19th Sunday after
Pentecost /
Ezekiel 18:1–4, 25–32; Phil.
2:1-13; Matt. 21: 23-32
Rev. Gayle M. Highness
The
God of Second Chances
A pastor invited a woman he met at a
social event to come and worship at his church. “I don’t go to church,” she
said. “Churches are full of hypocrites!” “That’s alright,” the pastor replied,
“We can always make room for one more.”
Probably that woman – and thousands
more who think just like her – are right. The church IS full of hypocrites, and
all sorts of other sinners. That’s what the church is for – sinners!
Not only hypocrites, but also tax
collectors, prostitutes and your ever day garden variety sinners like us who
tend to look out for our own well-being before worrying about anyone else’s.
But it does seem like Jesus is
particularly hard on hypocrites – especially in the Gospel of Matthew, where
hypocrites are epitomized as the religious leaders of the Jews: chief priests,
elders, scribes and Pharisees.
Let
me give you just a few examples:
·
Matthew 6:5: "And whenever you pray, do not be like
the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the
street corners, so that they may be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have
received their reward.”
·
Matthew 15:7 - You hypocrites!
Isaiah prophesied rightly about you when he said: "This
people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me; in vain do
they worship me, teaching human precepts as doctrines.' "
·
Matthew
Today’s gospel follows along the
same lines, as Jesus confronts the chief priests and the elders who are testing
him and trying to discredit him.
He tells a parable about two sons
who each responded differently to their father’s command. As the story unfolds,
it is evident that the religious insiders
are like the son who gives the appearance of obedience, but does not actually
do his father’s will. On the other hand, those whose status or life choices had
made them outsiders to the faith are
like the son who initially disobeyed, but changed his mind and did the right
thing in the end.
To the “insiders” Jesus says, “Truly I tell you, the tax collectors and
the prostitutes are going into the
Why is Jesus so hard on hypocrites
like the Jewish religious leaders? For
one thing, they are role models whose sin is compounded when they teach others
to be just like themselves.
But the bigger problem with hypocrites
is that, unlike tax collectors and prostitutes, they don’t know they’re
sinners.
They’re like the dead people in the
movie, “The Sixth Sense.” Haley Joel Osment, the little boy in the movie who can see the dead
people, tells Bruce Willis, “They’re walking around like regular people. They
don't see each other. They only see what they want to see. They don't know
they're dead.”
The veneer of being religious – the assumption that they are in a
relationship with God – prevents the insiders from seeking an actual
relationship. They believe that the righteousness they are practicing, and
protecting, and hanging their hats on, and putting their trust in is REAL.
They’ve invested deeply in it and they’re not about to let Jesus come and
destroy their house of cards by exposing it for what it is.
Like the black walnuts that fall
from the trees around here, hypocrisy is a hard nut to crack. That’s why Jesus
has to use a hammer on them!
God loves us so much that God will
use whatever it takes – whether kindness or confrontation – to break through
our defenses and get us to repent, which means to acknowledge our guilt, open
our hearts, turn around, and receive God’s forgiveness and love.
God’s words to the Israelites,
spoken through the prophet Ezekiel in our first reading today, are for all
sinners – including us – “Cast away from
you all the transgressions that you have committed against me, and get
yourselves a new heart and a new spirit! Why will you die, O house of
Before we human beings will repent,
we have to know that we NEED repentance. We need Jesus. To the extent that we
substitute righteous acts – right living – obedience to commands and rules –
for a real relationship with God received through grace by faith in Jesus
Christ – to that extent, we place a barrier between ourselves and God.
Those who are clearly living a
lifestyle of disobedience to God’s commands – who have no interest in God or
who even openly defy all things religious – those
sinners need to repent, too. But at least they are honest. Their sins are no worse than those of us
“inside” the church.
We ALL need Jesus. When we forget
that – when we think our goodness comes from our good works rather than from
our relationship with Christ – we create a façade that is sure to crack under
pressure and cave in on itself.
Is there some place in your life or
in your heart where you have been keeping Jesus out – either by denying him
access or by thinking you don’t need him there or by trying to handle it on
your own?
Is there a façade where you present
a front that all is well, but you know it’s not. Or
where you say the right things, but don’t really do them?
That’s where this gospel calls us to
go – to the very place where we see ourselves as being right and yet, if we’re
honest, we are disturbed or unsettled or lacking peace.
Paul writes to the Philippians,
“Have the same mind in you that was in Christ.” In other words, an attitude of
humility and submission that allows ourselves to be emptied of our own ego and
self will and completely filled with God’s presence and power – completely
identified with God’s will and yielded to God’s purposes.
This is not natural for us. We need to be continually reminded of our
need for Jesus. Our relationship with God must be tended – fed and nourished by
hearing God’s Word, turning to God in prayer, receiving Jesus in Holy Communion,
and responding in love and obedience
to God’s will.
We must be intentional about these
things. That’s why Paul told the Philippians to “work out your own salvation
with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, enabling you both
to will and to work for his good pleasure.”
The good news is that wherever and
whenever we stray, God never stops inviting us back. God is always there waiting for us to change
our minds and turn back to him – again and again – God is infinitely merciful,
no matter what the sin and no matter what it takes to get our attention!