Adventures in Missing the Point
March 10, 2023
Matthew 21:14-27 | I Corinthians 3:18-23 | Gospels in Lent Track: John 17-18
There’s so much to consider in this passage: the leaders’ inability to see people being healed for the sake of upholding their perceived orthodoxy. Jesus getting upset with a tree. Ridiculous notions of faith. And a question to stump the leaders.
But note that it all takes place in and around the Temple. Jesus has gone to Jerusalem, the center of religious authority. (Make no mistake, Jerusalem is still the center of religious authority today…even more so.)
But he’s there, amidst all the pomp and bravado…healing people. Giving people health. Providing health care to those most desperate in need. We know what is to come (Jesus, too.) And he saw his responsibility the same nonetheless in these final days: heal people.
Matthew 21:14-27
People who were blind and lame came to Jesus in the temple, and he healed them. But when the chief priests and legal experts saw the amazing things he was doing and the children shouting in the temple, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” they were angry. They said to Jesus, “Do you hear what these children are saying?”
“Yes,” he answered. “Haven’t you ever read, From the mouths of babies and infants you’ve arranged praise for yourself? ” Then he left them and went out of the city to Bethany and spent the night there.
Early in the morning as Jesus was returning to the city, he was hungry. He saw a fig tree along the road, but when he came to it, he found nothing except leaves. Then he said to it, “You’ll never again bear fruit!” The fig tree dried up at once.
When the disciples saw it, they were amazed. “How did the fig tree dry up so fast?” they asked.
Jesus responded, “I assure you that if you have faith and don’t doubt, you will not only do what was done to the fig tree. You will even say to this mountain, ‘Be lifted up and thrown into the lake.’ And it will happen. If you have faith, you will receive whatever you pray for.”
When Jesus entered the temple, the chief priests and elders of the people came to him as he was teaching. They asked, “What kind of authority do you have for doing these things? Who gave you this authority?”
Jesus replied, “I have a question for you. If you tell me the answer, I’ll tell you what kind of authority I have to do these things. Where did John get his authority to baptize? Did he get it from heaven or from humans?”
They argued among themselves, “If we say ‘from heaven,’ he’ll say to us, ‘Then why didn’t you believe him?’ But we can’t say ‘from humans’ because we’re afraid of the crowd, since everyone thinks John was a prophet.” Then they replied, “We don’t know.”
Jesus also said to them, “Neither will I tell you what kind of authority I have to do these things.
I Corinthians 3:18-23
Don’t fool yourself. If some of you think they are worldly-wise, then they should become foolish so that they can become wise. This world’s wisdom is foolishness to God. As it’s written, He catches the wise in their cleverness. And also, The Lord knows that the thoughts of the wise are silly. So then, no one should brag about human beings. Everything belongs to you— Paul, Apollos, Cephas, the world, life, death, things in the present, things in the future—everything belongs to you, but you belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to God.
Prayer
God,
We miss the forest for the trees in our religious praxis. We still do. We’ve not learned. We uphold and hold on to that which is only kinda important while neglecting that which is of utmost importance.
Maybe I won’t miraculously heal anyone today (though I’m willing!), but use me nonetheless, Lord…to speak good news, to listen openly, to learn willingly, to love boldly.
And help me to laugh.
By your Spirit & in Christ,
Amen.