St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Wesley Chapel, FL
Preacher: The Very Rev. Adrienne R. Hymes
Proper 21/Year A ▪ September 27, 2026
Gospel: Matthew 21:23-32
Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to you, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.
My sister and I were raised by a single mother who commanded her authority as our mother and the head of the household. From time to time, as children do, my sister and I would get out of our “right” mind and challenge her. On those occasions when we thought we could get away with a slick comment of disrespect, my mother would calmy look at us with the terrifying mother look and say, “Just who do you think you’re talking to?” Needless to say, there was never a response; only reclaiming our “right” minds of knowing that we were to be obedient to her commands.
Our gospel passage, in the 21st chapter of Matthew, takes place during the last week of Jesus’ life and on the day after Jesus had zealously cleansed the temple of the corrupt commerce taking place. By this point in the gospel, Jesus had boldly entered Jerusalem with a triumphal procession and had a growing following of Jews and Gentiles alike, from his teaching, preaching casting out demons and healings.
On this day, Jesus had shown up in Jerusalem, on the turf of the religious authorities, interrupting their regularly-scheduled temple business, and they were angry (vv.12-17). Jesus’ actions the day before frames the tense one-sided turf war of words that publicly unfolded between Jesus, the chief priests and the elders of the people. As Jesus was teaching in the temple, his opponents interrupted him by asking, “By what authority are you doing these things and who gave you this authority?” (v. 23). Was Jesus’ authority from God, Satan or self-proclaimed? This challenge to Jesus’ authority was a “gotcha” question intended to entrap Jesus on the basis of his answer. There was an unspoken, question being asked: “Jesus, just who do you think you are?”
Responding to his opponents with a “gotcha” question of his own, Jesus asked, “Did the baptism of John come from heaven or was it of human origin?” (v. 25). Jesus was posing an unspoken question to his challengers: “Just who do you think you’re talking to?” Well, we can get a clue about who they thought they were talking to from earlier in Matthew’s gospel. John the Baptist prophesied about the one who was more powerful than he who would baptize with the Holy Spirit and fire. When John baptized Jesus, the heavens were opened, the Spirit of God alighted on Jesus and a voice from heaven was heard by all (including the Pharisees and Sadducees), “This is my Son, the Beloved…” (Mt 3:17).
Answering Jesus’ question was risky for the religious leaders because, for them, there could be no “right” answer. Either response could jeopardize their own credibility and authority amongst the people and could potentially ignite an angry backlash from the people who believed that John the Baptist was truly God’s prophet. Choosing to avoid the consequences of either answer, the leaders gave a calculated response to Jesus, “We do not know.”
Jesus refused to answer his challengers’ question because they did not know to whom they were speaking. Jesus’ refusal to directly answer the religious leaders’ question, he communicated an unspoken truth that they were incapable of perceiving—that the temple was, in truth, not their turf and that Jesus was not empowered by their earthly religious authority. And, that they in fact, had no authority to ask Jesus questions at all; they “did not know” that they were being taught by God’s only son who taught them with the authority given to him by God.
Jesus masterfully used the tense exchange with the leaders as a teachable moment, for all who had ears to hear, using the parable of the two sons. In the parable, a father had two sons, both of whom he commanded to go and work in the vineyard today. The first son denied his father’s command but later changed his mind and went to work. The religious leaders acknowledged that the first son had been obedient to his father’s will, no doubt, because they saw themselves in the character of the obedient son, not in the son who promised, but never showed up.
Jesus shattered their self-righteous thoughts by revealing that the moral and social outcasts of society—the tax collectors and the prostitutes—would enter the kingdom of God before them. The religious leaders’ obedience to their own power, hindered them from being obedient to God and from bearing fruit worthy of repentance. And, they were more like with the character of the second son who blew off his father’s command.
On that day, in the person of Jesus, the kingdom of God had come near to the chief priests and the elders, in sacred space, obliterating their cast system by teaching that God loves the Jews and the Gentiles. Those Gentile outcasts were the ones actually showing up, following Jesus and being willingly prepared to go to work in the vineyard with him.
As followers of Jesus Christ, this parable warns Christians against self-righteous religion which hardens the heart to God’s presence. Jesus calls us to develop a discipline of repentance—to change our minds and turn our hearts away from the sinful self and toward God, with a commitment to show up to work in God’s vineyard each day. When we intentionally develop a discipline of repentance, we not only believe that Jesus Christ is Lord; we believe in Jesus Christ, through whom God enables us, “…To will and to work for his good pleasure” (Phil 2:13).
Often the Church’s focus is on evangelizing the unchurched or de-churched persons. Consider that this passage might be about the need to re-evangelize ourselves—those who already show up to church and belong to a community of faith. We need to be reminded of our own susceptibility to rejecting God’s commands like both of the sons did. And, we need to be reminded that, each day, by God’s grace, we can change our minds, like the first son did, and follow in the footsteps of our savior and choose obedience.
The same Word of God, which came to John in the wilderness, and propelled him forward as a prophet, calls each of us to claim our prophetic voices and to reclaim the prophetic voice of the Church, both of which are instruments of God’s grace and mercy, speaking truth to power in this broken world. We can do this with confidence because we know who we are as children of God, and we know by whose authority we have been sent into the vineyard “out there” to work. And, we only know who we are because we know who Jesus is and what he did for us on the cross.
In a world a world that increasingly denies and mocks God, and God’s children, with the implied question, in its varied forms, “Who do you Christians think you are,” we might lean into their lack of understanding and curiosity, and make space to make Christ known by asking, “And just who do you think you’re talking to?”
Amen.
