“Getting the message?”

By Rev. Michael Stonhouse

Meditation – Monday, December 27, 2021

Matthew 23:34-39 (Forward, p. 59) CEV p. 1014

It is always of great importance, if we are properly to understand Scripture when reading it, to perform two tasks. The first task is to try to grasp what the original context and audience was and what the author was wanting to say to them. The second task, which may be far more difficult, but also far more important, is to discover whether there is any parallel today to that original context and situation and so whether that message might apply to us as well. There are plenty of passages that have little or no parallel to our situation today and so it would be folly to try to apply them to us. For instance, we are told that Judas went and hung himself after betraying Jesus and learning that He’d been sentenced to death (Matthew 27:5), but other than being a cautionary tale, it has little or no relevance to us.

So, then, what about today’s passage? It is part of Jesus’ final discourse in Jerusalem, a discourse that firstly challenges His hearers and then also warns them. Early on, Jesus, upon entering Jerusalem on Palm Sunday had ‘cleansed’ the Temple, chasing out the merchants and money changers etc. This, as would be expected, raised inevitable questions in the minds of the authorities about His authority to do this, but Jesus refuses to answer them. He then tells two stories, the Parable of the Two Sons, one obedient and one not, and the Parable of the Renters in the Vineyard. Undoubtedly, these two parables would have left them squirming for they could not fail to see themselves identified and singled out in them—and condemned! And the same goes for the Parable of the Great Banquet. There they could well see themselves as the guests who were invited but failed to take the invitation seriously and prepare themselves adequately.

Clearly uncomfortable with the tenor and thrust of Jesus’ remarks so far, they then ganged up on Him to try to discredit Him. Their three questions, about taxes, the resurrection, and the most important commandment, fail to find their mark, and they are chagrined—and silenced. And even more so, with Jesus’ question about David and the Messiah.

Here then (this is our present chapter, chapter 23), Jesus turns the tables on them, in a series of denunciations. He accuses the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law of being hypocrites, of teaching one thing and doing another. In other words, of not practicing what they preach. They know the truth, know what is expected, but refuse to do it.

However, in Jesus’ eyes there is perhaps one thing that is even worse, namely that they, and their forebearers and their successors, have always rejected God’s message and messengers and persecuted those who tried to convey it. They have closed their minds to it and refused God’s great and glorious offer of salvation. Indeed, Jesus yearned to gather them unto Himself (like a mother hen with her chicks), but they would not let Him. They have rejected this wonderful opportunity, and so both they, and their city, will lose out.

All of this makes abundant sense to its original audiences. I say ‘audiences’ in the plural, because Jesus’ words would have had an application to two distinct audiences. There was the original audience to whom it was addressed, namely the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law, and then there was a secondary audience, namely the early Church, that was experiencing the very persecution that Jesus had predicted.

However, what about us? Now, there are some people today that feel that we, as Christians, are under intense persecution, and in certain ways that indeed is probably true. But then, what help is that knowledge, other than to reassure ourselves that Jesus knew about this ahead of time and is here to help us?

Let me then, reset the deck a bit, shuffle the cards. Who was Jesus’ addressing here but the hyper religious folks, the people who prided themselves in being extra observant and extra pious, the equivalent, then, of today’s observant Christians? So, what is Jesus condemning them for? Two things, of not practicing what they preach, and of closing themselves off to what Jesus is doing and is about to do and of rejecting and persecuting and making life miserable for those who do try to follow Jesus.

So, my questions are these? Are we ever guilty of not being ready for Jesus, ready to follow Him, do His will, and let Him take care of us? Are we, as observant, faithful Christians, ever guilty of any of these sins? These are good, helpful questions for all of us, especially as we stand at the verge of yet another, new year. Amen.

Forward notes: “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!” (verse 37)

“Lately, my young sons have been obsessed with baby animal videos. They’re all in for yawns and licks, waddles and rolls. As is often the case, though, if the cameraperson catches a baby animal, chances are the mama animal isn’t far behind, watching and waiting to ensure that her little one is kept safe from harm.

“Jesus’s warning in Matthew 23 doesn’t exactly send the same kind of warm and snuggly feeling as baby animal videos, but I can’t help but see the heart behind his words in verse 37. God cares so much for the city of Jerusalem that an expression of caring as only a mother could care is made: ‘How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings…’ It’s a statement of watching and waiting to ensure all the little ones are kept safe from harm.

“It’s good to remember we too are those little ones.”

MOVING FORWARD: “How does thinking about God as a mother caring for her brood change the way you think about God caring for you?

A concluding thought: As heart-warming as this is, it is all the sadder, more perplexing and unfortunate, that so many people in Jerusalem rejected that care, even as do so many people today. That, however, begs a question about us in our world today. Do people actually realize that this love is for them, that God actually loves them in this way? Have we, you and I, been able to convey this message to them in ways that they can understand, and receive?