Matthew 22:15-22
Asking in Order to
Learn
I began to
pay attention this week, to what appear to be questions, but are actually statements
of what the person asking the question already thinks, believes, or plans to
do. How about a few examples:
“Why do we
need more student apartment buildings in downtown Clemson?”
“Are you planning
to come to today’s Reformation Festival?”
Why was
Congresswoman Wilson listening in on President Trump’s call to La David Johnson’s
widow? And the corresponding – “Why would President Trump tell Ms. Johnson that
her husband knew what he was in for?”
Earlier in
the week, the sports talk folks were asking “Why did Dabo allow Bryant to take
any snaps in the Carrier Dome?”
Does anyone
ask a question in search an answer?
Heck, even “Would like fries with that?” is a pretty thinly veiled
effort to get you to spend more money and buy more product.
Questions are
often, quite often, too often statements constructed in such a way as to allow
a squiggly mark at the end. They are rarely
seeking information or insight or knowledge; rather they are intended to entrap
or expose or belittle.
It’s not really a question, it is a
statement. We aren’t looking for an
answer - we are looking for an affirmation of what it is we already think.
The Pharisees sent their disciples,
along with the Herodians, to Jesus. They
came, supposedly, to ask a question. But
they weren’t interested in learning anything from Jesus. They came hoping that his answer would
justify what they already thought of him.
They didn’t want to learn; they wanted support for their own position.
It has been quite a few weeks since
I have preached and therefore I haven’t had opportunity to set the stage as to
what these lessons are all about. We are
now in the 22nd chapter of Matthew, for the past three Sundays we
have been reading lessons which received their impetus from a question put to
Jesus by the chief priests and elders.
They were questioning Jesus’ authority, what right did he have to
consider himself a teacher of the people.
Jesus rebuffed them, by a piece of trickery. He said he would tell them the source of his
authority if they would tell him where John’s authority came from. The chief priests and elders wouldn’t answer
Jesus. As the text states, The 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 they regard John as a prophet.”
The chief priests and elders
weren’t interested in knowing the source of Jesus’ authority. They wanted an affirmation of what they
already thought. The parable of the man
who sends his two sons into the vineyard; the story of the vineyard whose
caretakers beat and murder the owner’s son in hopes of obtaining the vineyard
for themselves; and last week’s reading of the Great Banquet to which the
honored guests turn up their noses so that the giver of the banquet sends
messengers into the streets to invite the good and the bad to the
marriage feast - all of these are told in response to the attempt to discredit
Jesus and turn the crowd against him.
This attempt began with a question,
a question posed by those who came to Jesus with no interest in learning from
him. They came only in the hope of
entrapping him in his answer - they were trying to support their own positions.
The opening line of today’s Gospel reminds
us of all this. Matthew begins this exchange
by acknowledging The Pharisees went and plotted to entrap [Jesus] in what he
said. So intent are they in getting
the goods on this itinerant street preacher that they even fall into cahoots
with their enemies.
Note the reference to the Herodians? The Herodians were the staunchest of the
supporters of Roman oversight. Remember
that Rome had been asked to govern of Israel by those who were concerned with
the infighting and disorganization of this tiny nation. The Herodians were a party among the Jews who
gladly paid the census tax and were grateful for the order Rome brought to
Jerusalem.
Herodians and Pharisees didn’t see
things eye to eye. The Pharisees had
gained in popularity with the people because (in principle) they resented and
resisted the tax. While not quite as
radicle as the nationalists who publicly refused to pay the tax, the Pharisees
were known to be in opposition. They
resented Roman’s insistence that the tax be paid in Roman coins. They considered it sacrilege to handle the
coins which bore the inscription of Caesar, the god of Rome. The Pharisees and the Herodians were not
popular with one another.
Yet, together, they come. They utter all sorts of platitudes to Jesus
and then they ask their question. But
they aren’t looking for an answer; they are hoping for a response which will
cause Jesus to fall out of favor with the people.
This next part of the story is
tricky. A commentary brought to my attention
a perspective I had previously overlooked.
Advocates of this story as an endorsement of the separation of church
and state have repeatedly pointed out that Jesus himself doesn’t have one of
the coins. He asks for one from his
questioners. Their ability to produce
one illustrates the gap between what they say and what they do. They say one should resist paying the tax,
resist handling the coins which bear the image of Caesar, and yet they continue
to participate (and probably to benefit) from the economic system which they
verbally deplore. Their ability to
produce a coin which bears the image of another god exposes their lack of
integrity.
I have to be careful, because this
text will come up in a few weeks - but it might be Jon’s turn to preach, so why
should it concern me if I steal his thunder?
In the 23rd chapter, Jesus is going to summarizes his
encounters of the 21st and 22nd chapters. He is going to point out that the Pharisees
and the scribes sit in the seat of Moses.
They have the authority to be teachers of the Torah. Somewhat surprisingly, Jesus is going to
affirm the job they do as teachers of the law. He is
critical of the way they live. There
is a huge gap between what they say you should do and what they do. They know what Jesus would do - they simply
have trouble doing it. They have
confused knowing the correct response with living a faith-filled life.
It is way too easy to confuse
knowing the correct answer with living a faith-filled life. And the gap between accurately teaching the
law and living the law exists in our day no less than the times of Jesus.
Does scripture or Christian theology
leave any doubt as to whether the poor ought to have access to healthcare?
Does scripture or Christian
theology leave ambiguous how we are to respond to the alien among us?
Is there confusion as to where the weekly
repeated Apostles’ creed states we pledge our allegiance?
How are we to respond to “Black
Lives Matter” or “Me Too” campaigns?
No – those are not questions,
either. They are statements designed so
as to allow me to put a swiggly mark at the end. These are the questions modern-day Pharisees
and Herodians might use in order to entrap Jesus (or Jesus’ followers). These are the questions which expose whether
the mob will remain supportive or turn and demand that the one answering be
silenced.
Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment