Our Matthew readings over the next few days will take us into Holy Week and eventually into Easter. If you want to stick to the liturgical year instead of jumping ahead try reading some of what we have posted over on our daily devotional page.
A reflection on Matthew 21:23-46 by our Assistant Program Director, Angie Smith.
Leave it to Jesus to answer questions with more questions and parables. Many of the themes that we saw earlier on in Matthew repeat themselves in this section of chapter twenty-one. Take some time to do a close read see how many of them you can find.
We all know how Matthew’s retelling of Jesus’ story ends. Jesus has already predicted his death and resurrection. He easily could have told the chief priests and elders what they wanted to hear- prolonging his earthly life (possibly). But he doesn’t. A day earlier Jesus cleared the temple of merchants, money changers, and dove sellers. And now he’s harshly condemning the temple leaders. Jesus is on a path that will ultimately end his death, or so the temple leaders think. Jesus, however, knows that his path ends not with his death, but with his resurrection.
Can we be as sure as Jesus was in the text in the days ahead? It’s ok to have doubts when the world is in so much chaos (and even when it’s not). Yet, at the end of the day we can be sure that this Prophet Jesus from Nazareth in Galilee is indeed Lord of all.
“’All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well‘” (St. Julian of Norwich)
Amen.
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