INTRODUCTION
Today—in the lectionary we’re up to the 23rd Sunday after Pentecost—we have a really interesting Gospel story to share, from Matthew 23, Jesus having another bitter confrontation—not the first one—with the scribes and Pharisees in the Temple in Jerusalem. There’s a great message of hope as Jesus once again shows us the Kingdom—this amazing new way of living, when we learn to humble ourselves, live selflessly, serve and love one another in community. Hope, I might say, in these troubled times right now—obviously I’m referring to the terrible conflict in Israel/Palestine that is raging, right now, as we meet.
REFLECTION PART 1
So, today is, yes, the 23rd Sunday after Pentecost, and, over these 23 Sundays starting with Trinity Sunday way back on June 4, we’ve been following through Matthew’s Gospel from Chapter 9 to, today, Chapter 23; then by Christ the King Sunday on November 26 we’ll get to Chapter 25 and stop immediately before Jesus’ betrayal and the crucifixion (and after that we go on to Advent, of course). All through that time, Jesus and his disciples have been travelling through Galilee, then Phoenicia, the Decapolis, Caesarea Philippi, Judea and Perea, on the way eventually to Jerusalem (which he enters in Chapter 21, and where he has been now for the last five Sundays)—ministering to the people, performing miracles, healing people, casting out demons, preaching and teaching—proclaiming the amazing message of the Kingdom—the central content of all Jesus’ teaching is always how to live in a new way, a Kingdom-way—how to live selflessly, putting others first, loving even your enemies, turning the other cheek, caring for and serving each other in community—Jesus is really teaching his followers how to be what will become the Church.
With increasing regularity through this time, Jesus interacts with the Jewish religious leaders, the scribes and Pharisees, the high priests and elders of the people—trouble has been gradually brewing—more and more Jesus is confronting the Pharisees, saying all sorts of very in-your-face things about them and to them—he doesn’t pull any punches—calling them hypocrites, vipers, whited sepulchres—and they in turn have been building up what we realize by the time we get to Chapter 26 is a full-blown conspiracy, a plot to get Jesus—to murder him and silence him forever.
Today, at the start of Chapter 23, Jesus is still in the Temple, where he has been teaching and preaching for several days. We’ve heard, over the last few weeks, “The Parable of the Two Sons”, “The Parable of the Tenants”, “The Parable of the Wedding Banquet”, Jesus’ teaching about paying taxes, and, last Sunday, the Great Commandment, to love God and love one another. The scribes and Pharisees have been grilling Jesus, trying to trick him into saying things that will, in their eyes, incriminate him; Jesus in turn has been, through the parables and the other teachings, holding up a mirror to the Pharisees, showing them what hypocrites, what false people they really are, and, all along, through these confrontations, teaching the disciples and the others watching and listening—which is us now—how to, as I’ve said, live in a true way, selflessly serving each other, obeying the Law from our hearts, not out of pride or wanting to appear better than others—how to live in—and Jesus keeps on using the word—a Kingdom-way.
So, let’s now hear the first part of what Jesus has to say, in the Temple, at the start of Chapter 23.
GOSPEL READING PART 1 Matthew 23:1-7
1Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples, 2 “The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses’s seat; 3 therefore, do whatever they teach you and follow it, but do not do as they do, for they do not practice what they teach. 4 They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on the shoulders of others, but they themselves are unwilling to lift a finger to move them. 5 They do all their deeds to be seen by others, for they make their phylacteries broad and their fringes long. 6 They love to have the place of honour at banquets and the best seats in the synagogues 7 and to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces and to have people call them rabbi.
REFLECTION PART 2
So, firstly, Jesus tells us to, “follow the Law, do whatever the scribes and Pharisees preach”. On one hand, Jesus is being careful not to fall into the scribes’ and Pharisees’ trap by saying anything against the Law. But he’s also teaching his listeners a positive message about obeying the Law: the Law, in itself, is good, it’s about how we can live together, positively in community, caring for and respecting each other’s needs and rights—likewise, today, Jesus is keen for us to follow and obey the just and right law of the land, this land, because it too is about how we can live together, in community, caring for and respecting each other—insofar as it is just and right, of course—and we’re always, in a great country like Australia, looking to improve the law when we realize it needs fixing.
“But do not do as they do—[the scribes and Pharisees]—for they do not practice what they teach.” Practice what you teach? We usually say, “practice what you preach”, don’t we?—a very common expression we use today. Hypocrisy—saying one thing and doing another, being two-faced, fake, wearing a mask—it’s the very thing that destroys relationships, destroys community, wrecks everything the Law is set up to deliver.
“They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on the shoulders of others”. Later in the Chapter we’re reading today, in verse 13, Jesus says, the first of seven woes:
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you lock people out of the kingdom of heaven. For you do not go in yourselves, and when others are going in you stop them.”
For the Pharisees, the Law is an end in itself, not a means to the end of living a better life, the best possible life, in community, the Kingdom Jesus came to open up the way to. The Law becomes a burden they impose on us, we impose on ourselves—we follow the letter of the Law, legalistically, self-righteously, it binds us up rather than sets us free to live a great life.
“They do all their deeds to be seen by others … They love to have the place of honor at banquets and the best seats in the synagogue” – in the Church! – “… and to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces and to have people call them…” sir, or madam, or doctor, or professor, or reverend! They, we, are amazing narcissists, in other words. Narcissism is the natural, normal human thing: being selfish, self-centred, self-absorbed, standing in front of the mirror all day marvelling at what a wonderful person I truly am! All human sin is a variation on the theme of selfishness, of narcissism—building an idol of self, and admiring it all day long!
Now let’s hear the second part of what Jesus has to say in our reading today, his positive message to his disciples and the crowds listening: how not to live in a hypocritical, legalistic, selfish, narcissistic way, but in a Kingdom-way.
GOSPEL READING PART 2 Matthew 23:8-12
8 But you are not to be called rabbi, for you have one teacher, and you are all brothers and sisters. 9 And call no one your father on earth, for you have one Father, the one in heaven. 10 Nor are you to be called instructors, for you have one instructor, the Messiah. 11 The greatest among you will be your servant. 12 All who exalt themselves will be humbled, and all who humble themselves will be exalted.
REFLECTION PART 3
Those beautiful, familiar words at the end—”All who exalt themselves will be humbled, and all who humble themselves will be exalted.” The siblinghood of humanity, brothers and sisters, siblings; through our divine parent in heaven—AKA God—we are all siblings. This is the Church, firstly, of course, and here we are today, still, 2000 years later—but the Church is really what I like to call a pilot-project of a great way of living together in community, a model for what will eventually become the whole world—the Kingdom of Heaven. There’s a fabulous passage on just this in the Basis of Union of our beloved Uniting Church, which I keep coming back to, keep being inspired by. Let me share it with you:
“The Church as the fellowship of the Holy Spirit confesses Jesus as Lord over its own life; it also confesses that Jesus is Head over all things, the beginning of a new creation, of a new humanity. God in Christ has given to all people in the Church the Holy Spirit as a pledge and foretaste of that coming reconciliation and renewal which is the end in view for the whole creation. The Church’s call is to serve that end: to be a fellowship of reconciliation, a body within which the diverse gifts of its members are used for the building up of the whole, an instrument through which Christ may work and bear witness to himself. The Church lives between the time of Christ’s death and resurrection and the final consummation of all things which Christ will bring; the Church is a pilgrim people, always on the way towards a promised goal; here the Church does not have a continuing city but seeks one to come.”
Isn’t that marvellous, exciting—the Church is involved in, or rather is, a pilot-project for the Kingdom, for the eventual “reconciliation of all things” (that’s from Colossians 1:20) – “the final consummation”—the coming to fruition—”of all things which Christ will bring”—the return of Christ, the Second Coming. It will be a truly beautiful thing.
“All who exalt themselves will be humbled, and all who humble themselves will be exalted.” Brothers and sisters, siblings: let us therefore do as Jesus calls us to do, to humble ourselves, live selflessly, serve and love one another, and draw amazing hope, especially in these troubled times, from the promises of God: as the Basis of Union says, “the coming reconciliation and renewal which is the end in view for the whole creation”, “the final consummation of all things which Christ will bring.”
Amen.
