Honor and Shame, Part 2

Honor and Shame, Part 2

Matthew 21:23-32

Can you still recall in the Jukebox hall when the music played

And the world spun round to a brand new sound in those far off days?

In their blue suede shoes they would scream and shout

As they sang the blues – let it all hang out!

Do you recognize these words? These are the opening lyrics of the song “Rock and Roll, Part 1,” written and recorded by Gary Glitter in 1972. You may not recognize the words, but many of you would recognize the tune, which Gary Glitter repeated when he recorded “Rock and Roll, Part 2.” That’s the tune that has been played at many professional football, basketball, and hockey games, usually right after the home team has scored. It gets played because it’s a party song, with the only lyric remaining being the crowd shouting “hey!”

As catchy and popular as the tune may be, this song represents a common problem: Part 2 is rarely as good as Part 1. It loses something when it gets disassociated from its roots. In this example, it lost any sense of story-telling – which may have been the point Glitter was trying to make. Rock and roll had a story to tell, and a message to share, but now it settles for the way it makes us feel.

We see this frequently in movies. A sequel usually tries to capture the main thing that made the first part good, but instead often comes across like an observation from the Mel Brooks movie, “Spaceballs.” In that movie, his character is named Yogurt, a spoof of Yoda in the Star Wars movies. Yogurt explains to the intrepid heroes that movies are really all about merchandising. When the heroes leave to continue their adventure, Yogurt says to them, “Hopefully, we will all meet again in Spaceballs 2: The Search for More Money.”

If Part 2 isn’t as good as Part 1, then it shouldn’t surprise us that Part 2 often gets forgotten or dismissed as unimportant. But sometimes, the best part of the story is Part 2. The late radio personality Paul Harvey knew that stories about our lives can sometimes be divided into part 1 and part 2, as well. Even though this first part may be well known, it can be the second part that is more important. So he would begin with a familiar story, and show that there was a twist in the second part of the story that might be humorous, or heroic, or heartfelt. He concluded each Part 2 with his catch phrase: and now you know the rest of the story.

Paul Harvey wasn’t the first person to do that, of course. In our reading for today, Jesus tells a story with a familiar Part 1, and then reveals the twist in Part 2 that tells the rest of the story. But before we get to the twist, we need to put our reading into context.

Jesus has just made what we call “The Triumphal Entry” into Jerusalem. Jesus has ridden a donkey across the valley, along a path foretold by the prophets as the path taken by the coming messiah who would liberate God’s Chosen People. The people have waved their palms, the equivalent of the national flag, as they sang the songs of ascent to affirm God’s providence towards them. We call it a triumphal entry because we know Part 2 of the gospel story, when Jesus defeats sin and death by his death on the cross, and by his resurrection on Easter morning.

The next day, after this triumphal entry, Jesus calls attention rather dramatically to just how far the people have strayed from the true worship of God. And we call that story the “cleansing of the Temple.” As Matthew describes it, Jesus “drove out all who were buying and selling in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves.” We call it the cleansing of the Temple because we know Part 2 of the story, and now the Temple truly can be a house of prayer instead of a den of thieves.

But for the people living in that moment, there is only Part 1 of the story of Jesus. Part 1 seems more like a challenge to the Roman army to a fight, and an act of vandalism against the Temple. These are the kinds of things that would be seen as dangerous and disruptive, and as something that needed to be squelched immediately.

The only thing that prevented Jesus from being arrested by the chief priests the first day was because there were so many supporters of his there shouting “Hosanna to the Son of David.” The religious officials were not sure they would be able to have him arrested without provoking a riot. And after the cleansing of the Temple, there was simply too much confusion and chaos to organize the arrest.

So their question about authority, when Jesus returned to the temple, was no mere academic examination of his credentials. This man had shut down the temple at a time when the faithful pilgrims had come to Jerusalem to make their atonement for Passover. They wanted to know how he thought he could get away with this and then dare to show his face at the temple the next day as a teacher. They wanted answers, and they wanted to be sure that Jesus would answer as publicly as he had acted the day before.

In the culture of that day, honor is a public claim to worth. Shame is a public denial of worth. The chief priests and scribes come asking, not to honor Jesus, but in an attempt to shame him before the community. Jesus knows this is what they are trying to do because he turns it around on them by asking about John the Baptist. What was his honor, his public claim to worth? Was it merely human, or was it a “God thing”? If the priests declare that it was human, then they have ignored the claim by the public that John was a prophet, and this brings shame upon their leadership. If it was a “God thing,” then they have ignored what John proclaimed, and this brings shame upon their leadership.

But this is only Part 1. Jesus wants them to know there is a Part 2 that has a twist they have not looked for, a twist that points out the real shame before God. Jesus tells this parable of a father giving a very public command to his two sons. His claim to honor is that the sons will respond with respect. The public watches the responses. One son responds honorably – yes, Father, I will go at your command – and in the judgment of the crowd the father’s claim to being honorable is valid and affirmed. The other son responds shamefully – no, Father, I’m not going – he publicly humiliates his father, and the crowd’s immediate judgment would deny the father’s claim to honor in this instance.

Now we come to Part 2. And here is the twist. The chief priests and scribes expect Jesus to ask which son acted with honor towards his father. After all, honoring our father and mother are part of the Ten Commandments, and therefore a matter of vital importance before God. The answer was clear to them – it was the son who said yes in public. The surprise in this parable, however, is that Jesus asked, “Which of the two did the will of his father?” Jesus wanted them to focus on doing the will of God, and not just honoring God.

This parable is, in its own way, a narrative depiction of Jesus’ earlier statement in the Sermon on the Mount: “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my father in heaven” (Matt. 7:21). Jesus wants us to know that we are not disciples if we say “yes” to grace but say “no” to doing God’s will.

A man applied for a job as a handyman. The prospective employer asked, “Can you do carpentry?” The man answered in the negative. “How about brick laying?” Again the man answered, “No.” The employer asked, “Have you done any plumbing?” Again the answer was “No.” The employer asked, “Well, what about electrical work?” The man said “No, I don’t know anything about that, either.” Finally the employer said, “Well, tell me then, what is handy about you?” The man replied, “I live just around the corner.”

The man applying for the job had a different definition of “handy” than did the one offering the job. Jesus points out that God has a different definition of faithful than the Pharisees have. They believed that a son who says “yes” to his father brings him honor before his peers, even if his son falls short in the doing. The Pharisees readily identify with this son, since they have said “yes” to observe the Law of Moses, even as they readily admit that they fall short.

A son who would say “no” would bring shame to his father. The Pharisees readily identified that son with the tax collectors and the prostitutes. These were the people who not only acknowledged that they were not keeping the commandments, but they were actively engaged in work that broke the commandments.

In the parable, we are told that the son who said “no” “changed his mind.” But there is a different word used here than the one usually translated as “change one’s mind.” A better translation might be “changed what one cares about.” The son who said “no” may have brought shame to his father, but now he has had a change of heart. The son who said “no” now cares about doing what the father has asked him to do. And he doesn’t just care – he actually goes out and does what the father has asked him to do.

Jesus brings the parable to a point: which son did the will of his father? You can almost hear the Pharisees choking on their answer. The Pharisees knew that the son who said “yes” to his father had done the honorable thing. But the honorable son clearly had not done his father’s will. The preferred son was the one who knew his actions had been shameful; but then he had a change of heart, and he acted upon that change -- just like the tax collectors and prostitutes who were answering the call of Jesus.

We are Pharisees whenever we think it is enough that we have said “yes” to God, yes when we joined the church, but then didn’t change what we cared about. If we don’t change what we care about, we will continue to live as if we had said “no.” It is when we recognize that we are shameful sinners before God, and then have that change of heart, and we begin to live as if we have said “yes” all along, that we truly bring God honor.

There is an old Japanese legend that tells of a man who died and went to heaven. Heaven was beautiful -- full of lush gardens and glittering mansions. But then the man came to a room lined with shelves. On the shelves were stacked piles of human ears! A heavenly guide explained that these ears belonged to all the people on earth who listened each week to the word of God, but never acted on God’s teachings. Their worship never
resulted in action. When these people died, therefore, only their ears ended up in heaven.

A changed, strangely warmed heart reveals the mystery of faith that we proclaim every time we share in the sacrament of communion: Christ has died, Christ has risen, Christ will come again.

As we are in Christ, we die with Christ to this world. We die to pride, so that we may be humble before God. We die to our will so that we may seek only God’s will. We die to our pleasure, so that we may be filled with the joy of the Lord.

As we are in Christ, we are raised with Christ into a new life, an eternal and abundant life with God. We are raised into the life of the peace of Christ that passes all understanding. We are raised into the life of the compassion of Christ which reveals the love of God. We are raised into the life of the Body of Christ that reveals the kingdom of God.

As we are in Christ, we become channels of grace by which Christ will come again. We will feed the hungry, and people will know that Christ has come. We will heal the sick, and people will know that Christ has come. We will visit the imprisoned, welcome the stranger, and proclaim good news to the poor -- and the people will know that Christ has come again.

There is no honor in our faith if we are guilty of saying “yes” but living “no.” We honor God first by giving our hearts to God, and second by giving our lives to the work of God as revealed in Jesus Christ and as enabled and called forth by the Holy Spirit. And when we truly honor God, then people will know “the rest of the story.”

We have a story to tell, and a message to share, so don’t just settle for a feeling – live out that feeling so that we may truly honor God as we trust and obey.

Hymn 467 “Trust and Obey”