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S. Pentecost 18.26 Matt. 21:23-27

So they answered Jesus and said, ‘we do not know’…

And Jesus replies… “Fffforget you!” My preferred 2-word translation is stronger but NSFW. But you know, like Aslan, Jesus is not a tame lion, not safe for work or play. In another 2 days, he’ll warn the Jewish leaders he’ll not just forget about them but will wipe them from the face of the earth, heaven, and his mind, forever!

Jesus is clearly mad as hell at these guys! He will scorn those who scorn him. He’s done with chief priests, Pharisees, scribes, lawyers! 3 years, he’s been bearing their shin and their nonsense and ridicule and criticism and traps. He knows they’re about to spring their biggest trap on him, the cross, in about 4 days’ time…

He’s been in a mood for a while. The day before, Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey, a colt the foal of donkey, and was hailed by the throng of pilgrims who’d come for Passover as the Messiah, the Son of David come to save the world. But, as soon as he got into Jerusalem that Sunday, he went to the temple, flipped over the tables of the moneychangers and drove them out, possibly with the same whip he’d made 3 years before and probably had stashed somewhere… 😉 You may recall he made that whip with his own hands and put little bits of metal and bone stingers at the ends so it would really leave a mark and teach a lesson.

God is in the details! 😉

Just remember: whenever someone asks you: “What would Jesus do?”: that freaking out, flipping over tables and chasing people with whips is always an option!

He’s not nearly as gentle, meek, and mild all the time as we assume he must be. Jesus had a temper and showed it now and again. On the way into church that Monday morning, he found a fig tree with no fruit and cursed it—even though the disciples pointed out it was not the season for figs! But Jesus was mad, replied: “That tree will never bear fruit again!” and it withered away straightaway.

So, yeah, a temper even when it seemed unreasonable and unfair even to his own Apostles!

That’s why I say Jesus is sick to death of Israel & Co., especially today, with these interlocutors—the chief priests, scribes and elders of the people! Riding into Jerusalem 3 days before, Jesus says “Jerusalem, Jerusalem! You stone the prophets and kill those sent to you. How often I would have gathered you together like a mother hen her chicks, but you were not willing. See, your house is left to you desolate…”

Sure glad modern “Israel” is so much better!

Context is so important for getting the nuance of the scriptures’ Story! And context tells us on this day Jesus has had it up to HERE! with these Jewish Ruler Guys! If he still had his whip from the day before, I think he might well have used it again on them!

There is a rather obvious cause of our Lord’s Righteous Indignation at the Rulers of his people in this pericope. But we’re so used to the Story and the scriptures so like to keep the important stuff in the background unsaid, indirectly communicated, that I don’t think many of us notice what is so frustrating in this exchange…

Even my Wed. Evening gang didn’t have an answer when I asked: “What did the chief priests and elders of the Jews not do when Jesus asked them whether John’s Baptism was from heaven or from men?”

Did you notice?

They never even CONSIDER if it MIGHT have been FROM HEAVEN! NO! They just consider what Jesus’ response will be. “If we say: “From heaven”, he’ll say: ‘why didn’t you believe?’ And if we say ‘from men’, we fear the multitude will stone us, for the crowd believes it’s from Heaven…”

After all, there’d been a large crowd at Jesus Baptism, 3 years before, plenty of eyewitnesses who were still around who saw Jesus come up from the water, heard the Father’s voice from Heaven thunder: “This is my beloved son! Hear him!”, saw the Dove descend from Heaven and rest on Jesus.

And what about Jesus’ astonishing teaching with Power that is obviously Divine—his healing the sick, casting out demons, turning water to wine, feeding five thousand+ with just five loaves and two fish, raising the dead as he had Lazarus just a week or two before this (which John tells us is why such a large crowd was waiting to hail him as Messiah and Lord on Palm Sunday)??!!

But NO! They don’t for a moment consider all the signs that point to Jesus being God incarnate, the promised Savior sent from Heaven to bring us back to Heaven! They aren’t interested in God or Heaven or Salvation. They’re only interested in winning arguments, regardless of truth, to preserve their own power and privileges…

Sure glad the church today never does shtuff like that!

It’s like the scene in Monty Python’s Life of Brian where Reg asks the crowd of conspirators, “What have the Romans ever done for us?” And one guy goes “aqueducts?” another says, “the sanitation?” And then “roads, wine, education, medicine, public baths and order.” Undeterred, John Cleese roars “Well, apart from the sanitation, medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, the fresh water system and public health, what have the Romans ever done for us?” And someone mentions “peace”; but a knock comes at the door and the meeting breaks up.

Delightful!

But how many of us notice how frustrating it must have been that the Rulers of the Jews NEVER EVEN CONSIDER whether Jesus might just be God come from HEAVEN! to save us and take us back to Heaven with him?

So yeah; that’s why I say there’s more unspeakable heat in Jesus’ response buried under the written text for those with eyes to see and ears to hear to discover!

But, one last thing… Jesus is more sad than mad with us. Heaven is not improved one iota for him if you and I are there. It’s our joy, our life, our happiness Jesus is dying to win!

So, 3 takeaways…

1) is to be a bit chagrined myself at how little I really contemplate all the WONDER Jesus is and does for us, purely gratis. Just like I can take for granted marvelous gifts like a wonderful wife and kids who put up with my shtuff, a wonderful congregation that does likewise, good friends, a great town to live in, etc.

2) is to realize anew that his Baptism by John in the Jordan, taking the sin of the world—yours, mine included on his shoulders!—bearing it three years [in which he put up with so much shtuff from us!] dying horribly and rising victoriously all for you, all for me, so that we lost lambs would come home with him to the Kingdom of Heaven that is wondrous and glorious beyond telling or imagining… (!!!)

3) is yearning sinners like you and me would become little ikons of Jesus, forever enraptured by his love; and Peace that surpasses understanding and guards our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.