Trinity 18 [Matthew 22:34-46] (7-Oct-2012)

This sermon was preached at St Paul's Lutheran Church, Darnum (9am), Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, Traralgon (11am) and Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, Bairnsdale (3pm).

Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ.

Text: (Matthew 22:34-46)

What do you think about the Christ?

Prayer: Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.

Our Gospel reading this Sunday begins with these words:

But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together.

We read here about two groups: the Pharisees and the Sadducees. These two groups were kinds of religious parties or factions. On the Jewish council, called the Sanhedrin, there were both Pharisees and Sadducees. In the book of Acts, St Paul is brought before this Jewish council where after he speaks, we read: “A dissension arose between the Pharisees and the Sadducees, and the assembly was divided. For the Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, nor angel, nor spirit, but the Pharisees acknowledge them all.”

Also, according to a Jewish historian called Josephus, the Sadducees also rejected any traditions of the Pharisees that weren’t written in the Law of Moses. The Pharisees were very strict in keeping various traditions that had been handed down, but if these traditions weren’t written down in Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Number or Deuteronomy, the first five books of the bible, often called the books of Moses, then the Sadducees rejected them.

And in the passage just before our Gospel reading, we read about where the Sadducees try to ask Jesus what they think is a trick question. They want to know if a woman has 7 husbands, one after the other, whose wife she will be in the next life. They think that this little example shows that there is no afterlife, no heaven, and no resurrection from the dead. Also, they appeal to Moses. They start their question to Jesus by saying, Teacher, Moses said, ‘If a man dies having no children, his brother must marry the widow and raise up children for his brother.’

But then Jesus says: You are wrong, because you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God. For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven. And as for the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was said to you by God: “I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob”? He is not God of the dead, but of the living.

Do you see that Jesus shows the Sadducees that there is a resurrection after all? There is such a thing as eternal life, and there is no need for marriage in eternal life. Also, he quotes to them from the book of Exodus: “I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob”. He quotes from Moses, in fact, he quotes to them from the time when God spoke directly to Moses from the burning bush. And then he says: He is not God of the dead but of the living. And we read: And when the crowd heard it, they were astonished at his teaching.

So now, we come to our reading today, where it says: But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. Our reading today occurs during Holy Week, in the week after he rode into Jerusalem on the donkey, and before he goes to the cross. So what do you think Jesus would do when he knows he’s going to die at the end of the week? He dedicates himself to one thing: teaching, teaching, teaching.

And so here he is in the temple: teaching. And the Pharisees and the Sadducees both come up to Jesus asking his questions and trying to trap him.

So the Pharisees gathered together, when they heard that he silenced the Sadducees. We see here a bit of good old-fashioned church politics going on! The Pharisees didn’t like the Sadducees at all, and now that Jesus had shut them up, they felt it was their turn.

But here’s the problem: the church of Jesus Christ doesn’t have any factions. There is faithfulness to Jesus and his word, and there is unfaithfulness to Jesus and his word. If pastors want to be pastors who care for their people, they can’t serve people by sitting on a fence and keeping two sides of an argument happy. That’s just politics—We can see this in government: sometimes one party are wrong about something, but this doesn’t necessarily mean that the other party are right.

So also in the church. Jesus does not tolerate factions, but goes to the temple daily and teaches. And at the end of the week, he dies. In Galatians 5, St Paul says that rivalries, dissensions and divisions are works of the flesh, and that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But also, in Ephesians 4, St Paul also teaches us to be eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. This unity doesn’t come from simply doing whatever people want to keep them happy, but it comes from the preaching of the word of God in its truth and purity. Sometimes this means that the word of God needs to spoken in season and out of season, as St Paul says. But Psalm 19 says: The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul.

And so, we read in our gospel reading: And one of [the Pharisees], a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbour as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”

The Pharisees want to ask Jesus for the ultimate commandment, the one great commandment. But Jesus speaks to them about two: Love God and also love your neighbour.

Jesus, in a sense, provides a summary of the Ten Commandments with these two commandments. The first three commandments have to so with loving God alone with all your heart and all your soul and all your mind: You shall have no other gods, You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God, and Remember the Sabbath Day by keeping it holy. We often call these commandments the first tablet of the law.

But then the rest of the commandments have to do with loving your neighbour as yourself: Honour your father and your mother, You shall not murder, You shall not commit adultery, You shall not steal, You shall not give false testimony against your neighbour, You shall not covet your neighbour’s house, and You shall not covet your neighbour’s wife, and so on.

But Jesus says a very interesting thing about these two commandments. He says: This is great and first commandment. And a second is like it.

Why is the second commandment like the first one? How is it like the first one?

Loving our neighbour is very much like loving God because human beings were created in the likeness of God. Jesus himself took on human flesh and a human body (Philippians 2 says: the form of a servant, the likeness of men), and by doing this he blessed all of human life right from its beginning to its end. Just as Jesus gives us his body and blood to eat and drink in the Lord’s Supper, so also he is truly present in his flesh and blood in our neighbour, obviously not for us to eat and drink, but for us to serve. So in the Lord’s Supper, the body and blood of Christ is given for you. Why? To eat and drink and believe in. But in our neighbours, the body and blood of Christ are also “given for us”, but in a different way. What for? For us to serve and help and bless and care for.

So Jesus promises to speak to us through our parents and other authorities: so we should honour them, just as if we were honouring God himself, because Jesus is truly present there through them.

Jesus promises to be there in every neighbour we come across, even children, hungry people, thirsty people, strangers and refugees, naked people, sick people, and people in prison. Jesus says: Whoever receives one such child in my name, receives me. He also says: I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me...Truly, I say to you, [Jesus wants you to take special notice] as you did it to the least of my brothers, you did it to me. So when we care for human life in obedience to the fifth commandment, we care for God himself.

Jesus promises to be there in every marriage, and St Paul teaches in Ephesians 5 that every marriage mysterious points us to the relationship between Christ and the church. …And so on. We can see that to love our neighbour as ourselves, is very much like loving God with all our heart and all our soul and all your mind. Just as you can’t separate Jesus’ two natures—just as you can’t split Jesus up into two people, a man and a god, but that he is God and man in one person—in the same way, we can’t split up loving God with loving our neighbour, because Jesus Christ himself promises to meet us through our neighbours. He even promises to meet us in a man bashed up by robbers on the side of the road, if ever we were to wander along the road and find such a person. Then we are called to use our donkey, to use our wine and oil, and to use our money to help that person, and serve Christ in his flesh.

And when a person gives another person this sort of help, it is Jesus himself who promises to help them. It is Jesus who has the donkey, it is Jesus who binds up the man’s wounds and pays for his accommodation. Remember the Good Samaritan was good, but he was also a heretic (an unbeliever, a false believer). In fact, he was one of the worst kinds of heretics for the Jewish people to whom Jesus told this parable. Jesus even cares for people through Buddhists, Muslims, and Atheists if the Christians and especially the Lutherans walk by on the other side of the road. Jesus Christ is not unmerciful to needy people, even if his followers are.

So you can see how to love God with all our heart is very much like loving our neighbour as ourselves. And Jesus says: On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.

But Jesus puts to the Pharisees a little question of his own. He says: What do you think about the Christ? Whose son is he? They said to him, “The son of David.” He said to them, “How is it then that David, in the Spirit, calls him Lord, saying, ‘The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand, until I put your enemies under your feet’? If then David calls him Lord, how is he his son?” And no one was able to answer him a word, nor from that day did anyone dare to ask him any more questions.

You can see that the Pharisees are also put to shame. Just because the Sadducees were wrong, it doesn’t mean that the Pharisees were right. Jesus shows them a third way, a new way. The law is important, but we’re not saved by it. The law always shows us our sin. We look at the Ten Commandments like a mirror, and all we see is our problems. We are saved through Jesus Christ alone, and his blood, his suffering, his death, his resurrection. Jesus has preached the law to the Pharisees, but now he wants to preach the gospel.

Jesus is the son of David. He was descended from King David and born of the Virgin Mary. But he is also David’s Lord and the Son of God. He was also conceived of the Holy Spirit. The Lord Jesus was David’s shepherd, so that he would not want. Jesus made David lie down in green pastures and restored his soul. Even though David walked in the valley of the shadow of death, he didn’t need to fear any evil, because Jesus Christ was with him.

And the same goes for us: But God the Father said to Jesus Christ [The Lord said my Lord]: Sit at my right hand until I put your enemies under your feet.

Jesus has ascended to the right hand of the Father. When he came down from heaven, he took human flesh. When he ascended into heaven, he brought human flesh with him, and so now Jesus’ flesh and blood can be wherever God’s right hand is, feeding the birds of the air, looking after all the sad, lonely and vulnerable people in the world, baptising new Christians, and even giving his body and blood to us to eat and drink every Sunday.

And so when Jesus says to us: What do you think about the Christ? Whose son is he?, we should answer with Peter: Jesus, You are the Christ, the Son of the living God. We should look at the nails in Jesus’ hands and see Jesus’ wounded side and say with Thomas: You, Jesus, are my Lord and my God. In the hymn “A mighty fortress is our God” we should look into Jesus’ loving face and gentle, blessing hands and think about his bleeding wounds, and sing: “Ask ye who is this? Christ Jesus it is, of Sabaoth Lord, and there’s none other God.”

Yes, apart from Jesus’ flesh and blood, there is no Father for us, and there is no Holy Spirit. Apart from Jesus’ flesh and blood, there is no protection from the holy angel either. Jesus says: The Father is in me and I am in the Father. Jesus says about the Holy Spirit: If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Jesus even says about the angels: You will see heaven opened and the angels ascending and descending on the Son of Man.

And so, what a joy it is for us to love our Lord Jesus with all our heart and with all our soul and with all our mind! What a joy it will be to find Jesus in all our neighbours and to love him as we love ourselves!

Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Amen.

I love you, Lord Jesus, my strength. You are my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my rock in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. Lord Jesus Christ, son of David and son of God, fill our hearts with such an overflowing love for your Father which is only possible through your blood. Send us the Holy Spirit so that we may also love our neighbours as ourselves. Amen.