For the last several Sundays, we’ve been hearing of the challenges to Jesus’ authority by Temple authorities. They may have thought something like this: “This small town upstart comes in here, to Jerusalem, and thinks he can just turn things upside down as if he owned the place. Who does he think he is? They call him ‘rabbi’, but exactly where did he study the scriptures? The Nazarene Podunk Synagogue?“

Since our Lord’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem, the powers that be were extremely uncomfortable about their hold on power and influence over the Jewish nation. The different religious and political factions, such as the chief priests, the elders, the Pharisees, scribes, Sadducees, and even the Herodians, were normally adversarial to each other, but now they were threatened by someone whom they saw as the common enemy. Their hold on power and prestige was slipping away.

Saint Matthew dedicates chapters 21, 22, and 23 primarily to the attacks of these groups, individually or in concert, to our Lord. The parables of the Two Sons, the Evil Tenants, and The Wedding Feast were all aimed directly at these groups, and they felt it. Jesus came to Jerusalem to rock the boat and cause the climax of history to come about on Calvary. The established leaders were in for a fight for which they were ill-prepared.

It’s easy to read these chapters and think about how vast and deep the corruption was in the Temple. It’s easy to read these parables and duels of wit and think about how bad the Temple authorities were and miss the lessons for our own lives.

This morning’s Gospel makes me ponder what it is that I cling to that belongs to God. It’s a question we all need to ask ourselves.

When I first became a Christian, I was often bothered, worried, and annoyed about the Tithe. I was just a “3-Striper” in the Air Force with a wife and 3 kids. How was I supposed to follow the Tithe Rule? Our big treat was frozen pizza night once every couple of weeks, and I was supposed to take a 10% pay cut? At some point in our walk in the Lord, we noticed that we were finally “honoring the tithe.”

After that time, I heard a message on the radio about tithing. This particular preacher, I can’t remember his name, suggested that we need to honor God with all our being and that the tithe was a mere representation of that honor. He even went on to say to please NOT give 10% to the church. He said that any number returned to God would be an indicator of our love for Him. He’d much rather we give 9 % or 15% or 50%, anything but 10%, because 10% was merely an attempt to follow a rule and NOT an expression of our love for God.

That was a few years ago. Around that time, Keith Green had a song called “To Obey is Better Than Sacrifice”, a title taken from 1 Samuel 15:22.  A lyric that still haunts me occasionally is:  

“To obey is better than sacrifice.

I don’t need your money

I want your life

And I hear you say that I’m coming back soon

But you act like I’ll never return.”

Later it continues…

“To obey is better than sacrifice

I want more than Sunday and Wednesday nights

Cause if you can’t come to Me every day

Then don’t bother coming at all”

…Simple, strong, and convicting lyrics.

Thinking about those poor Pharisees and Herodians we heard about today who brought the proverbial “knife to a gunfight” when they tried a Catch-22 ploy with our Lord, I often thought, why didn’t they counter with the question, “What then belongs to God?” I now realize that they knew but hadn’t yet realized that  EVERYTHING belongs to God.

They knew from their studies of the scriptures that God had created all things (seen and unseen). So, they could not ask that question, certainly not in public or even to themselves. They knew in their heads but not in their hearts. They refused to be liberated from their bonds of covetousness and greed that perhaps we’re all born with. Being freed from those innate bonds takes a miracle. Acceptance of that miracle takes a leap of faith. That miracle is manifest in our Lord Jesus, that “upstart small-town rabbi who wants to crash into our lives and turn things upside down. Who does he think he is anyway?”

Can we start to see ourselves (at least sometimes) in those poor misguided Pharisees and Herodians who resisted Christ on so many occasions?

Have we come to realize and not just know that “All things come from you, O Lord, And of your own have we given you”? This is a truly liberating realization… It’s ALL His. He lets us enjoy His blessings; He abundantly blesses us in the love that He has for us in Christ Jesus so that we can, in turn, love Him back, as well as His children, with the overflow of His love. 

As children of God, we are called and gifted to share this Gospel of liberation with the world. Resisting that call and discarding His gifts makes us as guilty as those who resisted Him 2,000 years ago. Amen

The post The Things That Are God’s first appeared on St. Dunstan's Anglican Church.