One last call...

Matthew 22:4-6 Again he sent other servants, saying, ‘Tell those who are invited, “See, I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and my fat calves have been slaughtered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding feast.”’ But they paid no attention and went off, one to his farm, another to his business, while the rest seized his servants, treated them shamefully, and killed them. The King had alread sent messengers, calling His people to the wedding feast. In that day, this was after a full year of preparation; it was not something that should have caught people off guard. Yet they had ignored it. In His grace, the King sent more servants, because the feast is ready; if it is not held now, the food will spoil. It is now or never. Yet, many kept on with life as normal, and some even reacted to the announcement with extreme hatred. Scuh it is when God calls. People act surpised when they should not; they refuse to respond, acting as if they have all the time in the world, when they do not. "Many will say: "Don't bother me", and become extremely angry against a gracious God.

The ignored invitation...

Matthew 22:1-3 And again Jesus spoke to them in parables, saying, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son, and sent his servants to call those who were invited to the wedding feast, but they would not come. Anyone who gets mail gets invitations: invitations to give to charity, invitations to get a credit card, invitations to buy the latest wonder drug. Those are a daily occurrence, which can be accepted, ignored, or rejected. But other invitations are not to be ignored - they demand a response: a wedding invitation, a shut-off notice, a contract. If we do not respond in some way, it will affect our relationship with the other party. When the King of heaven sends an invitation, it is the last one we should ignore, but that is often the case. We put it in the back of the stack of mail to reconsider later, ignoring the need for a timely response, failing to comprehend that we will one day face the King and have to answer why we have ignored Him.

The Rejecters Replaced....

Matthew 21:33-46 “Hear another parable. There was a master of a house who planted a vineyard and put a fence around it and dug a winepress in it and built a tower and leased it to tenants, and went into another country. When the season for fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the tenants to get his fruit. And the tenants took his servants and beat one, killed another, and stoned another. Again he sent other servants, more than the first. And they did the same to them. Finally he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and have his inheritance.’ And they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. When therefore the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?” They said to him, “He will put those wretches to a miserable death and let out the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the fruits in their seasons.” Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures:“‘The stone that the builders rejectedhas become the cornerstone;this was the Lord's doing,and it is marvelous in our eyes’? Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruits. And the one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; and when it falls on anyone, it will crush him.” When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they perceived that he was speaking about them. And although they were seeking to arrest him, they feared the crowds, because they held him to be a prophet. This parable was the most incriminating yet in its aim against the religious leaders. They had been entrusted with the care of the Temple and the spiritual oversight of God's people at Jerusalem. They became so comfortable and self-established, that they believed they owned the Temple, and now set the rules - so much so, that when the Owner's Son came, they tried to kick Him off His land and out of His Home on earth. They were evil spiritual tenant farmers. As we go to our houses of worship today, do we have any of the same attitudes? It is our house, or His?

Major Ouch!

Matthew 21:28-32 “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 go, sir,’ but did not go. Which of the two did the will of his father?” They said, “The first.” Jesus said to them, “Truly, I say to you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes go into the kingdom of God before you. For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes believed him. And even when you saw it, you did not afterward change your minds and believe him. These religious leaders had come to Jesus to question His authority to teach and to heal, presuming that they had the right to govern what God did in His own house. They themselves repeatedly refused to response to Christ's call to repentance and faith, while watching the rejected ones in their society do so. One lesson after another here he turns into a self-incriminating accusation against these leaders. They are the son who said he would obey, but did not. They had refused John the Baptist, the forerunner, and now they were refusing the Christ. What a belittling, yet true statement: the dregs of society would precede them into the Kingdom, and there was reason to doubt they would enter at all. May our faith be much more than trying to look good and feel good about ourselves in comparison to others.

Questioning Authority....

Matthew 21:23-27 And when he entered the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came up to him as he was teaching, and said, “By what authority are you doing these things, and who gave you this authority?” Jesus answered them, “I also will ask you one question, and if you tell me the answer, then I also will tell you by what authority I do these things. The baptism of John, from where did it come? From heaven or from man?” And they discussed it among themselves, saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will say to us, ‘Why then did you not believe him?’ But if we say, ‘From man,’ we are afraid of the crowd, for they all hold that John was a prophet.” So they answered Jesus, “We do not know.” And he said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things. The leaders at Jerusalem had come to think of the Temple as "their turf." They had responsibility for what went on there. Of course, they were sad stewards who let all sorts of things go on there that should not have. Nonetheless, they wanted to know who told Jesus He could teach the Good News and Heal and lead the children's Choir there. The answer was obvious, but one they did not want to hear. We have the same response often when Christ marches into our Temple, our lives, our bodies: we act like He has no authority here, but he does; He actually has all authority. If we will start with that perspective, and then ask what He wants done, we will find more of the real answers we are looking for.

Mountain Throwing...

Matthew 21:18-22 In the morning, as he was returning to the city, he became hungry. And seeing a fig tree by the wayside, he went to it and found nothing on it but only leaves. And he said to it, “May no fruit ever come from you again!” And the fig tree withered at once. When the disciples saw it, they marveled, saying, “How did the fig tree wither at once?” And Jesus answered them, “Truly, I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what has been done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ it will happen. And whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith.” here we have one of those promises of prayer that we often forget the context in which Christ said it. It is in response to the question of the disciples as to how Jesus was able to speak against the fig tree and have it die instantly. The tree was a symbol of the Jewish religious establishment; it had become spiritually unfruitful. Therefore, it was an obstacle in the way of people coming to God. What Christ is doing is promising His power to remove those obstacles to people coming to faith in Him. It's not just so we can watch things burn or mountains fly. In the background as well here is the prophesy in the Old Testament that someday The Lord will cause that mountain, the Mount of Olives, to split, and half go to the south, where the Dead Sea is. He has all power and authority.

The right choice of noise...

Matthew 21:12-17 And Jesus entered the temple and drove out all who sold and bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons. He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you make it a den of robbers.” And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he healed them. But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children crying out in the temple, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” they were indignant, and they said to him, “Do you hear what these are saying?” And Jesus said to them, “Yes; have you never read,“‘Out of the mouth of infants and nursing babiesyou have prepared praise’?” And leaving them, he went out of the city to Bethany and lodged there. When Jesus arrived at the Temple, it was crowded and chaotic - not a place conducive to worship. Most of the noise was coming from the Court of the Gentiles, where a money exchange for temple coins at high exchange rates, and the sale of sacrificial animals at exhorbatant prices, were competing with one another, and for space - keeping those who needed God most away. Jesus objected to such noise. The Pharisees, on the other hand objected to the noise due to Jesus - the praising of the healed, and the recognition by the children that He was the Messiah. Jesus' questions were simple and piercing: Which kind of noise pleases God? Which kind of noise does His Word promote and prohibit? What kind of noise are you making in God's house?