Matthew 22:34-46
A. INTRODUCTION
It seems that everywhere that you go there are people who like to be bullies. There are bullies at school, gangs in the streets, and there are political leaders who have the tendency to make the international headlines, but for all the wrong reasons.
And the one thing that all these people have in common is that they all like to be in positions of leadership and authority. And they are prepared to use any means to maintain their position and their power. They also surround themselves with others, who blindly go along with everything they say.
Bullies can be a real problem. And if you’re anything like me then you’ve probably met your fair share of them. Because I’ve met bullies at every stage of my life. Bullies at school—people who were determined to get on my nerves, to antagonise me, and to try to make my life as miserable as could be. Gangs around the streets—led by people who just liked to throw their weight around because it made them feel important. And people who have been upset with some of the decisions that I’ve needed to make in ministry (from both outside and within the church). And have consequently gone to extraordinary lengths to undermine decisions that were needed to help the church grow.
Now, being bullied, for some, is something they experience on a regular basis. As a consequence, if you can relate to that, it can be of great comfort to remember that not only is that what Jesus warned his followers that they would face, but it’s what Jesus faced himself in this passage from Matthew’s Gospel
B. RELIGIOUS BULLIES
1. The Pharisees Try to Trick Jesus (34-40)
Because the story begins with some very hostile Pharisees surrounding Jesus (34).
Now Jesus had just put the Sadducees in their place. And so the Pharisees decided it was their turn to go on the offensive. And the kind of bullying they tried was to try to trick Jesus into saying something that he really didn’t mean. And the method they used was to use an apparently innocent and legitimate question (35) ‘Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?’ (36).
Now I said ‘apparently’ innocent and legitimate question, because what we need to understand is that the Rabbis of the day frequently debated this sort of question. And as a matter of course, they made distinctions between the different commandments of God. And, in doing so, they concluded that some were more important than others.
However, at the same time they were also very careful in their discussions. Because they also had to hold together the idea that even if some commandments were more important than others, all of God’s commandments were equally binding.
What wasn’t innocent and legitimate about this question, however, was the trap that they were setting for Jesus. The hope that he would emphasise some commandments more than another. And in doing so, he would dismiss some of the less important commandments as being non-essential.
However Jesus wasn’t fooled for a moment. He answered their question ‘which is the greatest commandment?’ And he did so by quoting two passages from the Old Testament. The first about loving God (37): the need to love God in totality, with all our heart, soul, and mind. Three nouns which together indicate the essential nature of man. And then he followed it up with a second about loving one’s neighbour (39). To which, at this stage, the Pharisees would have all been nodding their heads in agreement.
But then Jesus put in the crunch. Because he concluded that the two commandments stood together. The two commandments were on a level of their own. Neither was to be raised above the other. Each was dependent upon the other for their true force. But what is more, he added, these two commandments were a guide to all the other commandments of God (40). The two great commandments did not dispense with the rest, but the rest depended upon them. All the other commandments were based on the overriding principle of the double commandment to love. And it is only from the perspective of these two great commandments, that an understanding and the application of God’s laws could be made.
The trap that the Pharisees had set had failed spectacularly. The trick to bully Jesus—to discredit him and fix him up for all time—without having to resort to more direct means, had come to a crashing halt. Jesus had answered their question, not only correctly but he hadn’t succumbed to their trickery in doing so.
2. Jesus’ Challenge on the Pharisees (41-46)
However the dialogue between Jesus and the Pharisees didn’t end there. Because rather than be intimidated further by the Pharisees, Jesus took the opportunity to get on the front foot. And he asked the Pharisees a question of his own. “What do you think about the Messiah? Whose son is he?”
Now the situation was that this was the week that began with triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. The Jerusalem crowd had just hailed Jesus as the Son of David. It was also a common Jewish expectation that the Messiah would come from the line of David.
So was this Jesus trying to respond to the Pharisees trick question with a trick question of his own? Well I don’t think so. I think all that Jesus wanted was for the Pharisees to face up to what was in front of them and say who they really knew him to be. Because despite all their bravado, despite them wanting to hold on to their positions and authority—and their willingness to bully others to maintain the status quo—the evidence of Jesus was all there. They just didn’t want to accept it.
But, for the Pharisees, this question was too much to ask. There was too much at stake and they weren’t going to risk their position. They knew that they too needed to be very careful about how they responded to the question. So, yes they admitted, the Messiah would come from the line of David. However, even despite Jesus quoting to them passages from their own scriptures (Psalm 110:1) (43-45), they refused point blank to admit that it was indeed Jesus who was the Messiah, the Son of David.
And at that the conversation ended. The Pharisees who wanted to bully Jesus—to trick him—had nothing more to say (46). Because to accept Jesus’s argument would have meant admitting that he was someone greater than David—that he was the Messiah, just as the crowd had said. But being the bullies that they were—preferring their own positions and authority—they just couldn’t risk making any such admission.
3. Summary
And so, Jesus’s problem with the Pharisees ended, at least in the short term. The fact that Jesus was able to see the intention of the Pharisees. meant that he had avoided their trap. And that would not have pleased the Pharisees. On the other hand, being faced with the only logical solution, that Jesus was the Messiah—a fact that they, point blank, refused to admit—would not have pleased the Pharisees either.
Jesus may have won this round from these religious bullies, but he knew they would be back.
And next time it wouldn’t just be an attempt to intimidate him or to trick him into discrediting himself, next time his life really would be at stake.
C. IMPLICATIONS
Bullies, then, not just people we experience and hear about in day-to-day life. Because it seems there have always been people who have been bullies. People who want to feel important—and want to be noted as being important—and who are prepared to go to any lengths to maintain their position. Even to the extent of ignoring what is plainly obvious right under their own noses.
So, this morning how do we combat bullies? Should we even try? Well if we follow Jesus’s example we can get some clues.
1. Standing Up To Bullies
And the first clue is that Jesus refused to allow himself to be intimidated.
Now in three years of ministry Jesus did many wonderful things. He cared for people, he cured people, and he taught people about God and themselves. And during all that time there was one thing that was constant, and that was the religious authorities trying to bully, and threaten, and trick, and do whatever they could to make him stop, or discredit him in some way.
And yet, at no time was Jesus put off from doing what God had asked him to do. Yes, in order to continue his ministry he had to be wise, and be constantly on his toes. And his lifestyle had to be open and honest. But Jesus knew that he needed to stand up to those bullies. Because if he didn’t, then they would be able to abuse their positions further, and to mislead others further still. Jesus knew he had to continue on regardless of what mud or muck was flung his way.
And doesn’t that say something about the need for us to stand up against bullies too? Because whether we look at the bullies we’ve faced in our own lives, or the bullies recorded in history, among the many things that we find are the abuses which should never have been allowed to happen. And they include school yard bullying, child abuse, murders, mass murders, and extermination camps.
Now stopping bullying at any level isn’t necessarily easy. And many people, have been imprisoned and died for speaking out about abuses of power. Nevertheless Jesus, on his visit to Jerusalem, was prepared to stand up even to the religious bullies of his day. And he was prepared to pay the price for doing so. Because only two or three days later, after the events in this story, he lost his life for doing so. And if we are true Christians then we should be prepared to stand up and do exactly the same.
2. What To Stand Up For
Of course having said that the issue is where do you draw the line between the things you are prepared to hang for and the things which you are prepared to let go and live for another day? Because there seems no point in losing one’s life for something that is trivial and is open to debate.
Well, I think the second clue is what the Pharisees and Jesus were debating about. And at the crunch of the issue was the basics of the Christian faith.
Now God’s son had been sent to earth by the Father in order that he could provide the one and only means by which God’s creation could be saved. Jesus’s place as the Messiah was paramount in the fight between good and evil. And that was principally what Jesus had to stand up and fight for. And it’s what we should be fighting for too.
Because anyone trying to discredit Jesus—and that can be done directly or through bringing his church into disrepute—must be the number one thing we should fight against.
And if Jesus is someone we should fight for, then so too are all of the commandments that Jesus held in the highest esteem. Of which, two in particular are mentioned in this story, and are the basis for all other commandments of God. To love God ‘with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength’. And, to ‘love your neighbour as yourself”.
The idea of worshipping God as an optional extra, or when one feels like it, or that it’s a private matter between a person and God, or that there can be more important things to do, is in direct contradiction to the first of those commandments. And it is an idea that should be rigorously fought. And the idea of standing idly by whilst one’s neighbours in the next street, the next country, or even the next continent is going through a rough time, is in direct contradiction of the second.
And consequently people who are prepared to roll up their sleeves and defend the faith, people who are prepared to risk life and limb for the injustices of the world—wherever they may be—need to be commended. Because people of faith who are prepared to stand up against bullies—whether bullies overseas, in our own country, or even in our own church—are precisely the kind of people that all Christians are meant to be.
3. Not Easy
Now, of course that won’t necessarily be easy. In one way it’s far easier to submit and conform to the bullies. But that’s not an option for the Christian. It wasn’t an option for Jesus, and it shouldn’t be for anyone who claims to be a person of faith either.
D. CONCLUSION
Bullying—people picking on others, people trying to trick others into saying things they don’t mean, people who try to make other people’s lives a misery, and people who are just out for anything for themselves and willingly ride roughshod over others, whether on a small local scale or on a large international scale—is very much a fact of life. And no matter how hard we try to stamp it out, I don’t think we will ever be totally successful. However, that does not mean that we should give up trying.
We can learn a lot about dealing with bullies from Jesus. From the need to stand up to them, to the kind of things that we need to stand up for. But it will not be a comfortable lesson to learn or an easy one to put into practice either.
Posted: 1st May 2023
© 2023, Brian A Curtis
www.brianacurtis.com.au
