Sermon - Trinity 18, 2020 - Matthew 22:34-46

 A few weeks ago we heard a lawyer ask Jesus “What shall I do to inherit eternal life.” Jesus asked the man what was written in the law and how he reads it. The lawyer answered with nearly the same words that Jesus says today: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.”

The lawyer’s answer then, and Jesus’ answer today, are both correct. Frankly, that answer is not controversial in the least. When Jesus says: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind,” Jesus is just quoting verbatim the Shema, the greatest commandment in the Old Testament from Deuteronomy 6:5. When Jesus says “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” He’s just quoting Leviticus. These are Sunday school answers any Israelite child could have given!

The interesting thing here isn’t the answer, but the question. They were asking the wrong questions! So Jesus asks them the right questions: “What do you think about the Christ? Whose Son is He?” The questions they ought to have asked are who is the Christ and what does He do. So it is true that the greatest law is loving God perfectly and completely, and loving your neighbor as yourself, but what’s important is that the fulfillment of the Law is Christ.

So let’s take this in two parts: first, by considering the greatest commandment in the law, second by considering Christ who fulfills the law. But first, the law.

The question of the law, what we must do in order to be saved, is a basic question asked by humans everywhere. Ultimately, this is the question which every religion asks and tries to answer: What do I have to do in order to be saved from death and hell? The answer of Judaism is to follow Levitical holiness laws. The answer of Muhammadism is to live according to the Koran. The answer of Eastern religions like Hinduism and Buddhism is to live selflessly in order to escape from yourself and become one with the universe.

Honestly, this is what atheism and secular humanism attempt to do politically in this world as well. For instance, politicians will tell you that we must pass such and such laws, make certain policy and regulatory adjustments, and then we can be saved from evil and have paradise. If we just did this, then we could stop crime; if we just did that, then we could stop storms; if we just lived according to the constitution or got rid of the constitution, then we would be saved from evil and live in happiness.

Par of the problem with most of that thinking is that these are all laws directed towards loving our neighbor as ourselves. While loving your neighbor is part of the law, we need to remember that it’s the second table of the law. The first and greatest commandment is faith, to love the Lord your God with your whole being.

The first three commandments do take priority over the following seven commandments. We should fear, love, and trust in God above all things. We should not misuse the name of the Lord our god. We should remember the sabbath day by keeping it holy. The greatest commandment of the law is that we love God more devoutly than anything else in all creation! That Includes our families, friends, and other neighbors. 

Before honoring our parents or being patriotic or upholding marriage, we must love God. Before we care for the needs of our neighbor or fight for the sanctity of life, we must love God. Before protecting our neighbor’s property or helping repair their house after a storm, we must love God. Before guarding our lips against deceit and defending our neighbor’s reputation, we must love God. Before contenting ourselves with what we have, we must love God.

This maybe seems to be quite simple and obvious, but very seldom in practice do we love God before we love our neighbor. More often, we forget about the first three commandments because they’re without worldly glory, and we focus solely on the second table of the law because when we do those things well the world honors us. For example, there’s no worldly reward for reading your Bible daily, but if you care for your children daily they will lather you with love and affection and give you cards and treat you well in return.

That’s not, however, to say that we shouldn’t obey all ten commandments, it’s just to say that there are priorities at play here. It’s also good and necessary to love your neighbor as yourself! By loving your neighbor you’re also loving God! As Jesus said: “As you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.”

And so here we are instructed to see that obeying God’s law is a good and necessary thing because this is how we love God and love our neighbor. “Love is the fulfilling of the law.” Love is not just some abstract emotional concept, but love is primarily concrete actions and behaviors. 

For example: My love for my wife isn’t just an invisible emotion in my heart, but my love takes shape through my words and actions towards her. Similarly, my love for God isn’t just some invisible feeling, but my love for God takes shape through my words and actions. Thus, Christians love God by doing what He commands! Christians love God by praying, singing His praises, speaking of Him to others, reading the scriptures, attending the Divine Service, living according to His Word, and making His Word take root in our hearts. We love our neighbors in similar fashion by performing works of love shaped by the ten commandments.

Thus, what is commanded of us is that we love God with our whole being and our neighbors as ourselves. But that’s the problem with following a religion where you’re supposed to be saved by your obedience to the law, because that’s impossible for us! You and I cannot love God with our whole heart because our hearts are evil. “The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” 

While we are Christians who have the Holy Spirit dwelling within our hearts, who is reforming and reshaping us into His image, sanctifying our hearts, minds, and hands, the reality remains that we’re not yet without sin in this life. Apostle Paul writes: “So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.”

Thus our obedience to the law is always going to fall very short of perfection and salvation. We’re never going to be able to do enough in order to inherit eternal life. As great and as beautiful as the law may be, we’re not capable of fulfilling it so completely that it can save us.

“Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?” So here we finally come upon the second part, namely, we look to Jesus’ questions we need to answer: “What do you think about the Christ? Whose Son is He?” The Pharisees’ answer is correct: David’s son; but there’s more to it. Namely, the Messiah is David’s Son and God’s Son, the Christ is our Lord. 

Christ didn’t come to abolish the law and the prophets. Jesus said: “I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.” Fulfill them He did! “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.” What do we think about the Christ? Whose Son is He? He is God’s Son and He is the Redeemer of the World, who fulfilled the law for us by suffering the wrath of God and declaring us righteous.

So yes, the greatest commandment in the law is to love God with your whole being and your neighbor as yourself. But the greatest Word in the scriptures is that Christ Jesus fulfills that greatest commandment in your place. The question is the law, and the answer is found in Jesus our Messiah and Lord.