Matthew 22:15-22
Asking in Order to Learn
Once you start thinking about, it is
difficult not to notice how many questions are actually statements of what the
person pretending to ask the question already thinks, believes, or plans to
do. How about a few examples:
“Do you
agree that wearing a facemask reduces the opportunity for spread?”
“Have you ever seen a prettier sight than fall foliage?
Once you begin to notice, you begin to wonder if anyone asks a question in search an answer? Heck, even “Would like fries with that?” is a pretty thinly veiled effort to tell you that you really ought to go ahead and indulge in a few hundred extra calories.
Questions are often/quite often/too often statements constructed in such a way as to allow a squiggly mark at the end. They are not desires for additional 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 to bolster their own position.
Whenever we start to look at a passage of scripture, we need to make sure we remember the wider context into which it falls. 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, 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 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 – and it ought to be obvious that I haven’t written that sermon yet. 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?
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 questions which might
expose whether we read our bibles in order to learn from Jesus how to live in
our world, or search our bibles looking for affirmations of what it is we already
believe.
Amen.
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