Sermon for Reformation Sunday: "A Reformation Quest"

 + Reformation Sunday (observed) – October 29^th, 2023 +

Revelation 14:6-7; Romans 3:19-28; John 8:31-36

Beautiful Savior Lutheran

Milton, WA

In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Many of our favorite stories begin with a quest. A knight embarks to save the princess. The crew of the Enterprise sets out to boldly go where no man has gone before. Indiana Jones goes searching for the holy grail. 

At the center of the Lutheran Reformation, which we celebrate and remember and give thanks to God for today, there was a quest. It was not a quest for fortune or fame, however. For Martin Luther it was a quest for assurance, a quest that found its culmination not in gold or silver, but the good news that God justifies the ungodly in Christ. That God’s righteousness is a gift, not a reward. That if the Son of God sets you free by dying in your place you are free indeed. The Gospel that brings comfort and assurance to you as it did to Luther, that one is justified by faith apart from the works of the Law.

That’s where Luther ended up on his quest for assurance. But that’s not where he began. Luther began, where we began our lives apart from Christ – in darkness and despair and death. The problem for Luther was that he was told – wrongly – by the church of his day that in order to find assurance of God’s love and certainty of salvation, he had to embark upon a quest for holiness by trusting in his own works and efforts. 

Luther thought – like the Jews in today’s Gospel reading from John 8 – that freedom to stand before God, that assurance and certainty of salvation – was a reward, not a gift. The Jews that Jesus was talking to trusted in Abraham rather than the God who promised Abraham that through his offspring all nations on the earth would be blessed. For a long while, Luther trusted in his own flesh too.

And so do we. Like the Jews in John 8 we fool ourselves into thinking we are free when in fact we are slaves to sin. Not just our thoughts, words, and deeds. Those are the symptoms. The problem goes much deeper. Our sinful condition. Our sinful nature. The old Adam Luther called it. So often we embark, like Luther did, upon a failed quest for assurance in something or someone other than Christ: our wit or wisdom or work, our relationships or righteousness on our own terms, our pride or passions, our desires or by what we’ve done. How we think, feel, act. The old Adam is proud and boastful and arrogant. The new man in Christ sees things as they are. In my flesh born of flesh, there is nothing but Sin and Death. But in Christ there is everything – forgiveness, life, salvation, peace, joy, righteousness.

But then, as Luther discovered, the Holy Spirit comes along and slaps a gigantic piece of duct tape across our mouths. We’ve nothing to boast about. No excuse. No leg to stand on. That’s the work God’s Law does on us and in us. 

Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. 

Luther worked like his life depended on it. He entered the monastery. He made a pilgrimage to Rome. He saw the relics. He climbed the steps of St. Peter’s on his knees. Prayed to the saints. Starved himself. Whipped himself. But none of it brought him any comfort. On his quest for assurance, Luther finally ran headfirst into the brick wall of Romans 3.

For by works of the law no human being^[c] will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.

Luther discovered in Romans that the Christian life is not a ladder to be climbed. Rather, baptized into Christ, our life is more like the spin cycle of a wash machine…in Baptism God is daily drowning our sin and daily raising us to new life in Christ. The church – Luther discovered – wasn’t like a gym where we come to do some spiritual weight lifting and pump ourselves up, but more like group therapy for addicts. “Hi my name is Sam and I’m a sinner. Hi Sam.” 

Paul says the same thing in Romans. All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Not some. Not most. Not others. All. You. Me. Jesus says the same thing in John 8. Everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin. It was true of the Jews in John 8. It was true of Luther, and it’s true of us too. 

Luther discovered in Romans and in the Scriptures that if the quest for assurance of God’s promise and righteousness was up to him to accomplish, then it was a never-ending quest that was doomed to fail before it began. 

Luther’s quest took a turn when he read Romans 3:21. But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— ²² the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: ²³ for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, ²⁴ and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus

In his quest for assurance, Luther rediscovered that God himself had set out upon a quest of salvation to rescue lost and condemned sinners, like Luther and you and me. To save us from damnation by the death of Jesus. To justify the ungodly freely and graciously in Christ crucified. 

Our quest for assurance ends at the cross. That’s not all that ends at the cross – so did our sin

Christ crucified and risen is your anchor, your rock, your certainty and assurance. This is what the Jews in John misunderstood. That our assurance of life, forgiveness, salvation isn’t found in Abraham’s bloodline, but in the blood of Jesus shed for you. This is what the church in Luther’s day misunderstood. That sinners are justified – made right with God – not by the work of our hands, but by the work of Christ’s hands, pierced on the cross for you. 

There on the cross Jesus went on the greatest quest of all history. And there, Christ who is the rightful – the just judge – became the one who took our judgment on himself. There, Christ who is truly free became enslaved in our sin to set us free. As Paul says in Romans, you are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, ²⁵ whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. 

There is your assurance, your comfort, your confidence. Not in our flesh and blood. But in the flesh and blood of Jesus, which covers you. Saves you. Justifies you. And today feeds and forgives you. All by grace through faith in Christ.

A blessed Reformation Sunday to each of you…

In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. 

Sermon for Pentecost 21: "The Things of God"

 + 21^st Sunday after Pentecost – October 22^nd, 2023 +

Series A: Isaiah 45:1-7; 1 Thessalonians 1; Matthew 22:15-22

Beautiful Savior Lutheran Church

Milton, WA

In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

A good boxer knows when his opponent is about to throw a heavy right hook, but a great boxer will use that attack, duck to the side, and throw a counter punch. A good chess player will see his opponent’s opening move, a queen’s gambit perhaps; but a great chess player will counter the opponent with a challenge or trap of his own. 

In today’s Gospel reading Jesus and the pharisees are in the ring for another round, trying to corner Jesus. There’s a chess game going on and the pharisees’ disciples think they have Jesus in check. And yet again, Jesus turns the tables on his opponents; he issues a challenge of his own…not for trophies or titles, but to bring his hearers to repentance and forgiveness.

Matthew sets the scene, “the Pharisees went and plotted how to entrap him in his words.” 

This also sets the tone for what follows. Jesus’ opponents aren’t motivated by truth or goodness. While claiming to follow God’s Law, their conversations have shown repeatedly that they did not hear or heed God’s Law from the mouth of the Son of God himself. While each group probably had its own opinions about the temple tax, neither group – the pharisees or Herodians – really care about the question or the answer. They care about one thing and one thing only: discrediting and destroying Jesus by any means necessary.

“Teacher, we know that you are true and teach the way of God truthfully, and you do not care about anyone's opinion, for you are not swayed by appearances.^[b]

You can hear their tone just by reading it. Their words drip with sarcasm and double meaning. Fake flattery. It’s all rather ironic too. The pharisees don’t even believe what they are saying, and yet, they are right. Jesus is true – the Truth of God in the flesh. And he speaks and teaches the Father’s ways and words truthfully. But they will say anything to trap Jesus. Solomon warned about this in Proverbs. A man who flatters his neighbor spreads a net for his feet.

Tell us, then, what you think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?” 

In politics this would be called a gotcha question. So they toss him a controversial topic: the temple tax. If Jesus answers, “No, it isn’t lawful”, the political Herodians might have reason to go after Jesus for being a traitor or a religious nutcase. And if Jesus answers, “Yes, it is lawful”, then Jesus the pharisees can peg Jesus as a traitor and blasphemer for supporting the Romans. Again, Jesus’ opponents don’t really care about the answer. They only want to trap, discredit, and destroy Jesus. 

But like a champion boxer or a master chess player, Jesus knows it. He sees it coming a mile away. He doesn’t engage their question. instead he challenges their treachery…He knows their evil intent. He calls them out on it. And then punches back with a challenge of his own.

Jesus begins with an accusation, a rebuke; he knows their wickedness. “Why do you tempt me, you hypocrites?” Next, Jesus gives them a non-answer to the question they really don’t care too much about. 

“Show me the coin for the tax.”  And Jesus said to them, “Whose likeness and inscription is this?”  They said, “Caesar's.” Then he said to them, “Then pay Caesar’s things to Caesar.” A rather simple, clever reply, the coin bears the image of Caesar’s ownership. But notice that Jesus hasn’t really answered the question about whether or not it was lawful because the pharisees don’t care about the question and Jesus knows it. Jesus won’t fall for their trap. The one thing we do know the pharisees believe here is that they thought it was God’s will to oppose and reject and ultimately crucify Jesus.

Finally we come to the counterpunch. Jesus throws down his own gambit. Jesus’ opponents came pretending they wanted to know what God’s Law required. So Jesus gives them a full dose of His Law.

Render, or pay to God the things that are God’s.

This is the knockout punch. The checkmate move. The question really isn’t about Caesar’s authority – as Jesus tells Pilate at his trial before the crucifixion, “You would have no authority at all unless it had been give you by my Father in heaven.” No. the issue is whether or not the pharisees – and all who hear Jesus words – believe that he is and bears the authority of God, as the Son of God, as the one the Father sent with all authority to teach, preach, heal, forgive, live, die and rise from the dead. 

Jesus brings it back to the first commandment. It’s always a first commandment one way or the other. 

Who was their god? What or who did they fear, love, and trust in? It wasn’t Jesus. 

What about us? What are your hopes and fears about tomorrow? What weighs on your mind this morning or last night or throughout the week? Where are you looking for help and rescue from all that threatens your life and your future? In who or what do we fear, love, and trust? If it’s not Jesus, we’re no better off than the pharisees. Today’s Gospel reading isn’t really a matter of taxes, but a matter of trust. Have we given to God the things that are God’s? No. But there is one who has. 

And the good news is that Jesus did this for you. He is the image of God in human flesh, the second Adam, new humanity. He came into our flesh to render to God what was God’s, namely our humanity, and to restore the image of God to our flesh. He rendered to God the things that are God’s. He did it “not with gold or silver,” not with the coin of Caesar, but with His holy and precious blood, and with His innocent suffering and death at the hands of the Pharisees and the Herodians and the Roman government all of whom served as God’s instrument that you would belong to him, be holy in him, be saved and declared righteous in him. 

The devil and world looked at Jesus on the cross and thought they had Jesus cornered at last. Thought they had Him nailed down. But not even death and the grave could hold Him, this perfect image of God in Man. Nothing can hold Him, for He holds all things. Yes, even you. 

God’s put His image and inscription on you in your Baptism. He’s restored His image and likeness. You are saved and declared righteous in Jesus. You holy and precious in Jesus. You don’t belong to Caesar. You belong to God in Christ crucified and risen.

In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Sermon for Pentecost 20: "Worthy in Christ"

 + 20^th Sunday after Pentecost – October 15^th, 2023 +

Series A: Isaiah 25:6-9; Philippians 4:4-13; Matthew 22:1-14

Beautiful Savior Lutheran Church

Milton, WA

In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Holy Scripture begins and ends with a wedding and a wedding feast. It begins with Adam and Eve given to each other by God to be one flesh, and to feast on the fruit of Eden, save one tree. It ends with John’s vision of the marriage supper of the Lamb, you the baptized and all believers are the bride. Christ is the bridegroom who saves and sanctifies you. All your sins are washed away. You are his beloved. Holy to him. Holy in him. Though our sins were as scarlet; in Christ the bridegroom you are white as snow.

A wedding is the backdrop of many of Jesus’ parables as well…like the one we heard today. 

“again Jesus spoke to them in parables, saying, The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son”

Who is the “them” that Jesus is speaking to here? The context is similar to last Sunday’s parable. Jesus once again speaks a parable directed to the chief priests and Pharisees. Jesus is teaching the chief priests and the pharisees once again that all the prophets – like Isaiah and Hosea – who prophesied that God was Israel’s husband and Israel was his beloved bride – they were all pointing to Him. The long-expected Messiah, who is also Israel’s God and Husband, is here in the flesh, standing right before them. Jesus’ parable reveals that He is the bridegroom, the son of the king, the Heavenly Father.

This wedding story is not without drama however. Rather than rejoice in the coming Bridegroom, the chief priests and pharisees reject Jesus. Rather than praise and confess his saving Name, they plot to kill him. 

This is what’s going on in the first part of Jesus’ parable. The invitation went out. The Bridegroom is here. Come to the feast. ‘Tell those who are invited, “See, I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and my fat calves have been slaughtered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding feast.”’ And what was the reaction? They tossed the invitation in the round file. Ignored it. Rejected the Bridegroom.  they paid no attention and went off, one to his farm, another to his business. 

This was more than a deep insult. More than disrespect. It was disbelief. Rejection of the bridegroom. Jesus was warning the chief priests and pharisees that in rejecting him they were un-inviting themselves to the feast. This is what made them unworthy guests. Not their behavior, not even their sins, but that the reject the savior who comes to rescue from sin. 

You’ll often notice this pattern in Jesus’ parables. The unforgiving servant is condemned even though he is forgiven at first. The invited guests become enemies even though they have a place at the table. And it’s all their own fault. They refused the king’s goodness and so they get the king’s wrath. Turn away from the Gospel, and all that’s left is the Law with its outer darkness and gnashing of teeth. Refuse the rescue swimmer who jumps out of a helicopter to save you from drowning, and well, you drown. 

This is why Jesus tells the parable to the chief priests and pharisees. It’s a warning. Not to reject or ignore or refuse the gracious invitation of the King to the wedding feast. And yet, this is what the religious leaders do, and in doing so, have made themselves unworthy by their opposition, hatred, and plot to kill Jesus. 

The parable goes on. The King has a feast ready, and a feast needs guests. Not only that, this King is generous…no one deserves a seat at his wedding feast, but he is a gracious host and invites everyone. Go therefore to the main roads and invite to the wedding feast as many as you find.’¹⁰ And those servants went out into the roads and gathered all whom they found, both bad and good. So the wedding hall was filled with guests.

¹¹ “But when the king came in to look at the guests, he saw there a man who had no wedding garment. And he was speechless. 

This fellow had the same problem as the first guests who were invited. He had no wedding garment. He was there deliberately despising the king and his son. That is what it means to be unworthy in this parable…to oppose, despise, reject seek to destroy the Son of God and his gracious rescue, his wedding feast he gives freely. The king essentially says to the man, ok, you don’t want grace, wrath is all that’s left. 

The conclusion of this Parable is frightening, if it is heard apart from faith in the Gospel.  But that is precisely the point and the problem at hand in the case of this man without a wedding garment.  He approached the Feast apart from faith in the Gospel.  He presumed to dress himself, instead of receiving and relying on the hospitality of the King in the righteousness of Christ. He thought he could stand before the King on his own terms. But that’s not now it works in the Kingdom of Heaven.

Worthiness to be in God’s kingdom, to be at his table, to be his holy bride has nothing to do with our worthiness – because we don’t have any on our own. Rather, it has everything to do with Christ who is your worthiness. In ourselves we are all unworthy guests. In Christ’s death and resurrection, clothed in his righteousness, you are worthy and holy and forgiven for he has declared it to be.

Jesus’ parable also reminds us that we shouldn’t attempt to feed and clothe yourself – that we don’t stand before God the Father on our own terms, but always in Christ. So do not stay away from the Feast in fear that you are not worthy. Perhaps you’ve thought that before…I am too sinful to come to the Lord’s Table; I’m not worthy. And that last part is true, none of us are worthy. But that’s precisely why our Lord invites us to his table, because we are sick and his body and blood are holy medicine. If you’re worried your sin is too great for God’s gifts, don’t because his forgiveness is always greater. Come to Christ’s table not in our own worthiness, but in Christ who invites you to come, eat, drink, and be forgiven.

Come in this confidence, that you are called to feast upon the One who has given Himself for you in love, and you are dressed in His righteousness from the waters of your Holy Baptism. That is where you received the wedding garment. It has already been given to you. It is already yours.  You are clothed in Christ.

And here your heavenly Bridegroom cares for you as His Bride, His beloved Church.  He clothes you, and He feeds you in His love for you, in His faithfulness and mercy, in His steadfast loving-kindness for you, whom He has sought and called to be His own. 

For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

Since you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. ² Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. ³ For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.

You are invited. You are clothed. The feast is ready. The table is prepared. Come.

In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. 

Sermon for Pentecost 19: "The Gracious Vineyard Owner"

 + 19^th Sunday after Pentecost – October 8^th, 2023 +

Series A: Isaiah 7:1-7; Philippians 3:4-14; Matthew 21:33-46

Beautiful Savior Lutheran Church

Milton, WA

In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

These past few months we’ve heard quite a few of Jesus’ parables. And if there’s one thing they all have in common, it’s that Jesus’s parables are challenging. Sometimes the meaning is challenging. Like when the disciples as Jesus what the parable of the sower meant. Sometimes the parable challenges us. Like when Jesus told that parable about the unjust steward and his gift of forgiveness toward others. Other times – like today’s parable – the challenge isn’t because of a misunderstanding by his hearers. Just the opposite. The pharisees hear Jesus parable understand it just fine – and that was the problem. They understand Jesus’ parable just fine. And they don’t like it!

When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they perceived that he was speaking about them. 

 

They were right. Jesus was comparing them to the wicked tenant farmers. And you can just imagine their body language as they listen to Jesus tell this story. Scrunched faces. Crossed arms. Clinched fists. Waiting for their chance to arrest him. But not yet. First, the crowds. They had to be turned against him.

 

The chief priests and pharisees were right about this too. Jesus is a prophet. The Prophet. The One greater than Moses. The One who is the very Word of God made flesh. Israel’s true King. Israel’s long-expected Messiah. The Son and heir of the vineyard Owner has come to reign in grace and mercy. And yet the religious authorities want none of it. They opposed, confronted, and rejected Jesus. So, Jesus sent a laser-guided missile straight at their unbelieving hearts in the form of this parable. 

 

There was a master of a house who planted a vineyard and put a fence around it and dug a winepress in it and built a tower and leased it to tenants, and went into another country. The master spares no expense for the care of his vineyard. He plants. Provides. Protects. The master loves his vineyard with an everlasting love. Just as YHWH loves his people.

 

The tenant farmers, on the other hand, have no love for the master. When the season for fruit drew near, the master sent his servants to the tenant farmers to get his fruit. And the tenant farmers took his servants and beat one, killed another, and stoned another. Again he sent other servants, more than the first. And they did the same to them. 

 

That right there, is a pretty good summary of the Old Testament. Israel’s religious leaders have a long history of rejecting YHWH. Yet, YHWH has a longer history of love for his vineyard, for his people. YHWH sent Israel priests, judges, prophets and more prophets. And yet the religious leaders rejected YHWH’s messengers, His Word, and ultimately YHWH himself. 

 

Finally the master sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ Perhaps you’ve noticed by now that this master of the vineyard is a strange character. His patience towards the wicked tenant farmers is astonishing. He sent not one, but two groups of servants to the vineyard despite the actions of those murderous tenants. I don’t know about you, but if I was the master I don’t know if there would be such mercy. Do not pass go. Do not collect $200. Go directly to jail. Or worse. But not this master; he sends his own son to these wretched tenant farmers. 

 

But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and have his inheritance.’ And they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him.

 

This is where things get interesting. First, there’s the tenants. “Really? That’s your plan, kill the heir?” “Yea, if the son is out of the way, we can be our own masters.” Think about how crazy that is. It’s an insane, absurd thought. That’s not how inheritance works. But that’s exactly how the warped, sin-darkened, twisted hearts work. I am my own. Not so says Scripture. You were bought with a price. You are baptized. You belong to Christ.

 

Second, if they haven’t figured out already, the chief priests and Pharisees start picking up the beat that Jesus is laying down. He’s talking about them. 

 

Jesus finishes his parable with a set up question. When therefore the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?” And once again, the religious authorities bring down the gavel on their own heads. They said to him, “He will put those wretches to a miserable death and let out the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the fruits in their seasons.” Just as the religious leaders of old rejected YHWH’s prophets, they are now rejecting YHWH himself in the flesh. The master’s Son is standing right in front of them and they’re plotting his murder. 

 

Jesus’s parable ends with the son of the vineyard owner dead, certain punishment for his killers, and new tenant farmers chosen to care for the vineyard. But Jesus isn’t done yet. Jesus adds a little extra hot sauce. “Have you never read in the Scriptures: “‘The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; this was the Lord's doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes’?”

 

Jesus quotes Psalm 118. A messianic psalm. A psalm full of explicit promise and vindication and exaltation of the rejected stone. The religious authorities may reject Jesus. They may put him through a sham trial. Beat him. Spit at him. Mock him. Even crucify him. But the stone the builders rejected will rise again on the third day. Nothing will come between the master and his vineyard. Nothing. 

 

So, what does this parable mean for us? After all, we’re not the religious authorities. Jesus’ parable is still his Word to us. A word of warning and promise.

 

Jesus’s warning is this. Never come between the Master and his vineyard. This is what the religious authorities had done. Wedged themselves and their authority between God and his people. YHWH and his Christ and his promises were no longer at their center. Like Peter, we’re tempted to cry out, “I will never fall away.” I will never let anything come between me and Christ and his good news.” Really? We never let fear, politics, money, anger, greed, lust, or our selfish desires come between us and our Lord? Of course we do. Lord, have mercy on me a sinner.  

 

And you know what? Here’s the remarkable thing about God the Father, the Master of the vineyard. God loves us with an everlasting love. God will let nothing come between him and his people. God will let nothing – nothing - come between himself and you. God has promised. God is faithful.

 

Even when His Son is killed. Especially then. God’s love looks like Jesus crucified for you. Jesus risen for you. God spares no expense for your care. God sends His own Son, Jesus, to be rejected so we are redeemed. What a gracious irony. Jesus is beaten and we are blessed. Jesus is thrown out of the city and crucified to make us heirs of eternal life. Jesus is killed and in him we are alive forevermore. Jesus is rejected and you are redeemed. 

 

God loves his vineyard. God loves you. You are God’s planting. God’s beloved, redeemed, baptized people. He has given his own Son to heal, sustain, and save you. Today in simple water and words, bread and wine. And tomorrow, and every day after that. 

This is the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes.

Sermon for Pentecost 18: "By What Authority?"

 + 18^th Sunday after Pentecost – October 1^st, 2023 +

Series A: Ezekiel 18:1-4, 25-32; Philippians 2:1-18; Matthew 21:23-32

Beautiful Savior Lutheran Church

Milton, WA

In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Today’s Gospel brings us right into the action, like an old western movie. The religious leaders – chief priests and elders – come up to Jesus in Jerusalem like outlaws facing the marshal. “This temple ain’t big enough for the two of us.”

“By what authority are you doing these things, and who gave you this authority?” 

Conflict between Jesus’ divine authority and the supposed authority of the Jewish religious leaders has been building and stewing over the three years of his public ministry. In Matthew 7 Jesus taught as one who had authority, unlike the scribes. In Matthew 8, the centurion recognizes that Jesus is under authority like he is, only greater. In Matthew 9, Jesus heals the paralytic man and says, that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins, ‘Rise, pick up your bed and go home.” Jesus commands demons to depart, disease to be healed, waves to be calmed. His word and work reveal the answer to the chief priests question that we all know. 

By whose authority? By divine authority. God’s authority. Jesus is the authorized representative of the Father, His Apostle, the One uniquely sent to be the world’s Savior. The Father has permitted it; He approves of it; He delights in it. “This is my beloved Son with whom I am well pleased,” the Father said at Jesus’ baptism.

It’s no wonder there’s conflict. If Jesus is the authority of God in human flesh, that means the chief priests and elders (who have rejected him) are not the authority. They were not acting and speaking with God’s authority, because if they had been, they would have believed in Jesus; they would have repented and lived in forgiveness. 

The chief priests asked Jesus this question in Holy Week. Who did He think He was? Riding into Jerusalem like some kind of Messiah? Turning over the tables of the money changers and calling the temple “His house.” “Who did this Jesus think He was, walking around the temple and teaching the people as though He owned the place? 

Jesus answers their question with a question of his own. “I also will ask you one question, and if you tell me the answer, then I also will tell you by what authority I do these things. The baptism of John, from where did it come? From heaven or from man?” 

It’s almost comical if it wasn’t so tragic. You can hear the chief priests waffling this over. “Well…um..hmm. If we say John’s baptism from heaven, he’ll ask us why we didn’t believe him. And if we say it was from man all the John the Baptist fans are going to stone us.” “We don’t know.”

Ironic isn’t it. The so-called religious authorities didn’t know. Many of them rejected John and now Jesus. Remember, this is Holy Week. Their plot to kill Jesus was just a few days away from unfolding. Yet even as tension grew, Jesus wasn’t confronting the religious authorities to show off his wit and wisdom; he wasn’t there to embarrass them. Jesus desired for them, as he desires for all, to bring them to repentance and forgiveness. To give them life and salvation under the authority of God the Father through his dying and rising.  

To illustrate all this, Jesus tells them a short parable about two sons, one who says he will work in the Father’s vineyard but doesn’t, and another who says he won’t work in the vineyard but does. Jesus quickly interprets the parable for them too. 

“Truly, I say to you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes go into the kingdom of God before 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 when you saw it, you did not afterward repent and believe him.

The parable is a dagger to their pride, a reminder that they do not have authority. It’s also a call to repentance, for them to see Jesus as the authority of God, as the one who saves sinners – the tax collectors and prostitutes saw it. Why didn’t they? 

The parable is missing something though. There’s more to the story. There is a third son. The Son of God who was sent by God the Father. And this Son not only said he would do the Father’s will, but did it perfectly. And he did this for you.

Texts like this are hard for us to see how they apply to us. We’re not the chief priests and elders Jesus aimed this teaching at. And yet, it does reveal several things. That apart from Christ, we lived under the authority of sin, death, and the devil. We lived in the foolish thoughts of our sinful flesh thinking we are our own authority. This is why our Lord gives us repentance and forgiveness of sins. This is why we come here to our Lord’s house, because we know that he has the authority to forgive, and he does it freely and graciously for you. 

It’s also a reminder of why Jesus was sent under the Father’s authority to live perfectly for you. Suffer and die for you. Rise again for you. To save us from ourselves. To bring us under the saving authority of Jesus’ death and resurrection. This is good news; just as God the Father sent God the Son to save tax collectors and sinners; to call chief priests and pharisees to repentance and forgiveness in his name, Jesus still comes to rescue and forgive and save you. By the authority of his word, your sins are forgiven. By his authority your sins are washed away. By his authority bread and wine give you the righteousness that comes in Jesus’ body and blood. 

It’s no accident that this question of authority came in holy week, at the temple, the place of sacrifice. In a few short days, Jesus would answer the authority question once and for all by His death and resurrection. That’s the sign He offers to the world – His death and resurrection. And by this unique event in our history, He shows that all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Him. The authority to save the world from death and decay. The authority to forgive the sins of humanity. The authority to bestow life. The authority to be your Savior. 

In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.