Bringing Things To A Standstill

Matt 21:23-25   Matt 28:18  Phil 2:1-11

The day was so exciting I can even remember it clearly now.

My mum and dad and I getting in the car and driving out on the road towards Brighton.

Parking down and a side street and then walking out to the busy main road towards a brand new set of traffic lights.

This was so exciting and I’ll tell you why.

This was the first set of traffic lights in our area where, there was a little button attached to them  and you, yes,you could press the button and all the traffic, in both directions would be brought to a standstill. There would be a funny little noise, like a bird squawking and that meant it was safe to cross, from the town side, to the sea side.

I was allowed to do this twice and felt as if I was suddenly full of power.

Because I could bring things to a standstill.

Jesus was in a provocative mood.

His arrival in the city was causing mayhem. He was bringing everything to a standstill.

Three instances before our Gospel reading were enough to bring the authorities out in force.

He’d come riding into the city on a donkey and fulfilling the prophecy of an expected Messiah. He had the crowds in the palm of his hand in an instant.

He’d gone to the Temple and overturned the tables of the moneychangers and nearly causing a riot.

He had cursed a fig tree with a simple command and it withered up in front of everyone’s eyes.

And so there was panic in the voices of the ones who were used to being in control as they cornered him in the temple precincts.

“By what authority are you doing these things and who gave you that authority?”

They knew the answers of course. They knew perfectly well that He would say he was of God and that He had been sent by His Father and they wanted to trap Him, get charges of blasphemy lodged before it was too late.

The elders of the city could not countenance the possibility that this claim could be true, because if it was,  they themselves would have no authority left and their personal well being, their status and their respect, depended on it.

Since time began authority is the thing we wrestle with.

We are suspicious of anyone who tries to laud it over us without due reason.

We like to be independent and free. We like to think we are in charge of our lives.

Jesus came just in time. He came to show that the authority of God was being eroded by those who had turned their backs on the essence of that authority – love.

He came with a brief to bring everything to a standstill. To stop the traffic of rules and regulations that were slowly but surely putting love to death.

There are some uncomfortable truths following on from this.

At the end of the Gospel, at the time of the Ascension, Jesus tells his disciples that the authority vested in him, the authority of heaven and earth, would now be shared with them. They were to witness to the truth of love, bring things to a standstill where necessary, and baptise nations in the way of love and peace.

Thus the questions posed to Jesus are those we ought to find posed to us, if our Christian lives are making any difference at all.

By what authority are you doing these things?

By the nature of the love I see pouring from God’s word and the inspiration I get from the teaching of His Son.

And who gave you this authority?

I understand that at my baptism I became one with Christ, that His Spirit has touched my life so that I cannot help but proclaim his truth especially in the face of falsehood.

I don’t know what that amounts to in your lives.

I do know that in this past week when both of our Archbishops spoke up against the attitudes of some who had contributed towards the present financial uncertainties and the whole emphasis of the lives of so many at moneymaking at the expense of others, they were not dabbling in politics, but in the heart of the Gospel.

I loved bringing the traffic to a standstill along the Brighton Road.

We all love to exercise authority you see.

We learn in the Gospel today that we have a duty to stand up in situations where that authority is being misused and to be wise stewards of  the way we exercise it in our own lives.

RH 28.9.08