Hearts and Minds

  Scripture:  Matthew 21:23-32
             
On September 10th, 1822, a group of about 70 colonists left the shores of England and set off to immigrate to the Central American country of Poyais, a small republic but thriving republic that emerged from the collapse of the American Spanish Empire.  Poyais had a flag, official institutions, printed currency, and a representative in England, a Scotsman named Gregor McGregor, the appointed Cazique of Poyais.  McGregor had come to England as an official representative of Poyais for the coronation of King George IV and to encourage investment and immigration to the land he now represented.  The colonists who left in 1822 had bought official land grants from McGregor and exchanged British pounds for Poyais currency.  

               There was only one problem.  There was no such place as Poyais.  McGregor, who was a soldier of fortune,  had invented the whole thing.    The boat delivered these colonists to a completely undeveloped and wild stretch of land along the Honduras coast.   While McGregor had been able to convince a local official to give him land along this coast.  He had invented all the details and incredibly official looking documents to sell the story of the imaginary country out of thin air.  Over the next couple of months, two more vessels delivered more people to this wild coastline.  All told, 250 people bought into the lie of Poyais and 10 months after the first boat left, less than fifty made it home.  McGregor’s con had made him a lot of money and led to the death of 180 people.  Unfortunately, McGregor got away with it, eventually fleeing back to Venezuela where he had served as a mercenary, where he lived comfortably until his death.   Even to this day, the part of Honduras where Poyais was supposedly located is still undeveloped wilderness.
               Poyais is often considered one of the most audacious and successful con jobs ever pulled off.  It had plausible believability, a bunch of details that could not be easily fact checked, and it was backed up by the appearance of looking real.   It was all of the documentation and highly developed details that   McGregor developed that sold the lie.  He successfully managed to create the appearance of a country that did not exist.   It could be argued that Jesus was making the point in this morning’s scripture that the chief priests had done something similar with righteousness.  They had put a lot of effort into creating the illusion of following God, without always doing it.  They had an outward appearance right, but their hearts were not truly in it.  The interaction with the chief priests and the short parable illustrates once again that salvation is not earned and it is not based on actions.   Salvation happens because of and is evidenced by a changed heart.

               I think to fully appreciate this scripture we need to put it into the context of when it is happening.   This morning’s scripture takes place during Holy week, and Jesus has already made a scene.  In the timeline that Matthew’s gospel establishes, Jesus had made his triumphal entry into the temple, and the crowd shouted Hosanna, a phrase full of messianic expectation.   Upon arriving at the temple, Jesus then overturns the tables of the money changers and makes a scene driving out those who were selling doves.   This morning’s scripture is the morning after all of that.   When the chief priests and elders came to him and asked by what authority are you doing these things?”  The triumphal entry and flipping tables are some of the things in question.  

               The answer Jesus gives though betrays the fact that these religious authorities were not asking a good faith question, but instead they were looking for a way to discredit Jesus.  They knew he did not have any civil authority to do something like flip over the money changers tables, so if he claimed he did they could hold him accountable to that.   In the same way, if he claimed he did it with divine authority then they would use that as basis to try to discredit him and bring charges of blasphemy against him.   Jesus knowing they are disingenuous in their question turns it back on them by asking their own question.  

               The motivations of the religious authorities was not a desire for truth but by political considerations, and their deliberation over the question Jesus asked points this out.  The religious leaders had initially refused to believe John the Baptist because he challenged the status quo, he called out king Herod and tried to hold the leaders of the Jewish people to a higher standard.  Supporting this would have changed a power dynamic that the religious leaders were comfortable with.  However, they will not declare that John was not sent by God because they are concerned less with truth and more with public opinion.   We get the idea that the religious leaders would have been well-versed in the type of politician double-speak we are used to, where a lot of words are said to not say much, and every sentence is carefully crafted to not offend or challenge anyone too much.  Jesus avoids their trap, by trapping the religious leaders in their own hypocrisy that elevates political considerations above faithfully seeking God.  

               The religious leaders had rejected John the Baptist because he disrupted a power arrangement that made them comfortable, and they were seeking ways to silence Jesus because he directly threatened to upend the status quo.   In both instances, the religious leaders questioning Jesus missed the work of God that was right in front of them.  Unfortunately, humanity seems to collectively be a slow learner in this regard. Throughout history, time after time, elements of Christians have found themselves on the wrong side of history seeking to uphold a status quo instead of faithfully seeking God.  This started fairly early on, when Christianity was legitimized by the Roman Empire a few hundred years after the resurrection.  Theologians N.T. Wright and Michael Bird point this out in their book Jesus and the Powers, where they wrote: “At it’s worse the Church then became an instrument of empire, offering Christ’s insignia to the decrees of  solider-emperors who continued to do what empires always do: conquer, enslave, and exploit.  The church came to exchange the cross of Christ for the sword of Rome.”

               Unforutnatly, the church has had some responsibility is some truly horrible things throughout history, and nearly always it is because there was a choice to protect the status quo align with the powers of the time instead of seeking to more faithfully follow God. 

The reality is the kind of decisions that leads to these unfortunate decisions happen in circles well above any of our pay grades.   However, we can consider this question on a personal level.  We should be willing to honestly ask ourselves, if like the chief priests and elders we are ever guilty of seeking to maintain a status quo that makes us comfortable instead of seeking to faithfully follow God?   If our motivation for anything is based more on what we are comfortable with or maintaining what currently is, instead of following God then we should challenge that in ourselves.  I believe if we are truly seeking God, then we will find places in our thoughts and attitudes where our motivations are not yet in the right place.   This is because truly following God, will change our hearts and a changed heart should lead to a changed mind. 
After trapping the Pharisees in their own trap, Jesus then points out the importance of a changed heart with the parable he tells.  For anyone who has ever been a parent, this parable of two sons is highly relatable.   There is some comfort, I suppose, in knowing that a a child saying they will do something and then not doing it is such a universal human experience that it was just as relevant then as it is now.  This parable is a little more pointed than the stories Jesus normally told. Because in this parable that has two sons, one who refused to do what the father asked but then eventually did it and the other who said they would do the thing, but then never did, Jesus directly correlates us this to how people who responded to his message.   The tax collectors and prostitutes who did not live righteous lives but responded to the message of repentance that Jesus brought, are like the first son.   The clear implication is that the religious leaders and the teachers of the law are then like the second son, who claimed to do the will of the Father but then never actually do it. 

The religious leaders had built up an image of what it looked like to live righteously, they had a façade of holiness and a veneer of godliness but so much of it was a show.   It was all sound bites.  It was all on the surface.  It did not come from a changed heart.   Unfortunately, people presenting an exterior of being a Christian, but not having a heart changed to be more like Christ still happens.   Unfortunately, there are still people who put up the appearance of following Jesus, they listen to the right music; they look the look and they talk the talk.    Yet, there is no real substance, no real changed heart or transformed mind behind it. 

Like every other con job in history, the truth will always make its way to the surface.  This is why there is such an enduring and popular quote often misattributed to Mahatma Gandhi.  It is incorrectly stated as “I like your Christ, but I do not like your Christians.”  The actual quote comes from a lesser-known Indian philosopher named Bara Dada and from about  a century ago he is recorded as saying, “Jesus is ideal and wonderful, but you Christians, you are not like him.”  Unfortunately, this hundred year old critique still has a lot of validity.

When we seek to be like Jesus, then it will change our hearts, and we will be more like him.   As an example, Jesus lifted up that we should love our neighbors as ourselves, and he demonstrated this through how we had compassion on the crowds and ate with sinners.   If we are going to be like Jesus, then we also must love our neighbors.  Jesus did not qualify which neighbors we are supposed to love.  We should love the neighbors we get along with great, but to be like Jesus we also love neighbors we find more difficult.  We love our neighbors who struggle with addiction.  We love our neighbors who live with mental illness or disability.  We love our neighbors with identities different than our own, and we love our neighbors who are not from here. To be like Jesus, we love all of our neighbors.

That may be difficult.  We might be like the first son in the parable and say “I will not”, but if we are truly seeking to follow Jesus then eventually like the son in that parable we will change our mind and go because we have allowed Jesus to change our heart.  We are imperfect people following a perfect savior, so we will not always get it right.  We will drop ball, we will say no when we should say yes, and we will fall short.  However, if we are truly seeking to follow Jesus then our hearts can be softened, they can be transformed and a changed heart can even lead to a changed mind.   Jesus is ideal and wonderful, and by the grace of God we may even come to more fully be like him. 

In this morning’s scripture Jesus comes into a greater level of conflict with the religious leaders.   Through his clever maneuvering and pointed storytelling, Jesus reveals that the religious leaders were more concerned with maintain a status quo and keeping up appearance then they were with following God.   Unfortunately, this has been a struggle that has plagued religious institutions ever since.  It is not appearing righteous that saves us, it is a heart changed by grace.  It is an acceptance of an amazing love and forgiveness that is transformative.   So may we aways be willing to question if our motivations are truly from a place of following God, and may we be willing to change our minds as Jesus changes our hearts.   In responding to this amazing grace, may we be able to show the world what it looks like when the blind can now see and the lost are found.