09/27/2026
A Meditation at Morning Prayey
St Paul’s, Winnfield
Proper A-21,Pentecost +18, September 27
Exodus 17:1-7, Psalm 78:1-4, 12-16, Philippians 2:1-13, Matthew 21:23-32
Matthew 21:23-32
When Jesus entered the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came to him as he was teaching, and said, “By what authority are you doing these things, and who gave you this authority?” Jesus said to them, “I will also ask you one question; if you tell me the answer, then I will also tell you by what authority I do these things. Did the baptism of John come from heaven, or was it of human origin?” And they argued with one another, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will say to us, ‘Why then did you not believe him?’ But if we say, ‘Of human origin,’ we are afraid of the crowd; for all regard John as a prophet.” So they answered Jesus, “We do not know.” And he said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things.
“What do you think? A man had two sons; he went to the first and said, ‘Son, go and work in the vineyard today.’ He answered, ‘I will not’; but later he changed his mind and went. The father went to the second and said the same; and he answered, ‘I go, sir’; but he did not go. Which of the two did the will of his father?” They said, “The first.” Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are going into the kingdom of God ahead of 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 after you saw it, you did not change your minds and believe him.”
We’ve been reading, from Matthew’s Gospel, the formation of Jesus’s public ministry, after the arrest and death of John. Jesus named the Disciples, gathered John’s followers and healed and taught the people who heard him The p***c thrilled at this messianic ministry and the Disciples wondered and sometimes puzzled at the message to them about the coming Kingdom of Heaven. The parables we’ve been reading challenge us, even to today.
This was in Galilee … now he turned to Jerusalem. This morning’s reading describes the Tuesday of Holy Week.
Matthew’s account tells the triumphal entry, cleansing the Temple, curing the lame and blind. Little children gathered to cry, “‘Hosanna to the Son of David’ (21:15), -- Save us, son of David.
No wonder the elders and priests were distressed, They, after all, were the sons of David who should save the people. “By what authority …?”
Jesus taught with parables. The rabbis used a different approach. Their challenge came in the form of the Socratic dialogue, This ancient argument would have been part of advanced education, and is still used today, especially in American law schools, as in the old movie “The Paper Chase.” Challenge and question!
I suspect that there is a hint of the Jerusalem rabbis’ disdain of this prophet from the country … unsophisticated Galilee.
It didn’t work, of course. Jesus, with a single question, rebuffed their challenge.
Having proven his mastery of the dialogue, he responded with a Parable. He directed the conversation away from sophisticated Jerusalem and the Passover observance to familiar interplay within a family.
One son tells his father he will work in the vineyard, yet does not.
One son tells his father that he will not, but does work.
Thee’s no way to know if either son’s change of heart was communicated to the father, or why either son made the choices that he did.
We do know that the son who made profession of obedience, and the son who simply obeyed, are both members of the family of the parable. Kind of like the elders and tax collectors, priests and prostitutes: all members o the family of God.
It’s the tax collectors and prostitutes who will be first into the kingdom of God.
In some ways, the most interesting sentence in this lesson is “the tax collectors and the prostitutes are going into the kingdom of God ahead of you.”
Ahead of you. Not instead of you.
The lesson began with questions about authority; it ends with revelation about how authority will be used: to reverse the order of things; to value belief over calculation; to reassure that all will enter the Kingdom of God.