Questioning Authority
David C. Myers
September 28, 2008
Exodus 4:10 - 17
Matthew 21:23 - 32
Text: "By what authority do You do these things?" . . . Matthew 21:23b
While I was serving the Lexington United Methodist Church back in the 1980's I was deep in sermon preparation when there was a knock on my office door. It was an official looking person, all dressed up in a dark suit. "Salesman" was my first thought.
That thought vanished very quickly when he reached into his suit and pulled out a badge, and said, "Rev. Myers, I am from the Federal Bureau of Investigation." He said his name, but I scarce remembered it. It was just like Joe Friday in Dragnet.
I'd like to tell you that I very carefully examined his ID before admitting him into my office. But the truth was, I was so shook up by what he had told me that I merely glanced at it before inviting him to take a seat. Let's face it, when the F.B.I. drops by for an unannounced visit, your anxiety level shoots up a notch or two. At least mine does.
Well, it turns out that the meeting was quite innocent - a church member had applied for a job with the federal government that required a security check and had given my name as a reference. The man from the F.B.I. asked me a few routine questions about him and then left. After he had gone, I took a deep breath and went "Whew!!!" Then I told myself I should have been more careful before letting him in.
There are times, after all, when it is important to check out a person's credentials. Your doctor and dentist display those diplomas and certificates on their walls for a very good reason: they worked hard to earn them, to establish their authority to practice their profession, and they want you to be assured that they are qualified.
You and I rightly expect those to whom we entrust our physical and mental health to have proper training. The same should go for those to whom we entrust our spiritual health as well.
Churches grant credentials to pastors after they have gone through a long process of (at least) 3 years of graduate seminary training, psychological testing, field education and extensive examination in areas of theology, Bible, and church doctrine. And then before they are fully ordained they need to prove their ministerial calling and abilities by ministry in local churches.
As a pastor still relatively new to serving this church, I am aware that this church is in a process of checking out the new pastor's credentials as well. Sure, all the paper work is in place and proper; but now the real credentialing is taking place - "is he really the right person for Chevy Chase UMC? After all, he is from New England. And just before he came here he was serving such a small church. He is not familiar with our church. Is this going to work?" There is no power in the United Methodist Church that will give satisfactory answers to those questions. Those answers will come from you. If I am to have authority in this congregation, it come in the form as a gift from you; not as an appointment by the Bishop.
So it's not really surprising to learn that the chief priests and elders would challenge Jesus' credentials. Jesus had to come to Jerusalem and had gone to the temple where he angrily overturned the tables of the money changers and drove them out. He had healed people with contagious diseases. He said some things that upset the religious authorities. They decided it was time to confront Him in public; perhaps even embarrass this upstart and discredit him.
So when Jesus entered the temple that day, the chief priests and elders asked to see his ID. These already credentialed people - the religious leaders of a faith that lived by the law, and who lived by having all the proper credentials - now said to Him, "Show us your diploma, Your ordination papers! By what authority are You doing these things and who gave this authority?"
Now, of course, when you and I read the Gospels, we are conditioned to stick up for Jesus. We know His enemies are always trying to trick Him, to trip Him up; so as soon as they appear on the scene, our defenses go up on Jesus' behalf.
But just a minute! Try to lay aside your prejudice and look at things from the perspective of the religious authorities. The chief priests and elders did have the proper credentials. And the faith that they - and Jesus - professed was, after all, a faith based on law. It was a credentialed faith! If you had been one of the religious leaders wouldn't you have resented this wandering preacher from the sticks coming into your city, your temple, and literally turning things upside down?
Sure you would. And had you heard some of the stinging criticisms he had been making about your colleagues, you'd have been mighty upset. Who does this guy think He is, anyway?!?!?! Where does He get the right, the authority, to say what He says and do what He does?
So the question about authority directed at Jesus was legitimate, wasn't it? There are times when it is appropriate to check out a person's credentials, as we shall see.
And when Jesus entered the temple, the chief priests and elders came up to Him as He was teaching, and said, "By what authority are You doing these things, and who gave you this authority?"
Jesus said to them, "I will ask you one question: if you tell me the answer, then I will also tell you by what authority I do these things. Did the baptism of John come from heaven, or was it of human origin?"
That's a curious answer, don't you think? In fact, it's not an answer at all - its a question. And I hate it when my kids answer me with another question.
At first glance, what Jesus does looks like a clever evasion, a savvy political maneuver to dodge a question He prefers not to answer. Surely Jesus sensed that His interrogators hoped to put Him on the spot. They did not want to know the truth about Him. Their motivation was only to discredit Him.
So Jesus engaged His interrogators in a form of debate common in His day, a series of questions and counter-questions that would eventually establish the truth about the matter. This kind of debate held an honored place in Jewish tradition. It still does.
However, the question He asked put them off guard.
And they argued with one another, "If we say, 'From heaven,' He will say to us, 'Why then did you not believe Him?' But if we say 'Of human origin,' we are afraid of the crowd; for all regard John as a prophet." So they answered Jesus, "We do not know." And He said to them, "Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things."
And then Jesus followed up with another question in the form of a parable about a man who had two sons.
It's time to sing. I'm going to ask Henry/Linda to play a familiar little ditty ("Tell Me the Stories of Jesus"). Here are the words:
One day a man who had two sons
Said unto one
"Work in the fields with the farmhands
'Til day is done."
"Yes", said the younger, "I will comply"
But he did not go. The day went by.
Likewise the farmer requested His other son
"No", said the boy I have errands
That I must run."
Soon he repented; gave of his skill.
Which son performed, then their father's will?
"Now", Jesus asked the chief priests and elder, "which son did the will of his father?" They said, "The first." (The song had the order mixed for poetic reasons.) Jesus said to them, "Truly I tell you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are going into the Kingdom of God ahead of you. For John came to you in the way of righteousness and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes believed him; and even after you saw it, you did not change your minds and believe him."
While the chief priests and elders recognized that the first son originally rebelled against the authority of the father who ordered him to work in the vineyard, he eventually consented. The other son yes, but never did the work of the father. Jesus, with this story is telling the religious leaders that they, by their actions, are saying "Yes" to God, but like the second son, are not doing God's will and not doing the work of the father.
How do you suppose Jesus' interrogators reacted to those words? Moments before Jesus turned the tables on them with his answer that wasn't an answer at all but instead a question; and now, as if to rub salt into the wound, he insults them directly by publicly saying that they are not doing the will of God. And to compound it, how dare Jesus say to these properly credentialed, authority-certified church leaders that the despised tax collectors and immoral prostitutes are going into the Kingdom of Heaven ahead of them?
I don't think I need to answer.
My suspicion is that Jesus understands something that the church of that day - and I dare say the church of this day as well - does not understand; and that is the true nature of authority.
Let me try to unpack that. The Old Testament reading today was about another rather famous religious figure - a guy named Moses, who was like the first son in the parable Jesus told of the two sons. The passage read this morning tells of Moses' encounter with God and call from God at the burning bush. When God called Moses to lead his people out of the slavery they were in in Egypt, Moses said "No!" "I cannot do it. I can't put two words back to back, so how can I speak for You and lead Your people out of Egypt?"
But God was not finished. Moses wanted to say no. God had something else in mind. Gracie Allen once said, "Never place a period where God has placed a comma." You see, the freedom and ability Moses had to be able to argue with God allows him to think it through. And the more he thinks, the more he realizes what he can do. His belief in his own capabilities and in the rightness of the cause is changed. Moses' initial "No" enables his "Yes" - it enables him to respond to God's call. What he thought was a period, turned out to be a comma.
Later on in Jesus own ministry we see this happen even to Jesus - under the most dramatic of circumstances. It was his agonizing prayers at the Garden of Gethsemane after the Last Supper and just before His crucifixion. You remember the words, "If it be Your will, O God, please let this cup pass from Me." But then He responded, "Not My will, but Thine be done."
If Moses and Jesus could say "No" first to a call from God, then we shouldn't feel so bad when our first response to calls for loving actions is "Let somebody else do it." Or, eventually saying "Yes" by way of having said "No!" first. That's fine! - it is getting to the "Yes" that really matters. It's being able to act - even after sorting out your resistance - that really matters.
Remember when Jesus asked the religious authorities about John's authority and they said, "We do not know." Then Jesus said to them, "Neither will I tell you by authority I am doing these things?" You see, as the Rev. Dr. Paul Deats, my former social ethics professor, preached at an ordination sermon, "True authority is never imposed on others, rather it is given." Like trust, perhaps it is even bestowed. The only way that the religious leaders would recognize Jesus' authority was for them to give it to Him. And I think that's why He did not tell them He was given authority by God. And it is why he told them the parable of the Vineyard owner with two sons. It was only the first son who first said, "No!" that then relented and thus gave his father authority.
There is plenty to do in God's kingdom - and even at this small corner of God's Kingdom called Chevy Chase United Methodist Church. And our first impulse may be to say "No!" when asked to help contribute to the work that needs to be done. That's not a bad thing. Perhaps it is simply a matter of your struggling with deciding on just how much that particular work needs to get done - simply a matter of you deciding whether or not the church is in line with God's authority. You see, ultimately it is only as we decide together, guided by the Holy Spirit, that indeed, we can come to a "Yes!" to God's claim and call on our lives. And when we do reach the "Yes!" that is when God's work - and God's vision for Chevy Chase UMC will truly be carried out!