Rev. Charles Lehmann + Matthew 22: 34 - 40 + Pentecost 23
In the Name of + Jesus. Amen.
The Pharisees and Sadducees hate that they can't catch Jesus in his words.
Last week we heard when Jesus caught them in idolatry. The Lord would not play
their games. He knew their evil intent. He knew that they were not really
interested in His Word. But that's par for the course. Jesus' enemies always
acted out of unbelief and hatred. Because they did not believe His word, the
Pharisees wanted to trap Jesus in charges of blasphemy so that they could kill
him.
In Romans, Paul tells us that the purpose of all Law is "so that every
mouth may be silenced and the whole world [be] held accountable to God." In the
book of Revelation, we hear the exhortation, "He that has ears let him hear
what the spirit says to the churches." It is with our ears that we hear and
believe. It is with our mouths that we confess what the Lord has said to us.
But since Jesus' enemies did not listen to Him, they couldn't confess either.
When the Sadducees came to try to trap Jesus in his words, he saw through
what they had said to the unbelief that lay behind it. After Jesus had
corrected them He said, "You are in error because you do not know the
Scriptures or the power of God." The Lord's words silenced the unbelief of the
Sadducees. The Lord silenced the Sadducees because He loved them. The Lord
wanted the Sadducees to listen to Him so that they would hear the words of life
that He was speaking.
But sinful man does not want to listen to God. Sinful man has its own word
to speak and to listen to. But this is a problem. Apart from God, no word can
ever give life. Unless the Holy Spirit speaks the words, the words have
nothing in them but eternal death. Every sinful human mouth must be stopped.
But the Pharisees and Sadducees do not want their mouths to be stopped. The
Pharisees want to speak. They want to argue with Jesus. The Pharisees want to
gain an upper hand in the ongoing debate that they've been having with the Lord.
So the Pharisees send in a ringer. They find their best legal mind, and
they send him to show Jesus who is boss. The expert sent by the Pharisees asks
Jesus a very simple question. "Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in
the Law?" As is often the case, Jesus doesn't really answer the question.
Instead, Jesus says, "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all
your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment.
And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' All the Law and
the Prophets hang on these two commandments."
The Lawyer asks Jesus for one commandment that is greater than all the
others, but this question doesn't really have a correct answer. There is no
one commandment in the Law that is greater than any other commandment.
Breaking any of them is sin. Any sin can send someone to hell. Sin always
places what you want over what the Lord wants.
And so Jesus doesn't really answer the Lawyer's question. Jesus is not
willing to take one commandment and place it over the others. So instead of
doing this, Jesus speaks two commandments that summarize all the others. Jesus
has given the whole Law for the good of his people. The Law of God tells us
the way of safety. When we stray outside of the Law's boundaries, sin begins
to devour us. Jesus knows that all sins hurt. He knows that all sins kill.
Sin is never satisfied with staying small. Sin is never harmless. It
grows, like cancer. After the serial murderer Ted Bundy became a Christian, he
told the story about how he had become such a heartless killer. It all started
with pornography. He didn't think that looking at pictures would hurt anyone.
But his sin didn't stay there. Eventually he wanted to act out what he saw in
the pictures. But soon that wasn't even enough. In order to satisfy his
sinful desires, Bundy turned to violence. By the time he was executed, Ted
Bundy knew how much sin can grow. He knew that it is never safe. He knew that
it can destroy you.
None of us have gone as far as Ted Bundy did. We keep many of our sins in
our minds. And though that might keep us from going to death row for murder,
it still isn't safe. Sin always hurts. There are no minor sins. All sin is
death. All sin is unbelief. Even the most innocuous and innocent seeming sin
can end up dragging us to hell.
So why do we abide in sin? Why, even though we know that what we are doing
will hurt us, do we do it anyway? The Lord has told us what is best. There is
one important word that is common to both commandments that the Lord gives in
his summary. Love. Love is the fulfillment of the whole Law. We just sang
that the Law of God is good and wise. It sets God's will before our eyes. But
what is that will of God? It is not as difficult to answer this question as it
might seem at first. If you want to see what God wants, look at what God does.
From the very beginning, God has loved His creation. He hates nothing He
has made and forgives the sins of the penitent. When He placed Adam and Eve in
the garden, He gave them all that they could possibly ever want or desire From
the very beginning, God is love. From the very beginning, God is gracious.
Jesus does not give us the command to love God with our whole heart because He
is needy. God is not needy. God is not lonely. God is not starved for our
affection. God gives. God loves. To love God is to receive all His benefits.
To love God is to look only to Him for every good thing. That shouldn't be as
difficult as it is. After all, every good thing that we ever receive comes
from God.
To love God is to hold onto him as God. To love God is to expect God to be
exactly who He has promised to be. But the Pharisees did not love God. The
Pharisees wanted God to reward them for their works. But the Pharisees did not
trust God for their salvation. Jesus, the true God, was speaking to them, but
they did not believe His Words because they were not willing to listen to His
Words.
We like to beat up on the Pharisees, but we are not so different. We
listen halfheartedly to the Lord's word. We falter in our prayers. When pain
and struggle and strife assail us in this world we often trust ourselves first
and God last. We do not love God with our whole heart. At best we give Him a
little corner, and we keep the rest of our heart to ourselves.
But we do no better in loving our neighbor. The Lord tells us to love them
as ourselves, but we don't love ourselves. We hurt ourselves daily by constant
sin. So since we don't even know how to love ourselves, how can we show love
to our neighbor? Sin always gets in the way.
Jesus said, "Greater love as no one that this, that he lay down his life
for his friends." That is true love for neighbor. It is the sort of love that
the Law demands. But instead of loving our neighbor, we often do everything
but love them. We try to get an advantage over them. Sometimes we do it by
gossip, and sometimes we hold grudges against them in our hearts.
The only perfect example of love for neighbor is in the love that Christ
has for you. Jesus Christ is the holy and innocent one. He has never deserved
anything from his Father but everlasting love. But because Jesus loves you, it
was His joy to receive wrath from his Father instead of love. Because Jesus
loves you, He laid down his life on the cross. He suffered all of His Father's
wrath. Jesus received in His Body all of the punishment that you should have
received in your body. Jesus did this because He not only loved His neighbor
as himself, but He loved you, His neighbor, more than He loved His own life.
But, it is even greater than that! In Jesus' love for you, He was showing
perfect love for his Father, also. There is no conflict between loving your
neighbor as yourself and loving the Lord your God with all your heart. God
does not need our service, and He has never needed it. But your neighbor does
need you. The work that you do in the vocation God has given you is the way He
has given to serve your neighbor. A mother does holy work when she changes her
baby's diaper. A child does holy work when they do their chores. Jesus does
his most holy work He obeys God the Father, and He takes up all your sins and
all my sins and carries them in His Body and then suffers and dies for them on
the cross.
When Jesus returns in glory to judge the living and the dead he will not
judge us on the basis of what we have done for Him. Instead, those whom He
calls blessed by His Father will be people who didn't even realize they were
serving him. Jesus will say to them, "Come, you who are blessed by my Father;
take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the
world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me
drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I was naked and you clothed me,
I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you visited me." But
they will be confused. They will ask the Lord when they did any of these
things. Jesus will reply, "I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of
the least of these brothers of mine, you did it for me."
Jesus has joined himself to our human nature. He has suffered all that we
suffer. He has endured all that we endure. He knows every struggle that we
face. When Jesus was betrayed into the hands of wicked men, He stumbled under
the blows of sticks on His back and He felt the wetness of spit on his face.
When the women who surrounded his cross cried and wept, Jesus was comforted by
their show of compassion.
Whatever you do for the least of these his brothers you do it also for Him.
Love God. Love your neighbor. Love is the fulfillment of the whole Law. If
you want an example, look to Jesus. But Jesus is much more than an example.
Jesus is the one, the only one, who has ever fulfilled the Law. You cannot
fulfill the Law. I cannot fulfill the Law. But Jesus loves you. He has
forgiven you. He has taken your sins to the cross and He has destroyed them
there.
Though our sins nailed Jesus to the cross, He still desires you. Though
Jesus has become our neighbor, we have not loved him. But since Jesus is our
neighbor, we know that He loves us. Rejoice, people loved by God! You have a
Savior! He has laid down his life for you, His beloved little lambs. Your sin
is gone forever. As far as the east is from the west so has He removed your
transgressions from you.
The Law has no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. You are
baptized! You are clothed with Christ and his salvation! He who has no sin
has become sin for you, and in Him you are the righteousness of God. And so
today the Lord does a wonderful thing. He comes to you with good gifts of life
and salvation. He gives you His body to eat and His blood to drink. In this
salutary gift, He forgives you all your sins.
The Father loves you so much that he has not held back his only Son. You
worship Him best when you receive what He gives. He gives life. He gives
salvation. He has established His Church. Here you receive all that He
promises. He gives comfort in all suffering. You who are loved by God lack no
good thing.
In the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
And the peace of God which surpasses all understanding keep your hearts and
your minds in faith in Christ Jesus. Amen.
Rev. Charles R. Lehmann
Pastor, Saint John's Lutheran Church, Accident, MD
http://chaz-lehmann.livejournal.com
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