David Bahn – Reflections

Matthew 21:14-17
And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he healed them. 15 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, 16 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 babies you have prepared praise’?” 17 And leaving them, he went out of the city to Bethany and lodged there.

There is something wrong with this picture. The scribes and chief priests see “the wonderful things” that Jesus did, and hear the children calling “Hosanna…” and they are indignant. Here is one explanation: they thought Jesus was a fake and a deceiver. In their minds he was leading people astray.

This isn’t anything new, but it is alarming because of where it is coming from. It is coming from the religious leaders, charged with the spiritual care of God’s people, and from whom would come the Messiah. But when the Messiah comes, he isn’t a champion for the status quo. In fact he confronts and countermands the status quo on every front. Sabbath laws? They’re for man, and highly bendable – compared with the overly-strict legalism imposed by the priests. Temple offerings? The two mites of a widow are more pleasing to God than the major gifts of the most noble Jews. And don’t even mention what Jesus had done in the temple courts just before this encounter: overturned tables were still being repaired as these blind and lame people were being healed.

Some would say that people are more open to Jesus than they are to the church. While that may be true on some level, it is not totally true. And on the deeper level it is totally untrue. People may be open to a caricature of Jesus like the imagined Messiah for whom many were waiting in Jesus’ day. They may reject a distortion of what the church really is, making it a repository for all manner of self-righteous bigotry.

But the real Jesus confronts us with our need to repent and believe a new thing: the kingdom of God is at hand. God is involved in our world and life. He comes to heal, and all kinds of people can find health and hope in him. The real church welcomes sinners in Jesus’ name and seeks to extend the reign of Christ over all of life – health and wholeness flows from it’s ministries. The real church invites people to find hope, healing and salvation in the real Jesus.