Sermon for the Eighteenth Sunday after Trinity - Mt 22:34-46

 

   Trinity 18

                                                                                                                        Mt 22:34-46

                                                                                                                        10/19/25

 

            I learned the hard way that you can’t engage in real discussion about serous topics on social media. It just doesn’t work. First, there is the problem of having multiple different people all trying to talk about something at the same time.

            And then there is the dynamic of people trying to have the final word. There often seems to be the impression that the last person to comment in making the argument for their point has “won.” This is especially so because on social media, people know that others are watching what is being said. And so everyone wants the final word. Response leads to response, leads to response in a series that seems to never end. 

            In our Gospel lesson today, Jesus has been engaged in a back and forth with his opponents during Holy Week as they try to trap him in something he has said. Yet in our text, Jesus gets the final word. In doing so the Lord shows us that that he is the center of all of Scripture. We learn that the focus of the Christian faith – the thing that sets it apart is the Gospel and not the Law.

            Our text takes place during Holy Week after Jesus had entered Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. We are left in no doubt about what is happening. After Jesus had told a series of parables which were clearly aimed at his opponents we learn: “Then the Pharisees went and plotted how to entangle him in his words.”

            First the Pharisees come to Jesus with a question about whether it is lawful to pay taxes to Caesar. Next the Sadducees approach Jesus with a question that is based on their denial of the resurrection of the body. Then we learn at the beginning of our text, “But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him.”

            The Pharisee was a lawyer. He was someone who had been trained in the interpretation of the Law of Moses – the Torah. And of course, he was someone who interpreted it according to the beliefs of the Pharisees. The Pharisees sent him to take another run at Jesus. He asked a question that was meant to test Jesus.

He asked, “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?”  Jesus replied with the words of Deuteronomy as he said, “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 then he added, “And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”

The Pharisee asks what he believes is a question that will test Jesus – a question that will trap him. The Lord responds with a very easy and simple answer. He says the first great and first commandment is to love God with all that we are. This is simply another way of stating the first of the Ten Commandments, “You shall have no other gods,” and what it means for our life. As the Small Catechism says, this means that “We should fear, love, and trust in God above all things.”

Then Jesus adds that there is a second great commandment that accompanies it: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” If the first great commandment summarizes the first table of the law – the first three of the Ten Commandments – then this second great commandment taken from Leviticus summarizes the second table of the law – the next seven of the Ten Commandments.

Love God with all that you are. Love your neighbor as yourself. And then Jesus makes a remarkable statement: “On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” The Pharisees wanted to get into questions about how to interpret the Law of Moses. They were focused on the Law, as the lawyer asked Jesus about which is the great commandment in the Law.

But Jesus says that ultimately all of the law and the prophets – all of the Old Testament - comes down to two things: love God with all that you are, and love your neighbor has yourself. Now we know that the Law of Moses contains many specific commands about what food can be eaten, and how sacrifices are to be done. It describes how males are to be circumcised and what festivals are to be celebrated. Yet the Lord tells us that what it is really all about is love God with all that you are, and love your neighbor as yourself.

It should not escape our notice that Jesus summarizes a question about the Law in this way. He points us to God’s ordering of the world that is true for all people. This is why Paul could say, “For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts.”

All people have this law. Paul says that we have been “hardwired” to understand and recognize it. Jesus says that this is really what the Law in the Old Testament was all about. We see in our Lord’s words how misguided it is when Christians think that they need to keep some aspect of the Torah such as worshipping God on Saturday, or keeping the food laws of the Old Testament. These were things commanded only for Israel until the coming of Christ. Instead, the Ten Commandments provide us with a summary of what continues to be true for us and for all people of all times: Love God with all that you are.  Love your neighbor as yourself.

It is significant that the Pharisee comes to Jesus with a question about the Law. This was their focus. When they thought about their relation to God, they did so on the basis of the law – on the basis of what they did.

They are not alone. This is the natural inclination of every person. We have the law written on our heart. We understand the way of the law.  You must do something to get something.  There is no such thing as a free lunch. And we want to believe that we can do something – that we have a role to play because then we get some credit. This is a description of every other religion in the world. It is description of the world around us. When a person dies we are told, “He was a good person” and so he is now looking down on us.

Love God with all that you are.  Love your neighbor as yourself. They are simple statements that summarize the whole of God’s will. They also diagnose that the way of doing – the way of the law - can never be the means for fellowship with God. The truth is that very often our actions show that we love our hobbies and sports more than we love God. When there is a choice between the truth of God’s word and our relation with family, we choose family. The truth is that very often there is no one I love more than myself.  I am not going to help my neighbor if it means I am going to be inconvenienced or it is going to disrupt my schedule.

The Pharisees framed their relationship with God in terms of law. They understood law to be the center of God’s Word. And so while the Pharisees were still gathered together, Jesus asked them a question. He said, “What do you think about the Christ? Whose son is he?”

He asked what seemed to be simple question. And so they answered, “The son of David.”  Everyone knew that God had promised David to establish the throne of his kingdom forever. He had promised that the offspring of David was the One upon whom the Spirit would rest – the One would strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he would kill the wicked.

And then Jesus asked them something they did not expect. 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?”

Jesus quotes the first verse of Psalm 110. He points out that this is David speaking in Scripture inspired by the Spirit of God. He says that this is a text about the Messiah. Here Yahweh speaks to David’s Lord and tells him sit at the right hand of his throne until all enemies are subjected to him.  So if the Messiah is the son of David, how can also be David’s Lord? We could also add, how is the Messiah someone who can take part in the authority of God?

Matthew tells us, “And no one was able to answer him a word, nor from that day did anyone dare to ask him any more questions.”  Jesus had gotten the final word. He did because he said something they did not expect. The available evidence indicates that Jews of this time did not understand Psalm 110 to be speaking about the Messiah.  Jesus was using Scripture in a way for which they had no answer.

This statement by Jesus is important because it shows us that he is the true center of God’s Word. It shows that we are not to frame our relationship to God in terms of law, but instead in terms of Christ – in terms of Gospel.

Matthew’s Gospel makes it clear that Jesus is the son of David.  Joseph is from the house of David, and takes Jesus to be his son, thus making him part of the line of David. Jesus is born in Bethlehem, the city of David. 

But Jospeh only takes the pregnant Mary to be his wife because the angel tells him, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”

Jesus is conceived by the Holy Spirit because he is more than just the son of David.  He is the Son of God, begotten of the Father from eternity.  He is the One of whom Paul wrote, “For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him.”

            Jesus is true God and true man, and so as the son of David he is David’s Lord. And he is your Lord because he has redeemed you by his holy precious blood, and innocent suffering and death. Everyone in first century Judaism who believed in the Christ expected him to be mighty, powerful, and victorious. But Jesus came as the Christ who suffered and offered himself as the sacrifice for our sins on the cross. Because of Jesus we are forgiven for all the ways we fail to do the law. Because of Jesus we once again have fellowship with God.

            On Easter Jesus rose from the dead. Forty days later he ascended into heaven in fulfillment of God’s Word: “Sit at my right hand, until I put your enemies under your feet.” Exalted to the right hand of God, he exercises all power and might. He has taken humanity into the presence of God, and because of this we know that we will dwell in God’s presence as well.

            Love God with all that you are.  Love your neighbor as yourself. These words continue to summarize God’s will. But because of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ these are not words in which we see the means by which we can have fellowship with God. Instead as those who have been baptized in Christ, and born again of water and the Spirit, they now describe the way in which we seek to live.

            So place the Means of Grace at the center of your life. Let the Divine Service on Sunday be the thing that starts each week. Punctuate your days with the reading of God’s Word and prayer.  Believe and trust that God who has acted to save you in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ will care for you day by day.

            Help your spouse or parent with the things at home that need to be done. Speak encouragement and praise to your neighbor or co-worker. Protect the reputation of others by refusing to pass on gossip, and by speaking the truth in defense of your neighbor.  You are a new creation in Christ, created by the Spirit to love God with all that you are, and to love your neighbor as yourself.