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+ + + In Nomine Jesu + + +
Please join me in prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
In late June of 1973, the late Republican Senator Howard Baker of Tennessee asked, of then former White House counsel John Dean, a now famous (or “infamous”) question, sometimes said to have been given to him by his counsel, former campaign manager and future Republican Senator of Tennessee and “Law & Order” actor Fred Thompson. The question? “What did [President Nixon] know [about the Watergate break-in], and when did he know it?” The question has since been asked of other politicians caught up in other political scandals, and two weeks ago, when our Circuit’s pastors were discussing today’s Gospel Reading, the question was asked about the chief priests and elders of the Jewish people: what did they know, and when did they know it. As we heard, they claimed not to know from where the baptism of John came, but, this morning as we consider the Gospel Reading, we realize that “God enables us to know about His authority”. “God enables us to know about His authority”.
Likely on the Tuesday of what we know of as Holy Week, the chief priests and elders of the Jewish people had asked Jesus by what and whose authority He did such things as enter Jerusalem as the Messianic King, acclaimed to be “the Son of David” and “the Prophet” (Matthew 21:1-11), and also cleanse the Temple of all who sold and bought there, implicitly claiming to know God’s will for the Temple (Matthew 21:12-17). As was common in debates back then, Jesus answered by asking them a question, essentially the same single question, only about John the Baptizer’s authority, whether his baptism came from God in heaven or from man on earth.
Interestingly enough, Jewish leaders themselves had questioned John the Baptizer essentially about his authority (John 1:19-25), but the Jewish leaders had refused to believe both what John the Baptizer had said about himself and what John the Baptizer had said about Jesus. So, in some sense, we should not be surprised that the Jewish leaders refused to believe what was revealed to them about Jesus’s authority by Jesus’s own words and deeds. The Jewish leaders in the Gospel Reading claimed not to know, but no Bible commentator I took note of takes that claim seriously, in part because there were other Jewish leaders, such as Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea, who did know and presumably believed both John the Baptizer and Jesus (John 3:1‑2; 7:50-51; 19:38-39). And, Jesus Himself seems to say that these Jewish leaders simply would not tell Him even when they saw (or “knew”) that others did believe John (Matthew 21:32). The Jewish leaders claimed not to know, but clearly they were more concerned with the implications or consequences of what they might say, than they were concerned with speaking what God had enabled them to know about His authority (Matthew 21:46)
Likewise you and I at times may be more concerned with the implications or earthly consequences of what we might say, than we are concerned with speaking what God has enabled us to know about His authority. At times maybe, like the Jewish leaders (Luke 7:29), we even reject God’s purpose for ourselves. Of course, as we confess with the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther in the Small Catechism’s explanation of the Third Article of the Apostle Creed, we cannot by our own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ our Lord or come to Him. The sinful nature we inherit has turned us away from God and leads us to commit all sorts of actual sins, for any and all of which sins, apart from faith in Jesus Christ, we deserve death here in time and punishment in hell for eternity. But, as we heard in today’s Old Testament Reading, the Lord has no pleasure in the death of anyone but calls all people, including us, to turn from our sin and live, as the notorious sinners did in Jesus’s day (Matthew 21:31-32) receiving His forgiveness by grace through faith in His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
Immediately after last week’s Gospel Reading in St. Matthew’s account, Jesus for a third time foretold His death and resurrection, and the mother of the sons of Zebedee asked for those sons to have positions of honor and authority in Jesus’s Kingdom (Matthew 20:17-28). In answering her question, Jesus made clear that authority was not exercised among His followers as in the world, for He came not to be served but to serve by giving His life as a ransom for all. In part because of exchanges with the Jewish leaders like that we heard today, the chief priests and elders plotted to arrest Jesus by stealth and kill Him (Matthew 26:3-5) and, to that end, they sent to the Garden of Gethsemane with Judas who betrayed Him a great crowd with swords and clubs (Matthew 26:47). Later, they took counsel against Jesus to put Him to death, bound Him, led Him away, and delivered Him over to Pilate the governor (Matthew 27:1-2), who had Jesus crucified. But, all of that was done for us and for our salvation. All of that was part of Jesus’s Divine commission, His authority to act, His being present with His people to do such things as heal people’s bodies in order to show that He had the authority to forgive their sins. And, that is what He does for us: as we sang in the Introit (Psalm 147:1-5; antiphon v.6), He heals the brokenhearted and binds up our wounds; He lifts up the humble but casts the wicked to the ground. When, God enables us to know about His authority, and we turn in sorrow from our sin and trust God to forgive our sin for Jesus’s sake, then God forgives all our sin, whatever it might be, for Jesus’s sake. God forgives our sin through His Means of Grace, that is, His Word in all of its forms, including the Sacraments of Baptism, Absolution, and the Lord’s Supper.
As today’s Appointed Verse reminded us, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Jesus (Matthew 28:18), and He, in turn, sent His apostles with authority of the same character, to make disciples by Baptizing and teaching all things, including Absolution and the Lord’s Supper (Matthew 28:19-20). Those apostles, in turn, sent with that same authority their successors, down to pastors today. The Jewish leaders may have rejected John’s baptism (Luke 7:29), but we know that Baptism is where not we make for ourselves but God makes for us a new heart and a new Spirit. Already in Jesus’s day the people glorified God, as we should, that He has given to men the authority to forgive sins, as in individual Absolution (Matthew 9:8; John 20:21-23). And, like the Early Church, we devote ourselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, that is, the breaking of bread and prayers that are the Lord’s Supper (Acts 2:42, 46), of His Body and Blood present in bread and wine by His authority and power, for us to receive forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation. In all these ways, as we prayed in the Collect, the Holy Spirit enlightens our minds and leads us into all truth (confer John 16:13), so that we confess Jesus as Lord, or, as we heard in today’s Epistle Reading (Philippians 2:1-4, 14-18), we are of one and the same mind, have the same love, are in full accord, and hold fast to the word of life, and so shine as lights in the world.
At some level we all can relate to questions about authority, whether at home, school, work, or in society at large. We also may ask what people knew and when they knew it. In the case of today’s Gospel Reading, the chief priests and elders of the Jewish people certainly seemed to have known that John the Baptizer’s and Jesus’s authority was from God in heaven, not people on earth, and they certainly seemed to have known that when Jesus asked them. May God always enable us likewise to know about His authority and to trust in it unto the forgiveness of our sins here and now and unto life with Him for eternity.
Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +