Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost
Sixteenth Sunday
after Pentecost (A—Proper 21)
September 28, 2014
Text: Matthew 21:23-32
The
question is one of authority. Who
authorized Jesus to do and speak as He did?
Who authorized Him to enter Jerusalem to the shouts of “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the
Lord! Hosanna in the highest!”
(Matt. 21:10; ESV)? Who authorized Him
to cleanse the Temple, driving out the merchants and the money changers, and
calling the sacred precincts, “My House” (v. 13; emphasis
added)? These are the events just prior
to our text. Who authorized Jesus to
criticize and rebuke the Pharisees and Scribes, the Chief Priests and the
Elders of the people? Just who does this
Jesus think He is, anyway? And it is an
incredibly important question, that of authority. Because it makes all the difference between
whether Jesus is, in fact, the Messiah, the Christ, the Savior… or a
self-appointed, delusional (or fraudulent) maniac. “By
what authority are you doing these things, and who gave you this authority?”
(v. 23). Jesus answers the Chief Priests
and Elders with a similar question. “The baptism of John, from where did it
come? From heaven or from man?” (v.
25). What authority did John have to
preach and to baptize, to call the people to repentance, hear their confession
of sin, and baptize them for forgiveness?
Was John’s ministry from God, or from man? For if John’s ministry is from man, he is a
counterfeit prophet. But if John’s
ministry is from God, then you must believe him, including and especially his
testimony about Jesus, that He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the
world (John 1:29). So the answer to both
questions is one and the same. Jesus’
authority to do and speak as He does is the same as that of John. And despite the Jews’ inability to answer the
question, the conclusion is inescapable.
The authority is that of the living God, who made heaven and earth.
The
question of authority is as important to you as it was to them. Because you follow the authority you believe
to be legitimate. Unbelievers don’t
think Jesus has divine authority. They
believe His authority if from man. So
they don’t follow Him. You Christians
believe Jesus’ authority is from the Father in heaven, and from His own nature
and essence as God in human flesh. So
you believe His Word and you trust Him for the forgiveness of sins, salvation,
daily help and assistance, and provision for your every need of body and soul. You trust Him because you believe He has
authority to deliver these things. And
so also you believe that He exercises authority in His Church through the
ministry of the Word. So you believe the
Absolution spoken by your pastor. You
believe what he teaches and preaches.
You believe what you hear from his mouth about water being a Baptism of
rebirth and renewal, about bread and wine being Christ’s true Body and
Blood. You believe it, not because you
believe in the man under the robes, but because you believe in the Christ who sent
him. You believe in the divine authority
of the Words spoken in the stead and by the command of the Lord Jesus. The question of authority is vital. Because the forgiveness of your sins and your
eternal salvation hand in the balance.
This is a matter of eternal life and death.
The
problem comes when we let our own authority trump that of Jesus. Of course, we have no real authority, but we think we do. And we think
others do. We are so puffed up by our
own perceived authority, power, prestige.
We believe we are the judges of good and evil. We say things like, “I just can’t believe in
a God who would…” do this, that, or the other thing we disagree with or that
doesn’t fit our definition of love. And
so we make the same mistake Adam and Eve made in the Garden. You can just hear Eve saying to herself, “I
just can’t believe in a God who would withhold from us fruit that is so
pleasing to the eye, good for food, and able to make one wise.” And Adam saying, “I just can’t believe in a
God who wouldn’t want me to make my wife happy by eating this food she has set
before me. After all, it’s just a little
bite, and how can God be so judgmental when my wife and I are acting out of
love for one another?”
The
reality is, though, Adam and Eve had no authority to take and eat. And the serpent had no authority to speak to
them. And the authority Adam and Eve
thought they possessed, was, in reality, slavery to demonic deception. Just as our own perceived authority is, in
reality, that same slavery to deception.
In other words, there is nothing autonomous, self-determining, about
this. It’s all an illusion, a deception
from the evil one. The reality is, too,
that our perceived authority is beholden to the unbelieving world. We pander to the wise of this world, the
elite, the influential powers, the culture, and we shape our opinions
accordingly. We trust in the media. We worship our entertainers, even calling
them idols. We believe our politicians
can save us from ruin, disaster, and death.
Because we trust their authority above that of Jesus! And most of all, we trust ourselves. Why is the authority of Jesus and His Word
such a threat to us? Because it
threatens our idols, and chiefly the idol of self. If Jesus has authority over me, I can no
longer live for myself, for my own pleasure, power, and wealth. If Jesus is my King, He rules over me by His
Word, and my every thought must be taken captive to Him. If Jesus is my Judge, I must confess I have
no righteousness of my own, but only sin, rebellion, and death. If Jesus is my Savior, I must give up all
thoughts of saving myself. I must admit
that I have been deceived, that I am in slavery to the devil. I must admit that it takes the blood and
death of God to free me from my chains.
If Jesus has the authority, I do not.
And if Jesus has the authority, I must die. I must daily die in repentance and confession
of my sins. I must daily emerge and
arise from the waters of my Baptism to live before God in the newness of life
that is the life of Christ, under His authority, in His Kingdom, with His
righteousness, innocence, and blessedness as my own.
The
incredible reality is that this Jesus, God in human flesh, the eternal Son of
the Father, through whom all things were made and by whose Word of power all
things are held together… this One who has authority over all things in heaven
and on earth, submitted Himself to us, for us and for our salvation. He submitted Himself to the Chief Priests and
the Elders of the people, submitted Himself to Pontius Pilate and the Roman
Government, to the soldiers, the whips, the nails, and the wood. He who is without sin submitted Himself to
our sin, bearing its burden. He who is
the Life submitted Himself to our death.
He who is the beloved of the Father submitted Himself to the Father’s
wrath. For us. For you.
For me. To bring our sin to
justice. To cancel our debt to God. To render the full payment for our sin by His
Blood.
But
in submitting to this authority, He takes the authority captive. He seizes the authority of death by dying. He snatches away the authority of sin by
drowning it in the water and blood flowing from His pierced side. He crushes the authority and the very head of
the serpent by taking the serpent’s venom into Himself. All of that false authority is at an end in Christ. He has taken the authority for Himself. He is risen from the dead. And He leads a host of captives in His
train. The tax collectors and
prostitutes go marching into the Kingdom of God (Matt. 21:31). For they believe the preaching of John. They repent.
They recognize the authority of the preaching. They believe the authority of Christ who
forgives their sins and calls them out of captivity to new life in Himself. And so you.
You hear the preaching of repentance.
You believe it has divine authority.
So you repent. You repent of your
idolatry. You repent of your
self-determination. You repent of
following after every false authority.
You confess your sins. And now
you listen only for the voice of Jesus.
You take every thought captive to Him.
For His is the voice of forgiveness.
His is the voice of salvation.
His is the voice of life.
All
authority in heaven and on earth has been given by God to our Lord Jesus (Matt. 28:18-20). It is on that authority that Jesus commands
His Church to make disciples of all nations by baptizing and teaching. We are gathered by His authority into one
holy Christian and apostolic Church. And
He is with us always to the very end of the age. The question of authority has been answered
decisively in the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. He is the Word of the Father. And with all the authority of Almighty God,
He bespeaks you righteous. In the Name
of the Father, and of the Son (+), and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.