinate and disobey.
There is a classic story about procrastination and it goes like this. An American eagle was flying high over the Niagara River on a cold and wintry day. He saw a dead bullock (young bull) floating down river. He thought to himself, "What a great feast!" He landed and sank his talons deep into the carcass and began to feed on it. He thoroughly enjoyed the feast and was unwilling to let it go. He thought that he had plenty of time to withdraw. He continued to eat. He decided that he would let go at the last minute. Not long after that he was approaching the falls. He tried to fly away. However, he was in for a rude awakening when he found that his feet were frozen to the carcass. In the end, he fell with the carcass. (Paraphrased: Chaplain Forest D. Davies. Biblical Prisoners. Duluth: Priory Books, 1988, pp. 1-2). When we procrastinate, we miss opportunities in the service of God’s kingdom that might be costly to us or even someone else.
When we obey we are fruitful. When we are not obeying, we come across as a momentarily blind person who will lead one (or others) who is blind astray. The chief priests and the elders proved how costly it was to them as others---repentant sinners were entering the kingdom of God ahead of them. Jesus was pointing out to them that as long as they procrastinated, that they would not be able to enter God’s kingdom. After all, were they not the blind leading the blind (Matthew 15:14)? The difference between the religious leaders and the repentant sinners in this story is one thing---obedience. Jesus once said "He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me scatters" (Matthew 12:30 RSV). When we agree to obey and work in the vineyard---God’s kingdom here on earth, we are working and "gathering" with Christ and for Christ!
