Our Gospel story today is from Monday of the week Jesus' died.
He arrived in Jerusalem on Sunday as the crowd cheered, "Hosanna, blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord." They waved palms and received him as a prophet laying robes and cloaks on the ground preparing the way to meet Jesus.
Jesus' first stop in Jerusalem was the temple. It was the very heart of his people's religious life. Jesus walked in, not in silence, but burning with passion. He drove out the money changers and those who sold doves for sacrifice.
He said to them, “‘My house will be called a house of prayer,’ but you are making it a ‘den of robbers.” Matthew 21:13 (NIV)
He kicked over the cages that held the doves and the tables filled with money that the money changers used. Imagine doves and money scattered all over the temple court. It was chaos; holy blessed chaos in the Temple.
The blind and the lame came to him at the temple, and he healed them. 15 But when the chief priests and the teachers of the law saw the wonderful things he did and the children shouting in the temple area, “Hosanna to the Son of David,” they were indignant. Matthew 21:14-15 (NIV)
Anger bubbled up among the priests and others responsible for the temple: "Who is Jesus to teach like this?" Jesus boldly challenged them and they way they ran the temple. He was pushing, literally driving away the money changers and dove sellers, challenging the whole lot of them to see the temple as God's house and not a market. He said they were using the temple not as a market place but as a place to relate to God and to care about people.
Maybe you are uncomfortable with this real Jesus. He made people squirm because he saw right through their actions to the motives that lay behind. He does the same with us. We often picture God as loving and accepting of everything we do; but the true God has plans for our lives. The true God yearns for us to make the right choices to follow him with courage and faith. This is the real Jesus who calls us to faith and to live out that faith. This is not a baby you can control; this is the real God who seeks to lead you totally. This is the real God who asks you to put aside everything, even your very self, and follow him. After healing and teaching the crowd in the temple Jesus left and headed out to spend the night in Bethany a village near Jerusalem.
Our story picks up when Jesus returned to the temple and started teaching again on Monday. There was a crowd there just like when he'd arrived in town. They wanted to hear him speak and be healed by Jesus.
...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?” Matthew 21:23 NRSV
Jesus wouldn't answer their question unless they would answer one of his: who gave John the Baptist his authority. The chief priests and elders couldn't or wouldn't answer. Jesus responded to the silence of the priests and elders with a story about a father and two sons. The father asked his boys to go work in the vineyard. One son said he wouldn't work and later changed his mind and did go out to help. The other agreed that he would go out to work, but he didn't. Jesus asked them,
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. Matthew 21:31-32 NRSV
Jesus understands, better than we think, just how much our lives effect the lives of others. Jesus faced death for his words in the temple. As a person of faith this story speaks volumes. Forget what looks good or sounds good. What matters is what you do not just what you say. He understands that your life's not about you as one person alone.
This is a story I heard from Rick Warren. Imagine if you and I were out in a boat. Maybe you were fishing off one side of the boat and you thought I had started fishing on the other end. You're having a good time, you get a couple of hard bites, you try to get the net out to land that lunker you've got on the line. And then you look over at me. And instead of fishing imagine that I started drilling a hole in the bottom of the boat. Are you going to still be able to fish? No way. What you do with your life effects mine and my life effects yours. God the Father sends us out into the world. He asks us not to live for ourselves but to live with and for others.
Today is Confirmation Sunday. Today you'll be asked what you'll do. Will you commit to a life of faith. You can see it on page 236 in Evangelical Lutheran Worship.
“Do you intend to continue in the covenant God made with you in holy Baptism?
to live among God's faithful people
to hear the word of God and share in the Lord's supper
to proclaim the good news of God in Christ through word a deed
to serve all people, following the example of Jesus,
to strive for justice and peace in all the earth?
The response to this question is,
“I do, and I ask God to Help and Guide Me.”
Jesus tells us plainly that the real deal isn't what you say you'll do; it's what you do. So what's life about, Jesus said that there are two things that matter above all else in this world,
”‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ Matthew 22:37-39 (NIV)
A relationship with God and your relationships with other people are the most important things in this world. Maybe you believe that what you do won't affect anybody else. But as part of the church we learn that we are in this together. The same goes for families; when one member is struggling or sinking in a storm everyone is effected. As a church we are called to uphold one another praying for each other in joyous and awful times. And the same goes for us as citizens. We don't live in isolated compartments. We live interconnected with the people, nation, and world around us.
People like to think that they can make in on their own. They believe that nothing can sink them and that all they have to do is look out for their own. Pastor Rick Warren used the example of the Titantic. It was supposed to be unsinkable because it was built with multiple compartments in the hull. That meant that the ship was supposed to be able to get a hole in the hull and still stay afloat. Water might rush into one compartment but it was supposed to be contained. The crew battened the hatches that connected the compartments and they thought that was enough. But soon the ship started to list and the water started to go over the walls at the top of one compartment quickly filling in the other compartments.
We need each other. God invites us not to live like we are the only ones that matter. He invites us to commit our lives. If we've turned away he always welcomes us back. He invites us to come and join him all other believers working as members of the body Christ. AMEN
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