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| Andre-Rublev's Saviour |
Holy Redeemer
An ECCA Parish
In the care of the Ecumenical Franciscan Order
Homily preached at Winmalee
by
Br Andrew on Sunday 28th September 2014
Gospel Matthew 21:23-32
“By what authority
are you doing these things?” they asked. “And who gave you this authority?”
Authority is a wonderful thing to have when differences are
to be settled and people are to be put in their place, yes authority can be
useful. As a citizen of Judah both Civil and Ecclesiastical Bodies held
authority over Jesus, just as they did every other citizen. Shortly in (Matthew
22:21) we will learn that Jesus even acknowledged the right of the Roman
overlords to exact their taxes. Remember also the time that the collectors of
the Temple Tax approached Peter to discover whether Jesus paid that tax, a four
drachma coin was found in a fish’s mouth and the tax was paid for both Peter
and Jesus – whether the Son of God had to pay it or not. (Matt.17:24-27) Today
the Roman Church calls this payment Peter’s pence.
The record in today’s Gospel gives us another incident
illustrating one of those situation in which a citizen was required to comply
with both Civil – the Elders of the People and Ecclesiastical – the Pharisees;
Courts These two Bodies of Law had come out in force to arrest this imposter
who recently had disrupted a very lucrative money spinner when he threw the
money Changers out of the Temple.
They wanted his piece of Paper – that authorized him to
preach and teach.
The Son of Man had no
piece of Paper! AND they knew this!
Every Rabbi had his right to practise as an Instructor
presented to him by the scribes, or
their chief representative, after they had finished their studies at the feet
of some great teacher and been solemnly admitted (the delivery of a key, as the
symbol of the right to interpret, being the outward token) to that office.
The second question made sense of the first. Could He name
the Rabbi who had trained Him, or authorised Him to teach?
As a human being Jesus had not gone through the usual
educational and study process to obtain the necessary qualifications, his
knowledge and Authority came from his heavenly Father. The Authorities knew he
was a paperless Rabbi because they did not have his name in their records, they
knew he could not name the Rabbi who had trained him, because there wasn’t one
and therefore could arrest him at the very least as an imposter.
Jesus responds to
their question “I will also ask you one question. If you answer me, I will tell
you by what authority I am doing these things. 25 John’s baptism—where did it
come from? Was it from heaven, or of human origin?”(21:24,25)
All in a tizz they deliberated that, although they had
investigated John the Baptist and found him, let us say satisfactory as a
Prophet. To say that John received his authority from God would mean that they
must also acknowledge that Jesus’ Authority also came from God. To deny the
former would cause the people to riot, because the people believed John was a
prophet, this would be disastrous so they lied and said that they didn’t know.
So they made fools of themselves implying that experts as they were supposed to
be they could not determine the Authenticity of any prophet.
27….
Then (Jesus) said, “Neither
will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things”
To
the ears of the people of his time his parables were easier to understand and
probably held greater depths of meaning as well as any word play that doesn’t
come through to translation. For instance – as well as this being a parable it
is also a metaphor.
What
then did the parable of the two sons say to them? Let’s look at these Old
Testament Metaphors:
·
Firstly for the Israelites the “Vine” is a
symbol of (Israel's) Spiritual privileges.
·
Secondly the vineyard was a symbol of (Israel)
and its promised prosperity.
Jesus, however is speaking of the Vineyard of the Kingdom
of Heaven wherein he is the Vine, (John 15: ) in this Parable I am going to use
the symbolism to represent both the Mission field and the Kingdom of Heaven.
Firstly the Parable itself intends the Vineyard to be the
Kingdom of Heaven, the place wherein we shall finally attain our perfect
spiritual relationship with Jesus. AKA the promised prosperity of Israel
The Sons represent two classes of people, the first: those
who erstwhile were tax collectors and sinners but who received the Baptism of
John and were converted, his/ their “NO” represents their former lives of sin
and their Going to work the Vineyard their conversion and entering first into
the kingdom.
The second son represents the second class of people, who
were full of self-righteousness; who even after hearing John’s call to
repentance had ignored it because they didn’t believe him, or that his call
applied to them, the tax collectors and the prostitutes did. Yet after seeing
this, they did not repent and believe him. Hence prostitutes and sinners shall
enter Heaven before they do.
Later we will read that after the chief priests and the
Pharisees heard his parables, they realized that he was speaking about them.
And in public too!
Now let us compare
the vineyard to the Mission field of the world we inhabit, we live in it, we
work in it to bring others to know the love of Christ and the reality of the
Kingdom and as we do so we grow in spiritual intimacy with him. Jesus is never
far away because we are developing an intimate relationship with him that spurs
us to do his will gladly.
If we were one of those who, like the Pharisees, only
pretend conversion, who have not yet believed in the call to repentance we
would soon discover that the Vineyard was too uncomfortable a place to be until
we could face up to the darkness within us and believe, until then we try to
conceal ourselves with our new clothes and good deeds.
It is not chic to be a Christian, not even a fashion
statement, and small communities such as ours must explain our raison d’etre to
some of the more innocent members of the Body of Christ that do not realise the
necessity for safe havens. Ours, then is a double Mission - not only to seek
out the lost but perhaps to make known to the greater Church Community that
there is a safe haven for those who do not pass muster, even to show others
that they may need to be here too.
Amen
