An Upside Down World

By the time Jesus got through with the third parable that day, those chief priests, elders, and religious leaders must have had the feeling that they had been hit in the head one time too many.  They made the mistake of questioning Jesus' authority as He was teaching in the Temple.  (Matthew 21:23)  Before the dust cleared they were surely reeling.  The parable of the two sons, the parable of the wicked tenants, and the parable of the wedding feast came in such quick succession, there was no time for breathing, or thinking.  They knew at the end of the confrontation that things had worked out nothing like they had anticipated. 

 

Those parables still expose the folks who think they have it all figured out and who bask in the light of being in charge of what other people think.  Self righteousness makes folks think they are better than others and Jesus made it clear that the Kingdom did not really belong to such people, but to those who society declared to be of little value.  While reading the three parables a story of Flannery O'Connor came to mind.  "Revelation" is one of her short stories which ends with the self righteous Mrs. Turpin caught up in a vision which reveals her, her husband, and all those like her who figured they were better than others at the tail end of the procession marching toward glory. 

 

The tail end was not where the chief priests and elders were accustomed to walking.  They were the front of the line, head of the table, kind of people.  The Kingdom of heaven turns things upside down.  It did when Jesus was defining it through His ministry and it continues to be the same way in our day.  If our world has not been turned upside down since we set out to follow Jesus, it may well be that we only talked about following Jesus, but never really got around to it.