The Jesus Column

 

Matthew 21: 23-32

When Jesus entered the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came to him as he was teaching, and said, “By what authority are you doing these things, and who gave you this authority?” Jesus said to them, “I will also ask you one question; if you tell me the answer, then I will also tell you by what authority I do these things. Did the baptism of John come from heaven, or was it of human origin?” And they argued with one another, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will say to us, ‘Why then did you not believe him?’ But if we say, ‘Of human origin,’ we are afraid of the crowd; for all regard John as a prophet.” So they answered Jesus, “We do not know.” And he said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things.

“What do you think? A man had two sons; he went to the first and said, ‘Son, go and work in the vineyard today.’ He answered, ‘I will not’; but later he changed his mind and went. The father went to the second and said the same; and he answered, ‘I go, sir’; but he did not go. Which of the two did the will of his father?” They said, “The first.” Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are going into the kingdom of God ahead of you. For John came to you in the way of righteousness and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes believed him; and even after you saw it, you did not change your minds and believe him.

People	Self	Jesus	End
first son	bad	good	good
second son	good	good	bad
tax collectors and prostitutes	bad	good	good
chief priests and elders	good	bad	bad

 

Yamas and Niyamas – Yoga’s ethical practices

I had to make myself a chart to make sense of this story.  We have four groups in this story the first group is the chief priests and elders.  They think they are doing right, but they really are hung up on earthly things and have little faith in Jesus and none in John, from the beginning Jesus recognizes their lack of faith. The second group is the tax collectors and the prostitutes they know they are bad, but Jesus sees the good in them and eventually they find righteousness in Jesus and John. These two groups are then compared to two sons.  The first son considers himself to be bad but something, perhaps faith or righteousness, gets the better of him and he does the right thing. The other son plans to do the righteous thing, but something gets in the way.

It’s all very confusing and it is easy to think of yourself as being on the good side of these situations.  But are we?

My husband defines ethics and morals as doing the right thing even when no one is looking.  This would be the Jesus Column.  It doesn’t matter how we act or portray ourselves to be on the outside, our interior lives, what Jesus sees, is what really matters. 

Jesus can see both sons for their faults and know that they are really good on the inside. They both at various points in the story had a heart that was in the right place. 

Likewise, the tax collectors and prostitutes, even though externally sullied, believe and have faith.

But Jesus can also see the external sham that the chief priests and elders put on to everyone else and know that inside they are not so good. There is no hiding from their true selves. They are so concerned about what others will think that they don’t even take a position or risk in the name of faith or righteousness.  They coward and lie “we do not know.”

How do we keep ourselves in new covenant relationship? How do “we know.” The ten commandments were a start, but where do we go from here? Through the teachings of Jesus which bring us into a new, mature relationship, and the Lord’s Prayer that he gave us.  We can find it in our hearts even today to know what is right on the inside, even though we disagree on the outside. For me as a practitioner of yoga I follow the Yamas and the Niyamas, yoga’s ten ethical guidelines.  They are not a direct translation to the ten commandments, I think they could be a new covenant, revised standard version, of these rules for living and caring.

No one is perfect and as we navigate the next weeks and months find righteousness, faith, hope, and love in all that you do. Especially on the inside.

Namaste

 

Picture from http://www.mikeleake.net/2013/01/how-i-teach-childrenteens-imputed-righteousness.html