Reading: Matthew 21-22, Psalm 91

For the majority of my career, I have been somebody’s “boss.” I was responsible for people, gave instructions to people, and corrected those people when things did not go the way they were supposed to. I also was able, when things were really going well, to help some of those people become someone else’s “boss” themselves. Sometimes this worked out well, sometimes it worked out… well, not so well. Authority is a funny thing. It changes a person. In the best scenario, it gives a new sense of responsibility for those whom one has authority over. In the worst, it grants a sense of entitlement and an obsession with the “rights” of one’s position.

As the book of Matthew heads towards its climactic scenes in Jerusalem, we see Jesus talking, acting, and responding more and more to the question of authority. We see him acting with authority in the triumphal entry, the cleansing of the temple, and the cursing of the fig tree. We see him teaching about authority with the parables of the willing and unwilling sons, the bad tenants, and the King’s wedding feast. We see him directing attention towards the right authority in the questions of the Pharisees and the Sadducees. In the end, this long teaching is summed up in Jesus’ response to the Pharisees question about the greatest commandment. Jesus answer is both the theory and the method of the correct way to be human.

There is a great deal to say about the connections to the rest of the Hebrew Scriptures here, as well as in the rest of the book of Matthew. Instead of going really deep on them, I’m just going to link you to a book, Matthew: Disciple and Scribe by one of my professors, Patrick Schreiner. It is a really fantastic book on the links between what Matthew is doing in his writing and the long history of the Scriptures.

Okay, enough about other books. Matthew, having already spent a lot of time setting up that Jesus is the ultimate authority figure in the great Story that Scripture has been telling, hammers home his point in this wild entry to Jerusalem. It begins with Jesus issuing commands about apparently random donkeys, continues with crowds shouting in acclimation that he is the Son of David, and ends with him ransacking the temple, purging it of opportunists making money on those attempting to worship the God of Israel. He enters the city as a king, and uses that authority to clean up the temple.. sort of like some other kings we know about named Hezekiah and Josiah. This would not be lost on any first century student of the Hebrew Scriptures. Matthew is setting Jesus up as the King like the kings who weren’t quite the Servant of the Lord, but were as close as anyone got. Which begs the question, will this guy be the Guy? Or just another guy who isn’t quite what the people need.

Before answering the question, Matthew takes us on a journey of parables and challenges. Jesus continually points to the design of humans and the authority of their creator. He tells this story about saying you will be obedient but not acting that way being useless. He tells another about how those put in temporary charge of things who attempt to undermine the real owner will be dealt with. He tells a third about how ignoring the invitation of the King to celebrate is a really bad call, and how celebrating your own way at the King’s party is really just as bad. He talks about how legalistic interpretations of the law, as the Suddecees were wont to, missed the point about marriage and human life. Finally, he tells us a story about divine images, and what to do with what bears them.

I’m going to pause on the story of paying taxes to Caesar. Just about everything Jesus has said or answered in Matthew so far has pointed back to the beginning of the Story. Here he is given an opportunity by a question about taxes to really push hard against a common misconception about human value that persists to this day. When asked about paying taxes to the occupying empire of Rome, Jesus ask for a coin. The Roman coin bore the image of Caesar, who claimed to be a son of the gods, and contrasts it with the Image of God that the Story tells us is on all humans. I think Jesus was doing a double skewer here. First, he was pointing out the absurdity of the Caesar’s claim. Second, he is redirecting human attention to what really matters. Even in the ancient world, money and wealth were enormously important signs of personal value. Today they are even more so. Jesus takes the money of the empire and says sure, go ahead and give that to the emperor. Just remember that it is not really all that important. Because that image on your money? It is an image of an Image. The emperor himself bears the Image of God, and we are to give that which belongs to God to God.

Finally, there is the greatest commandment. Like the question about taxes, Jesus takes the opportunity of a challenge to offer an important lesson in how we think about… well, everything. Everything that Jesus does, and everything we are to be doing, is in line with this greatest commandment: love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is a potentially long aside that I am going to shortcut: love here is not “love” as modern English would have it. It implies devotion, loyalty, and commitment in a way that has been lost in our day and time. We might use the phrase ” swear allegiance” in this way, if we ever swore allegiance to anything anymore. The point being, this does not mean have good feelings about God with all your heart, soul, and mind. It means grant authority to God with all your heart, soul, and mind. Matthew is telling us that Jesus’ theory of the good human life is a total declaration of dependence on our creator. A common challenge to this is, “well then how do I do that?” Fortunately, Jesus doesn’t leave that unanswered either. The second great commandment, Love your neighbor as yourself is, I believe, the method to the theory. Again, the word love bears a further meaning than what we might think. Be loyal to your neighbor. By committed to your neighbor. Be devoted to your neighbor. This is the great unworking of Genesis 3 and the downward spiral of humans taking their own knowledge of good and bad. Brothers devoted to one another instead of killing each other. Sisters allied with each other instead of competing with each other. Families committed to one another instead of fighting and tricking each other. The greatest commandment worked out is the vision of the Garden restored.