1 March 2024 Matthew 21:33-43, 45-46
There is an internet brawl going on between Jews and Muslims. Muslims are criticizing Jews for murdering their own prophets, while Muslims have treated their own prophet, Muhammad, with the utmost respect. This kind of insult has actually been going on for some time.
That’s pretty rich coming from Muslims after the brutal Hamas attacks on Israel last October 7, even more so considering the moral tone-deafness of demonstrations with thousands of people carrying pro-Palestinian flags, chanting genocidal slogans: “From the river to the sea….”
Christians have cast some of the same stones, that the Jews killed their own prophets, including John the Baptist, including Jesus. That’s pretty rich, too, coming from Christians, whose heritage includes people who persecuted Jews for centuries, up to and including the Holocaust.
Jews complaining about these insults is pretty rich as well because, well, the insults are true. The Old Testament itself records two murders of prophets – Zechariah ben Jehoiada (II Chronicles 24:20-21) and Uriah ben Shemaiah (Jeremiah 26:20-21). Jewish leaders also murdered John the Baptist and Jesus of Nazareth. Not only that, but Elijah and Jeremiah were viciously persecuted by Jewish leaders, and some extra-biblical sources record how the prophet Isaiah was sawn in two at the order of the Jewish King Manasseh. Not only that, but all the Jewish prophets failed. They called people to repent, but only a paltry few ever did, and practically none of the leaders.
There are no clean hands here. We have all tried to find a way around the clear teaching of God, excuse ourselves, and attack the people who expose our hypocrisy. At the same time that we are doing this, our churches are hemorrhaging members – Catholic parishes are losing seven out the back door for every one that comes in the front by Baptism, Confirmation or RCIA. Protestant churches have it far worse. Priests and Protestants both are avoiding the issues that are making people miserable, at the same time that growing numbers of unhappy non-believers are wondering what happened to the churches that used to proclaim their gospel as an antidote to chaos and meaninglessness. It is convenient for Catholics to lay all this at the feet of Catholic leaders like popes, bishops and priests. But Catholic leaders also include Catechists, Catholic school teachers, Lectors, Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion, Cantors, Choirs, leaders of families like mothers and fathers.
The word of Jesus comes to each of us: “The kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that produces the fruits of the kingdom” (Matthew 23:43).
The mercy of God means that we can still be the people who produce the fruits of the kingdom, just not the way we are right now. The word hypocrite in Greek means “actor.” We need to stop pretending and be authentic believers, the way we have always been called to be. That means we must do the following:
Repent.
Pray.
Read the Bible and apply it.
Make disciples, starting with yourself.
When in doubt, or after mistakes, repeat the process.
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