06.02 | Into the Ring

Matthew 21:23-46

“When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they perceived that he was speaking about them. And although they were seeking to arrest him, they feared the crowds, because they held him to be a prophet.

Matthew 21:45-46

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There’s some debate about which is the best of the Rocky Balboa movies.

Purists, obviously, go for Rocky I. The story begins, the characters are introduced, and the final fight isn’t about winning titles, but about Rocky’s own internal battle for self belief. And all filmed on a ridiculously low budget.

Others go for Rocky III. Mr T as the nemesis, the introduction of the Eye of the Tiger song, Rocky’s former great rival becoming his trainer, and arguably the most technically impressive final fight.

I probably lean towards Rocky IV. The wilderness training scene, the massive internal struggle, and the sheer impossibility of the challenge of Rocky’s opponent. 

I could go on. 

Today’s passage takes us into the ring for a titanic bout. Jesus has walked back into the epicentre of religion. He’s in the courts of the temple in Jerusalem, the city named ‘peace’ (‘Salem’ comes from the Hebraic word shalom) and yet whose story continues to be full of such deep conflict. Jesus has entered the ring to confront the religiosity that has taken such prominence throughout Matthew’s Gospel. His opponents are the religious leaders—Pharisees, Sadducees, Herodians, rabbis, lawyers and priests. 

The bell has rung. The battle of competing ideologies has begun.

On one level it seems strange. Most would expect that the opponents of Jesus would be the most secular; those most disinterested in religion or those most opposed to it. Instead, it is the most religious—those renowned across the world for their puritanical ways and their careful theological pronouncements. This battle of words and ideology is going to rage from the beginning of today right through to the end of chapter 23. 

There’s two things we’ll draw out today.

The first is this. In what is to come in these chapters, we need to read each parable and statement of Jesus from the perspective of who He is talking to. His words will challenge us and shock us. They will seem harsh and feisty, offensive and sometimes just plain confusing. But remember who He is talking to. He is not talking to the broken and excluded. Rather He is confronting those who by their own schemes of control and structured oppression have elevated themselves and excluded a wounded world. He uses metaphors from the Scriptures that they would have been familiar with and words that aim to jolt them out of their self-righteous comfort into prophetic reality. When Jesus comes into these relationships with harsh language, we’re going to need to remember that this is how Jesus speaks when religion becomes about the protection of the powerful rather than the liberation of the captives. 

Which leads us to the second. 

I’m amazed at Jesus’ boldness. The audacity of walking into this base of such power with such defiance. The courage to return, one day after turning the physical tables, to challenge and critique those structures of thought that have made religion a toxin rather than a tonic. It challenges me that, alongside the need for being people of grace and humility, we also follow our rabbi to being a people with voices that need to speak up. That there are injustices that need inverted, oppressors that need opposed, and religiosity that needs renewal. That the Jesus we follow has positioned us in our place and in our moment not so that we can be benign and inoffensive but prophetic and courageous. 

Jesus invites us to the most spectacular personal salvation. He invites us to radical humility. He invites us to love our enemy and to turn the other cheek when we are struck. He invites us to forgive rather than seeking retribution, and to lay down our own lives that the world may be healed.

But He also invites us to speak up. To confront. To push back the darkness. 

Our rabbi has entered the ring.

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Reflect:

What has Jesus positioned me to confront today? What holds me back from joining in?

Bring this to Him. Ask Him for courage. Ask Him for wisdom. Ask Him how to engage with great boldness and with great love.

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Pray:

Lord Jesus,

In honesty, you strike me sometimes as a little outrageous.

I hear your words and I feel uncomfortable.

I think I’d say it nicer. More politely. Or more passive aggressively. 

Or maybe I’d only share it with those I know already agree.

And yet, this:

You are my Lord,

I have chosen to follow you.

I am sorry for where I have tamed you,

And in doing so, have tamed my own vocation.

I am sorry for where I have stayed silent, 

Protecting my own reputation and comfort more than I have protected the needs of the vulnerable.

Lord, today,

I again offer you my voice

My hands

My heart.

Take them, and make them burn for what is righteous and just and true,

And Lord,

As I learn to speak

Teach me to do so with both extraordinary grace and courageous truth

May your Spirit fill me

With courage

And with clarity

Because I want my life to count

In the advance of your Kingdom.

In Your Name,

Jesus, my Lord,

Amen.

Old Testament: 

For those also reading the Old Testament this year, your additional readings are below:

Exodus 26-28 | Proverbs 5