26th Sunday, Ordinary Time

 


26TH SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME


You perhaps have heard about the customer who orders a bowl of soup. Soon after the bowl of soup is served, the customer demands that the manager be summoned. As the manager arrives, he is confronted with the following question: What is that fly doing in my soup?? The manager takes a quick look and then responds: It appears to be doing the backstroke. 


So we have a cry of protest, and we also have a response. Our first reading features a cry of protest (see Ezekiel 18:25). In this case, the protest is not being directed at a manager, or a superintendent, or even a bishop; rather, this cry of protest is being sent all the way to the top. It’s a cry of protest being leveled at the Lord himself. And strikingly, it draws an immediate response. 


It leaves you with the impression that, when a cry of protest is issued, an immediate response will be forthcoming. However, experience tells you that the more typical response will be an unspecified period of silence. It’s not that you’re being ignored. Instead, this needs to be understood as the Lord’s way of giving you some time to reflect. 


Consider today’s parable from Matthew 21. The father has spoken, with authority. The first son appears to have submitted to the father’s authority. But he’s being insincere. Meanwhile, the second son has adopted a spirit of protest. No immediate response has been recorded, on the part of the father. This would suggest that the second son is being afforded the opportunity to do some reflecting. This leads to an eventual change of heart. He therefore submits, even if belatedly (Matt. 21:28-32). 


Jesus sets the standard by submitting to the Father’s eternal plan. Paul outlines this as he writes to the church in Philippi (2:5-11). Jesus essentially establishes the ideal. He occupies one end of the spectrum. The first son is positioned at the other end of the spectrum. Then we have the second son who ranks somewhere in between. The first son simulates obedience. Jesus basically exemplifies the concept of obedience. As for the second son, he practices a form of belated obedience. 


This begs the question of our own status: where do you fall on this spectrum? Do you identify with Jesus, the one who demonstrates an unqualified brand of obedience? On the other hand, do you identify with the first son? Are you a kind of “yes-man,” heavy on platitudes and short on sincerity? Or it’s very possible that you find yourself identifying with the second son. Your relationship with the Lord is a relationship that’s characterized by a degree of turbulence. You raise the voice of protest on a regular basis. You use the ensuing period of silence to do some reflecting. And finally you come to the conclusion that God’s way is probably the best way. If this is where you place, it seems that you may well be earning a passing grade from the Lord—at least based on what’s being presented in Matthew chapter 21. 

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