St. Matthew 21:10-46: "10 And when He had come into Jerusalem, all the city was moved, saying, 'Who is this?' 11 So the multitudes said, 'This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth of Galilee.' 12 Then Jesus went into the temple of God and drove out all those who bought and sold in the temple, and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves. 13 And He said to them, 'It is written, "My house shall be called a house of prayer," but you have made it a "den of thieves."' 14 Then the blind and the lame came to Him in the temple, and He healed them. 15 But when the chief priests and scribes saw the wonderful things that He did, and the children crying out in the temple and saying, 'Hosanna to the Son of David!' they were indignant 16 and 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 babes and nursing infants You have perfected praise?"' 17 Then He left them and went out of the city to Bethany, and He lodged there. 18 Now in the morning, as He returned to the city, He was hungry. 19 And seeing a fig tree by the road, He came to it and found nothing on it but leaves, and said to it, 'Let no fruit grow on you ever again.' Immediately the fig tree withered away. 20 And when the disciples saw it, they marveled, saying, 'How did the fig tree wither away so soon?' 21 So Jesus answered and said to them, 'Assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what was done to the fig tree, but also if you say to this mountain, "Be removed and be cast into the sea," it will be done. 22 And whatever things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive.' 23 Now when He came into the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people confronted Him as He was teaching, and said, 'By what authority are You doing these things? And who gave You this authority?' 24 But Jesus answered and said to them, 'I also will ask you one thing, which if you tell Me, I likewise will tell you by what authority I do these things: 25 "The baptism of John--where was it from? From heaven or from men?"' And they reasoned among themselves, saying, 'If we say, "From heaven," He will say to us, "Why then did you not believe him?" 26 But if we say, "From men," we fear the multitude, for all count John as a prophet.' 27 So they answered Jesus and said, 'We do not know.' And He said to them, 'Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things. 28 But what do you think? A man had two sons, and he came to the first and said, "Son, go, work today in my vineyard." 29 He answered and said, "I will not," but afterward he regretted it and went. 30 Then he came to the second and said likewise. And he answered and said, "I go, sir," but he did not go. 31 Which of the two did the will of his father?' They said to Him, 'The first.' Jesus said to them, 'Assuredly, I say to you that tax collectors and harlots enter the kingdom of God before you. 32 For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him; but tax collectors and harlots believed him; and when you saw it, you did not afterward relent and believe him. 33 Hear another parable: There was a certain landowner who planted a vineyard and set a hedge around it, dug a winepress in it and built a tower. And he leased it to vinedressers and went into a far country. 34 Now when vintage-time drew near, he sent his servants to the vinedressers, that they might receive its fruit. 35 And the vinedressers took his servants, beat one, killed one, and stoned another. 36 Again he sent other servants, more than the first, and they did likewise to them. 37 Then last of all he sent his son to them, saying, "They will respect my son." 38 But when the vinedressers saw the son, they said among themselves, "This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and seize his inheritance." 39 So they took him and cast him out of the vineyard and killed him. 40 Therefore, when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those vinedressers?' 41 They said to Him, 'He will destroy those wicked men miserably, and lease his vineyard to other vinedressers who will render to him the fruits in their seasons.' 42 Jesus said to them, 'Have you never read in the Scriptures: "The stone which the builders rejected Has become the chief cornerstone. This was the LORD's doing, And it is marvelous in our eyes?" 43 Therefore I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a nation bearing the fruits of it. 44 And whoever falls on this stone will be broken; but on whomever it falls, it will grind him to powder.' 45 Now when the chief priests and Pharisees heard His parables, they perceived that He was speaking of them. 46 But when they sought to lay hands on Him, they feared the multitudes, because they took Him for a prophet."
Today we have the first "skip" in this lectionary. Since Easter is a "movable" date, meaning it doesn't end up on the same date every year, the Church year, and the lectionaries attached to it, must move with it. Therefore, the Church has its first leap forward in readings,, skipping over the various weeks of Epiphany that need to be skipped in order to reach Easter on the date it is supposed to be celebrated this year, which is April 4th. The Church has two "skips," the other one being at the end of the Trinty season, skipping ahead after the Feast of St. Michael and all Angels, in order that she might read every year the readings for the 20th to the 27th Sundays after Trinity each year, and reach the First Sunday in Advent on the correct date.
Therefore, with this lectionary, we must skip over the intervening chapters in St. Matthew that would have been read if we had a full slate of Epiphany Sundays. The same is true for the evening readings, which skip over the intervening chapters in Genesis. If you hadn't noticed, during the Epiphany season the Church reads through Genesis and the Gospel of St. Matthew (starting after the Second Sunday) during the season of Epiphany. In some ways, this "skip" is unfortunate, because we don't get to read those chapters and verses that we skip over. But the good news is that it gets us closer to the celebration of our Lord's Resurrection.
Today also, is the festival of the Conversion of St. Paul. Today the Church remembers the incident recorded in the book of the Acts of the Apostles where our Lord showed Himself alive and resurrected from the dead to the enemy of the Church, Saul. Upon seeing our Lord, Saul was blinded, and had to be led by his men to Damascus, where he was eventually healed of his blindness (both spiritual and physical) by Ananias the disciple.
And in the midst of all of these happenings we have the reading from the Twenty-first chapter of St. Matthew. This reading takes place immediately after the Triumphant entrance of our Lord into Jerusalem, which Gospel we hear every Ad te levavi (the First Sunday in Advent) and Palmarum (Palm Sunday).
The first thing our Lord does upon entering Jerusalem, is to clean out the Temple. He makes it ready for His teaching. And upon cleansing the Temple, He can then cleanse and heal the people. So that, blind and the lame are brought to Him. The spiritual implications of this is not lost on us. Our Lord cleanses the Temple so that the physically blind and lame may be healed, but He also cleanses it so that the spiritually blind and lame may be healed. It is here in His Temple that He desires to heal the chief priests and scribes. But, they remain indignant toward Him.
In this dialogue between chief priests and the elders of the Law, we can picture the Boy Jesus in the Temple who was both asking and answering questions of the chief priests and elders of that time when He was twelve years old. Our Lord and chief priests are asking each other questions, but the answers seem to be all supplied by our Lord. I suppose one could read this section of Scripture and think that our Lord is egging the chief priests and scribes on, because He calls them to account for their unbelief.
But there is a purpose in this, and it is to lead them into belief in Him. Our Lord in this discourse, shows His love and concern for the chief priests and the scribes, arguing with them, reasoning with them, asking and answering questions with them, so that they might see and believe, that is, so that they might no longer be blind and lame spiritually. The sad thing is that they get it. "They perceived that He was speaking of them." However, their hearts are hardened to the point that they desire to "lay hands on Him", that is they desired to kill Him.
The fact that our Lord was convicted and crucified falsely of blasphemy, that is, claiming Himself to be God (of which we know that He is), by the chief priests and scribes, that is, the religious leaders of the day, is not lost on someone who is a religious leader of his day. The religious leaders of the past, in Old Testament times, were responsible for the mistreatment and death of many of the prophets of old. They did the same thing to the Son, just as the parable tells us. All because the religious leaders of those times catered to the whims of the people. We see it here in this pericope as well, they "feared the crowds." These religious leaders cared more about their social standing and the way they are perceived than they cared about the truth, and about proclaiming the Messiah in all of His truth and purity.
The same thing happens today as well. There are many ministers and religious leaders who are more concerned with numbers and and money and social status and the perception of the people, than they are of the truth, and the true care of an individual's spiritual blindness and lameness. Saul was such a fellow like these chief priests and scribes, not hearing the Word, but only acting according to what his church body dictated. However, after his question and answer session with our Lord, Saul was converted and became known as St. Paul, and he became the voice of our Lord to all the Gentiles, that is, to all of us who are not born of Jewish descent. The conversion of St. Paul is for our benefit, for it leads to our hearing of the Gospel, and our salvation.
The unbelief of the chief priests and scribes is also for our benefit, for it prompts them to crucify our Lord, convicting Him of blasphemy. And His death wins for us forgiveness of sins, eternal life and salvation. It is this innocent death and suffering alone that the religious leaders of today are to proclaim, so that we might hear and be saved by Him alone, and not by our works or other false means. It is also this message that the religious leaders of today are called to proclaim boldly and confidently not fearing the crowds, or being concerned with currying favor, but instead with boldly confessing our Lord.
May we boldly listen to the men of God who boldly proclaim our Lord on this day where we celebrate the conversion of St. Paul. May our hearts continue to be converted as was his, so that we might ever rejoice in Heaven with our Lord and St. Paul.
God be with you!
Deacon Dulas
