"What Would Jesus Do?" (sermon)

Two Rivers Pastoral Charge
Sunday November 1, 2026
Scripture Reading:  Matthew 23:1-12

I’m going to begin by confessing that I find the reading from the gospel of Matthew that we just heard to be a very challenging reading. I take comfort that I’m not alone in this feeling though, as the various preaching podcasts that I listen to all confessed to feeling the same.  Last week, it was a challenge to write a sermon because the reading was too easy; this week it was a challenge because the reading is too difficult! I'm feeling a bit like Goldilocks today.

We’re still in the same encounter with the leaders in the temple that we’ve been reading about in the past month.  We’re still in the final days of Jesus’s life.  Now, the leaders have stopped asking Jesus’s questions, and it’s Jesus’s turn to take the lead on the conversation.

And Jesus doesn’t hold back.  He doesn’t play coy or ask trick questions.  He comes at them with blunt accusations.  They don’t practice what they preach.  They oppress others.  They take on symbols of authority without doing anything to earn the respect that they claim.

Angry Jesus makes me uncomfortable, but I think that what makes me even more uncomfortable than Angry Jesus is how this passage might be interpreted.

Does anyone remember the WWJD bracelets of the 1990s?  What Would Jesus Do?  Before any encounter, pause and ask yourself, what would Jesus do in this situation?  If we are to be imitators of Jesus, does this mean that we are supposed to go around criticizing the religious practices of other people and groups?

Remember that this episode comes right after Jesus taught that the greatest commandments were to love God with our whole being and to love our neighbours as ourselves.  Is it loving to go around criticizing others?  This passage has certainly been interpreted this way.  People will justify it by saying, “I’m doing it for their own good.  I’m just trying to make them aware of the error of their ways.”

I also suspect that we might be guilt of this too.  Around United Church circles, I hear things like, “Well, at least I’m not a Christian like that?  How can they have such backwards beliefs?”

One of my former professors, Dr. David Deane, has said on a number of occasions that the thing that must make Jesus weep is the division in the church today.  Surely we ought to prioritize love over criticism?

But what if we could re-frame this story as a story of internal disagreement rather than criticizing another group?  Because don’t forget that Jesus was Jewish.  Some scholars have even suggested that Jesus may have been a Pharisee – there is no evidence in the bible to support this, but many of Jesus’s teachings aligned with the beliefs and teachings of the Pharisees, both Jesus and the Pharisees teaching a path where every person could be in relationship with God.

In this case, Jesus isn’t criticizing other people, he is critiquing “our” religious practices.  He is taking on a prophetic role within his own faith, speaking the truth to power.  1500 years later, Martin Luther and John Calvin and the other leaders of the Reformation did the same – none of them set out to start new denominations, but rather they wanted to reform their own church from within.

And so who might our reformers be today?  Who, from within our church, is able to see clearly the places we are falling short and is able to tell us so?  Whose voices should we, as the United Church of Canada, or as Two Rivers Pastoral Charge – whose voices should we be listening to when they point out uncomfortable truths?  How willing are we to change, to re-align ourselves with the ways of God as taught to us by Jesus?

Like I said, this is a challenging reading, if we have ears to hear it.

But Jesus ends by saying, “The greatest among you will be your servant.  All who exalt themselves will be humbled, and all who humble themselves will be exalted.”  If we exalt ourselves, thinking that we are above criticism, then we are going to be brought low; but instead we are called to serve others.  Rather than criticizing others, rather than asking if they are deserving of help, rather than thinking that we are above helping, I think that what Jesus is really telling us here is that we are to serve others.

This passage then becomes an illustration of what he was just teaching in the previous passage.  We are to love our neighbours – no exceptions, no conditions, no strings attached.  And loving our neighbours looks like serving them in love.  Feeding people who are hungry.  Advocating for adequate and safe housing.  Building community around people who are lonely.  Getting to know our neighbours so that we are able to love them in the way that they want to be loved.

And when I ask myself, “what would Jesus do?” this pretty much sums it up.

And may it be so, in the here and now.  Amen.

 

 

Image by Dylanh777 on flickr
Used with Permission