The Religion of Power

Gospel: Matthew 20: 20-28

Religion has often had a split personality.  Like most human beings we have a drive to the good and the true, while also having a dark side seeking power, influence, and wealth.  In today's Gospel we see in a microcosm what we now see in the macro in religion: the constant desire for position, influence,  and power.  Two men desire seats of influence, each claiming to be worthy of it, while ten other men are indignant and jealous of their jockeying for position and influence.  We see it everyday in religion.  

Apologists for religion will argue that this happens in every institution.  Why is religion being singled out for critique? Well, for one, Jesus here and in many other places provides a standard for religion to follow.  Religion is not about position, power, status, and wealth. It is about the works of mercy and reconciliation.  It is about healing, liberating, nourishing.  It is to clothe the naked, feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, shelter the homeless, care of the sick and imprisoned, welcome the stranger and alien.

Religion cannot offer the apologetic that it is better than everything else, and when its sins are revealed then argue that such sins exist everywhere.  Rather than apologetic, religion should apologize and then set about to its calling in the work of the Lord Jesus.  The world of apologetics is the world of status, power, influence, and ego.  The world of apology for sin is the world of the Lord Jesus, an encounter with mercy, and an invitation to be an instrument of mercy in the world.