Notes

The Lord be with you!
The week of the Twenty-first Sunday after Pentecost concludes with the 503rd Anniversary of the Lutheran Reformation, so along with the regular week’s readings we celebrate that milestone this Sunday, then next Sunday will be All Saints Day. Next year, Reformation Day will fall on a Sunday.

Let us pray:
Almighty and gracious Lord, pour out Your Holy Spirit on Your faithful people. Keep us steadfast in Your grace and truth, protect and deliver us in times of temptation, defend us against all enemies, and grant to Your Church Your saving peace; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
Amen.

Leviticus 19:1–2, 15–18
God’s holy people lead a holy life, so this excerpt from Leviticus is a summary of the holiness that is described in the Ten Commandments. But since God’s people fail to lead a perfectly holy life, these laws also describe the life of Jesus the Messiah as He lives in and through His purified saints. We have been remade in the image of the true Holy One, Jesus Christ, and His holiness is what we bear in our relationships both to God (Commandments 1-3) and to our neighbors (Commandments 4-10).

Romans 3:19–28
After we have just heard and read a portion of the Law, it is fitting on this Reformation Sunday that we read that the Law could not bring us justification. Justification is a pronouncement from the throne of Almighty God that our righteous heavenly Father has accepted the payment of Jesus Christ our Savior in our place. For His sake, we have been forgiven and what we have fallen short of the glory of God has been totally made up and more because we have been given faith in Christ for our everlasting life.

Matthew 22:34–46
Today we follow the Gospel reading that continues through the Gospel of Matthew, and in it Jesus Himself poses a question to the religious leaders who were constantly questioning Him. You know the Law, you experts and teachers, but do you know the Christ? You see, they fell into the trap of thinking that the Old Testament was only about God’s laws, but the truth is that the Old Testament also contains the promises of God, and the Law would be misunderstood if it is studied apart from those promises that have been fulfilled in the Messiah, Jesus. They couldn’t speak when Jesus pointed out that the Messiah was at the same time son of David (true man) and also Lord of David (true God). But for you and me, our Lord has opened our lips, so that our mouth may declare His praise.

Here’s hymn 656, stanza 2:
    With might of ours can naught be done,
        Soon were our loss effected;
    But for us fights the valiant One,
        Whom God Himself elected.
    Ask ye, Who is this?
    Jesus Christ it is,
        Of Sabaoth Lord,
        And there’s none other God;
    He holds the field forever.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.

Pr. Stirdivant

Sermon for Reformation Sunday: October 25, 2020 jj
Rev’d Mark B. Stirdivant, Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, Yucaipa, California
✝ sdg ✝

Our Lord responded to the lawyer who was trained in God’s Law, “‘You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'” He then goes on to make this remarkable statement: “On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets” (Mt. 22:37-40).

Jesus was declaring at this critical moment that love of God and love of neighbor are the two greatest commandments. These are the two greatest laws, for indeed they sum up the Ten Commandments. This is the whole thing about God’s Law. It’s all about love. We read in Romans 13:10, “Love does no harm to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the Law.” What is the purpose of the Law? It is not to save us, for we can never love enough. The purpose of the Law is to accuse us, to show us our sin (remember learning that it’s like a mirror?). Its purpose is to demonstrate that we in our sinfulness cannot save ourselves, but remain lost and condemned in our efforts. When Jesus commands us to love, He does so to show us how much we can’t love. He’s telling us that we are neither loving nor righteous.

If you want practical examples of this love, look to what Jesus said before He was made man, when He speaks to Moses as recorded in Leviticus 19: “You shall do no injustice in court. You shall not be partial to the poor, nor defer to the great, but in righteousness shall you judge your neighbor.” If you want to love others, you don’t live by emotion or class warfare. You work hard to clarify the issues and make the true judgment, no matter who’s up for discussion. “You shall not go around as a slanderer among your people,” because gossip hurts your neighbor while it inflates your pride that you would know scandalous secrets that may or may not be true. “You shall not hate your brother in your heart,” even if your brother or your neighbor really is a jerk by the way, but you’ll work hard to take care of him anyway. “You shall surely rebuke your neighbor, reason with him frankly, lest you incur sin because of him.” Love doesn’t excuse wrongdoing and pretend it didn’t happen; it calls people to repentance and forgiveness. If the offence concerns a misunderstanding, then letting it go is much worse than a bumpy road leading toward reconciliation. “You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Vengeance is selfish, seeking to inflict harm for personal satisfaction. Love works hard for good, even for the wellbeing of one who has done harm to you.

That’s a pretty good list of examples in that reading from Leviticus. That lawyer who questioned Jesus would probably be able to tell you too: love isn’t easy. It’s hard work. But then again, good things don’t come easy in a sinful world; and you have to admit that the more people work hard at love, the better off this world would be. There is a real danger of love growing cold, of Christians failing to love their neighbor as they should. If we stop working hard in our love of neighbor, the neighbor who is in need will suffer while we look only to our own interests. Furthermore, our failure to work hard at love for others is a bad witness to the faith that we confess—for if God is love, how can His people not be loving? Finally, your faith delights to love and do good works for others; this happens by God’s design in you as a new creation. If you hold back your faith from being active in love, then you’re doing your faith great harm.

Dear friends, it is important that we love, for God has commanded us to do so. And sadly, you and I cannot end any day saying that we have truly loved enough. Martin Luther’s evening prayer was written assuming that everyone who prays it will need to say “…and I pray that you would forgive me all my sins where I have done wrong,…” praying those words at the end of every day of your life. Check it for yourself: there’s no footnote in the Catechism giving you a different prayer if you just happened to be perfect that day. There will always be times when we gave into selfishness. There will always be more people who needed love than we were willing or able to give. That’s the harsh truth of God’s Law.

Notice then what happens in the conversation Jesus has with the lawyer and the other Pharisees with him. After they test Him with a question of the Law, Jesus then asks them a question about the Christ, the Messiah who was promised in the Old Testament Law and Prophets. What do you think about the Christ, whose son is he? They were stumped! These scholars were so caught up in parsing out the Law and how to keep it perfectly that they totally excluded the big promise that sums up all of the Bible: Jesus the Savior! Son of God and Son of David both, all in one. They would hear something like what St. Paul said in Romans 3 “The righteousness of God has been revealed,” and they could think no further than those two tablets of stone that Moses took down the holy mountain in his hands.

Without Christ Jesus, true God who came into real human flesh for you, the Law would always and only be pointing out where you’ve gone wrong. That’s what Martin Luther discovered in his moments of terror prior to discovering Christ as the fulfiller of the Law, as the one who died in place of the sinner in order to give His perfect law-keeping righteousness as a free gift to the sinner to make you a saint instead. This is why we celebrate the Reformation every year—if you don’t understand that forgiveness is the point of God’s love toward you, then you’re not going to obtain true and lasting joy and peace. Without forgiveness, there is no good news for you in the Bible. Instead there would only be the condemnation of the Law that all sinners deserve.

This, however, is your Good News, your joy which will not depart this Reformation Day or ever, your hope which will not disappoint: you are not saved by your love and loving, but by God’s love for you. By God’s love, we mean His hard work. We mean His sacrificial service. As in “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). As in Jesus’ words to His disciples at the Last Supper, just hours before the nails are driven into His hands: “Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends” (John 15:13). That’s the love, that’s the hard work and sacrificial service that has achieved salvation for you.

Love is the fulfillment of the Law. In perfect love for you, Jesus has fulfilled the Law in your place. Look again at those examples of purity in Leviticus 19. Where you have done injustice, He has been perfectly just. Where you have unjustly favored the poor over rich or rich over poor, He has dealt with all men mercifully, regardless of what they have or don’t have. Where you have spread tales and gossip and groundless speculation, He has only spoken the truth. Where you have borne a grudge against others, He sacrificed Himself to save even His accusers. Where you have failed to rebuke your neighbor and call him to repentance, Jesus proclaimed His Law and called all to repentance. He did not take vengeance upon those who hated Him, but prayed from the cross, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” And they were truly forgiven.

And having perfectly kept all of the commandments, He then suffered God’s judgment for every sin and every lack of love that was committed by all mankind. He laid down His life as the Sacrifice, the propitiation for the sins of the world. He laid down His life out of love for you, to redeem you from sin for eternal life.

Your Savior still works hard in love for you today. He sits at the right hand of God not to rest, but to continue to deliver grace and faith and life to you. In love and service to you at the baptismal font, He declared, “I baptize you. I have kept all the commandments in My life, and so I share that life with you. I have died for your sins, and so I join you to My death so that you don’t have to die for yourself.” In His Holy Absolution, He declares, “I forgive you all of your sins, because I have already borne them to the cross out of My love for you.” And when He invites you to His Supper, He is the host who serves, giving you His body and blood for the forgiveness of sins. That’s why it is called Divine Service, because first and foremost it is the divine Son of God and Son of David who serves us. It is His love that matters, not ours. And because He first loves us, we are then set free to love others.

So as we the Church celebrate yet another year since the Reformation, we gladly and joyfully proclaim Christ and Him crucified, for that is the message of God’s love for your salvation. I can truthfully say that it is a privilege and joy to declare Jesus’ love for you—His love which saves all sinners for eternity. This is, after all, why “all the Law and the Prophets” depend on these commandments of love. All the Law and the Prophets, that is, the whole Bible points to Jesus, your Savior who has justified you by grace as a gift. It all comes down to love, and that’s the kind of love we could truly use more of each day that God gives us life. Happy Reformation!

In the Name of the Father and of the ✝ Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Readings:
Lev. 19:1-2, 15-18 you shall love your neighbor as yourself
Psalm 1 Blessed is the man
Rom. 3:19–28 a man is justified by faith apart from the works of the law
Matth. 22:34-46 which is the great commandment in the law?