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Sermon for the Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost – October 1, 2023
Philippians 2:1-13, Matthew 21:23-32
Dear friends, grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ.
There is a great scene in the third installment of the Indiana Jones movies, “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.” Indy is attempting to enter the chamber which contains the Holy Grail, the cup used by Christ at the Last Supper. The chamber is at the end of a long, dark tunnel, which is protected by booby traps designed to keep out those with the wrong motives for seeking the cup. Those booby traps have already proven to be effective. Indy knows a clue about the first booby trap from his father’s research. The clue is: “The penitent man will pass.” He keeps repeating this over and over like a mantra as he steps carefully into the tunnel. “The penitent man will pass,” he says as he thinks about what this could mean. “The penitent man is humble before God. The penitent man is humble, kneels before God.” At that moment he kneels, avoiding the swinging blades of the first trap as they swoosh over his head.
The idea of the penitent passing, or the humble entering into the presence of God, is at the heart of our gospel reading for today.
Jesus has just entered Jerusalem with much fanfare. He has made his triumphal entry, with people laying cloaks in his path and waving palm branches and shouting “hosanna.” Jesus has entered into the temple complex and driven out the money changers, flipping over their tables and chasing them out with a whip of cords. Now Jesus has settled in to do some teaching in the temple when the authorities gather around him. “By what authority are you doing these things?” they ask.
And, of course, as Jesus often does, he turns the question back on them. “Let me ask you first, did the baptism of John come from heaven, or was it of human origin?” This might sound like a total non-sequitur of a question to us, totally irrelevant to the question at hand. But this is directly related to the question of Jesus’ authority. If John’s baptism is from heaven, being done with the authority of God, then the implication is that this is where Jesus’ authority comes from too.
The chief priests and the elders are more concerned about public opinion and crowd control than they are about the truth. They struggle with how to answer, eventually deciding to punt. I picture them like contestants on Family Feud. They huddle together and discuss how they might answer the question, and then they come back and say, “Pass.” “Well then,” Jesus replies, “neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things.” For Jesus to tip his hand so publicly this early in the game would have given the chief priests and elders exactly what they wanted. If Jesus straight out said he was acting on God’s authority they could have him arrested right then and there, and it wasn’t yet time for that.
Jesus goes on to illustrate the problem with these chief priests and elders by telling a parable. There are two sons who are told by their father to go and work in the vineyard. One says, “I will not,” but then later changes his mind and goes. The other says, “I go, sir,” but then did not go. Jesus then asked the chief priests and elders, “Which of these two sons did the will of their father?” “The first,” they replied. This is what we in theological circles call a “mic drop.” Jesus has lowered the boom on them! He has lured them into convicting themselves without them even realizing it!
The chief priests and the elders are behaving like the second son. The vineyard has long served as a symbol for Israel. It has represented the Promised Land. It has represented the covenant people, the people who said yes to God. Only these chief priests and elders weren’t saying yes to God now! They were rejecting God’s prophet, John. They were rejecting God’s Son, Jesus. They were saying no to the way of righteousness John and Jesus represented, which was through repentance and the forgiveness of sin. And so their initial yes had become a no.
Jesus then spells out the consequences of this. “Truly I tell you,” he says to them, “the tax collectors and the prostitutes are going into the kingdom of God ahead of you.” Ouch! These most public and scandalous of sinners are moved to the front of the line! They get to enter the kingdom of God ahead of the most religious and outwardly righteous people in town! What gives? Well, the tax collectors and prostitutes knew how to kneel. “The penitent will pass.”
Jesus continued: “John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him,” What is this way of righteousness? Well, what was John’s message? John came preaching a message of repentance, of changing one’s mind and turning away from sin and back to God. John came preaching the forgiveness of sins. And when the time came, he pointed to Jesus and said, “Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” He pointed to Jesus as the savior of the world. This was the new way of righteousness – not having a righteousness of one’s own but receiving the righteousness of Christ simply by believing in him, by trusting in him, by receiving his forgiveness, by kneeling before him.
This is precisely what the tax collectors and the prostitutes were doing. They had initially said no to God’s kingdom. They said no to God’s covenant. They chose lifestyles which were flagrantly against God’s will – cheating God’s people and collaborating with Israel’s enemies, strangers buying and selling bodily intimacies intended to be shared only within the holy bonds of marriage. But now, with the coming of John and his message of the coming of the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, they said yes! Now with the coming of Jesus, the savior and Messiah, they had entered into the vineyard. Through his forgiveness, they could enter the Promised Land, the kingdom of God. “The penitent will pass.”
Martin Luther often taught that there are two kinds of righteousness. One kind is called “proper” righteousness. I’ve also heard it called civic righteousness, or the righteousness of the law. We could think of this as everyday righteousness. This kind of righteousness is reflected in our outward behavior. It is reflected in how we treat others, in how we love our neighbors. It is reflected in how well we follow God’s law, specifically the Ten Commandments, which are given to teach us how God intends for his human creatures to live. We should strive to keep these commandments. They are good to follow. We shouldn’t gouge our neighbor or deal unfairly, like the tax collectors. We should live lives of chastity and fidelity, unlike the prostitutes and their customers. The Holy Spirit works on us to give us new hearts which want to do these outwardly righteous things.
This kind of righteousness matters. It matters to our families. It matters to our congregation and our community. It matters to our nation and our world. But this is not the kind of righteousness by which we enter the vineyard. This is not the kind of righteousness which will get us into the Promised Land, the kingdom of God. This is not the righteousness of the new covenant. This takes a different kind of righteousness, a second kind of righteousness which Luther called an alien righteousness. This has nothing to do with E.T. or flying saucers. What Luther meant is that this righteousness comes from outside ourselves. It is an imputed righteousness, given to us by another. It is a status declared to us rather than something earned or achieved. This kind of righteousness is received by believing in the One who gives it to us, by trusting in his promise. St. Paul called it the righteousness of faith.
It is this kind of righteousness which Jesus is talking about in the conclusion of his parable. The way of righteousness John was bringing was a righteousness that came through faith in Jesus. This way of righteousness is repentance and belief in the salvation God has given through his Son, our savior. The tax collectors and the prostitutes had this kind of righteousness. When Jesus came, they knew they needed what he was bringing. They had faith in him. After their initial no to God, they changed their minds and entered the vineyard through Christ’s forgiveness, his mercy, his grace. They humbled themselves and received the gift of his righteousness because they knew it was the only kind of righteousness they had. They didn’t have a leg to stand on otherwise. Rather than questioning Jesus’ authority like the chief priests and elders, they knelt before him, and in so doing they entered the kingdom of God ahead of them. “The penitent will pass.”
We are here in worship today because we know that we need what Jesus brings too. No matter how outwardly righteous we might be, we know that there are many ways in which we fall short. Even if our sins aren’t as public and scandalous as those of tax collectors and prostitutes, we confess that we too are captive to sin and unable to free ourselves. We are here today because we have changed our minds about who we want to be and who we want to serve. We have turned away from all the sins of the past week or month or year or more and have come back to his vineyard.
As we do so, like Indiana Jones, we have an opportunity to drink from the very cup of Christ. And while I can assure you there are no booby traps on your way up to his table, there is a trap that we all need to watch out for. The trap is thinking that it is our own righteousness that earns us a spot here. The trap is thinking we deserve to be here, that we are entitled to what Christ gives us, that we have an authority higher than his. I must tell you that if you come strutting towards the kingdom of God with that attitude you will never enter it. At the very least, tax collectors and prostitutes will be allowed to cut in line ahead of you.
The penitent will pass. As Paul so memorably puts it in the reading from Philippians today, “at the name of Jesus every knee should bend.”
The penitent will pass, and so we kneel at the altar rail, humbling ourselves, avoiding the spiritually deadly trap of self-righteousness. Remember this when you come up for communion today. If you can’t physically kneel, you can do so spiritually, kneeling in your heart.
The penitent will pass, and in so doing we find ourselves in the Promised Land of God’s gracious presence. This is the will of the Father for you today as he welcomes you back into his vineyard through the forgiveness of his Son.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
Rev. Jeffrey R. Spencer
Oak Harbor Lutheran Church