Disobedience and Its Consequences

 Matthew 21:28-22:14

 

We continue our study today in the middle of Matthew 21. As John mentioned last week, we are now into the last week of Jesus’ life, leading up to the climax of his death and resurrection. He is in Jerusalem, and the tension between him and the religious authorities is growing. He had been speaking out against their false teaching and hypocrisy all along, and since chapter 12 they have been plotting how to kill him. But now, with his arrival at their center of power and influence, the confrontation has become even more intense – and intentional. Back in chapter 16 Jesus had explained to his disciples that “he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.” He had to do it; it was his purpose for coming to earth, the only way to bring salvation.

So, at the beginning of chapter 21 Jesus rode into the city on a donkey, hailed by the crowds as the Son of David, the Messiah, the king. The whole city was stirred, it says. The people were excited because they thought Jesus would deliver them from Roman oppression and bring in a new era of freedom and prosperity. The chief priests and teachers of the law, however, were indignant. Who did Jesus think he was? He was threatening their power and prestige, even their livelihoods, as he cleared their corrupt commerce from the temple courts.
 
Jesus was making a statement in that action. His anger was directed by his divine nature. As fallible humans, we need to be very careful with what we consider to be even righteous anger. We are warned in the book of James to be “quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires.” Over the past year we have seen the effects of human anger on our nation. We need to keep praying for the ongoing confrontation in Washington and the threat of violence elsewhere, even today.
 
I was saddened by the images of a person storming the Capitol waving a Jesus 2020 flag. Did such people think they were justified in lashing out against the government, based on Jesus clearing the temple courts the way he did? What did Christians hope to accomplish by participating in the assault? Violence and intimidation do not produce the righteousness that God desires. In a few chapters we will read about Peter trying to defend Jesus with his sword. Jesus told Peter to put his sword back in its place, “for all who draw the sword will die by the sword.” Following Jesus is a path of self-sacrifice, turning the other cheek, and seeking justice for those who are truly oppressed. I will not go into all the verses about submitting to civil authorities and the rather narrow justification for disobedience. But we do need to continue to pray for both love and truth to prevail in our nation.
 
Even though he could have, Jesus avoided taking up political power. So, he disappointed the people who wanted him to take on the Romans and become their king. He did not live up to their expectations of what the Messiah would do. His was a spiritual kingdom, no longer equated to the nation of Israel, represented (as it often was) by the fig tree that Jesus cursed, as we also read last Sunday. Israel had not produced the fruit that God desired, the blessing to all nations that was part of the Abrahamic covenant. God was not giving up on Israel, but he was creating a new Israel that would include everyone putting their faith in Jesus. The faith that Jesus taught about here at the fig tree, that can throw a mountain into the sea, is faith in the God who created that mountain and a willingness to submit to his will in everything. The authority of Jesus has to be accepted by faith. That is why Jesus also refused to tell the chief priests and elders explicitly where his authority came from. He wanted them to accept it and be willing to say it. But they refused to commit themselves that way, answering, “We don’t know.”
 
So that is where we left things last time. But before we move on to today’s passage, I would like to tell a funny story that came out of those last verses. At lunch, after church ended last Sunday, the conversation turned to the topic of cute kids, and Emma remarked that Lisa must set quite a high bar for cuteness, given that she sees so many different kids each day at work. We were joking around and I asked Lisa, “How do Emma and I rank as cute kids?” Lisa’s response was, “As the Pharisees said, ‘I don’t know.’”
 
Great answer. Let’s pray before we proceed in Matthew 21. Jesus is in the middle of addressing the religious leaders who would not acknowledge his authority. He is pointing out that they are being disobedient to God and warning them about the dire consequences of that.
 
“What do you think? There was a man who had two sons. He went to the first and said, ‘Son, go and work today in the vineyard.’
“‘I will not,’ he answered, but later he changed his mind and went.
“Then the father went to the other son and said the same thing. He answered, ‘I will, sir,’ but he did not go.
“Which of the two did what his father wanted?”
“The first,” they answered.
Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes 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. And even after you saw this, you did not repent and believe him. – Matthew 21:28-32
 
Even after you saw this. What had the religious leaders seen? They had seen with their own eyes the repentance of the tax collectors and prostitutes and the way this allowed God to transform the lives of people who had been hopelessly far from him. The change that comes to a person who believes is a tremendous witness to the redeeming power of God. The religious leaders saw this, but it did not convince them, because they did not see themselves as sinners in the same way, in need of God’s grace and forgiveness. But Jesus was looking for fruit, as he had done with the fig tree, in this case the fruit of true obedience. Which son was actually obedient to his father? Obedience is more than agreeing to do something, paying lip service to some idea. Jesus is more concerned about the end result. Who actually ends up working the in the field, doing something useful for God?
 
In our own lives, it is easy to get excited by the thought of doing something for God, reaching out in some way, and we often make quick commitments to something we read or hear about. But do we really follow through? Do we keep at it for the long haul? God is more concerned about our actions than what we say we believe. We all need to repent of something, even if only of inaction, and that means more than just telling God that we are sorry. Repentance means turning around and actually moving in a different direction. The religious leaders were not willing to consider how they needed to change. But the tax collectors and prostitutes recognized where they had been saying no to God and were willing to turn away from it. Turning away from sin and toward God puts our focus on what he wants us to do.
 
“Listen to another parable: There was a landowner who planted a vineyard. He put a wall around it, dug a winepress in it and built a watchtower. Then he rented the vineyard to some farmers and moved to another place. When the harvest time approached, he sent his servants to the tenants to collect his fruit.
“The tenants seized his servants; they beat one, killed another, and stoned a third. Then he sent other servants to them, more than the first time, and the tenants treated them the same way. Last of all, he sent his son to them. ‘They will respect my son,’ he said.
“But when the tenants saw the son, they said to each other, ‘This is the heir. Come, let’s kill him and take his inheritance.’ So they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him.
“Therefore, when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?”
“He will bring those wretches to a wretched end,” they replied, “and he will rent the vineyard to other tenants, who will give him his share of the crop at harvest time.” – Matthew 28:33-41
 
Jesus was still speaking out against the religious leaders, but he puts their response to him in the context of history. In choosing the nation of Israel as his own, God was like the landowner planting a vineyard. He designed it to be productive, and he placed leaders over it. The fruit would be the blessing that he desired to bring through them, impacting the entire world. He sent his servants the prophets to assert his claim on the vineyard, his right to insist on that fruit of obedience. But the leaders wanted the freedom to follow their own way, to be in control and seek their own glory rather than God’s.
 
Jesus was now coming as the son of the landowner, to call people to repentance and true obedience. But the religious leaders were refusing to submit to his authority. He knew that they would end up killing him in a desperate effort to maintain their position. However, that act would be as ridiculous as the tenants killing the son and expecting to get away with it. God’s supreme power would prevail and bring them down. They thought their position was secure, but Jesus was turning the world upside down. The “sinners” that these religious people scorned would become the new tenants, operating with God’s authority, because they were open to the new thing that God wanted to do.
 
Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures:
“‘The stone the builders rejected
    has become the cornerstone;
the Lord has done this,
    and it is marvelous in our eyes’?
“Therefore I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit. Anyone who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; anyone on whom it falls will be crushed.”
When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard Jesus’ parables, they knew he was talking about them. They looked for a way to arrest him, but they were afraid of the crowd because the people held that he was a prophet. – Matthew 28:42-46
 
This was a very strong condemnation of the religious leaders. If Jesus was in fact a prophet, speaking on behalf of God, it would mean that their religious, social, and political assumptions and power structures would need to change. It was just too threatening. It felt like they would be broken to pieces, and indeed God requires a level of brokenness in repentance and submission to him. We fall on our faces in worship and in acknowledging the sovereignty of God over our lives. Psalm 34 says that the Lord is close to the brokenhearted. This does not only mean that he cares for hurting people, which he certainly does. If we are brokenhearted over our sin he draws near and invites us to repent. The second half of that verse says that “he saves those who are crushed in spirit.” That is how salvation comes, when we are broken over our sin and inability to fix ourselves. Then we allow God to save us.
 
So, falling and being broken on the stone of Jesus is a good thing if it helps us recognize what we are really like and how desperately we need him. But if we do not repent, then someday that same stone will fall on us in judgement and we will be crushed.
 
The Pharisees and other religious leaders would say that they were building something good, something pleasing to God, but that was impossible as long as they rejected Jesus. Jesus would need to be the cornerstone, the most important piece of whatever they were trying to build. The cornerstone was placed first in the foundation of a building. It would guide the alignment of the entire structure.
 
Peter – and his name even means the Rock – would expand on this concept of Jesus as the cornerstone. In 1 Peter 2 he would write to Christians scattered throughout Asia Minor:
 
As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by humans but chosen by God and precious to him—you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For in Scripture it says:
“See, I lay a stone in Zion,
    a chosen and precious cornerstone,
and the one who trusts in him
    will never be put to shame.”
Now to you who believe, this stone is precious. But to those who do not believe,
“The stone the builders rejected
    has become the cornerstone,”
and,
“A stone that causes people to stumble
    and a rock that makes them fall.”
They stumble because they disobey the message—which is also what they were destined for.
But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. – 1 Peter 2:4-9
 
Peter combines these quotes from Isaiah and Psalms to point to Jesus. If Jesus is the cornerstone, then we as believers in him are like stones as well, being built into a spiritual house. He was rejected and scorned, but if we trust in him we will never be put to shame before God. We have become God’s special possession, to declare his praises. This praise and honor is the fruit mentioned in verse 43 of our passage in Matthew 21, as he warned the Pharisees and chief priests:
 
“Therefore I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit. – Matthew 21:43
 
Jesus was once again speaking of the new Israel who would extend his reign throughout the earth. The Jews had failed in their commission as the people of God. This was therefore the consequence of their disobedience. Jesus was establishing a new kingdom, defined in a new way: not based on birth into a certain people group, but being born again into a right relationship with God. The chief priests and Pharisees could not automatically claim to be the leaders in that new kingdom. They would have to enter on the same basis of repentance and faith as everyone else and few of them were willing to do that.
 
Now we move into chapter 22, but continuing in much the same vein with another parable:
 
Jesus spoke to them again in parables, saying: “The kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son. He sent his servants to those who had been invited to the banquet to tell them to come, but they refused to come.
“Then he sent some more servants and said, ‘Tell those who have been invited that I have prepared my dinner: My oxen and fattened cattle have been butchered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding banquet.’
“But they paid no attention and went off—one to his field, another to his business. The rest seized his servants, mistreated them and killed them. The king was enraged. He sent his army and destroyed those murderers and burned their city. – Matthew 22:1-7
 
The Jews were invited to the wedding banquet, but they refused to come. Just like the tenants in the vineyard that we read about, they mistreated the servants and even killed them. On the surface this seems completely outrageous, doesn’t it? Why kill someone for inviting you to a wedding? We need to keep in mind that attending the wedding would be an acknowledgement of the king’s sovereignty and the right of the son to continue his rule. So, these people refused to come, even with multiple invitations.
 
The parallel story in Luke presents more details about the excuses that the people gave: I have bought a field and must go to see it. I have bought five yoke of oxen and need to go try them out. I have just gotten married myself, so I cannot come. These were terrible, insulting excuses; the people obviously just did not want to come. They considered their personal affairs to be more important than their loyalty to the king.
 
“Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding banquet is ready, but those I invited did not deserve to come. So go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find.’ So the servants went out into the streets and gathered all the people they could find, the bad as well as the good, and the wedding hall was filled with guests.
“But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes. He asked, ‘How did you get in here without wedding clothes, friend?’ The man was speechless.
“Then the king told the attendants, ‘Tie him hand and foot, and throw him outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’
“For many are invited, but few are chosen.” – Matthew 22:8-14
 
Jesus says that those invited did not deserve to come. The only requirement was a polite acceptance of the invitation! They did not deserve to come because they did not respect the king. So, the invitation went out to everyone in the streets, bad and good, it says. The ordinary people accepted the invitation and came as they were. Presumably, they were provided with wedding clothes by the king, such that the one not appropriately dressed did stand out. When he was questioned, he had no excuse. His refusal to accept the wedding attire when he came in must be interpreted as a sign of disrespect for the king. His punishment might seem severe, but that is because his response is actually similar to that of the people invited at the beginning. Their willfulness is just expressed in different ways.
 
The weeping and gnashing of teeth refers to the torment of hell, in a darkness that means eternal separation from the God of light. Tying his hands and feet implies that he will not get any more chances to return. This is the final judgment, and it is indeed a terrifying prospect. This is the ultimate consequence of disobedience.
 
You may recall earlier in Matthew 8 where Jesus referred to a similar feast. This was in the context of his praising the faith of the Roman centurion who believed that Jesus could heal his servant just by speaking a word. Jesus noted that he had not found anyone in Israel with such faith.
 
I say to you that many will come from the east and the west, and will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. But the subjects of the kingdom will be thrown outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” – Matthew 8:11-12
 
God’s covenant with the patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, is now extended to many people from all around the world, from the east and from the west. Some of them would look like the centurion; others would look very different. The subjects of the kingdom, referring to the Jews, would not be automatically accepted. Most of them would reject Jesus and be thrown outside into the darkness, just as we read in chapter 22. Everyone would have to enter on an equal basis: by faith. By faith we can be clothed in the righteousness of Jesus himself. This is what will allow us to enter his wedding feast after he comes in the fullness of his kingdom to take his Church as his bride. When he told the parable in Matthew 22 Jesus may actually have been thinking of Isaiah 61. The wedding imagery is right there in Isaiah’s words:
 
I delight greatly in the Lord;
    my soul rejoices in my God.
For he has clothed me with garments of salvation
    and arrayed me in a robe of his righteousness,
as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest,
    and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels. – Isaiah 61:10
 
Salvation is seen as a garment. Other New Testament writers carried on this idea of needing to be clothed with something other than our own good works, which Isaiah said were as filthy rags. Galatians 3, for example, states
 
So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. – Galatians 3:26-27
 
Clothing ourselves with Christ, through faith and in baptism, means receiving his robe of righteousness to cover all our sin. When God looks at us, he does not see us as we were but as we are in Christ. This is only possible because Jesus paid the price for our sin when he died on the cross.
 
The parable of the wedding feast ends with the statement, “Many are invited, but few are chosen.” This contains the mystery of predestination. Few are chosen. We choose to respond to God, but he has already chosen us – from the creation of the world, it says in Ephesians 1:
 
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will. – Ephesians 1:3-5
 
Why did he choose certain people before we were even born? This stretches our finite understanding. It is impossible for us to see everything as God sees it. Because he is outside of time, God already knows what is going to happen. Therefore, he can predestine us to become his legal heirs, which is what “adoption to sonship” means here. At the same time, we need to choose to follow him, day by day. The statement that many are invited but few are chosen reminds me of what Jesus said way back in chapter 7 about the narrow gate:
 
“Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it. – Matthew 7:13-14
 
The invitation is to enter the narrow gate. This opportunity is extended to everyone. But only a few find it and walk the narrow road that leads to life. The rest suffer the consequences of disobedience, as the religious leaders opposing Jesus ultimately did. They thought they were in the right, but God would tell them, “I never knew you.” This is a sobering thought that should encourage us to exhort each other and people around us to take the words of Jesus seriously and follow him closely.