Jesus is a challenge to authority.
This chapter begins with him riding on a donkey into Jerusalem, the streets lined with people shouting Hosanna! Hosanna! Save us! Save us! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.
The gospel goes on to say that all of Jerusalem is in a turmoil – asking just who is this?
And the crowd responds – This is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth in Galilee!
And the next thing you know, Jesus is in the beautiful glorious Jerusalem temple throwing it into disarray – tables flipped over. Profiteers driven out. The blind. The lame. The poor. The children all welcomed in. A full on racket of a riot.
Of course the lawful, legitimate authorities are upset to say the least. And they confront Jesus – by what authority are you doing these things, and who gave you that authority?
It’s a question that permeates the Gospel of Matthew. This challenge to him over and over – Who are you? Where do you get this authority and how?
The chief priests, the scribes, the elders – everyone is clear about their authority. It is lawful and legitimate.
The chief priests’ is based on their birth, The scribes’ is based in their training,
The elders are wealthy – and wealth has always conferred power and authority. And all of them have made strategic alliances with Rome – which holds the political authority.
So in every way you can think of – culturally, socially, economically, religiously and politically – they hold authority.
But there are different orders of authority, right?
There is structural power that is based on your position within an institution.
The chief priests and scribes held this kind of power because of their position within the temple and with Rome.
In our world, I hold structural power signified by this collar and my title of Reverend, based in the institution of the Episcopal Church.
The President of the United States holds structural authority, based on the institution of the constitution and the rule of law. And even though the current President the entitlements of his office to almost comic out of bounds, it does not change the structural authority of the office.
So that is one form of authority – based on position.
But there is another more powerful form of authority that has nothing to do with position and everything to do with authentic knowledge. It operates by the currency of recognition by others that something organically and fundamentally true is being expressed. This intrinsic authority can overlap with institutional authority but it is not dependent upon it.
According to Mathew, Mark and Luke Jesus was known for this kind of true authority.
Matthew 7:29 (ESV): After his extensive teaching on the beatitudes” For he was teaching them as one who had authority, and not as their scribes.”
Mark 1:22 (ESV): While he was teaching in the synagogue at Capernuam: The people were amazed at his teaching, because he taught them as one who had authority, not as the teachers of the law.
Luke 4:32 (ESV): After the testing in the desert, while he was teaching in the synagogue: “They were amazed at his teaching, because his words had authority.”
The truth of Jesus’ stories, the life-giving power of his actions, his life, death and glorious resurrection all established this alternate form of authority that was more powerful and basic than the structural authority of those who opposed him. And it threatened their sense of power.
While there are more chapters to read in this gospel – we are now on the downward slope that will lead inevitably to his crucifixion.
People whose claim to power lies solely on position – whose authority is not based in anything other than the entitlements of the office they hold have a choice to make when faced with authentic leadership, authentic intrinsic power. They can either recognize the one who wields true authority and learn, or arrest, deport, jail, crucify the one they only understand as a threat.
Jesus weeps over Jerusalem recognizing that most often the institutional authorities have responded to God’s truth telling prophets by trying to silence them, or by killing them.
Right before the challenge to his authority in today’s gospel and his story of the two sons, there is the odd incident of the fig tree. As he returns from teaching, he is hungry. There’s a fig tree! But instead of any fruit, he finds only leaves. He curses it, and it withers.
I bring this up because it holds the key to the parable we hear today. The tree appears to be one thing – healthy and life-giving – but it is not. It has no fruit. It has nothing of what it is meant to be – it is not actually life-giving at all.
Institutional leadership, if it is not authentic, is like this. It is all appearance. And no fruit. These leaders might give great lip service to the mission – yes father, yes father, we will do that – like the second son of the parable – but they do not. They go their own way, doing their own thing, without regard for the true purpose of the temple, the church, the government – which is to serve the people.
Real leadership does not depend on the words so much as on the action – the one who repents and changes course and actually does what the Father has asked, enters the kingdom of heaven ahead of those who rely on the trappings of their medals and their titles and their entitlements instead of simply doing the Father’s will – loving their neighbors, serving the poor and caring for the sick.
May we hear Jesus’ warning today. Regardless of our heritage, our bloodlines, our culture, our degrees, our institutional ranks, may we quietly and simply continually bring our hearts and lives into alignment with the Father’s will. May we bear the fruit of right action and enter whether first or last or in-between into the glorious and eternal kingdom of God.