Saturday, May 17, 2014
Proper 21 ~ Year A ~ Jesus and Hercules
Pentecost
20
Proper
21 ~ Lectionary Year A ~ September 21, 2008
Holy
Trinity & St. Anskar
Christ,
for us, became obedient unto death
+In the Name of God, the
Holy and Undivided Trinity
The passage we have just heard is part of
a longer, unfriendly dialogue with the temple authorities. The guardians of
traditional observance and the religious scholars want to know the source of Jesus’
teaching. Where does He get the authority to teach as He does? This is a
perfectly reasonable question. Only in hindsight does it appear hypocritical.
The chief priests and scribes had no idea Who Jesus was. He appeared to be one
more self-appointed prophet, like John the Baptist. A disinterested observed
might think them justified to ignore Him altogether.
But they didn’t. They gave Him a
chance to explain Himself. In this passage, at least, they weren’t necessarily
trying to trip Him up. But His reply lays a trap for them: “I’ll tell you where I get My authority IF you first tell me
whether John the Baptist was a prophet or not.” Well, the authorities didn’t
get to BE authorities by being dumb.
They thought for a minute and realized that they were in a no-win situation: if
they said John WAS a prophet, then Jesus would ask why they didn’t follow his
advice. But they also knew that John was doing very well in the polls, and if
they said John WASN’T a prophet, they would be in big trouble with the
populace.
So, they said they didn’t know.
And so Jesus refused to tell them where He got the right to teach. But Jesus
went on to tell them today’s parable, and compared them to the second son, the
one who promised to work but didn’t. If they had really been interested in
serving God, they would have listened to John the Baptist. Like the second son,
the religious authorities constantly proclaim their obedience by their public
position in society and by their religious observance. But when God sends them
a real messenger, they ignore him. Their hypocrisy is revealed. Like the second
son, they don’t actually obey, although they say they do. Jesus is very rough
on them: “publicans and harlots are holier than you!” Tax-collectors and
prostitutes are going into the Kingdom of God before these
top religious authorities.
By contrast, John was like the
second son. He may have been short on public observance – he may even have been
defective in the externals of religion, but he was truly obedient, a real
prophet, a true messenger of God. Jesus is implying that He too, an outsider
like John the Baptist, may be a disobedient son, from the
authorities’ point of view – that is from the viewpoint of surface
appearances. But, like John, it is He and not they who is genuinely obedient.
Things are not as they seem, particularly in spiritual matters. The disobedient
is obedient and the publicans and harlots are closer to God than the priests
and religious scholars. Jesus did give these authorities an answer: “My
authority comes from the same Source as John the Baptist’s.” In other words,
“You don’t know spiritual authority when it is right in front of
you.”
The authorities are like us. How
on earth are we to discern who is real and who is a charlatan? The lectionary
today gives us some direction, I think. Real authority has nothing to do with
position in this world, or success. In fact, those things ought to make one
suspicious. That is the pagan idea of spiritual authority: power. But as the
Collect says, God’s mighty power is shown
chiefly in mercy and pity. The prophets are not heroes, like Hercules. More
often they are ne’er-do-wells, whom God allows to suffer all kinds of abuse and
disrespect, but vindicates in the end. Usually they are not killed.
But
John is a new kind of prophet ~ one who dies in the cause. And John’s cause was
Jesus’ cause, the Reign of God. Jesus, too, would die in this cause, as
Pilate’s note nailed up above Him clearly announced:
JESUS OF NAZARETH KING OF THE
JEWS
What is new about this is the display of God’s
majesty in humility, the revelation of Absolute Power in weakness, of creation
in death, and of triumph in suffering. Things are not as they seem, in the
world of the Spirit. Pagan divinities
appeared as heroes, whereas crucifixion was the worst thing that could happen ~
a lingering death of unimaginable pain, which could last for days. To claim
that this is a glimpse of the Majesty of God was just absurd. Still is. Zeus is
not crucified. Neither is Allah.
But that is the proclamation of
the Church: the suffering of God, proclaimed in fear and trembling. Paul quotes
what is generally regarded as the earliest existing hymn of the Church:
[the Messiah], though He
was in the form of God,
did not regard equality
with God
as something to be held
on to,
but emptied Himself,
taking the form of a
slave…
and became obedient to
the point of death--
even death on a cross.
Therefore God also
highly exalted Him
and gave Him the Name
that is above every
Name,
so that at the Name of
Jesus
every knee should bend,
in heaven and on earth
and under the earth,
and every tongue should
confess
that Jesus the Messiah
is Lord,
to the glory of God the
Father.
The exploits of demigods like Hercules are expected. The exploit
of the one Who is True God and True Man are not. The mighty power of God is
shown in mercy and pity, not in conquest and domination. One might add that the
power of God is displayed in his infinite capacity to suffer. But this is
incomprehensible to the religious authorities. And the Cross remains folly –
just plain madness – to the unrepentant, to those who will not listen to John
the Baptist and go down into the water and change their minds.
But the Cross IS the Source of
Jesus’ authority. It represents His obedience to the Father, in the context of
the parable. But more than that, it represents God’s mighty power declared in
mercy and pity by absorbing everything that is wrong with the world. Jesus will
answer the question. We will know the Source of His authority when we are able
to look at the horror of the Cross, the suffering of our Creator, and say with
the early Church, in fear and trembling,
Christ,
for us, became obedient unto death, even death on the Cross, wherefore God has
given Him the Name that is above every Name, that every knee should bow and
every tongue confess that Jesus the Messiah is Lord, to the glory of God the
Father.
