As a child did you ever imagine being a King or a Queen? Wouldn’t it be great. We could wear a big crown and live in a giant palace, be surrounded by servants who wait on us and follow all our orders. We would have all power and would be able to rule over the people and they would have to do what we say.
The greatest King that ever lived is Jesus, the Son of God. In the reading to the Philippians, Paul tells us that Jesus is very different to any other King. Even though he is the Son of God and has all power and authority he never put himself first, but humbled himself and made himself least. He left his home in heaven to make his home with us on earth. He was born as a tiny baby. He came not to force people to do his will, but to obey his Father in Heaven’s will. He didn’t rule from a throne in a palace, but he came to serve the least—the hungry, sick, dying and those under the power of the devil.
The Cross was the only throne Jesus had. And the crown Jesus wore was not like this one. The only crown Jesus ever wore while he was on this earth was a crown of thorns. In the reading from Philippians 2, Paul said: “…Jesus humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” (Philippians 2:8).
Jesus was our servant even to the point of death, because only his death could take away our sins. Why would the Son of God leave heaven to do that? He did it because he loves all people, and wants to save them for life with him forever. That’s what he has done for you. Growing in faith at home prayer
SERMON
The reading from the Apostle Paul’s letter to the Philippian Christians is helpful context to what Jesus is talking about in today’s Gospel reading. In the timeline of Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus had triumphantly entered Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, riding on a donkey. The people acclaimed him as the one through whom God would bring blessing and saving help, and welcomed him with shouts of jubilation and praise.
But now there is the sense that things are about to turn sour. Jesus is teaching in the Temple, and the Chief Priests and Elders show up. Along with the rest of the religious leadership of Israel, the Chief Priests and Elders rejected Jesus’ claims about himself. They saw him as an offensive, intrusive rival to their moral framework for (supposedly) achieving righteousness before God and therefore earning God’s favour. They were always looking for opportunities to try to trip Jesus up and have him done away with. So as Jesus was teaching in the Temple, the Chief Priests and the Elders came up to Jesus and interrupted him: “By what authority are you doing these things, and who gave you this authority?” they ask.
Jesus promised to answer if they would answer one question from him: “The baptism of John, from where did it come? From heaven or from man?” If they said John’s work of baptising was from heaven—that is, authorised by God—Jesus would ask them why they did not believe him, for John was the forerunner to Jesus and his ministry was preparing people to receive Jesus as the Messiah. The right answer about John was the right answer about Jesus. To accept John was to accept Jesus.
But the religious leaders had neither been baptized by John in preparation to receive Jesus, nor trusted in Jesus when he came. If they said John’s authority was from men, they would be openly rejecting what God had instituted through John and face the anger of the multitudes who believed John. What a masterful question from Jesus—one that traps those who are trying to trap him! So, the religious leaders attempted to justify themselves with the cop out: “We do not know.” In answering this way, the religious leaders showed an unwillingness to yield to those empowered by God. That is why Jesus said he wouldn’t answer their question.
We often talk about salvation by faith, and it is. But faith in what?
Entering the Kingdom of heaven is a matter of righteousness. There are two possibilities to be righteous and so enter the kingdom of heaven. The first is through attaining righteousness by keeping the law. But no one has been able to enter this way. Jesus said: “I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:20). The religious leaders created 610 man-made rules which they thought helped them keep God’s commandments (but they actually set aside God’s commandments). They were meticulous in their strivings to adhere to this moral code. Their external behaviour and piety were flawless. They condemned others who didn’t measure up to these criteria as unclean and unworthy. They honoured God with their lips, but their hearts were far from him. And that was their issue—their heart.
Jesus did not come to do away with the law but bring it to its sharpest meaning, to teach us that the very thought of hate or lust breaks the commandment to not murder or not commit adultery. Jesus taught that it is out of the heart that come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness, which make a person unclean (Mark 7:21-23)—and all the human traditions and rule keeping in the world cannot make the heart clean, or make the unrighteous righteous. When people try to enter the kingdom of heaven by their own righteousness, they come nowhere near the front door. Jesus says: “Be perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect.”
The second way is by acknowledging that we will never be righteous by our own efforts, and instead to trust in another’s righteousness. In Romans 3 the Apostle Paul says: “But now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify (which John the Baptist testified to also).This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference…for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood” (Romans 3:21-25).
The second way is to repent—to look to Jesus for one’s righteousness, turning to him for him to take our sin away. It is to gladly confess our sins knowing that for Jesus’ sake his Father in Heaven will forgive us.
The religious leaders trusted completely in their own performance. They only loved themselves and only cared about keeping their pride intact. To highlight the point and show these religious leaders what their answer revealed about themselves, Jesus told a parable about a father with two sons: “What do you think? A man had two sons. And he went to the first and said, ‘Son, go and work in the vineyard today.’ And he answered, ‘I will not,’ but afterward he changed his mind and went. And he went to the other son and said the same. And he answered, ‘I will go, sir,’ but did not go. Which of the two did the will of his father?” They said, “The first.”
The first son represents all those who were classed as sinners and outcasts in the eyes of the religious leaders, like the prostitutes, and the Tax Collectors who were the equivalent of thieves, taking the savings of vulnerable people to leave them destitute. At first, they defiantly rejected God’s commandments―the “I will not” of the first son in the parable. But when they heard John the Baptist preach, they believed in Jesus and were sorry for their sins and turned to John with their sin to be washed clean in the Jordan, in preparation to meet Jesus. They trusted in God’s plan of righteousness—trusting in Jesus’ righteousness as their own.
The second son represented the religious people of the day, who at first listened to God’s law but then didn’t listen to John the Baptist who pointed to Jesus, nor even listen to Jesus himself, but were offended by his words when he challenged them. They thought they were good and so much better than the ‘sinners’. They thought that God was pleased with them because of their rules and traditions and performance, and they forgot that they were sinners too. They rejected Jesus and his saving help with their trust in themselves―whereas the tax collectors and prostitutes didn’t.
Jesus said to the people who thought they were good: “Truly I tell you, the sinners are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you. For John came to you to show you the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes did”. This was outrageous for the religious leaders! Had not God made a special covenant with his people? How can those so immoral enter the kingdom of heaven before them? The tax collectors and prostitutes recognised they were sinners and that their only hope was in trusting in Christ’s righteousness as their own. They entered the Kingdom of Heaven before them, through faith in Jesus.
Which of the two ways do you trust for your righteousness? Of course, we would all say Jesus in a heartbeat! But it is still the human way to work hard at trying to justify ourselves. Every time we try to deal with our sin by looking to our good performance, and making excuses, or blaming others, denying the truth or concealing it to make ourselves look right—like the teachers and elders who answered Jesus “we do not know”—we are really working at establishing our own righteousness.
It would be a hopeless, desperate situation if it were left up to us to achieve perfect righteousness to enter the Kingdom of heaven. For no one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven—the Son of Man (John 3:13).
But therein is the Good News for us! The righteousness of the Son of God who taught this parable. He is the one of whom Paul speaks in Philippians, who was always completely obedient to his Father’s will. Although he is truly divine, Jesus did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. God’s compassion and amazing grace that he lavished on the world through Jesus, who always said “yes” to his Father and did his will, is astonishing. Jesus would willingly endure rejection, shame, violence, ridicule, beatings and even crucifixion for those who would reject him, for prostitutes, tax collectors…and for us too.
May we not look to justify ourselves but gladly number ourselves among the tax collectors and prostitutes who recognised their sin and confessed it, turning to God to be washed clean. The Good news is that God does love and forgive us, so much that he gave his one and only Son, that we might live with God in peace and joy forever. He has traded places with us, taking our sin upon himself, and gives you his own righteousness. Through faith in Christ it is as if God sees you have lived as perfectly as him. Through faith in what God promises in Christ you receive what he gives, and it is done for you as you believe―all your sins are forgiven and washed away, Jesus’ own righteousness is yours, the Father in heaven is your heavenly Father, you have peace with him, and he has given you a place in his Kingdom forever.
Thank God for his only Son whom he gave away, who at great cost has saved and redeemed you, freed you from sin, death and the power of the devil―not with silver or gold, but with his own holy and precious blood and innocent suffering and death, that you may be his own, live under him in his kingdom and serve him in everlasting innocence, righteousness and blessedness, just as he is risen from the dead and lives and rules eternally. Amen.
