In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Just before today’s Gospel reading Jesus said something that the Pharisees weren’t happy about. They asked Him if they should or shouldn’t be paying taxes to the occupying Roman government to which Jesus famously replied, “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” (Mt 22:21). By questioning Jesus on this, the Pharisees figured that they could either entrap Jesus or get Him to publicly side with their position on the matter.

Then the Sadducees came to Him thinking that He was on their side. The Sadducees accepted the books of Moses – Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy – but they didn’t believe in the existence of angels, and they didn’t believe in life after death or the resurrection of the body. So, they asked Jesus about a woman who had seven different husbands during her lifetime because each of the first six had died. They asked Jesus, “In the resurrection, therefore, of the seven, whose wife will she be?” (Mt 22:28). They thought that Jesus was going to reveal His solidarity with them by the way He answered, but Jesus said, “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” (Mt 22:29-30).

The Sadducees wrongly thought that the resurrection would be a restoration of things as they are now in this world when, in reality, at the end of the age all things will be brought to their fulfillment in Christ in the new Creation. The faithful people of God will live in His glorious presence, just like the angels. We won’t be married, because the Church – the Bride of Christ – will live forever in the perfect love of Christ her heavenly Bridegroom. And Christ gave Scriptural proof for resurrected life after death by quoting from the books of Moses (which the Sadducees actually accepted).

500 years after the days of Abraham, God had told Moses, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob” (Ex 3:6). In other words, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are alive with God, and their bodies await the day of the resurrection.

So, while Jesus offended the Pharisees on the one hand, He was also no advocate for the religiously progressive Sadducees either.

The application of this to our modern situation is that just like the Pharisees and the Sadducees, sinful, self-serving people in our own day and age have a tendency to invoke Jesus as a supporter of our own self-serving and even openly evil causes.

When we twist Scripture in this way, we’re making ourselves out to be lord and master, and reducing Christ to the means of achieving our own goals which are self-serving at best … or blatantly wicked at worst.

But the reality is that Jesus is Lord and Master. His Word is true and unchanging. And Christ took on human flesh to accomplish God’s purposes, not ours.

So, the Pharisees asked, “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?” It was a question that was intended to lump Jesus into their movement and bring Holy Scripture down to the level of talking points instead of it being the Spirit-filled, life-giving Word of God that it is: “living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword” (Heb 4:12). The Law is there to cut us to the core. Its purpose is to lead us to repentance and to show us our need for Christ’s forgiveness and mercy.

Christ’s wisdom wouldn’t submit to their thinking, nor would He play their game. Instead of choosing a single commandment, Jesus summarized them all. First, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” This isn’t something we can reduce to some ‘do this,’ and ‘don’t do this’ statements. The Law commands us to love God fully, completely, without exception, and without holding anything back from Him. God wants the entire devotion of our hearts: more devotion than you give your family, your country, or any secular organization you support or side with with. God wants all of our love, praise, adoration, worship, and allegiance to be with Him.

And lest you think all of this love for God means disregard for every-day life and other people … Jesus continues, “And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Love of God, and love of neighbor are inseparable.

Part of loving God fully and completely is loving our neighbors. Our Lord Jesus Christ took our human nature upon Himself to love and serve us self-sacrificially as the atoning sacrifice for our sins. And He brings people into our lives that we might reflect His grace and mercy by loving and serving others. As the proverb says, “Whoever is generous to the poor lends to the Lord …” (Prov 19:17). That’s why Christ says the commands are alike because God is served both in love for Him and in love for others.

And here’s where the living voice of the God’s Law hammers us. It smashes us open and exposes just how loveless we are; it reveals that deep-down we’d rather use the Law to justify ourselves and promote our own selfish causes. The Law brings nothing but judgment and death, and it calls us all to repent and to turn to Christ.

But there’s Good News in all of this. After revealing our sinfulness, Christ returns us to the path that leads to salvation and life. He counters the manipulative Law question that the Pharisees asked with His own freeing Gospel question that turns us away from our sinful self-identity and interests. Jesus asks, “What do you think about the Christ? Whose son is he?” (Matt 22:42). They said to Him, “The Son of David” (Matt 22:42), which is correct. God had promised that the Messiah would be one of David’s descendants.

Jesus then asked, “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”? (Matt 22:43-44).

David – the father and ancestor of Christ – referred to his descendant as Lord, and Jesus asked the Pharisees ‘why?’ The Pharisees had tried to entrap Jesus with a Law question and Jesus turned the tables on them by getting them to think about the truth of the Gospel and the saving reality of who He is.

Just as we try at times to fit Jesus into our own categories for our own purposes, the Jews at the time of our Lord’s public ministry pictured the Messiah as being a great prophet, a powerful political leader, but ultimately just a man. So, Jesus leads us to see that while He is fully man, that He’s also much more. David calls Him Lord because Jesus, his literal descendant, is also truly and fully the eternal Son of God.

Thankfully, Christ doesn’t come in a way that fits into our political or social categories or according to the expectations of whatever groups or movements we align ourselves with. His ways are infinitely higher and better than all such self-serving groups. Jesus doesn’t come in the way of fallen man, but in the way of His perfect humanity. Jesus, as the incarnate Son of God, is the only man in whom God’s love is perfectly embodied. He kept the Law perfectly for us. He loved His heavenly Father with all His heart, with all His soul, and with all His mind: doing His Father’s will entirely and perfectly … for us.

And Jesus loved His fallen and sinful neighbors as Himself … even counting them among His friends. He gave Himself completely to those around Him – healing them, helping them, and teaching them His saving truth. And ultimately, He gave His own life for us on the cross. “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends” (Jn 15:13). Through that perfect act of love and self-giving, Jesus won the full forgiveness of all your sins.

Christ told the Pharisees that all the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments of love. And Jesus, who is Love incarnate, hung on the cross to fulfill the Law of love perfectly for you. In Christ, the Law’s condemnation is taken away from you, as St. Paul says: “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Rom 8:1). You are cleansed, you are freed, Jesus is the propitiation for all your sins. His self-sacrifice has rescued you from eternal judgment and has brought you everlasting life.

Christ has made your enemies of sin, death, and the devil to be His enemies, and by His rising from the dead He’s made them His footstool. Death is conquered. Sin is taken away. Satan’s head has been crushed. And all of this that we now know by faith, we will ultimately see with our own eyes when Christ returns again in glory and all things that are under His feet will be put under our feet with Him.

Christ doesn’t work according to our selfish desires, but in the way of sacrificial self-giving. He doesn’t tell people what they want to hear in order get more followers and earthly power. Rather, He tells us the truth of our sin and the truth of His forgiveness which He purchased at a price, so that He might draw us to Himself as His beloved people who live with Him in His eternal kingdom.

Jesus gives us our eternal identity as the baptized people of God who’ve been redeemed by Christ the crucified. And as such we stand before the throne of God saying, “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!” (Rev. 5:12).

And Jesus is that very Lamb of God who is in our midst even this day: not to rally our support for a political or social movement … not to be the poster-boy for our sinfully woke passions … but to forgive, to strengthen, and to renew you by His Means of Grace. You are called by the Gospel to be on God’s side, not the world’s side. And you’re given your true identity, status, and cause by the preaching of the Word … by confession and absolution … by the reception of Christ’s body and blood. Here – in His Holy Church – the love of God and the love of neighbor all come together in Christ in Whom you are cleansed and sanctified and made a beloved saint before God on account of all that He’s done for you.

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

Pr. Jon Holst