Stone, part 2

 

The biographer Matthew doesn’t record a great many of Jesus’ parables of the kingdom of heaven (that is, what God’s delegated sovereignty looks like on earth). But when he does, he introduces them saying, “The kingdom of heaven is like...”

There are two exceptions, where Jesus begins, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to...” In fact, it is the same root word, but used in a different way, to suggest comparison or to suggest that something ‘has become’ like something else. This is not a case of Matthew’s year four English teacher asking him to think of another word for ‘like.’ It indicates a qualitative difference. In both cases, the parable in question includes a king decreeing a punishment.

In chapter 22, Matthew records a parable in which Jesus describes what the kingdom of heaven has become, in contrast to what it is meant to be. A king throws a banquet for his son. None of the summoned guests comes. Note, this is not that most refuse, and a few take up the invitation. No one wants to be there, and, when pressed, even mount a violent insurrection, which is put down without mercy. Then, anyone who can be pressed to attend is so pressed. Not one is there except under duress. The king interrogates a man who has refused to put on the wedding gown, the symbol that he accepts the king’s patronage. The man is silent before his accuser. The king has him bound and taken outside the walls, to the place where there is weeping and bitter, futile anger.

This parable follows on from the one before, which is explicitly identified as a parable against the chief priests and rulers of the people. In other words, it is a continuation. The kingdom of heaven has become something indistinguishable from the violent kingdoms of the world, under the leadership of the politico-religious leaders.

As Matthew continues his biography, we will find Jesus dragged, against his will, into the presence of Annas and Caiaphas. Historically, the high priest was a position for life, but the Romans had changed that, appointing and removing whom they chose. Annas was a previous (and still considered to be) high priest, and his son Caiaphas the current high priest. A king and his son. Jesus is dragged into their courtyard, and interrogated. He refuses to answer, and is sent away, first to a similar interrogation before the Roman governor, where we also see a crowd dragged off the streets to ensure he is condemned. He is made to wear a ‘wedding’ gown, again against his will, and taken outside the city wall to the waste incinerator, and executed in the presence of his closest family and friends.

God is not violent against people. But, sadly, many devoutly religious people, especially religious leaders, are. The kingdom of heaven is, at times, turned into a travesty of what it is meant to be. The biographer Matthew tells us to expect this. But it is not the final word.

The lectionary for today pairs this parable with a passage from the prophet Ezekiel where the Lord God promises to remove from his people (whose actions have profaned God’s holy name before the watching world) their heart of stone and put within them a heart of flesh. Stone symbolises all the ways in which we divide between ‘us’ and ‘them,’ while flesh symbolises our common humanity.

Whether your heart is stone or flesh determines how you hear Jesus’ parables.