Sunday story
Doing a nice thing for myself, having a second magic mug of my club hot & black after breakfast. No reason, just because.
Looking at our lectionary for this morning, Jesus in the Temple, I realize that I did comment earlier in the week, though not on the gospel reading, so I'll give it a shot.
Jesus in the Temple is a key thing for Luke; it's so for the other evangelists as well, but a lesser key to his identity than in Luke. In any synoptic, though, a scene with Jesus in the Temple confronting his adversaries clues us that the tension is building and Jesus' end is near.
Matthew gets his 21:23-32 temple confrontation scene from Mark 11. The parable of the two sons that follows, which Matthew inserts between the temple confrontation and the parable of the leased vineyard, is Matthew's own. We don't know what Matthew intended, but maybe I'll come back to that.
First, the confrontation, which seems to end in a standoff, neither Jesus nor the priests answer the other's question. Suppose, though, that the chief priests and elders had decided to answer Jesus' question, what then would Jesus have said as his answer to their question? IDK, we do not know, because that's not the gospel writer's agenda; but just suppose.
"I Am the messiah, the Son of the living God," is a response candidate, eh? It would surely have ignited the priests' and elders' charge of capital blasphemy sooner than the gospel script is ready for it - -> perhaps they'd have dragged Jesus out the nearest city gate and stoned him to death right then, missing the passion drama and how does a stoned, crushed person look resurrected?
Thinking about it, maybe it's inconceivable that the gospel writer(s) could have let this confrontation go any other way. The writers couldn't have had Jesus give any other answer but the "I AM" assertion, which can't happen yet. As is, the confrontation serves the gospel story's agenda simply by raising the tension between Jesus and the temple authorities, and that's the idea.
About the parable that Matthew inserts after the confrontation. It also is meant to increase the tension, because no matter what answer Jesus' adversaries give, he's got them. There's no "best" answer because the son who said, "I will not" challenged, embarrassed, and shamed his father even if he later obeyed. And the son who said, "I will" but did not obey, showed contempt for his father by disregarding his father's request. Neither son is up for praising, both deserve to be dragged out and stoned for disobeying the commandment "thou shalt honor thy father and thy mother," and if we convert the story from parable to allegory, the scribes and elders are the worst part of both sons: and even the most disgusting sinners of the society, prostitutes and tax collectors, will get into the kingdom of God before those characters.
They came expecting to trapped Jesus, and, as usual, he pulled their rug out from under them. Don't mess with The Man: he never falls into a trap by answering challenging questions; instead he always shows his challengers up as damn fools.
Here's that gospel reading:
Matthew 21:23-32
When Jesus entered the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came to him as he was teaching, and said, “By what authority are you doing these things, and who gave you this authority?” Jesus said to them, “I will also ask you one question; if you tell me the answer, then I will also tell you by what authority I do these things. Did the baptism of John come from heaven, or was it of human origin?” And they 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 all regard John as a prophet.” So they answered Jesus, “We do not know.” And he said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things.
“What do you think? A man had two sons; he went to the first and said, ‘Son, go and work in the vineyard today.’ He answered, ‘I will not’; but later he changed his mind and went. The father went to the second and said the same; and he answered, ‘I go, sir’; but he did not go.
Which of the two did the will of his father?” They said, “The first.”
Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are going into the kingdom of God ahead of you. For John came to you in the way of righteousness and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes believed him; and even after you saw it, you did not change your minds and believe him.”
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RSF&PTL
T91
clipart pinched online: chief priests and elders wishing they hadn't confronted Jesus after all