The Authority of the Incarnate God
Matthew 21:23-27
Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost
September 28, 2014
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and
Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
Our text, When Jesus 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?”
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
Praise be to Christ in whom we see
The image of the Father shown
Those are the words we just sang, and yet the Pharisees
know not where Jesus gets his authority. How can this be? How
can it be that the teachers of Israel, those physically descended
from Abraham’s line, those who know the Scriptures better than
anyone – how can it be that they question Jesus’ authority and yet
we (admittedly probably not nearly as well-versed in the
intricacies of the Scriptures) we can sing “Praise be to Christ in
whom we see” GOD?!
That’s really what’s at issue in our text, isn’t it? It’s not so
much a question of authority, but a question of identity… why can
the chief priests and elders not rightly identify Jesus?
Consider the context and you’ll better appreciate this
dialogue between Jesus and his opponents:
Other than the brief hiatus last week (to consider Jesus’
calling of St. Matthew), this year’s gospel reading has now taken
us through most of Matthew’s gospel. We’re into the 21st of
Matthew’s 28 chapters, so you know we’ve got to be nearing the
end. In fact, the verses before this in Matthew’s gospel are the
accounts of Palm Sunday and of Jesus’ clearing the temple of the
moneychangers. So, we’re in Holy Week at the time of this backand-forth, and the religious leaders are bewildered by this Jesus
and his teaching, and they’re threatened by his popularity. So,
they wish to debate him.
Keep in mind the rules of Jewish debate – that if one party
challenged another, the other had the right to throw out a
question to the first; if the first party could answer the question,
that party proved himself worthy of an answer to his original
inquiry; if he couldn’t answer, the second party need not answer
the original challenge.
This is why the exchange happens the way it does. But, the
process of the debate isn’t the point of the account: Jesus isn’t
trying to dodge their questions; nor is he simply showing himself
to be a skilled debater – that’s not why the Holy Spirit desires this
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conversation to be included in Holy Writ for the benefit of you
and me.
To understand what’s at the heart of the matter, we must
consider Jesus’ question: “The baptism of John, from where did it
come? From heaven or from man?”
Again, one could immediately jump to the conclusion
Jesus’ opponents do: “He’s trapped us into silence… we can’t
answer.” But, is that really Jesus’ point during Holy Week. Is his
point really to say, “You know, I’ve got the cross on my mind.
Don’t bother me.” I don’t think it is.
Rather, Jesus’ question is all about asking the chief priests
(and you, by the way) whether it can be believed that God would
work through mankind in the persons of the prophets, because if
God is willing to act through sinful men called prophets, then it’s
not difficult to see that God is willing to become man in the
person of Jesus… there is his authority, God has become Man!
The death of Jesus means nothing if God is not willing to
even work through men, let alone become a man! Jesus has no
authority to die for your sins if God is not willing to become man
to associate with man. We heard similar remarks last week –
“Why is Jesus willing to associate with sinners?” But, today, the
question is “is God really willing to work in the realm of
humanity?... to attach himself to the tangible things of man?”
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That’s a question the scribes can’t handle. And,
interestingly, it’s a question that still sends shockwaves through
the sinful circles of American Christianity as well – “is God really
willing to work among men in the Divine Service?” – and it
silences sinners into being totally confounded by the things of
God.
It is very easy to say that a man named Jesus was sent
from God to die on a cross for our sins… but that’s not the gospel!
Jesus was no mere man sent with the authority of God to die on a
cross; your salvation depends on this Jesus being the God-man
(true God, begotten of the Father from all eternity; true man,
born of the virgin Mary) to die for your sins! And that can’t
happen if God is unwilling to work in flesh and blood.
Moreover, the suffering and death of Jesus benefits us in
no way if we will not believe that God is still willing to work in and
benefit you through flesh and blood. And that’s why Jesus’
question to the chief priests is still very valid in American
Christianity today.
How many church bodies teach the poor souls in their
pews not to hold fast to the promises of baptism?! Well then, the
question stands: “Was John’s baptism of God or was it of man?”
Clearly, the answer is supposed to be that it was from God… but if
John’s baptism is from God, then how much more so is the
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baptism Jesus gives! And, yet, the enthusiasts of our day direct
poor sinners not to God at work in the font but to the supposed
Spirit-led things of the altar call, not to life-giving waters, but to
decisions for Jesus, not to waters of rebirth and renewal by the
Holy Spirit, but to making a fresh start for one’s self and
dedicating one’s self to living a sinless life. If the chief priests are
silenced by Jesus’ question, should not also the teaching among
so many today that says that Jesus’ baptism is of man and not of
God?
And, if one cannot hold to the divine origins of baptism,
certainly one is not going to hold to the divine nature of the Holy
Supper. And, if one is going to reject the possibility of the Supper
– that God would give His very flesh to eat and blood to drink to
receive the divine benefits of the cross – then of what good is it
that God was willing to become flesh to go to the cross in the first
place?
What it really comes down to, what the chief priests
stumbled over, is the incarnation of the Christ – that God would
become man, attach his authority to man. This is why it would
have done no good for Christ to explain to the chief priests by
what authority he did these things… if they couldn’t even see God
at work through a messenger prophet, then they certainly won’t
see God at work attaching himself to the flesh. The incarnation of
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Jesus – “and He was made man” we say in the Creed – is
fundamental to the Christian faith – not only in the idea of the
God-man dying on the cross, but also in the idea of the God-man
benefiting you today in very tangible ways…for he did not only
“take on” humanity, but “he was made Man”… “This is my body,
this is my blood.”
Thus, what the chief priests of Jesus’ day and the skeptics
of our day stumble over, over that you may step … the incarnation
isn’t a stumbling block, it’s the gospel! … and in the wonder of
God’s incarnation and its benefits you may rejoice!
You may lay eyes upon the incarnate God upon the cross
and comfort yourself, “There is my God in the flesh; there he
hangs with all authority to atone for sins. Satan can accuse me no
longer, for there, in the flesh, is God… with all authority over sin,
death, and the power of the devil.”
And what of when the child is brought to Holy Baptism? Or
what of when Holy Absolution is declared?… do you doubt that
such gifts are of any benefit to you? Then you must teach yourself
to say, “The baptism of the sinner John was of God; therefore why
ought I doubt that the baptism poured over my head or the
absolution spoken to me is of God?”
And when the skeptics say of the Holy Supper, “That
saying – ‘This is my body, this is my blood’… that is a hard saying,
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how can it be?”, you may joyfully say, “The incarnate God
promised as much: “This is my body, this is my blood” – with the
same authority He had to atone for sins, Jesus Christ gives his very
same once-cross-bearing flesh and blood to apply such
forgiveness, so that the apostle John says, “The blood of Jesus
Christ cleanses (present tense – it’s achieving such benefit here
and now!) cleanses us from all unrighteousness.”
The wonder and amazement and beauty of the gospel is
not that God would rain down his authority to forgive sins from
on high, but that He would personally earn it in the flesh, bring
and deliver it to you in the flesh… that’s what the Divine Service is
all about… it’s about your God being here now, in the flesh, to
forgive, teach, and feed sinners. Recall last week, I asked, “Why
would Jesus come to sinners? Because sinners could never come
to him”? Well, we can expand on that today: “Why would God
come to sinners and dwell with sinners in the flesh? Because
sinners can never come to him or dwell with him in the spirit.”
To show just how much the ongoing and eternal
significance of the Christ’s Incarnation (not just the one-time
incarnation, but for-all-time incarnation) is a line in the sand
between God’s gospel and all false gospels that mimic it, Jesus
asks a follow-up question of the chief priests. It’s not in our text,
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but I need to read it to for us to have a fuller understanding of
Jesus’ purpose in this exchange.
He says in the following verses:
“A man had two sons. He went to the first and said, ‘Son, go
and work in the vineyard today.’ The son answered, ‘I will
not,’ but afterward he changed his mind and went. And the
man went to the other son and said the same. That son
answered. ‘I go, sir,’ but did not go. Which of the two did the
will of his father?”
Now, friends, usually when we hear that little parable, we
hear it out of context… we hear it without considering our text’s
exchange about John’s authority and Jesus’ authority. And so, we
convince ourselves that Jesus is teaching a moral lesson about
how to behave toward and work for your father. But that’s not it
at all! Instead, he explains when he says,
“Truly, I say to you, the tax collectors and prostitutes go into
the kingdom of God before you. For John came to you in the
way of righteousness, and you did not believe him. And even
when you saw it [that is, the ‘way of righteousness’
embodied in Jesus], you did not afterward change your
minds and believe.”
You see, Jesus’ parable isn’t about which son did the work
of his father. (Not every detail of a parable has to align with the
true meaning!). It’s about which sinner heeded the will of the
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father… namely, which son received the truth of the gospel of
Christ. Is it the one (the religious leaders) who first said, “Yes, I
await Messiah to come” and then didn’t receive him when he
appeared in the flesh? Or, is it the sinner who said, “I will not
await Messiah to come,” but when Messiah had come in the flesh,
the sinner repented and believed the gospel?
And again, is it the one who in being catechized and taught
the faith says, “I believe,” but when given access to the Table
refuses to come, or is it the one who may at first have said, “this
gospel is of no benefit to me,” but having been taught the faith
and shown Messiah in the Sacrament repents and partakes of the
gospel? Which is the will of the Father?
You know the answer. And you know that the Messiah
who once came in the flesh to die for the sins of the world has
also promised to come in that same body and blood each and
every time He gathers His Church at his altar. That is the promise
of the incarnate Christ – a promise that carries the authority and
forgiveness of God. So rejoice in it and receive the Messiah who
comes again to serve you, just as He has promised.
In the Name of the Father
And of the Son
And of the Holy Spirit.
+ AMEN +
Rev. Mark C. Bestul
Calvary Lutheran Church
September 28, 2014
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