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“Irrelevant Sayings of Jesus” Phil “Irrelevant Sayings of Jesus” Phil. 2:9-11, “Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” Some things we read don’t really do anything to us. We pick them up, read them, put them down again, and go back to life as usual. There are lots of things like this. Sports magazines, comic strips, even things we think are important, like political columns. We can read them and be entertained, or glean a bit of information. Sometimes they can even motivate us or change the way we think about certain things. But none of them actually demand our response. That’s not the case with our Gospel reading for today. Jesus tells a parable to the chief priests and elders. He tells the story of a father who has two sons. He goes to the first son and he tells him to go work in the vineyard. Pointblank the son says, “I will not!” But eventually, his conscience gets the better of him and he goes to work. The father goes to his other son and tells him to work too. The second son says, “I’ll get right to it, dad!” But he never does. Jesus asks the very simple question, “Which one did the will of the father?” Here, Jesus reminds us of something we’ve probably all said at one time or another: “Talk is cheap.” Here Jesus tells the Pharisees that if you are going to do the Father’s will, you must not only confess with your tongue. You must also bow your knee. You must actually do what God commands! 1 This parable demands a response. After hearing these words of Jesus the Pharisees couldn’t simply go back to life as normal. And neither can we! It doesn’t work that way. His words confronted the Pharisees. They confront you. They challenge you and leave you with the question, “How will you respond?” I think there are actually three ways a person can respond to Jesus’ parable here. The first response is the one the Pharisees had. Now, you can’t forget that just a few verses earlier Jesus was tearing through the temple, scattering coins, smashing tables, and whipping money changers. Everything Jesus does offends the chief priests and elders. His teachings contradict theirs. He causes all kinds of commotion with His flashy miracles. He even dares to forgive sins! And now He’s really done it. He’s set Himself up as lord of the temple. But this is their territory! In these halls! In this holy place, they are in charge. They have the authority! And so they want to know, “Who do you think you are? What right do you think you have to teach these things? The temple is our province! What authority do you have to do any of this? Who died and left you boss?!” But in spite of what it might sound like, their response isn’t just a territorial issue. This isn’t just their incredulity at the brazenness of an upstart young rabbi. Actually, their question is their attempt to deal with what Jesus’ message. 2 You see, they’ve got this whole thing figured out. They realize that if they can establish that, in fact, Jesus has no authority all their problems vanish. No authority, no need to respond to His words. No authority, no need to change their lives at all. If they can prove that Jesus has no right say what He says or do what He does, then they can go back to life as normal. It’s sad to say, but sometimes that’s how we respond, isn’t it? We want to know just who Jesus thinks He is!? “What authority does Jesus have to tell me to stop doing this? What right does Jesus have to get so involved in my personal life?! Jesus should keep His teaching on the ethereal side of things. Let His statements remain in the realm platitudes and that’s alright. He can talk about philosophies and give me some interesting ways to look at things. But what right does Jesus have to barge into every aspect of my life?!” With Jesus there is not “private” part of you. Jesus invades your checkbook. Jesus ignores the “do not disturb” sign hung on your bedroom door. Jesus charges into the most intimate interactions of your family. Jesus even has something to say about what you do in the voting booth! Jesus doesn’t leave anything alone. And what right, what authority does He have to say these things, to command these things? 3 Well, Jesus doesn’t answer the Pharisees’ question . not right at that moment anyway. But He does answer them and us on the first day of the following week. On that Friday, the powers that be decided to settle the matter once and for all. They arrest Jesus. They torture Him. They hang Him on a tree until He dies. And pointing to His dead body they declare, “Look! He has no authority! He has no authority over me or you! We have killed Him. We have the authority over our own lives.” With Jesus dead, they are in charge. With Jesus buried in the ground, they don’t have to deal with anything Jesus said or did. But three days later, Jesus sets the record straight. Early Sunday morning, Jesus proves that, in fact, He does have authority, even over the grave! Jesus conquered death and God the Father “highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” Jesus is in charge! Jesus had the authority to command the Pharisees and He has the authority to command you! But there is a second way we can respond to this text. We can acknowledge that, yes, Jesus does have authority. He has the right to command repentance. He has the right to tell people to change their lives. But look at the text. Look who He’s talking to. He’s talking to the chief priests and elders! He’s talking to people who rely on good works to get 4 them into heaven. He’s talking to self-righteous people. That’s why they need to repent! They need to repent of trying to earn their own salvation. They need to trust in Jesus! They need to have faith! So, maybe Jesus isn’t really talking to us. After all, we’re good Lutherans in here. We are heirs of the Reformation and we know how to distinguish Law and Gospel. And if there’s one thing we know, if there’s one thing that has been drilled into us since before we had a memory, it’s that we don’t save ourselves. We can’t ever be good enough. We can’t earn salvation. We know we’re saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. This much we do know. Jesus’ parable may apply to other church bodies like the Roman Catholics or some Non- denominational churches. But not us! So Jesus might have the authority to command us to do things, but He isn’t telling me to do anything in this parable. We are so very good at this aren’t we? We are so very good at figuring out why what Jesus says doesn’t strictly apply to me, why I don’t have to change my life. We’re so good at explaining away that twinge of guilt we feel when we here the command to “do”, to “repent”! We deal with the guilt by devising ways to ignore it. Look, it was false guilt. It was unnecessary, because really Jesus was talking to chief priests and to elders. He was talking to people who trust in their own works. Christians in general and 5 Lutherans in particular have become incredibly adept at inventing ways to make sure that what Jesus says has no impact on our lives at all. But that doesn’t work either, does it? Not really. We can try to pretend it doesn’t apply. But deep down we know it does. Jesus doesn’t just demand repentance of self-righteousness. Jesus demands repentance of all sin. He called Zacchaeus away from his dishonest tax collecting. He called the rich young man away from the idolatry of his wealth. He called prostitutes away from the brothel. We can’t just ignore this text. It demands a response. Jesus does have authority. His Resurrection proves it! His ascension to the right hand of the Father proves it. And yes, this parable does apply to you! It does apply to me! Our first two responses are out. So I suppose that leaves us with only one other option. In the end, there is only one way we can respond to Jesus’ parable. It’s the response of the tax collectors and the prostitutes. The third option is this – actually do what Jesus says! And what does Jesus tell us to do? The Gospel of Mark tells us the very first message Jesus proclaimed in His public ministry.
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