“A Bold Faith” Matt. 21.23-32, Pentecost 17A, Sept. ‘20
1. Sanctify us in the truth. O Lord, Your Word is truth. In the name of Jesus. Amen. The message from God’s Word this 17th Sunday after Pentecost is taken from Matthew 21:23-32, it’s entitled, “A Bold Faith,” dear brothers and sisters in Christ.
2. Today, Jesus invites us to practice a faith that is bold. He invites us to trust in Him, without calculations. As the presidential election approaches, we see candidates calculate how they answer questions. “What is your position on Black Lives Matter?” The question is simple and yet the process of answering it is complex. Opinion polls have given a demographic picture of how certain answers will affect voting. So, the candidates are careful, calculated, in how they respond.
3. The phenomenon doesn’t just play-out in politics. It happens in our daily lives as well. In a toxic on-line environment, Facebook profiles are carefully curated. In a tense social situation, conversation is carefully monitored. “If I say this, then they will think this.” We live in a land of calculated responses which can be dangerous to our faith. We become so concerned we might offend when we confess what we believe that having a true conversation about faith is rare. Which is why I love the Gospel lesson for today. Jesus invites us to practice a faith that is bold. He invites us to trust in Him, without calculations.
4. You see, there’s a difference between believing something because it brings about a particular result in your life and believing something regardless of the results it will bring. Jesus invites us to believe in Him, regardless of the results that will follow. In our text, Jesus is in the Temple, being questioned by the religious authorities. As they seek to entrap Him with calculated questions, He entraps them in their practice of a calculated faith. Jesus asks them a simple question. “The baptism of John, from where did it come? From Heaven or from man?” Rather than answer, they need to calculate before they respond. Notice how they don’t take time to discuss what they believe. That is, they do discuss whether John was sent from God or not. Instead, they discuss the merits of what happens if they say they believe one thing or another. Faith, for them, is a calculated social posture. What they truly believe doesn’t matter. What matters is what happens when they appear to believe one thing or another.
5. As social disapproval of Christianity grows in our nation, we are tempted to live a calculated faith. We feel the need to be careful when we share what we believe. But, Jesus, shows us where those who have a calculated faith end up: Trapped. They are unable to confess because of the complicated social situation and are unable to follow the Savior who comes to lead them into His kingdom of grace. To such people, Jesus speaks a parable. A parable about: words and deeds. The one who calculates and says the right thing (“I will go and work”) is judged. Why? Because his relationship with his father is a matter of calculation. It is just about saying the right words in the right moment. For Jesus, faith is more than having the correct calculated response. Jesus doesn’t want our calculated responses as if they were faith. He doesn’t want us to say we believe when we don’t, to say we care for the poor when we don’t, to say we honor marriage when we don’t, to say we speak truthfully when we don’t. Jesus has come to free us from the game of calculated responses. Instead, He invites us to follow Him. To live with Him in a freely given life of faithful response.
6. So, do actions (or inactions) really speak louder than words? Such is the case with the characters in our Lord’s parable of the two sons. The first son disregarded his father’s authority and quickly told him that he wouldn’t work in his father’s vineyard. But, later he had a change of heart and did serve his father. His actions spoke louder than his words. This was a picture of the tax collectors, prostitutes, and other despised members of society whom the religious authorities thought had no place in the kingdom of heaven. We also see ourselves in that first son. The message from Jesus is that no person is ever too bad to be loved and forgiven. More important than the terrible things we may have done in the past is the forgiveness we now have in the present.
7. Jesus is teaching us that sin is not to be celebrated, continued, or ignored. It is to be acknowledged, addressed, and forsaken. The Holy Spirit does this by working contrition and repentance in our lives so that a spiritual U-turn takes place. The second son took a U-turn also, but he headed in the wrong direction. He promised obedience but failed to deliver it. Jesus used him to represent the religious authorities who were challenging His authority. They were smug and comfortable in their positions, thinking they already possessed Fatherly favor by their own merit. They honored God with their lips, but their hearts were far from Him.
8. We share the family traits of that second son as well. The faith we confess isn’t always evident in our daily conduct. While piously promising faithfulness to God, we do not follow through with total consistency. In the Divine Service we ask God to “forgive us, renew us, and lead us, so that we may delight in Your will and walk in Your ways” (LSB, p. 151), but our sinful misdeeds translate this as, “Forget us, release us, and leave us, so that we may delight in our will and walk in our ways.”
9. Our inactions speak louder than our words. Whether we are disobedient and then pious, or pious and then disobedient, whether a tax collector or a temple official, we all need rescue from our sinful situation. That is given to us by a third Son, not explicitly mentioned in the parable, but the One speaking the parable. There were no second thoughts, U-turns, or inconsistencies on His part. Both the words and actions of Jesus speak loudly to us of God’s love and salvation. Jesus has come to free us from the game of calculated responses. Instead, He invites us to follow Him. To live with Him in a freely given life of faithful response.
10. What does that look like? Jesus offers us a glimpse. He points to the tax collectors and prostitutes who are following Him. These are people that no one would have expected to be children of God. Their lives were an open testimony against the will of their Heavenly Father. But, by the power of the Spirit, something happened. They heard a call to repent and they did. They heard a call to follow and they did. Jesus brings a word into this world that awakens people to life. This is what it means to truly be WOKE in the Bible’s sense of this modern jargon. It frees us from the games of calculated confessions and opens-up for us a life of uninhibited response.
11. In Jesus, God has entered our sin and by His death brought about forgiveness and by His resurrection given us a new life. This new life is transparent about who we are in the Kingdom of God. We are not here by our own merit. We are here by grace and grace alone. Our lives then become an open witness to the grace of God and the work of Christ.
12. Those whom no one would associate with are suddenly leading the way into the Kingdom of God. Why? Because they have experienced the working of God, the call to repentance, and they have responded in faith. It is not calculated faith, but simply faith. Faith that is not ashamed to be honest about one’s life and to believe the good news of God that one is forgiven, not for what one has said or done but for what has been done and said for you.
13. Brothers and sisters in Christ. Jesus has died and risen for you. He forgives you your sin and claims you as His own. This is the source of your life. Boldly make this confession, regardless of what follows. We do not follow Jesus based on a calculation of the benefits. Rather, we follow because He is Jesus. He forgives us our sin. He gives us a new life, a free life, a transparent life, a bold life, an uncalculated authentic life in Him. So, go and speak and live as children of God. Not calculating what will happen to you in this world if you say you believe but believing regardless of what happens to you because by believing you have life in His name. Amen. Now the peace of God that passes all understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, until life everlasting. Amen.
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