Foreboding.
What a tremendous word that is. As we approach the final chapters of Matthew, everything that has been hinted at from the beginning is gathering great momentum, the themes like threads begin to come together and the larger picture emerges of all that Jesus has been saying from his birth to this point.
Chapters 21 and 22 can be read almost like a boxing match. Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem is set up like the conquering King and can also be seen like the great champion entering the fray. The fray being the religious headquarters – the temple itself is the battleground for God’s rule against Man’s rule. Man’s rule is never more convincing than when it has the garb of spirituality and religiosity about it. Yet when confronted with the reality of divinity the exposed power-dependent, self-serving and self-seeking nature of Man’s rule is seen for what it really is and the threat that is caused to it by divinity.
Of course no actual physical blows are dealt in the confrontation between Jesus and the religious authorities – that will be saved for the finale. In the meantime in comes the man consumed for the righteousness of His Father’s house. Here He comes teaching and healing. Here He comes with the sound of children crying out Hosanna in His ear. Here He comes and the status quo is not happy.
From verse 23 onwards it is on like it’s never been on before. Whether it’s the chief priests, elders, Sadducees, Pharisees, you name them, they all are trying to trip up Jesus with pointed questions – whether direct or cloaked in highly flowery flattering language.
Throughout their own questions are used to expose their own folly and failings – whether it’s the authority of His ministry and that of John the Baptist, or whether it concerns the importance of giving what is due to God, namely justice, peace, and mercy and the reality of the resurrection.
It is the question of authority, however, that rings throughout the questioning of Jesus. For if Jesus confirms the authority from which He gains His ministry it necessarily undermines what the religious authorities have been perpetuating for a number of years … indeed the whole narrative of the role of state prophets and 
priests against those evidently called by God. Jesus with John is part of the movement of those that God uses from outside the conventional road to express the reality of His rule.
So by the time Jesus offers His own question at the end when looking at the Lordship of the Messiah, the religious authorities have been stymied. Yet as with every argument in which the bully/aggressor is silenced in argument, it is not the last you will hear from them.
When I consider this discourse, I wonder what it should say about those who strive to express Kingdom reality in the light of established conventional mainstream religion which can come across as inoffensive, complicit to society’s values and rather than promoting the radical nature of the Kingdom satisfies itself to put on a religious garb over Man’s Rule. If you don’t know what I mean, see what Jesus is standing for and check if it is something that is reflected in the church’s response to the issues of society …
For His Name’s Sake
Shalom
dmcd
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