Deuteronomy 10:12-21; 1 Corinthians 1:1-9; St Matthew 22:34-46
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen.
Beloved in Christ, today you hear from our Lord Jesus a short catechesis on the most important distinction in reading and applying the entire Bible: the proper distinction between the Law and the Gospel. They are both good. They are both from God. But only one can save. To rightly hear God’s twofold Word of Law and Gospel and to faithfully apply it is a matter of life and death, of comfort and salvation, of peace and hope. Luther said that properly distinguishing and applying Law and Gospel is a high and holy art taught only by the Holy Spirit in the school of experience and the one who can do it deserves to be called a true doctor of Holy Scripture. It is not easy.
Well the Pharisees fancied themselves to be self-proclaimed doctors of Scripture, so when they heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. They formed their little church, but instead of being called, gathered and enlightened by the Holy Spirit in the Word, they sought to test Jesus. You heard a little about this in last week’s Gospel, but also last Sunday’s psalm. Psalm two. The rulers take counsel together, against the Lord and against His Anointed. The psalms are brilliantly arranged around the dual foci of Law and Gospel.
But the Pharisees, though they know the Psalms, likely by heart, do not read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them, as we shall soon see. So they ask, Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law? This may be a trap. It may not. There are 613 commandments in the Old Testament. Some positive. Others negative. Some seemed to conflict with others. So the rabbis often debated as to which ones took precedence over others. Their question to Jesus may be of this nature. Its a conversation starter. They want to talk about the Law.
Okay, Jesus bites. Let’s deal with the Law. The great commandment, the summary of all others, is this: Love the Lord your God with your all. With everything you’ve got. Heart, soul, mind and strength. God will have no mere part; no small corner closed to Him. No divisions, no distractions, no subtractions. You shall have no other gods. What does this mean? We should fear, love, and trust in God above all things. This is the foundation, the pillar, the center and sum. Love God with your all. And all the other commandments fall in line accordingly.
Remember your catechism. How were you taught the explanations to all the other commandments? We should fear and love God so that . . . and a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. This same love for God is extended out toward the one near to us. The one who God has put into our midst to love and serve. This is your vocation. And vocations always come in couplets. Husband and wife. Father and mother. Parent and child. Government and citizen. Worker and boss. Pastor and people. Friend and friend. That is the one who is nigh to you; to whom you are to show the self-same love you have toward God.
On these two commandments, Jesus says, hangs suspended everything written in the Scriptures. They are the pegs, the posts, the frame on which the rest of the Law is hanged. Take them away and everything else falls. Without them the rest of the Law loses its meaning and purpose. And without this proper order: Love God and love your neighbor, you actually lose any credibility for an argument for morality from a non-theistic perspective. Which is to say, what’s the point of being “good” if there is no God? Or say it positively, God and His Law is the source and norm of all that is good, right, and true.
These two commandments do a couple of things. First they rightly orient us as creatures who are called to live in faith toward God. To be made right with Him and live according to His Word. Second they also cast our eyes back down from heaven toward those around us in various need. To care in love for those whom God has put in our midst. They orient us vertically and horizontally. Not coincidentally, a cruciform shape.
And in so doing, these two commandments, upon which all the Law and the Prophets hang, also hang us. Not depend, but hang. As hanging coffee cups on pegs, or corpses on trees. That is, they kill us. Not because the Law is bad or wicked, but rather because we are. At our core, according to our nature, we are enemies of God and haters of Him, despisers of His Word and preaching. The Pharisees, for all their cleverness, miss the point of the Law, they try to skate out from under its accusation and condemnation and then use it as a club, or a measuring stick, or a philosophical device with which come up with witty quotes to get back at secularists on Facebook.
The Law kills. It slays. It exposes your heart and your true god; that money you trust, that TV you enjoy, that care you love, that reputation you fear will be exposed.
Repentance is needed, beloved. The Law has done its work. In exposing our desperate need for a Savior it also drives you to that self-same Savior, Redeemer, and Messiah.
And so, while Jesus has the Pharisees gathered together, He asked them a question: What do you think about the Christ? Who’s Son is He? They gave Him a softball question so He gave them one back. Every Jewish kid under eight could answer this question. Simple. He’s David’s Son. They tapped the ball back to Jesus.
And He said to them, How is 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 David calls Him Lord, how is He his Son? They tapped the ball back in this friendly little came and Jesus just knocks it right out of the park!
It’s as if Jesus says, “Okay, smart-pants lawyer, you want to talk about the Law? Let’s talk about the Law. How can David, speaking by God the Holy Spirit, call the Christ, LORD, that is, how can He call Him YHWH, if He is his Son? Which is to say, if YHWH the Lord Himself is the Christ, and He must be, then how is it that He is also a Man, a Son of David?” Boom.
And they’ve got nothing. But you, dear Christian, have everything. For our Lord Jesus is referencing Psalm 110. And the 110th psalm is a prophecy of Christ, the Messiah, that He shall be an eternal King and Priest, indeed true God, sitting at the right hand of God the Father, and that He would be glorified and recognized. In the entire Scripture there is nothing like this psalm!
Here you are privy to the inner-conversation of the Blessed Holy Trinity. The Father, YHWH, said His Son, Adonai, sit at My right hand, until I put Your enemies under Your feet. In this one psalm you have revealed and confessed the two natures in Christ, that He is both God and Man, the doctrine of the Holy Trinity - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit - coequal and coeternal, the teaching of the vicarious atonement and the triumph over death and the devil, the three-fold office of Christ as Prophet, Priest and King, the ascension of our Lord, His coming in judgment on the final day, and more! Jesus hitting them with this Psalm, with this question, is a hint at how God answers the evil counsel of the wicked trying to burst the bonds of His Anointed: He who sits in the heavens laughs.
Upon you, beloved, He who sits in the heavens smiles. For He has given you His Word of Law in order to bring you to repentance, to slay you and kill you, in order that He may give you live. Love is the greatest commandment. Love God and love your neighbor. The Law and the Prophets don’t depend on love, they are crucified on love. And Love Incarnate, Jesus the Christ, David’s Son and David’s Lord, is crucified, in love, for you. This is the point of all of Holy Scripture and the preaching of the Holy Spirit to you in the Word of Law and Gospel, that you know the answer to this question: What do you think about the Christ? Whose Son is He?
He is the great and final Prophet who has fulfilled the Law perfectly in your place, suffered, died, was buried and rose for you! Even now, by His Holy Spirit, through His preached Word, is proclaimed to be the Son of God, your Savior and Messiah.
He is the Great High Priest who intercedes for you before the throne of His Father, offering up His Blood which speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.
He is the true and rightful King who rules with almighty power over all creation and especially governs His Church, you beloved, His dear lambs and sheep. Here He calls and gathers you together around His Word of Law and Gospel, the preaching of repentance and the forgiveness of sins in His Name. For this is the proper distinction of Holy Scripture, of God’s faithful Word to you. The Law is crucified in love. And this is love: Jesus on the cross, the Father handing over the Son by the Spirit to be a sacrifice and payment for your sins.
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen.
Beloved in Christ, today you hear from our Lord Jesus a short catechesis on the most important distinction in reading and applying the entire Bible: the proper distinction between the Law and the Gospel. They are both good. They are both from God. But only one can save. To rightly hear God’s twofold Word of Law and Gospel and to faithfully apply it is a matter of life and death, of comfort and salvation, of peace and hope. Luther said that properly distinguishing and applying Law and Gospel is a high and holy art taught only by the Holy Spirit in the school of experience and the one who can do it deserves to be called a true doctor of Holy Scripture. It is not easy.
Well the Pharisees fancied themselves to be self-proclaimed doctors of Scripture, so when they heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. They formed their little church, but instead of being called, gathered and enlightened by the Holy Spirit in the Word, they sought to test Jesus. You heard a little about this in last week’s Gospel, but also last Sunday’s psalm. Psalm two. The rulers take counsel together, against the Lord and against His Anointed. The psalms are brilliantly arranged around the dual foci of Law and Gospel.
But the Pharisees, though they know the Psalms, likely by heart, do not read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them, as we shall soon see. So they ask, Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law? This may be a trap. It may not. There are 613 commandments in the Old Testament. Some positive. Others negative. Some seemed to conflict with others. So the rabbis often debated as to which ones took precedence over others. Their question to Jesus may be of this nature. Its a conversation starter. They want to talk about the Law.
Okay, Jesus bites. Let’s deal with the Law. The great commandment, the summary of all others, is this: Love the Lord your God with your all. With everything you’ve got. Heart, soul, mind and strength. God will have no mere part; no small corner closed to Him. No divisions, no distractions, no subtractions. You shall have no other gods. What does this mean? We should fear, love, and trust in God above all things. This is the foundation, the pillar, the center and sum. Love God with your all. And all the other commandments fall in line accordingly.
Remember your catechism. How were you taught the explanations to all the other commandments? We should fear and love God so that . . . and a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. This same love for God is extended out toward the one near to us. The one who God has put into our midst to love and serve. This is your vocation. And vocations always come in couplets. Husband and wife. Father and mother. Parent and child. Government and citizen. Worker and boss. Pastor and people. Friend and friend. That is the one who is nigh to you; to whom you are to show the self-same love you have toward God.
On these two commandments, Jesus says, hangs suspended everything written in the Scriptures. They are the pegs, the posts, the frame on which the rest of the Law is hanged. Take them away and everything else falls. Without them the rest of the Law loses its meaning and purpose. And without this proper order: Love God and love your neighbor, you actually lose any credibility for an argument for morality from a non-theistic perspective. Which is to say, what’s the point of being “good” if there is no God? Or say it positively, God and His Law is the source and norm of all that is good, right, and true.
These two commandments do a couple of things. First they rightly orient us as creatures who are called to live in faith toward God. To be made right with Him and live according to His Word. Second they also cast our eyes back down from heaven toward those around us in various need. To care in love for those whom God has put in our midst. They orient us vertically and horizontally. Not coincidentally, a cruciform shape.
And in so doing, these two commandments, upon which all the Law and the Prophets hang, also hang us. Not depend, but hang. As hanging coffee cups on pegs, or corpses on trees. That is, they kill us. Not because the Law is bad or wicked, but rather because we are. At our core, according to our nature, we are enemies of God and haters of Him, despisers of His Word and preaching. The Pharisees, for all their cleverness, miss the point of the Law, they try to skate out from under its accusation and condemnation and then use it as a club, or a measuring stick, or a philosophical device with which come up with witty quotes to get back at secularists on Facebook.
The Law kills. It slays. It exposes your heart and your true god; that money you trust, that TV you enjoy, that care you love, that reputation you fear will be exposed.
Repentance is needed, beloved. The Law has done its work. In exposing our desperate need for a Savior it also drives you to that self-same Savior, Redeemer, and Messiah.
And so, while Jesus has the Pharisees gathered together, He asked them a question: What do you think about the Christ? Who’s Son is He? They gave Him a softball question so He gave them one back. Every Jewish kid under eight could answer this question. Simple. He’s David’s Son. They tapped the ball back to Jesus.
And He said to them, How is 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 David calls Him Lord, how is He his Son? They tapped the ball back in this friendly little came and Jesus just knocks it right out of the park!
It’s as if Jesus says, “Okay, smart-pants lawyer, you want to talk about the Law? Let’s talk about the Law. How can David, speaking by God the Holy Spirit, call the Christ, LORD, that is, how can He call Him YHWH, if He is his Son? Which is to say, if YHWH the Lord Himself is the Christ, and He must be, then how is it that He is also a Man, a Son of David?” Boom.
And they’ve got nothing. But you, dear Christian, have everything. For our Lord Jesus is referencing Psalm 110. And the 110th psalm is a prophecy of Christ, the Messiah, that He shall be an eternal King and Priest, indeed true God, sitting at the right hand of God the Father, and that He would be glorified and recognized. In the entire Scripture there is nothing like this psalm!
Here you are privy to the inner-conversation of the Blessed Holy Trinity. The Father, YHWH, said His Son, Adonai, sit at My right hand, until I put Your enemies under Your feet. In this one psalm you have revealed and confessed the two natures in Christ, that He is both God and Man, the doctrine of the Holy Trinity - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit - coequal and coeternal, the teaching of the vicarious atonement and the triumph over death and the devil, the three-fold office of Christ as Prophet, Priest and King, the ascension of our Lord, His coming in judgment on the final day, and more! Jesus hitting them with this Psalm, with this question, is a hint at how God answers the evil counsel of the wicked trying to burst the bonds of His Anointed: He who sits in the heavens laughs.
Upon you, beloved, He who sits in the heavens smiles. For He has given you His Word of Law in order to bring you to repentance, to slay you and kill you, in order that He may give you live. Love is the greatest commandment. Love God and love your neighbor. The Law and the Prophets don’t depend on love, they are crucified on love. And Love Incarnate, Jesus the Christ, David’s Son and David’s Lord, is crucified, in love, for you. This is the point of all of Holy Scripture and the preaching of the Holy Spirit to you in the Word of Law and Gospel, that you know the answer to this question: What do you think about the Christ? Whose Son is He?
He is the great and final Prophet who has fulfilled the Law perfectly in your place, suffered, died, was buried and rose for you! Even now, by His Holy Spirit, through His preached Word, is proclaimed to be the Son of God, your Savior and Messiah.
He is the Great High Priest who intercedes for you before the throne of His Father, offering up His Blood which speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.
He is the true and rightful King who rules with almighty power over all creation and especially governs His Church, you beloved, His dear lambs and sheep. Here He calls and gathers you together around His Word of Law and Gospel, the preaching of repentance and the forgiveness of sins in His Name. For this is the proper distinction of Holy Scripture, of God’s faithful Word to you. The Law is crucified in love. And this is love: Jesus on the cross, the Father handing over the Son by the Spirit to be a sacrifice and payment for your sins.
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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