Tuesday, 18 October 2005

Pentecost 23

Leviticus 19: 1-2, 15-18 NRSV text
Matthew 22: 34-46 NRSV text

 

In chapter 21 v23 Jesus enters the temple. While he is teaching, he is asked by the chief priests and the elders of the people, “By what authority are you doing these things, and who gave you this authority?” This is the question that has controlled everything since. It happens in the temple. Jesus is teaching. There is a clash between Jesus and “those who sit in the seat of Moses” (23:2) ie between Jesus and the authoritative interpreters of Torah. It is in this clash, which Matthew sets as a series of exchanges in the temple, that we are told who Matthew understands Jesus to be.

Look first at 22:41ff. The Pharisees, Saducees, Herodians, chief priests and scribes – the various authority figures – have all “tried” Jesus as a usurper of God’s authority, or a blasphemer. Matthew 21:23-22:46 is, in terms of the narrative structure of the gospel, Matthew’s presentation of the trial of Jesus. This is when Jesus actually answers and responds to the “charge” of blasphemy on which he will later be condemned (26:65-6). In his trial before the Sanhedrin (26:57ff), Jesus is notably silent as false witnesses are wheeled out to give “evidence” against him. The testimony against him culminates in the question about the temple – the charge that Jesus claimed that he personally could destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days (26:61). Matthew is positively screaming to his readers, “We’ve already been through all this! Jesus has dealt with these questions – openly, publicly, and demonstrated his authority in the temple! This is no blasphemer! This trial is a farce. It’s rigged, and Jesus knows it. That’s why he will not participate!” We are taken back to the section from 21:23ff, and to today’s text, where the answer to the million dollar question at the trial (“Tell us if you are the Messiah, the Son of God”) is actually given.

The equation of Messiah and Son of God did not happen until Jesus. When the people of Jesus’ day spoke of the coming Messiah, they were not expecting the Son of God. There were all sorts of options floating around. One of the most powerful and the most politically explosive was that the Messiah would be a royal Davidic figure – the Son of David. Hence the significance of the crowd who cry “Hosanna to the Son of David!” (21:9) which leads the whole of Jerusalem to ask, “Who on earth is this?” (21:10) He immediately enters the temple, to be challenged by the chief priests and scribes who are angry at the children who are crying, “Hosanna to the Son of David” (21:15). They ask him, “Do you hear what they are saying [about you]? [Are you going to tell them off for calling you the Messiah, or is this a designation you accept?]” Jesus effectively says, “Yes, it’ll do!”

But now, in 22:41, when all the questioning voices have been silenced, it is Jesus’ turn to ask a question. He turns straight to the question which ahs been at the heart of all the exchanges since his entry into Jerusalem: “Who are you, Jesus? Are you the Messiah? How is it that you teach and act with the authority that you do? Where does it come from? How have you the right to set yourself up as an authority even over Moses himself?”

In the parables of sons and fathers, Jesus has all but expressly said, “I am the Son of God!” But he hasn’t done so explicitly. So now he probes: “You believe the Messiah is the son of David. Yet David calls him Lord! Who could possibly be more important than the son of David; who could David have seen sitting at the right hand of God and having everything put under his feet?” Here is the narrative origin of the question to Jesus at his trial. In effect, the high priest says, “Look, Jesus: a few days ago, in chapter 22:42ff, you effectively claimed to be the Messiah – and a messiah who is not only son of David, but in fact, even greater than David himself: the very Son of God! So now’s the time to be absolutely unambiguous and tell us straight: is this how it is? Is this who you claim to be?”

This passage in 22:46 is where that question is answered publicly. Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God. The one whom they have been questioning is greater than David, whose authority comes from the throne of God. And they are stunned into silence. No one dares ask him any more questions – publicly and truthfully. The only time they will dare to do so will be under the cover of night, with the doors shut, buoyed up by lying witnesses.

Jesus, Matthew tells us, is Messiah by virtue of his royal blood. He is king. But he is also prophet and priest, because the one on “trial” here is greater than Moses, who was the greatest of the prophets, who stood between God and the people, and through whom the Law – the very words of God – were given. That is the significance of the test over the Law in 22: 34-40.

There is an obvious parallel with the lawyer who stands up to test Jesus in Luke 10:25-28 by asking the same question and receiving the same answer. This occasions the parable of the Good Samaritan. Matthew and Luke make the same point, but for different audiences and with different emphases. The question behind the test is the same: how come Jesus sets himself up as an authoritative interpreter who has the effrontery actually to alter the Law (“You have heard it said … but I say to you …”)? Matthew has set this exchange in the temple, at the seat of Moses – the sign of the rule of Torah in the life of the nation and the seat of the Pharisee’s authority. Their authority derives from the fact that they occupy the seat of Moses! Beat that, Jesus!

What is clear from the gospel accounts is that Jesus and the Pharisees were extraordinarily close on their understanding of the Law. Both of them agree that Israel is to be holy as Yahweh is holy (Lev 19:2). The covenant people of God are called upon to reflect the character of their God. They likewise agree that obedience to the Torah is the way to find Life, and that it reflects the character of God. They agree in the summary of the Law under the two great commandments to love. Why, therefore, does Jesus (from the Pharisee’s point of view) sit so loose to the Law and behave and teach as he does?

The Pharisees’ interpretation of the Law was one of ritual cleanliness. This is what being holy meant: to be separated, free from contamination. Thus to obey the first commandment to love God meant necessarily shunning and excluding those who put themselves beyond the pale, who were regarded as pollutants. They operated, therefore, with a hierarchy of commandments. The commandment to God came before the command to love neighbour because loving God might actually prevent people from acting lovingly, graciously and welcomingly to their neighbours (for example, passing by on the other side of the road …). The God of the Pharisees was a God obsessed with purity, judgemental and condemning of those who failed, and demanding rigorous standards of visible “holiness”.

Exactly what Jesus thinks of this will become clear in next week’s texts. The point is that Jesus saw it differently. Yahweh – the God whom he knew as Father – does not require us to make choices between love for God and love for our neighbour. Yahweh’s is a heart of compassion. God’s compassion is the well-spring of grace. To love one’s neighbour as one’s self is, therefore – according to Jesus – the way to fulfil the commandment to love God with heart, soul and mind! Jesus interprets the Law of Moses in this light. In his hands, the law to love becomes the law to do graciously. Love, as Jesus proclaims it, is God-likeness – which is true holiness! And God-likeness is seen in the grace that flows out of compassion. This is what makes possible the radical welcome and inclusiveness of Jesus’ vision of the kingdom.

What exactly is “the Kingdom of God” in Jesus’ teaching? One way of describing it is to put it in these terms: “Ultimately, the Kingdom of God is the whole universe, structured and governed and populated by a human race that loves God with heart, soul, mind and strength, and neighbour as self. It’s the world transformed by love. It is the world governed by the politics of grace and the economics of care for the least. It’s the world in which peace and righteousness kiss. That is why Jesus’ message is so politically explosive and subversive. It’s revolutionary because it tears at the fabric of a universe that is structured on other grounds, not because Jesus is advocating revolution. And it is religiously explosive because it cuts the foundations away from an understanding of God as one who flees pollution, rewards the righteous and condemns the sinners. If God is as Jesus proclaims and teaches (with the authority of the Son!), then the very raison d’etre of the temple and its system is collapsing.

While this passage focuses on Jesus' identity, it does so only to assert the importantce of his message. It is the message of the kingdom that is the Good News. That is not to say for a moment that Jesus is not himself Good News! It is to say that what Matthew wishes us to take most to heart is that the answer to the question about Jesus' authority is his identity. The authority being questioned here is Jesus' authority to teach. In other words, christology is the answer to the seriousness with which we must take Jesus' words and message to heart as the way to live in the world with God and our fellow human beings. We must recall that Matthew, alone of the evangelists, has the account of the temptation in which Jesus tells the tempter, "One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the moutn of God". Here we learn that his message is just that - the bread of life; words from the mouth of God.

His is the message we are to hear, understand, and believe, because the one who says these things is greater than Moses and greater than David. It is Jesus – the Messiah, the Son of God.

Amen.

13:55 Posted in Leviticus , Matthew , Year A | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this