So often we as children of Adam & Eve think that everything has to be about us. Yet that is not the point of the Scriptures at all. Even the Pharisees asked Jesus a very self-centered question as an expert in the Law to test Jesus asked: “Which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” In other words, they were focused on themselves and what they could do. How they could achieve favor and honor in the eyes of others; how they could stick it to the theological faction known as the Sadducees; how they could prove their wisdom, their goodness. Yes, many of them may have genuinely wanted to also please God, but they thought about it in terms of commandments, laws, accomplishing something to merit God’s attention, to prove their worth as a true “Son of Abraham”.
So one of the experts in the Law approached Jesus and asked Him the question regarding the Law. Jesus gave that expert the answer that follows the demands of the Law. “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 neighbor as yourself.”
I often tell our confirmation classes that the moral Law is rather simple. It has two parts. Yes, there are 10 commandments, but in order to fulfill them, you must love. Love is the key. Love God, love your neighbor. Sounds simple, right?
What does the Lord require of you?” Moses asked this of the people in the OT lesson for today. They were about to enter the land of promise. What was the answer he gave? “Fear the Lord your God, walk in all his ways, love him, serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, keep the commandments and statutes of the Lord, and Love the sojourner.”
Did you hear it? The key is to love. This kind of love isn’t mushy or weird. It means to care for. It sounds simple. It is, but it is near impossible to do. Like I said, all sons and daughters of Adam, Pharisees, Sadducees, Jews, Gentiles, Americans, Lutherans, Christians of any stripe, unbelievers, pagans, and atheists will have a hard time with this. Because we all want it to be about us. We love ourselves. Nobody needs to teach their kids to love themselves, unless they have run into people or media that shame people for not being like the world. No, our natural state is to want to worship ourselves and the things of this world. Love is easy. if it is for ourselves and those people and things that we value the most.
What is not easy is to love selflessly.
God seems to put a hard law upon us in that way. Love selflessly. Walk in all His ways, love Him, serve Him with all that we have, including looking out for the widows, the fatherless, and the sojourning wanderer and stranger that can give us nothing in return. It almost seems unfair to expect so much. But it is not unfair. It is reasonable. It is more than fair. God has created each and every human. He has granted them breath and life. Despite the sin of Adam and Eve, He has not yet destroyed the earth which so often mocks and derides His very name. Yet His judgement is coming. We are nearing the point in the Church year where we focus on that very thing: the coming judgement of Jesus’ final return. God is patient, not wanting anyone to perish, but at the same time, He is fair and just and will visit punishment upon all evil doers at the last day.
This definitely should put the fear of God into people. Atheists and agnostics, that is people who stand for no truth can claim that they do not fear to burn in hellfire, but they should. So should we. If we continue in our sins, if we forget our God who has redeemed us, then should we not burn with the rest of the unbelievers? If we make the things of this world, its sports, our kids and family, ourselves: our resting and sleeping time, our making money to reward ourselves, pleasing others in the world, hiding our confession, so that they think well of us…if we allow the petty things of our pride to distract us from church even while attending, then we make us and our things “our gods”, then we are breaking the first and great commandment, are we not? Then we deserve to burn in hellfire and destruction.
But is there hope for forgiveness for sinners such as me and you when the punishment we deserve is so grave? Is this how God desires us to know Him? In fear and trembling, as terrible and awe-some and an unapproachable fiery terror of a god? No.
“Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no longer stubborn,” as Moses said. Repent, in other words, and in this there is hope in the Lord. That is why when Moses spoke to the people, He spoke to them of all God had done for them. He spoke of God’s nature as that of love. He does love. He does redeem. How can we know this love and redemption when all we see is ourselves and our failures or our pride? Look no more to yourself but to Christ. He will show us what the name of God and Lord truly means and what it means to the demands of the Law and love.
Jesus when asked a Law question, asked His own regarding the Christ. Why? To get the Pharisees to think about the fulfillment of the Law. To get them to think about the purpose and the way of the “Christ” who was to come. Why would God send Him? He was to come to reign and rule in the place and fulfillment of David. He would be a just and righteous king. But how would He accomplish…How would He usher in this reign? By showing us and revealing to us, the nature of God and the fulfillment of the Law. Jesus, the Christ, the second person within the Trinity showed the world the mercy and love of God. Jesus, God’s son, the Christ, showed that God doesn’t expect us to find Him or get right with Him or merit His grace. Rather by His Law He shows that we cannot earn God’s love or please Him. But in Jesus, we see that God is love. He is selfless. He is caring and merciful and desires our repentant faith, attention, and salvation. His Love fulfills His own law for you.
That is why God came and joined Himself to human flesh and put Himself under His own Law both the natural and moral law. And in Jesus He fulfilled the requirements that we and the world could not fulfill. Jesus showed the Love for God, but also the love for neighbor and all people. He took people in their pain, suffering, and sin, and healed and forgave them, pointing to the kingdom of grace that He had come to establish. The kingdom that changes people from sinners to believers made Holy by His righteousness. Because then Jesus, the son David, who was and is also David’s Lord and redeemer, went to the cross. He was sacrificed and died to pay the just judgement of God’s wrath upon the disobedience of you, me, and the world. In the cross, we see God clearly. We see how awe-some He is, why He worthy to be feared and respected. Worthy to be trusted, praised, and worshipped. Because, Jesus Christ, died for selfish sinners like us. He rescued us. He contended for us against our flesh, against the world, and the devil.
It is not about you and what you can do for God, but what God has done for you in Christ. This is the great message of life over death. He has given you all the gifts you need to survive, thrive, and live in this world. To receive a heritage not of judgement but life eternal and forgiveness. He has baptized you into His Son, sent His Holy Spirit to wash you and bring you through the cross to the newness of Christ’s resurrection. He has taught you His Word not to be an expert in how to be the greatest Christian, but to be strengthened by His Spirit and live in His grace and be the people that He has recreated you to be by faith. When you fail, He brings you here with your brothers and sisters, to confess your need for Christ. Your need for His forgiveness, His counsel and gifts.
It is all about Christ. It is all about God, who is your Lord. He calls you by name, so that you can call upon His name for help, for praise, for help, and thanksgiving. So pray to Him for others, for yourself, in the name of Jesus Christ.
As we live in gratitude and thanksgiving, first receive the gifts of Christ crucified and raised given here in His feast of His body and blood. Here be strengthened in His name and in His presence as He comes to you. Be not ashamed, but receive His love. Be filled here together in the confession of what He desires for you: life, peace, reconciliation with God and with each other in His Truth. Then you can love, because you have seen and known His love for you which has fulfilled the Law and covered your sins in Jesus Christ. Amen.
Pr. Aaron Kangas