38 - Matthew 21:31

’Verily I say unto you, That the publicans and the harlots go into the kingdom of God before you.’ -Matthew 21:31.

Elsewhere in the Gospels publicans and sinners are conjoined; here publicans and harlots. Classes popularly regarded as the most removed from religious influences are designated. By the sinners and harlots we understand persons of abandoned life, living regardless of the restraints of society, of conscience, and of God; with, however, very little thought of God or knowledge of religion. The tax-gatherer is to this day, under the oppressive governments of Western Asia, held in odium. There was in the case of the Jew a special aggravation, that he was wringing tribute from God’s chosen people to replenish the coffers of an idolatrous government. Jesus does not pronounce with regard to the correctness of this. They may be the wretches and reprobates you style them; but the door you close upon them I open: "I came to call sinners."

He is now addressing "the chief priests and elders of the people," the very foremost religious dignitaries of the time, the rulers of the church, those that sat in Moses’ seat. They considered themselves entitled, by virtue of this opinion, to interrogate every one who stood forth as a religious teacher, and adjudicate concerning his claims. What right had any one to speak on religious topics without the sanction of the Church? And who were the Church if not the chief priests and elders of Jerusalem, to whom scribes and Pharisees and lawyers all looked reverently up? Clothed with this divine commission, as they regarded it, they came, not suddenly, but with premeditation and deliberation, publicly and with state, to Jesus. He was in the temple preaching. The crowd divided and made way for these dignitaries of the Jewish church. They challenged him for his authority. Who had commissioned him thus to take up a position in the temple, gather crowds around him, and address them on the subject of religion? Had he been certificated by anybody? In what school had he studied? What Rabbi had given him a diploma? It was not lawful for any one that pleased to stand up there and preach to the Israel of God. If he could furnish the adequate authorization, they would of course not object to his preaching (under certain necessary restrictions), but they must first be satisfied as to the sufficiency of this sanction. What is thine authority, and who gave it thee? A question something like this, but breathing a very different spirit, had once been brought to Jesus by the disciples of John. His reply was simply to open the eyes of the blind, give hearing to the deaf, healing to the sick, by a word, a touch. They went back with their answer as with great gain. How shall Jesus now reply to these great men? His reply is such as they had little dreamt of. So far from descending to the platform where they wished him to stand, and by the assertion of his claims seem to acknowledge them as the arbiters of religion, he quietly exposes before all the people their utter incompetency to discharge the duties which they had taken upon themselves. ’The baptism of John, was it from heaven or of men? All Judea went out to hear him; thousands from Jerusalem were baptized of him in Jordan confessing their sins; whence was his authority? who commissioned him? We all know that he did not receive his authority from you; did he then come without any authority? in mere self-will, ambition, or delusion? was he an impostor? and were all they who listened to him, and were convinced by him of sin and baptized by him, dupes of an impostor? or was he really, as he affirmed and as so many myriads found reason to believe, a prophet of the most High God? Answer me this question; then shall the way be clear for any reply to your question that may be needed.’

They were staggered, confounded. What answer could they make? That John was no prophet? Then he was an impostor, a heaven-daring liar. But against this the conscience of the entire community protested. That John was commissioned of God, and had been beheaded for his fidelity to the truth, all fully believed. By such an answer they would at once declare their unfitness for the office they pretended to exercise. On the other hand, if they conceded that John was a true prophet, they would have to account for the fact that they did not receive his testimony, and this of course they could not. For John had testified among other things that Jesus was the Messiah. They could give no answer. And they consequently stood there exposed and humiliated in the eyes of all, while Jesus pronounced a startling judgment concerning them. No amount of profession can compensate for the lack of obedience. ’Not he that says I will, but he that does, is accepted. You speak of publicans and harlots as the lost classes; you imagine yourselves to be on a rock, elevated above all possibility of danger, and able to dispense salvation freely to those who hearken to you. Know that the sinners and publicans will go into heaven before you.’

It would seem as though nothing were more debasing and corrupting than sensuality; nothing more deadening to conscience than reckless profligacy; nothing more fatal to hopes of salvation than a setting at naught of all restraint. Yet it seems there is something that places the soul more completely beyond the reach of religious truth than even a course of open immorality; and that is religious error. Men that are wrongly religious are far from the hope of salvation, just according to the intensity of their religious convictions. What publicans and harlots would never have thought of doing, these chief priests and elders did with enthusiasm, afterwards, namely, put to death the holy followers of Christ. The salvation of Christ is for those who have no merit, who renounce all idea of being saved by their own goodness, who ceasing to despise others recognise their own deep sinfulness. It is a fatal error to imagine that mere acquaintance with the letter of the Scriptures, with theology, mere orthodoxy, will get us a place in the kingdom of God. There is no more formidable barrier between us and salvation than a presumption that our path is the path of life; for when there is this presumption the Scriptures are so interpreted as to accord with it; and when at any time the conscience becomes a little uneasy, the remedy is to press forward more eagerly, - but always in this same path. In our own days, when the Spirit of God has been poured out, the publicans and sinners have shown themselves much more ready to yield to the power of truth, and come with a broken and contrite heart to the cross of Christ, than many elders and doctors and dignitaries in the Church have done. These remain as they were, while the former have become earnest preachers of righteousness.