But what does it mean?
Well it's a cunning way of blaming everything on the previous generation. "What we suffer now is our parent's fault," cried the people of God in exile. My Mum often used to say, "The sins of the father are to be laid upon the children," a Biblical observation that found so much favour with Shakespeare that he used it in the Merchant of Venice.
God says to Ezekiel, "Tell the people to cut it out - the problems you face are all theirs!" I know many people from really good homes who have turned bad and done awful things, and vice versa, and the reality is that we need not to blame our background or family history but to decide that, regardless what has gone, we write our own chapters in the book of life!
Of course the psychologists and social workers and the like all tell us that we are slaves to our familial history and our parental behaviour, and this is almost always well-received and endorsed as true because it enables us to be victims. Apparently I should be a drunken, wife-beating, oppressive bully of a man because of my family history.
But I am ploughing my own furrow and writing my own pages of life. I can choose to be a victim or I can choose to live in the freedom God gives me and life lays before me and be whosoever I want to be. In the Ezekiel passage, God invites us to erase the sins and errors of old and enter into something new and life-giving.
It's not always popular when someone from a chequered family history does well, after all we want 'justice' that suits our opinions of people, don't we? People should 'know their place'. And, God with this, for our place is as His people serving Him and being the best people, the most fulfilled, the most enabled people there are.
Sour grapes? You know where to stick them (the black bin) - nothing future, present, or past separate us from His love and nothing stops us from being fulfilled except us. There's always a way - even if it takes being a bit pushy - to overcome the past and achieve. It's called 'freedom in Christ'!
And this leads us to look at Jesus - someone who 'has it all' (because He is all) and yet, contrary to today's world where so many are struggling to become powerful, Jesus is willing to put it to one side to fulfil the role He has in God's plan for reconciliation between Him and the world.
The problem is that for Jesus to achieve everything He has come to do, he must truly be 'one of us' and this means that He needs to make the choice to 'empty' himself of the last vestiges of being God (the knowing everything, the power and all that 'God' stuff) and live as we live. Anything else would have rendered the who Jesus thing a complete con trick, He would still have been God playing at, and looking like, a complete and real human being.
Jesus is putting aside everything to write a new page in the history of man - because He's not going to sin, and that removes the designer fault Adam possessed - and that opens the gates of relationship and a new way of life to those who choose to make this new life theirs. To complete the task before Him, Jesus - truly human, living through the same revelation moments and glimpses and insights of God - is calling us to empty ourselves of pride and to take upon ourselves that same humble servanthood that Jesus reveals.
We become that new page and reveal the author of life through our response and actions. I wonder how we are doing with this one?
Then comes the twist - because the same bloke who has put off power, status and privilege (and I'd have to say being God must bring all of them, wouldn't you?) is challenged by the people who had, and wanted to cling to, power and authority with two questions:
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"By what authority are you doing these things? And who gave you this authority?”
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I live in a world where every day I encounter people who demand that I challenge them with these two questions - and a I'm guessing I'm not alone here - because there are so many self-appointed people seeking to rule over, and control, us. I work on the theory that those on that those who feel the need to tell me that they're my boss, most definitely aren't!
Jesus ties the wanna be bosses up in knots by asking them a question they can't answer about John the baptist and his baptism - was it from God or man. If they answered 'God' then they were going to get the same answer regarding Jesus' authority. If they answered 'man' then they'd cause an uproar with the crowd. We face the same question regarding Jesus: Is He merely a good man trying to do the right thing or is He a man who is God? In the first then if what is being done is in line with what God commands then the authority He is under is God's and if indeed Jesus is God, well there's no question to be answered because it's obvious isn't it?
Now we know we aren't Gods but we can go and do stuff with God's commission and so are under God's authority. If we empty ourselves and allow Goid's Holy Spirit to fill and enable us; if we ignore everything that has gone, defuse the power of the past that makes us a visit and choose to follow God and keep His commandments and act under His authority, we will not only make a difference but will be the difference too.
And if we do all this with humility and in love - the world becomes a very different place indeed - and wouldn't we all like this to be the case?
Post Communion Prayer
Almighty God, you have taught us through your Son that love is the fulfilling of the law: grant that we may love you with our whole heart and our neighbours as ourselves; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Ezekiel 18.1-4,25-32
The word of the Lord came to me:
What do you mean by repeating this proverb concerning the land of Israel, ‘The parents have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge’? As I live, says the Lord God, this proverb shall no more be used by you in Israel. Know that all lives are mine; the life of the parent as well as the life of the child is mine: it is only the person who sins that shall die.
Yet you say, ‘The way of the Lord is unfair.’ Hear now, O house of Israel: Is my way unfair? Is it not your ways that are unfair? When the righteous turn away from their righteousness and commit iniquity, they shall die for it; for the iniquity that they have committed they shall die. Again, when the wicked turn away from the wickedness they have committed and do what is lawful and right, they shall save their life. Because they considered and turned away from all the transgressions that they had committed, they shall surely live; they shall not die. Yet the house of Israel says, ‘The way of the Lord is unfair.’ O house of Israel, are my ways unfair? Is it not your ways that are unfair?
Therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, all of you according to your ways, says the Lord God. Repent and turn from all your transgressions; otherwise iniquity will be your ruin. Cast away from you all the transgressions that you have committed against me, and get yourselves a new heart and a new spirit! Why will you die, O house of Israel? For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone, says the Lord God. Turn, then, and live.
Philippians 2.1-13
If then there is any encouragement in Christ, any consolation from love, any sharing in the Spirit, any compassion and sympathy, make my joy complete: be of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others. Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness.
And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death - even death on a cross. Therefore God also highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Therefore, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed me, not only in my presence, but much more now in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, enabling you both to will and to work for his good pleasure.
Matthew 21.23-32
When he 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.” 29He 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.
The Collect
Lord of creation, whose glory is around and within us: open our eyes to your wonders, that we may serve you with reverence and know your peace at our lives’ end, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
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