Matthew 21:23-32 Commentary

On the heels of cleansing the temple and cursing the fig tree, Jesus re-enters the holy place and is interrupted by temple leaders while he is teaching. It is a bit more intense than the librarian coming over and asking you to stop talking on your phone in the shared space; these guys want to know who Jesus thinks he is!

Maybe I give the temple leaders a little more credit than they deserve (perhaps an occupational hazard of wanting to think better of myself as a fellow church leader). I’m a little surprised that they allow themselves to walk right into the snare.  But maybe it’s a good reminder that when we become fixated on the thing that is most annoying us in the moment, we can become trapped in the tunnel made by our own vision. 

They don’t like what Jesus is doing, so they want to know what he believes about himself. Or, more specifically, why he believes he has the authority to do these things he is doing. Jesus’s answer is to link proverbial arms yet again with his cousin John, the messenger sent with authority to prepare the way for the Lord. 

This is not a great turn for the temple leaders, and they are likely becoming more and more aware that they are questioning someone who has more than given authority; Jesus is someone who has more than entrusted authority, even. He is the authority: they just didn’t recognize it because he exudes it in ways that would be at the bottom of their own list of leadership to-dos. Jesus’s actions have proven this to be so! He has literally just cleared out the unjust and greedy mess of money changers they have allowed to infiltrate and take up residence in the temple court.

To be sure, both Jesus and the leaders are using “authority,” but what they believe about that authority is drastically different. Jesus’s authority as the Son of God is to do the will of his Father. It ought to be the same for the temple leaders, but as their concern about how the crowd might react to their answer reveals, their first priority is to protect their own position. (Of course, that’s the same reason why they are troubling Jesus in the first place- he has entered their domain and disrupted things.)

But not everyone is deluded. The crowds believe in John’s purpose and authority, and here it’s helpful to note that “from heaven” is code for “from God.” The leaders know the right answer but are still refusing to believe, still refusing to do what is right. They hedge their position and try to stay sitting on the fence: “We don’t know.” 

Jesus says he won’t answer their question straight if they won’t answer his, but he still gives an answer through parable. The simple story of two sons doesn’t have a shocking surprise, nor does it take knowing more about the historical context to make sense of it. Like the connection between belief and action, Jesus puts it rather plain, actually. Doing matters more than saying. We show our values, our beliefs, our commitments through what we do. It’s true in every aspect of life but truest most of all when it comes to our faith and obedience in devotion to God.

The temple leaders gave a non-answer to John’s authority, but they are most like the son who says he will do what he’s been asked and then never heads out to the place he’s been asked to go. Who knows what stories this son has told himself since being called, who knows what he’s convinced himself is true. Who knows what belief he has decided to follow, but it is clearly not the belief that the one who called him has done so with a purpose nor does he trust that it is for his good (and perhaps for that of others as well).

But not everyone is deluded. There are some, known sinners, who say or do the wrong thing at first, but follow their hearts and are transformed. They, like the son who says no at the start, allow themselves into that space of introspection where the Spirit speaks and they come to believe new things about themselves and about God and about what is supposed to be in the world. And then, even if it’s not how they started, they do something different than before, becoming different in the process, believing something life-giving and powerful about the God who called them. Amen.

Textual Point

The temple leaders’ answer, “We don’t know,” is in the perfect tense. Remember that the perfect tense conveys the fact that the verb is a simple action but that it has lasting consequences. Could the temple leaders have realized how lasting the effects of their unwillingness to choose a side regarding Jesus were going to be? 

Illustration Idea

In almost twenty years of ministry, I’ve never had my authority tested the way I do as a parent to a 2.5 year old or as a high school teacher. Well, maybe I have but I’m able to be more differentiated from it when it’s coming from another adult. Plus, most of the time, I’m not asking a parishioner to stop hitting or to participate in class. People don’t take my counsel? Sad, sure. Care for my sermons or disapprove of my leadership decisions? Annoying, yes. Most of the time, we’re able to keep moving forward on some sort of shared mission. But with my kid and with my students, I am responsible for them in ways that I’m not while pastoring, and they are both at developmental stages all about testing limits, ramped up emotions, and where their sense of self and autonomy are in the thick of formation. It’s all about finding the loopholes to get out of or delay what’s been asked so that you can do pretty much anything else. And all that is to say, I’m very grateful that God is more patient, kind, and gentle than I am, and that he is so with me.