In Matthew 21 Jesus again encounters the famous religious people, the Pharisees. You may remember the Pharisees are the modern day leaders in many churches.
Jesus spends most of his time on earth making disciples of a few while trying to help the religious leaders to see the truth and finally accept it.
In Matthew 21 Jesus is healing people and the church leaders come and ask by what witherite are you doing this. Jesus answers their question with a question. Who was John the Baptist? Jesus did this because John was accepted as a prophet by many and even the Pharisees believed to some degree.
The Pharisees refused to answer Jesus question simply because their answer wouldn’t get them the control they wanted. Do we ever do that? Do we know the truth but we refuse the acknowledge it because if we do we will have to live differently.
You see, the Pharisees liked being in control. We humans like to be in control also. I have been in church situations where people in churches were so hungry to have control that the church couldn’t grow, God wasn’t the focus of the church unless the leaders could control it. And if the leaders control it then God isn’t in control, it is simply a human institution.
Jesus says here that the Prostitutes and the Dreaded Tax Collectors were going into heaven before the religious people. WOW
Jesus tells the next story and says the religious people are killing the Son. It is obvious in the last story the people know he is the Son and they still kill him. They know he is sent from the Father but they want power so bad they kill him and cast him aside.
What is the lesson here?
Jesus world isn’t like ours. The weak and the servants are the ones who tend to get it, not those who are looking to be in control. Those who are willing and hungry to say, Jesus come in and lead, the ones who are willing to acknowledged that power belongs to God and not man.
Our current world is upside down, we think power is king but power tends to corrupt. We think control is queen and control taken from Christ kills a lot of churches and a lot of people’s spirits.
Do we get it? Jesus is King. Jesus calls the shots. Jesus offers grace. Jesus even offers grace to the Pharisee, we don’t need to control Him. When we get to the end of this life we will finally see the pettiness of our desire to be in control. We will finally see that our desire to control kept People from Jesus.