Sunday, March 30, 2008

He Paid the Ultimate Tax with the Only True Coin

“You Are True”

(Matthew 22:15-22, Preaching: Pastor Stephen Magee, March 30, 2008)

Matthew 22:15-22 15 Then the Pharisees went and plotted how to entangle him in his talk. 16 And they sent their disciples to him, along with the Herodians, saying, "Teacher, we know that you are true and teach the way of God truthfully, and you do not care about anyone's opinion, for you are not swayed by appearances. 17 Tell us, then, what you think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?" 18 But Jesus, aware of their malice, said, "Why put me to the test, you hypocrites? 19 Show me the coin for the tax." And they brought him a denarius. 20 And Jesus said to them, "Whose likeness and inscription is this?" 21 They said, "Caesar's." Then he said to them, "Therefore render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's." 22 When they heard it, they marveled. And they left him and went away.

Introduction – Pharisees, Herodians, Romans, Sadducees, Scribes, Crowds, and a Few Disciples

John’s gospel tells us in the opening verses that when Jesus came to His own people, they did not receive Him. Jesus was a Jew. There were various groups of Jews in the first century that we read about in the New Testament. These groups can easily become very confusing to us. The Pharisees, often associated with the scribes, who were teachers of the law, are mentioned in the Bible more than any other group. They came into significant conflict with Jesus concerning their additions to divine law through their traditions and interpretations. The Herodians were a group associated with the family of Herod, and who had a favorable attitude toward the dynasty of Herod. The two groups, Pharisees and Herodians, did not necessarily have much in common, but they found something to agree upon in their opposition to Jesus Christ.

All of these groups had to live within the context of Roman rule, and all of them had some connection to the politics of the day. It has always been a temptation among religious leaders to use the power of the state against their enemies. In today’s passage we see the Pharisees and Herodians trying to do just that. As Jesus is willingly moving toward the cross in a matter of days, these two groups are considering ways to get the Roman authorities involved in condemning Jesus. That will happen. Jesus will be killed by the Romans, but not according to the plan of the Pharisees.

The Plot (15)

We are told that it was the Pharisees that came up with the plot. The passage talks about something that a group of people did together. They plotted about how to get him into trouble. They took counsel together. It is bad enough to think of the things that we dream up when we are alone. It is an uglier evil when these things are shared with others and discussed until a plan emerges. Capabilities that God has given us for good that involve reasoning and discussing options can also be harnessed for some evil outcome. A State Department official once told me that incompetence can look very much like corruption. It is also true that not everything that looks like a conspiracy is necessarily an evil plot involving a group of people. This one was.

The plan was to trap him in His words with the right observers there in order to make a case to the Romans that He was a dangerous subversive that had to be eliminated. We should remind ourselves at this point that the eternal Son of God became man in order to die for sinners the death that they could not bear. This was His willing resolution known from before the foundation of the world, and expressed in various ways throughout the Old Testament Scriptures. There are so many things to say here. They are trying to kill the man that may soon save them by His death. They are attempting to trap God by surprise. Think about that. It cannot be done. God has planned something for our eternal good from before the creation of the world, and some religious people are meeting a few days before his death to make a plot. If they insist on plotting against God, they are sorely mismatched. They were going to get Him to say the wrong word. He is the Word that holds everything together throughout the universe, and who created all things. One thing He never has is a mistaken Word. His Word keeps all creation going. His Word is the thing that keeps the church together. How many times has His Word rescued You out of hopelessness or given You a fresh sense of purpose? He is not going to say the wrong thing.

The Complement (16)

After agreeing on a plan, they go with the Herodians, hoping for success. They begin with a complement. People do this to take someone off their guard. They pose as supporters so that the speaker will let his guard down, and then they can come in with a key point that will draw some blood. He has the advantage. The end of John 2 tells us that Jesus knew what was in a man. He did not need anyone to tell him about people. He knew their malice.

Nonetheless, they gave Him a very interesting complement. It has four points. 1. We know that you are true. 2. You teach the way of God truthfully. 3. You don’t speak to win the approval of powerful people. 4. You are not swayed by appearances. All four of these points are absolutely true. Jesus is the Truth, all of His words are from God and are true, He is not afraid of what people can do to Him, and He does not do things based on outward appearances or some system of partiality. They could not have believed all these things, or they would not be trying to trap Him with their plot.

The Question (17)

The question that follows is the key to their plot. When people in Philippi wanted to be rid of the Apostle Paul they said that he and Silas were disturbing the city by advocating customs that were not lawful for Romans to accept or practice. They needed to employ the civil authorities, the ones who have prisons and swords, against their religious enemies. Let them do the killing. When Paul is brought before the civil authorities in Judea, a representative of the Jews claims that Paul stirs up riots among all the Jews. In these and other cases in the Bible, the hope is to make your religious opponent look like an enemy of the state.

The question they have come up with is perfect for the entrapment. “Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?” The specific tax in question was a poll tax. The Romans had made use of the temple tax in the biblical law, and they commanded the payment of this tax to the imperial treasury. Naturally this was deeply offensive to religious Jews. In addition, the tax was to be paid with a coin that bore an inscription that gave religious titles to the emperor. Reasonable people debated whether it was even lawful to participate in this. It is likely that many of the Pharisees think that it is not lawful to pay the tax, and that many of the Herodians think that it is both lawful and required. The purpose of the question, and the reason for the presence of the Herodians, is to get him to say that the tax was against the law of God. This will make him an enemy of the state. Of course, if He says that it is lawful to pay the tax there will be many people who will be against Him for that position. The flattery that introduced the question seems designed to push him into speaking out against the tax. “You don’t care what the powerful and oppressive Romans think. You always tell the truth, no matter what. You speak up for God’s way, not for some tax supporting pagans. Come on, Jesus. Speak up. Is it lawful to pay the poll tax to the Romans, a tax based on God’s law?”

The Truth (18-21)

The Lord knows that they hate Him. They are hypocrites. They are only playing a part. They are testing him with the hope that He will fail in such a way that He will be gone. His answer is wonderful. He asks for the coin that had to be used when paying the tax, the coin with that pagan inscription ascribing great religious titles to Caesar. “Whose image is this?” When Jesus starts asking you questions, you know the game is over. “It is Caesar’s image and inscription.” “Well then it must be his coin. Caesar has made claims about himself on that coin. You should give that back to him, but when you do that, don’t forget to give to King of kings the things that are His.”

A key word in the interchange is the Greek word from which we get the word icon. It means “image” and it is translated “likeness” here. It is the word used in the Greek Bible to speak of the image of God. The Apostle Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 4 that Jesus is the image of God. As we see Him in the Word, we are made more and more like Him. When man was created, Adam and Ever were made in God’s image. Even though sin has marred that image, it is still part of human dignity that every person, from the moment of conception, is made in the image of God. People don’t belong to Caesar. They belong to God. Give Caesar his money. I guess that is his due. We submit to lawful authority. But make sure that you give yourself wholly to God, for you were made in His image.

The Response (22)

What a question they asked to the man who came to die for our sins. He does not have to be forced to the cross. He is going there willingly. He is going there as the perfect image of God. The coins of the realm don’t hold up very well. Throughout history, when coins were made with precious metals, dishonest people would try to shave off something from the edge of the coin. That’s why our coins often have special ridges on them so that you can see quickly if you are getting a “true” coin. Coins get tarnished, and after a long time the inscription may become faded to the point where you need an expert to even see what it says. When Jesus paid the debt for our sin, that coin of the perfect image of God had to be perfect and full. Sin is what mars the image of God. Jesus had none of that.

What a question they asked Him, but what an answer He gave. In just a few days He was going to give His life to God for us. He calls us to give our lives to God. They had nothing they could say to Him. They left Him. We are not of those who leave Him. We are of those who are kept by Him, and so we stay with Him… forever. He is true.

Questions for meditation and discussion:

1. What are some things about which the Pharisees and Herodians could have disagreed? Why do they agree upon?

2. Is what the Pharisees are saying and doing in this passage sinful? How so? Consider the Ten Commandments?

3. Can a tax by the civil authorities be sinful? If so, can we rightly participate in such a tax? How about this tax?

4. How has Christ fulfilled His instruction in this passage? What are the implications of this for us? Civil? Moral?

Sunday, March 23, 2008

How good is the gift? How real is the promise?

“A King Gave a Wedding Feast for His Son”

(Matthew 22:1-14, Preaching: Pastor Stephen Magee, March 23, 2008)

Matthew 22:1-14 And again Jesus spoke to them in parables, saying, 2 "The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son, 3 and sent his servants to call those who were invited to the wedding feast, but they would not come. 4 Again he sent other servants, saying, 'Tell those who are invited, See, I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and my fat calves have been slaughtered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding feast.' 5 But they paid no attention and went off, one to his farm, another to his business, 6 while the rest seized his servants, treated them shamefully, and killed them. 7 The king was angry, and he sent his troops and destroyed those murderers and burned their city. 8 Then he said to his servants, 'The wedding feast is ready, but those invited were not worthy. 9 Go therefore to the main roads and invite to the wedding feast as many as you find.' 10 And those servants went out into the roads and gathered all whom they found, both bad and good. So the wedding hall was filled with guests. 11 "But when the king came in to look at the guests, he saw there a man who had no wedding garment. 12 And he said to him, 'Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding garment?' And he was speechless. 13 Then the king said to the attendants, 'Bind him hand and foot and cast him into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.' 14 For many are called, but few are chosen."

Introduction – The turning point of history in the resurrection of Jesus

Something entirely new happened early one Sunday morning so many years ago. How new was the resurrection? While Jesus had performed resurrection miracles during His earthly ministry, this one was very different. All of those others were resurrections to mortal life. Those who had been brought back to life would die again, but when Jesus Himself rose from the dead, he rose to an entirely new kind of life, an immortal life, a permanent bodily life not subject to decay. Jesus would never die again. This would be interesting enough by itself, but there is something else that allows us to speak of the Lord’s resurrection as the turning point in human history: Jesus would not be the only one to rise to this kind of immortal life. His was the first of what would be many resurrections. Our belief in the resurrection of Jesus Christ is a belief that He is the firstfruits of a much larger harvest. Our belief is that when Christ returns to judge the living and the dead, there will be a general bodily resurrection of the dead to an immortal existence. Because of this connection between His resurrection and our resurrections, we can call that Sunday morning so long ago the turning point of history, and the most powerful indication that a whole new life can be experienced by faith now, but will be known physically when Christ returns.

They would not come (1-7)

This is what Christians believe about the resurrection, and it is worthy of a great celebration. We are told that there is a marriage supper of the Lamb of God that is coming, and that those who are invited to that marriage supper are greatly blessed (Revelation 19:9). God the Son will be married to His church, the bride of Christ, on that great day of resurrection. Anticipating that great moment, in the last days prior to His own death and resurrection, the Lord told a parable about the coming wedding feast.

In that parable a king is giving a wedding feast for his son, and He sent His ministers, his servants, to call people to the wedding feast. It is clear that God is the King in this parable. Through the ministers of His Word He sends out the call everywhere inviting people to come to that feast. The wedding is for God’s Son, Jesus Christ. We are told in another place that the church is the bride of Christ and that Christ is the bridegroom. This is a very ancient way of talking about the relationship between God and His people. God is said to cleave to His people as a Husband to His bride. The dedication of His Son’s love is shown on the cross where Christ dies for His bride, but the fulfillment of the blessedness of that marriage is yet to come.

This wedding is not to be missed, just as surely as the blessedness of heavenly resurrection is not to be missed. If you were given a great gift that only required that You claim it, there would only be one reason not to claim that present. That would be if You did not really believe that the gift was real. Even if you had some doubt about the gift, you might still investigate the gift just in case. The only reason not to go to the heavenly wedding feast is if you just don’t believe that there is such a thing. You might want to check yourself on that unbelief of course. Have you actually examined the facts about the matter? Have you considered the meaning of the empty tomb? Have you thought about the missing body? What do you think of the record of the apostles given in the New Testament? Have you examined that as a responsible person? Have you considered the Old Testament seriously and seen that it points to a fulfillment that can only be from God through the giving of His Son? Have you thought enough about the cross, and the fact of the resurrection? The shocking detail of the parable we are considering is that the people who are invited to this wedding, the ones who receive a general call from the ministers of the Word, refuse to come, and they even abuse the messengers who bring the great invitation. They must not have believed that the wedding was real or great, otherwise that would not have let other mundane things get in the way of the best event that could ever be imagined – no, this event is beyond Your greatest imagination.

Invite as many as you find (8-10)

When Christ came to the Israelites, he was rejected. They had received the message of His coming and of a new Kingdom for centuries, but they would not receive Him. According to God’s great plan of salvation, this rejection would mean the end of the Old Testament era and the beginning of New Testament life through the church. The King told His ministers to go out and bring in all kinds of guests.

Isn’t that what Jesus has been doing in His ministry? He speaks to prostitutes and tax collectors. He blesses little children. He touches unclean lepers with His hands. He has compassion on crowds of all kinds of people. Isn’t that also what the apostles did as they brought the word everywhere? Philip explains the prophet Isaiah to an Ethiopian eunuch, who sees that Jesus Christ is the suffering Lamb of God who takes away our sins. The message goes forward to despised and irreligious people north of Judea called Samaritans. Peter is clearly instructed by an angel to go and preach the truth about Christ and the resurrection to Gentiles who have gathered by the instruction of an angel. Not knowing exactly what to expect, they are visited by the Spirit of God. Paul goes to synagogues everywhere throughout Asia Minor and Macedonia. He faces great persecution. Some Jews believe, but especially large groups of Gentiles receive the message of the cross of Christ and of His resurrection. In short, those who were decidedly outside of the Old Testament invitation list are now invited into the New Testament church, and they will be there at the marriage feast of the lamb, for they have come to believe what millions have receive over these many centuries. Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, sent from heaven. Jesus died for my sins. Jesus rose again as the first resurrection man. I will have a resurrection life through Him. That wedding hall will be filled with guests.

A man who had no wedding garment (11-13)

So far, so good. There is such a sense of mercy, of forgiveness, of inclusiveness, and of hope, but the story is not finished. In verse eleven we hear that there is one man who has no wedding garment. Have you ever been to a formal occasion and found out upon your arrival that you were not even close to being dressed appropriately? It is very embarrassing. Something like that happens in the parable, but the consequences are way beyond embarrassment. The king comes up to the one man without the proper garment. He asks him how he got into the place for the wedding. The man is speechless, and then the king instructs them to tie him up and to cast him into the outer darkness where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Occasionally when a parable is being told there is a sudden gaping hole in the story and we burst out into the reality that the story symbolizes. Clearly we have been talking about resurrection heaven all along, and outside of this is the place of eternal punishment, where God’s frightening justice is experienced without end. We were talking symbolically about wedding garments, and then we broke through to the reality of hell. What seems to break down the wall of the story is the absence of this necessary wedding garment. What does that symbolize?

It cannot stand for a man’s relative goodness when compared with other men. Verse 10 says that the servants gathered those who were “both bad and good.” What could this necessary clothing mean? From the moment that God first clothed Adam and Eve with garments that required the shedding of blood, clothing has had a very important symbolic significance in the Bible. Specifically as it relates to our relationship to Jesus as the Lamb of God, who shed His blood that our sins would be forgiven, those who have embraced that message are said to have garments that symbolize the perfect righteousness of Christ. You cannot be in God’s presence without that perfect righteousness, and that righteousness is credited to us when we believe in Christ. Without faith in Christ, there is no crediting of Christ’s righteousness for sinners. Without that righteousness, no one can come to the wedding feast. With the righteous robes of Christ, we are counted as beloved guests of the Father, and even as the bride of the Bridegroom. Faith in Christ is the only way for us to have the blessedness of eternal resurrection with Christ in heaven. While we live out that faith even now, what we do here is only a start.

Called and chosen (14)

The truth about Christ, about righteousness by faith in Him, and about the life of faith that God has for us now is what the ministers of the Word of God are supposed to be telling You. If You have received some other message, it is a false invitation. There is no salvation except through the blood of Christ, and there is no good life at the resurrection marriage supper of the Lamb without the righteousness of Jesus Christ for sinners, received by faith alone. The call goes far and wide to many. Most do not believe. Some even persecute the messengers of good news. Some, however, are chosen by God. They show God’s electing love in their lives because they receive the message that they hear. They believe. They put on the wedding garment of Christ’s righteousness that could only come from God. Do not miss the resurrection! Please believe me. If you are still skeptical, come and look at the facts carefully. Do not take someone else’s skepticism as necessary fact for you. Find out the truth for yourself. The Lord is risen. He is risen indeed.

Questions for meditation and discussion:

1. What is the meaning of the first group invited to the wedding feast? Relate this to the context of the parable.

2. What is the second group invited to the feast? How does this relate to the early decades of church history?

3. What can be said about the one man who does not have proper garments? Why is this detail included?

4. What is the point of the last verse? How are we to understand these words “called” and “chosen?”

Friday, March 21, 2008

The facts about the deaths of men like Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Zechariah are hard to know for sure, but the facts about the death of Jesus are clear

“They Will Respect My Son”

(Matthew 21:33-46, Preaching: Pastor Stephen Magee, March 21, 2008)

Matthew 21:33-46 33 "Hear another parable. There was a master of a house who planted a vineyard and put a fence around it and dug a winepress in it and built a tower and leased it to tenants, and went into another country. 34 When the season for fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the tenants to get his fruit. 35 And the tenants took his servants and beat one, killed another, and stoned another. 36 Again he sent other servants, more than the first. And they did the same to them. 37 Finally he sent his son to them, saying, 'They will respect my son.' 38 But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, 'This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and have his inheritance.' 39 And they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. 40 When therefore the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?" 41 They said to him, "He will put those wretches to a miserable death and let out the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the fruits in their seasons." 42 Jesus said to them, "Have you never read in the Scriptures: "' The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; this was the Lord's doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes'? 43 Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruits. 44 And the one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; and when it falls on anyone, it will crush him." 45 When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they perceived that he was speaking about them. 46 And although they were seeking to arrest him, they feared the crowds, because they held him to be a prophet.

Introduction – The most important week of human history

Tacitus, a second century Roman historian, wrote about the rise of Christianity, and the death of Christ from the perspective of one who was no friend to the Christian religion. Here is what he said in speaking of Nero:

“… not all the relief that could come from man, not all the bounties that the prince could bestow, nor all the atonements which could be presented to the gods, availed to relieve Nero from the infamy of being believed to have ordered the conflagration, the fire of Rome. Hence to suppress the rumor, he falsely charged with the guilt, and punished Christians, who were hated for their enormities. Christus, the founder of the name, was put to death by Pontius Pilate, procurator of Judea in the reign of Tiberius: but the pernicious superstition, repressed for a time broke out again, not only through Judea, where the mischief originated, but through the city of Rome also, where all things hideous and shameful from every part of the world find their center and become popular. Accordingly, an arrest was first made of all who pleaded guilty; then, upon their information, an immense multitude was convicted, not so much of the crime of firing the city, as of hatred against mankind.”

Tacitus’ version of history makes fascinating reading today. With the passage of many centuries since the days of the one he called Christus, we are able to say this about the week that began with Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem and culminated with the empty tomb: It was the most important week of all human history. Far from being a forgotten movement of some false religion, Christianity has shaped the world. Millions believe that the two most important events of all existence took place within just a few days of each other, the first being the death of Jesus of Nazareth on a Roman cross, and the second being His resurrection from the grave.

Eight chapters in Matthew’s gospel deal with just one week. Over the course of that week, Jesus concluded His teaching ministry. The parables that He taught at that point were especially pointed. This is the moment at which the whole way of doing things under the Old Testament was coming to a close, and the new way of New Testament worship and life was being instituted. Most obviously we have the end of the Old Testament celebration of the Passover and the institution of the New Testament sacrament of the Lord’s Supper. The end of the old and the inauguration of the new is a major theme of his teaching during this week. The events that we are looking at in the passage before us probably took place on the Tuesday before His death. Everything in this week speaks of the death of Christ, and everything in this week also speaks of the resurrection of Christ.

The Master’s Vineyard (33-34)

In the midst of this hard-hitting teaching as Jesus moves closer to the cross, we have a story of a master who owns a vineyard. Telling a story about the “vineyard” was a way that God used to talk about Old Testament Israel (See Isaiah 5). In this case there is more to the story than the fact that the vineyard is not fruitful for the Master. Here the tenants of the vineyard have utterly rejected the Master.

Israel was God’s creation. He owned Israel, and He made demands upon her; good demands, that would be in her best interest. God had taken care of her. What is presented here in this imagery of planting, putting a fence around the vineyard, digging a winepress, and building a tower is supposed to remind us that God did everything necessary for that vineyard to be wonderfully fruitful. The problem with Israel was not a problem of having a bad Master of the vineyard. The problem had to do with Israel, and it became obvious when He sent His servants to collect fruit.

The Master’s Servants (35-36)

These servants were the prophets that God had sent to Israel over many centuries. God had spoken clearly through the prophets. They made known God’s claim over His vineyard. He reinforced His demands of fruitful obedience. He made sure they understood that this was His vineyard, and that to deny Him would be dangerous. These servants were men like Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Zechariah. Just as there was nothing wrong with the Master (God), there was nothing wrong with the servants (the prophets). They did their job well.

Isaiah lived in the 8th century before Christ. He had a prophetic ministry that spanned over 40 years during the reign of several kings. He is especially known for His prophecies regarding the Messiah as a “Suffering Servant.” His life probably ended during the early years of the reign of Manasseh the son of Hezekiah. During Isaiah’s final years there was a massive increase in paganism and idolatry in Judah. We don’t know from the Bible how Isaiah died, but tradition suggests that he was the one referred to in the New Testament Book of Hebrews (11:37) where one faithful servant of God is said to have been sawn in two. Jeremiah suffered greatly over the course of His long ministry six centuries before Christ. He gave a marvelous prophesy of the coming of the New Covenant era, when the law of God would be written upon the heart of God’s people, and God’s Spirit would be the first and best Teacher of all the faithful. He also exposed the obvious disobedience of the people during the reign of the wicked sons and grandson of Josiah. For this he was beaten, put in a muddy well to die, and taken to various places against his will. He was regularly accused of being a traitor, and was kept under arrest for long periods of time. We have no clear record of his death, but many believe that he died in Egypt by the hand of his enemies in the very place where he faithfully told the people that they must not go. Zechariah was one of God’s prophets at the time of the return of God’s people from exile during the late 6th and early 5th centuries before Christ. He is quoted more frequently than any other Old Testament prophet when the gospel writers tell the story of the week of Christ’s death. For instance, it was Zechariah who told us about the king coming into Jerusalem on a donkey. It was also in Zechariah that we learn that someone would strike the Shepherd (Jesus) and the sheep would be scattered. If we have the right Zechariah, he was the prophet whom Jesus says was murdered by the forerunners to the religious leaders who were seeking to kill Jesus. There was no problem with God’s servants, the prophets. They did their job well, but they were beaten, killed, and stoned by the tenants of the vineyard.

The Master’s Son (37-39)

What father would send his son into such a situation? After his servants had been so shamefully treated and even killed, who would send his son to speak to those tenants? They should have respected the son. In a way, they simply treated him like another prophet, but the story says that they especially killed him because he was the heir. To kill the son, was to be done with the master. By killing the son, they expected to finally seize the inheritance. So they took him out of the vineyard, and they killed him.

Murder is a horrible thing under any circumstances. In this case, one fact does not come across through the story, but is obvious since the Son is telling this story on the Tuesday before His death. Both the Father and the Son were perfectly well aware that the people would kill Jesus Christ. He had already informed His disciples of this three times, and He had told them of the purpose of His death, that through the offering of His life as a sacrifice, Jesus was giving His life as a ransom for us. John the Baptist had called him the Lamb of God for a reason.

Appropriately Moved by the Death of the Son of God (40-46)

What do we do with the death of the Son of God? The rest of this passage deals with that important question. Jesus asks those who are listening what they think God will do with those who kill His Son. Their answer is quick. He will give them a miserable death.

That is surely what they deserve, but if God had wanted to punish us all for our sins, He would not have sent His Son at all. The on-purpose death of Jesus Christ is just as important a fact of Christianity as His resurrection. Jesus refers them to the Scriptures. Psalm 118, one of the psalms sung by Jews during the Passover, speaks of a Stone which the builders rejected. This Stone is Jesus. In His death and resurrection, Jesus becomes the cornerstone for a new temple, made up of Jews and Gentiles. His rejection by the “builders” or religious leaders of the covenant people of God reached a pinnacle of hatred through His betrayal and murder.

This was the Lord’s according to His good purposes. SOME would be crushed by Him in their ultimate rejection of His mercy, but OTHERS, though broken in pieces by their guilt and the sin which caused His death would be moved to say of this death of the Son of God, “It is marvelous in our eyes. This is the day that the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it.”

Of course, even his disciples might not understand that until after that death was combined with the resurrection, but it is surely this understanding of the death of Christ that causes us to boast in the cross, and to be committed to the preaching of Christ and Him crucified. Through the death of Christ for sinners, our sin has been atoned for, and our eternal life has been secured. The sacrifice was brought to the altar of God, and His death was effectual in paying the price for our sin. This is the day that the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it.

Questions for meditation and discussion:

1. Give the briefest summary of the history of Old Testament Israel. How does this parable fit into that history?

2. Who do the various characters and groups in the parable stand for? What is being said about each?

3. What is it about the rejection of Jesus that could ever lead us to consider his death a great day (Psalm 118)?

4. What possible responses to his death does Jesus anticipate at the end of this passage?

Sunday, March 16, 2008

What do you think of what God requires? What do you think of what God has done?

“Two Sons”

(Matthew 21:28-32, Preaching: Pastor Stephen Magee, March 16, 2008)

Matthew 21:28-32 28 "What do you think? A man had two sons. And he went to the first and said, 'Son, go and work in the vineyard today.' 29 And he answered, 'I will not,' but afterward he changed his mind and went. 30 And he went to the other son and said the same. And he answered, 'I go, sir,' but did not go. 31 Which of the two did the will of his father?" They said, "The first." Jesus said to them, "Truly, I say to you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes go into the kingdom of God before you. 32 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 when you saw it, you did not afterward change your minds and believe him.

Introduction – What do you think?

I find myself amazed at the way that Jesus would engage the minds of those who would listen to Him. You are here today. It could be that for the first time in your life you are seriously considering what a life of faith might mean for you. It’s also possible that a life of faith is not at all new to you, but certain things have taken place in your own life over the last few days that are new, and you wonder what it all means for you as someone who believes that God is there and that he cares for you and knows you by name. In either case, the first few words of our passage are for you. “What do you think?”

It is amazing that when the Son of God came to earth, that the One who certainly had the right to just sit us down and tell us the non-negotiables engages our souls and challenge our minds by a question. I would want to follow the Lord’s lead on this, and honestly ask you that same question. What do you think about the life that God requires of the man who would follow Him? What kind of life pleases God? What do you think?

Son, go and work in the vineyard. (28)

A man had two sons. His command to both of them was the same. Go and work in the vineyard. We are told in Isaiah 5 that Israel is God’s vineyard. Jesus knows this. What did God look for from Israel, and what did he get. Isaiah tells us: “The vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah are his pleasant planting; and he looked for justice, but behold, bloodshed; for righteousness, but behold, an outcry!” God expected justice and righteousness, but instead the oppressed cried out to Him for help from those in power, who were shedding the blood of the weak.

Israel did not give the Lord obedience. This was not only a matter of obvious things that everyone knew. It was also a matter of secret things that only God knew. Everyone knows when someone openly and publicly rebels against a parent. God knows what is going on in our hearts and minds before we actually do something that everyone else can know. In 2 Kings 21 we are told the story of a king named Manasseh. He not only did all kinds of idolatrous things, he did them right in God’s temple. As part of that he even burned one of his sons as an offering to God. He used fortune-telling and omens and dealt with mediums and with wizards. We are told that he did “much evil in the sight of the LORD, provoking him to anger.” We read in 2 Kings 21:16 that he “shed very much innocent blood, till he had filled Jerusalem from one end to another.” That is a lot of bloodshed. There must have been quite an outcry regarding this wicked king. What he did was something that everyone could see.

His sin was more than that. When Jesus talked about the law in the Sermon on the Mount, He told His listeners in Israel that violating God’s commandment against murder was not only a matter of the physical bloodshed that a man might perform. He said that it was a matter of the heart and of the tongue. Murder begins with sinful hatred. Hatred and envy are often private hidden offenses that people might not know about, but God knows, and He counts that as sin. The kind of life in the vineyard that God requires involves the heart. He demands obedience even there. “What do you think?” Is God right to demand that kind of obedience from the people in His vineyard? If the answer is “Yes” then have we ever sinned in our hearts with hatred? We are supposed to work in His vineyard and to bring forward good fruit from renewed hearts. What do you think? Have we done that?

I will not! (29)

Both sons had the same command to work in the vineyard, but their responses were different. The first son in the parable hears the command and immediately rejects it. He defies his father openly, and anyone within earshot of their conversation would have known this. This kind of response may not seem like a very serious thing, but I think that the Lord wants us to see it as significantly negative. Think about what He is doing with this little story. These simple words “I will not” stand for all the evil that the irreligious people were doing, even people like prostitutes and thieving tax-collectors. There are commandments that God has spoken clearly to His people, and it is very serious for people to openly defy Him, which is what these words, “I will not,” represent. They represent people who openly took the Lord’s name in vain, and never worshipped God, people who had defied their parents, left the protection of their homes, and sold their bodies to strangers, or made friends of well-placed government officials and through bribery and extortion made themselves rich by stealing other people’s money. These were not good people.

Jesus’ parable is about more than the simple example of defying a parent, although even this is more serious biblically than we may realize. The penalty for hardened rebellion against a parent in Deuteronomy 21 was stoning:

Deuteronomy 21:18-21 18 "If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey the voice of his father or the voice of his mother, and, though they discipline him, will not listen to them, 19 then his father and his mother shall take hold of him and bring him out to the elders of his city at the gate of the place where he lives, 20 and they shall say to the elders of his city, 'This our son is stubborn and rebellious; he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton and a drunkard.' 21 Then all the men of the city shall stone him to death with stones. So you shall purge the evil from your midst, and all Israel shall hear, and fear.

Don’t misunderstand this. The offending party here is not a little child who will not make her bed and then is taken outside the city and stoned to death. We are talking about a civil law in Israel that had to do with those who were young adults causing serious problems. Nonetheless, it seems to fit in well with the example from the parable. We need to realize that a young man defying a parent is a serious thing, perhaps more serious than we have realized because it has become so commonplace. The story that Jesus tells does not end with the stoning of the first son. Afterward, he changed his mind, and he went and worked in the vineyard. What a relief! Praise God!

I go, sir. (30)

Unfortunately, the story of the second son, though it starts out better, ends much worse. He seems to be perfectly compliant, at least based on his words. Remember again who this second son stands for. He is not the tax collector or the prostitute. He is the law-abiding Pharisee. He observes the Sabbath traditions. He does not even say the word “Yahweh” out loud for fear of dishonoring the Name of the Lord. He has tithed even his spices, and so on. But when God sent His Son preaching the Kingdom, this second boy, though He fancied himself one of God’s loyal supporters, rejected John the Baptist, and then rejected the Messiah.

With his mouth he claimed to love God, and maybe he did, but he was so caught up in a bad spiritual way, that he did not even make it to the real vineyard, where God looks to see the fruit of the Spirit giving a wonderful yield of spiritual life – things like love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. He was not growing in these things. His situation was sad. He was probably more convinced than anyone that he was serving God the best, but he was actually far from the kingdom – far from the vineyard.

Which of the two did the will of his father? (31-32)

What do you think? Which of the two sons did the will of his father? The Pharisees knew the answer. It was the first son. Though he said that he would not go, he repented and he went.

God sent John the Baptist to prepare the way for His only-begotten Son. That Son was Jesus Christ. Jesus said He would go into the vineyard to do the will of His Father, and then He did what He said He would do. He is the perfect Son of God. He did this for us. We are very far from perfect. We have neither been right with our words, or faithful in our actions. Jesus’ coming into the vineyard to do what He promised has yielded tremendous fruit for us. We who repent and believe, join prostitutes and tax-collectors who have seen that the answer for us is in the Son of God, and not in ourselves. This is part of the essence of living in the vineyard, the appreciation of the Messiah, and the humble response of hearts touched by His mercy.

The prophet Jeremiah says that if Moses and Samuel were pleading for Israel, that God would not listen any more. He gives one name as the reason for this, the man who became the poster child for the rebellious kings of Judah, Manasseh. He says, “I will make them a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth because of what Manasseh the son of Hezekiah, king of Judah, did in Jerusalem.” Manasseh was not only a wicked king, he was the son of a great man, Hezekiah. He rejected His father’s example, and he did much evil, and brought much trouble upon the land.

Nonetheless, there is one other thing that can be said about Manasseh, and it is amazing. Manasseh changed his mind later in his life. He repented. No one repents unless he is given the gift of repentance by God. Acts 11:15 tells us that repentance is something that is granted by God, just like faith. Manasseh was given the gift of repentance (2 Chronicles 33:9-18). Because of Jesus Christ, His faithfulness and His death on the cross for the unworthy, Manasseh was forgiven. We know that no one is forgiven except by the blood of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Jesus died for Manasseh. If there is hope for Manasseh, and for tax collectors and prostitutes, then there is even hope for Pharisees who repent, and for you and for me through Jesus Christ. God requires the perfect heart, words, and life of Jesus. He gives this to us, and he gives us repentance and faith. What do you think of that?

Questions for meditation and discussion:

1. What are the four possible combinations of verbal reply to the father and later action in the parable?

2. Which two of these four are represented in the parable? What do they stand for?

3. Which two are not represented in the parable, and how might they be useful to consider?

4. Why did Jesus tell this parable on this occasion in the last week of His earthly ministry?

Sunday, March 09, 2008

Where do answered prayers come from?

“By What Authority”

(Matthew 21:18-27, Preaching: Pastor Stephen Magee, March 9, 2008)

Matthew 21:18-27 18 In the morning, as he was returning to the city, he became hungry. 19 And seeing a fig tree by the wayside, he went to it and found nothing on it but only leaves. And he said to it, "May no fruit ever come from you again!" And the fig tree withered at once. 20 When the disciples saw it, they marveled, saying, "How did the fig tree wither at once?" 21 And Jesus answered them, "Truly, I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what has been done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, 'Be taken up and thrown into the sea,' it will happen. 22 And whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith." 23 And when he entered the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came up to him as he was teaching, and said, "By what authority are you doing these things, and who gave you this authority?" 24 Jesus answered them, "I also will ask you one question, and if you tell me the answer, then I also will tell you by what authority I do these things. 25 The baptism of John, from where did it come? From heaven or from man?" And they discussed it among themselves, saying, "If we say, 'From heaven,' he will say to us, 'Why then did you not believe him?' 26 But if we say, 'From man,' we are afraid of the crowd, for they all hold that John was a prophet." 27 So they answered Jesus, "We do not know." And he said to them, "Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.

Introduction – The Rulers of This World

There is no Kingdom of God for you except through the power and authority of Jesus Christ. When you ask for healing of body and soul, when you ask for God’s provision for your daily bread and for the defeat of evil all around you, you are ultimately asking for the new heavens and the new earth (see Revelation 21), that final answer to all your prayers. The Kingdom of God in its fullness is a good thing for you to want. Only Christ, through His power and authority, can give that to you. That is why we offer up our prayers in Jesus’ Name. If it were not for his merit and mediation, if it were not for His life and death, there could be no answer to prayer for us. When a child is healed, when a marriage is brought back to life, when people return to faith, you get a slice of the Kingdom. When even the littlest bit of that happens, it is always because of the power and authority of Jesus Christ. The rulers of this world have their place. They have a certain amount of delegated power and authority, and they can do some good things, but they cannot bring us the new heavens and the new earth. You need to ask yourself this question: “Do I have any sense of the Kingdom of God today?” If you do, it is not something that came from powerful people. If you have no sense of the Kingdom, you need to come to Christ. The gift that you need only comes through Him.

A fig tree (18-19)

God’s plan has always been bigger than the little expressions of it we have on earth. The Old Testament nation of Israel was not a small sign of the Kingdom of God, but it was not nearly enough, and the time of all of its ceremonial practices and special civil laws had to come to an end in order to make way for a bigger expression of the kingdom through the worldwide Christian church. Israel was often symbolized in the Old Testament as a plant, a vine, or a tree (See Jeremiah 8:13 for a good example of this). God demanded fruit from His tree. The time came for her testing, and she was found wanting.

It is not enough for Israel to be a fig tree with leaves that are suggestive of fruit. She must really have fruit to be useful. This idea of fruit is used throughout the Old and New Testaments as a symbol representing good spiritual gifts. For example, true spiritual joy is a fruit that comes from God. It is not anything spiritual to be happy about getting unexpected money. Spiritual joy is being happy about God, His Kingdom, and all the things that are connected to God and His Kingdom. Without spiritual fruit, there is no point in keeping a church going. For the fig tree to have plenty of leaves but no fruit is like a church having plenty of professed faith, but no faith being lived out. Religious hypocrisy is not the Kingdom at all. That kind of organization is already dead in the roots.

If you have faith (20-22)

So that’s what Jesus was doing with the fig tree, and with Israel. The time of the Old Testament was coming to an end. He makes a symbolic point by speaking a word of judgment against a tree, and the tree withers. The disciples seem to miss or forget the point that Jesus is making about Israel since they are completely amazed by what Jesus has just done. He spoke to a tree and it was destroyed – just like that. How did He do that?

Jesus is showing us something here about Kingdom life, the kind that is more than mere leaves, the kind that brings godly fruit. True religion is expressed through the power of faithful prayer. We may want to do all kinds of things for God’s kingdom, but we have to remember that the source of Kingdom power is from above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of the Father. The reason why we commit ourselves to prayer, and believe that our prayers are answered is that we believe that Christ is the source of all kingdom power. Praying powerful kingdom prayers is more than believing that God can do things. Of course He can do things, but we need to believe that He will do things, and that He has done and will continue to do things through us. He is with us and He loves us.

We know that there are reasons why we can end up being powerless in prayer, since we are told that there are things that hinder prayer. If He seems like He is not with you in the power of prayer, you need to ask yourself if there is any reason why this is the case. Is there something that needs to be addressed? If you are not aware of some devotion to sin in your life or some meanness of heart that is in you, and if you believe that you are asking for those things that seem to be agreeable with His Word, then You should truly believe that God has heard and answered Your prayer. What are you asking for? You have asked Him for a slice of the new heavens and the new earth. Though you do not seem to have received what you wanted immediately, surely the Lord has this and more reserved for You, and He has just sent it ahead of you. There is a storehouse above, where your answered prayers are being kept for you. Keep a good conscience before the Lord so that your prayers will not be hindered, and keep on praying. From the overflow of that storehouse there will be many things given to you even now. Do not be faithless. Some of your deepest grief over seemingly unanswered prayer is surely not accurate. What you have asked for is already in safe-keeping above in the house of the Lord, and you may even get to see some of what you are seeking very shortly. Which would you prefer, to have everything now and nothing sent ahead, or to have some measure of suffering in faith, and so many good things waiting for you with the Lord?

As He was teaching in the temple (23)

The fact is that there are many religious people who have no sense of this at all. They will always prefer temporary blessing now and choose to avoid every suffering today, no matter what the spiritual cost of that kind of unfaithfulness might end up being. They do this because they have no sense of anything spiritual. They are full of hate and judgment and they are sure that they are God’s favorite people, but there is almost nothing of gospel humility about them. Very often people like this seem to be religious leaders. Remember that Jesus has just recently overturned some tables and sent some people flying away from the temple who thought that they were pretty special. When they saw Him teaching again in the temple, they came out to confront Him.

Here He was teaching in the temple. That probably was not what upset them the most, but it really should have. He was surely teaching a different religion than they were. They had a deeply flawed understanding of the Law of God and were very confused about every spiritual topic, talking about all kinds of things that they did not really understand. People who do religious teaching claim to speak for God, and Jesus was teaching everyone something different than they taught people. But when they said, “By what authority are you doing these things?” they were surely referring to His symbolic actions of judgment recently performed in the cleansing of the temple.

What were they expecting Him to say in answer to this question? Did they expect Him to overreach and to claim divine authority for His ministry? That might cause some in the crowd to abandon Him as a deluded and extreme teacher. Or did they think that He might admit that He was in over His head – that He did not have the authority to do those sort of things within the temple courts, because He had no position of authority in the hierarchy of temple officials. Didn’t He realize that they had the highest authority in the land concerning the temple and these kind of religious matters? They forgot the ultimate Source of Kingdom authority, and He was there in person in front of them. God came to His temple, and people with no spiritual understanding at all wanted to rebuke Him.

The baptism of John (24-26)

Jesus answers their challenge with a question about John’s baptism. Was it from heaven or men? John had also done some amazing things. He was another one who seemed to claim a higher authority for His actions, and they certainly did not follow him. They considered him nothing but a nuisance, but the crowds thought that He was from God. What did the crowds see in John and in Jesus that these officials had no sense of? They saw Kingdom power and authority from God Himself. The leaders could neither affirm nor deny this, so Jesus would not answer them.

Neither will I tell you (27)

Why is it that some very weak people like Zaccheus, Matthew, Mary Magdelene, and many unnamed prostitutes and blind men see something of the truth about Jesus and His Kingdom, while so many prominent religious leaders seem to be so spiritually useless? When we willfully sin, we damage our souls so that we become insensible to the real God. Our souls become sick. Only the Lord can heal a soul. And He does. He does this many times in our lives, and especially when we go to be with Him. That day is a day of great soul healing. But we will be of little use for the Lord’s kingdom here now if we have no sense of the ways of God.

It is by God’s power and authority that sinners are condemned, and by His power and authority that Christ saves sinners, of whom I am the foremost. This is the key insight granted to the humble soul that is healed. Christ has taken the mountain of your sin and has cast it into the depths of the sea. Believe Him and be healed in your souls.

Questions for meditation and discussion:

1. What is the point of the Lord’s words and actions concerning the fig tree?

2. What is Jesus teaching His disciples about prayer, and why does He teach it in this context?

3. Why is there such a significant conflict between Jesus and the religious leaders? Is there relevance for us today?

4. What do you make of the restraint of Christ in limiting further dialogue with those who challenged Him?

Sunday, March 02, 2008

What kind of salvation do you want?

“Who Is This?”

(Matthew 21:10-17, Preaching: Pastor Stephen Magee, March 2, 2008)

Matthew 21:10-17 10 And when he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred up, saying, "Who is this?" 11 And the crowds said, "This is the prophet Jesus, from Nazareth of Galilee." 12 And Jesus entered the temple and drove out all who sold and bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons. 13 He said to them, "It is written, 'My house shall be called a house of prayer,' but you make it a den of robbers." 14 And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he healed them. 15 But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children crying out in the temple, "Hosanna to the Son of David!" they were indignant, 16 and they said to him, "Do you hear what these are saying?" And Jesus said to them, "Yes; have you never read, "' Out of the mouth of infants and nursing babies you have prepared praise'?" 17 And leaving them, he went out of the city to Bethany and lodged there.

Introduction – Hosanna… More than a prophet… What kind of salvation are you seeking?

The crowds were shouting “Hosanna” and calling Him the Son of David. The word Hosanna was an ancient cry for salvation. “Save us!” they were yelling to Him. I am surprised that they were doing this. I am sure that God had something to do with it, as He worked even within little children to bring His only-begotten Son praise that would be recorded in the Scriptures for our consideration.

Nonetheless, there were human motivations at work in their cry. What kind of salvation did they want? While every crowd in the New Testament is not the same in terms of their desires and actions, I think we can have some idea of what the crowds may have been looking for from this man that they were praising. His reputation must have preceded Him in some way. The crowds wanted healing, someone to give people freedom from demons, and food. It appears that some wanted to make Him King, more than they perhaps wanted Him to be the King that He came to be. This combination of things is the salvation that they surely wanted when they yelled out to Him, “Save us!” What kind of salvation do you want? They were wrong about Jesus. He was not their man. Are you looking for help that He is not going to give you? Are you ignoring the help that He comes to give you even today?

Who is this? (10-11)

The arrival of Jesus in Jerusalem is an earth-shaking event. That’s something close to what is meant by the words “stirred up.” There are four other uses of this expression in the Greek New Testament. Three of them have to do with something like an earthquake, and the final one describes the reaction of the guards to the angel visitation at the time of Jesus’ resurrection, when they shook with fear. Jesus’ arrival into the temple area shook the whole city.

Not everyone knew who He was, but they knew that there was some disturbance related to one man. Naturally, they wanted to know who He was. Some people in the crowds simply said, “This is the prophet Jesus, from Nazareth of Galilee.” This was of course true. Though He was more than a prophet, He certainly was a prophet. He was an authoritative spokesman of the Word of God, which is what a true prophet is supposed to be. He was from Nazareth of Galilee, an unremarkable town in a region that was not well thought of among important people. There was no expectation among the religious leaders that any prophet would come from Galilee, and there was no expectation among the people at large that anything good at all would come from Nazareth. Jesus was actually born in Bethlehem, and there were expectations about a Messiah coming from that town, but the story of His birth does not appear to be widely known by anyone at the time of this final week of His mortal life.

What kind of salvation would this prophet bring? Why was there such a stir concerning this man? Certainly it was not a common thing for a true prophet to arise in that era. In the time between Malachi and John the Baptist it does not appear that there were any true prophets. Of course false prophets could always be found, but false prophets cannot open the eyes of the blind. Jesus was doing miracles like an Elijah, and He was approaching the temple as the longed-for Son of David. It was a very exciting moment, and it soon became even more exciting.

And Jesus entered the temple (12)

Though Jesus was humble, He was not timid. In fulfillment of Psalm 69:9, zeal for the Lord’s house consumed Him. In the court of the Gentiles, there was much for sale. Currency translation could be accomplished and sacrificial animals could be purchased, all for a price. There was nothing inherently wrong with providing this service, but the temple court was not the place for that. Every detail in God’s instruction regarding this place of worship was full of meaning. For men to presume the power to make adjustments to the use of the Lord’s temple for their own convenience was a serious and sacrilegious mistake.

When the eternal King comes to Jerusalem, He attends to the corruption of God’s worship. This is something of great concern to the Lord. Consider His power as He addresses these problems immediately and forthrightly. How could He make these merchants leave? How could He overturn tables and not be arrested? By the same power over the souls of men that enabled Him to call His disciples so that they left their nets and followed Him, Jesus rules over the souls of men who are profaning His Father’s house. This is the work of the One who will return one day to judge the living and the dead. No one will be able to slow Him down on that day. He moves with the absolute confidence and control of perfect righteousness, and with the same inner resolve as He has when He goes to the cross to die for sinners.

He said to them … (13)

Not only does the Lord take decisive action, He also speaks definitive words from the Scriptures. The temple of the Lord is spoken of by Isaiah as a place that is like a word of invitation to the nations of the world that they might come and pray to Israel’s God. Isaiah writes,

Isaiah 56:6-8 6 "And the foreigners who join themselves to the LORD, to minister to him, to love the name of the LORD, and to be his servants, everyone who keeps the Sabbath and does not profane it, and holds fast my covenant- 7 these I will bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer; their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on my altar; for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples." 8 The Lord GOD, who gathers the outcasts of Israel, declares, "I will gather yet others to him besides those already gathered."

The Court of the Gentiles is one place where Gentiles could go to seek the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. It is a reminder that Israel’s God is not only a God of Jews but also of Gentiles. There everyone could hope that the blessing of salvation might reach beyond the borders of Israel, as the prophets had promised.

But now the commercial interests within the priestly world have turned this court of hope and petition into a den of thieves. Jeremiah spoke these words centuries before:

Jeremiah 7:8-11 8 "Behold, you trust in deceptive words to no avail. 9 Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, make offerings to Baal, and go after other gods that you have not known, 10 and then come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, 'We are delivered!'- only to go on doing all these abominations? 11 Has this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, I myself have seen it, declares the LORD.

The people have a tendency to treat the temple as if it is a magic charm. They think that they can avoid real repentance as long as they have the temple. Before long, their deception and abuse turn this place of prayer into a center for stealing money from the unsuspecting travelers coming from distant lands.

And the blind and the lame came to him (14)

The people who Jesus removes from the temple had a spiritual problem. They give evidence of that spiritual problem by the things that they do, justifying their commercial interests right within the place of God’s holy presence. You can sense a depraved and haughty spirit in someone like that. The Spirit of Jesus is not like that. Weak people, blind and lame, are coming to Him, though He just threw out the money-changers. They may sense something of His goodness and gentleness toward the humble. Do you sense that here today? They come because they are desperate. They are willing to be rebuffed by Him that they might instead be healed by Him.

These healings are a great display of the salvation that Jesus brings. This is one way that He celebrates the coming of His Kingdom. He does this right there within the place of supreme Old Testament worship. The blind are given sight and the lame are healed, and no one has to pay anything for these gifts from the Savior.

But the chief priests and the scribes … (15-17)

Not everyone is ready to rejoice in these events. There yet remain many in the house who have a haughty spirit, and they are even foolish enough and angry enough to speak against Him. We are told that they are indignant. This word is used to describe proud people who think they are in the right. People like Judas who thought that money should have been given to the poor rather than spent on expensive perfume that was poured on the Savior’s feet. He was indignant. People like the ruler of the synagogue after Jesus had healed a woman who had been bent over for eighteen years. That man was indignant because the Lord healed her on the Sabbath. The chief priests and scribes were indignant in the temple that day. The children were crying “Save us!” and they were calling Jesus the Son of David, so they challenged Him sharply.

He quotes from Psalm 8 to show them that something divine is happening when God makes infants praise Him and scatters every foe. He is the Man! He is the Savior! He is the One who will make all things whole! He is the Bringer of Good News! He is the Sacrifice that cancels sin! Do you want the lasting salvation that He brings? Do you want to be in the temple of God with Him in heaven forever? Do you want to know even now that your sins are forgiven and that you are eternally healed in His presence? Then shout “Hosanna” to the King of Kings, and give up on all smaller salvations that you have been seeking; things that can be so quickly taken away. Who is this Man? He is the Prophet. He is the Priest. He is the King. He is the Savior and He is mighty to save!

Questions for meditation and discussion:

1. Why was the whole city stirred up at the arrival of Jesus?

2. Consider Jesus’ actions and words in the temple. Are they surprising? How do they make sense?

3. How could the chief priests and the scribes been so bold to speak against Jesus that day?

4. What are the smaller salvations that so easily distract us from the true salvation that Jesus brings?