The Eighteenth Sunday after Trinity
St. Matthew 22:34-46
Before this morning’s Gospel reading, the Sadducees debated with Jesus about the resurrection. However, Jesus silenced their inquiry, and now the Pharisees have arrived to ask Jesus a question: “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?”
The text says these scholars ask this question to test Jesus, but it’s more than that; they desire to entrap Him. They want to take Jesus down. They want to silence Him. So these legal minds ask Jesus a question on the only topic they “think” they know: the Law of God, the commandments.
But for a moment, let’s take a step back and ask: what is a commandment?
In the most simplistic manner, a commandment is a word from God or God’s word.
And what is the purpose of these words? These words, these commandments, reveal God’s will for man. What man is to do. They provide order for the Christian life.
However, we are all like children, turning to one another and saying, “You can’t tell me what to do.”
We’ve all said this at some point in our lives. Sometimes we say this not with our words, but with our silence, with a deaf ear, and with the actions we continue to do even after being told they are against God’s will and His commandments.
For instance, you encourage a child to come to the Divine Service, to hear God’s Word, receive His forgiveness, and be made ready for eternal life, but they just turn over in bed, pull the blanket over their heads, sleep in, and wait for you to return home in the early afternoon.
It’s a silent act by a child raised in the Christian faith who fails to keep the Third Commandment.
Or there’s the child of an aging parent who knows they need to call their mother or father, visit them, take them to a doctor’s appointment, spend time with them, love them, and cherish them, but instead they silence their parent’s call when it comes in and avoid their mother and father.
It’s a silent action of avoidance that fails to keep the Fourth Commandment.
There’s the couple who lives together without being married. Maybe a pastor told them to get hitched; maybe they haven’t, but they grew up in the church. They know God’s plan for marriage; they know that the union and fellowship of a man and a woman in one home is a foundational gift from God, not only for the family but also for society, and that it must not be abused or neglected. However, their failure to marry and their continued cohabitation brush aside the joys of marriage.
It’s a silent action by a man and a woman that fails to keep the Sixth Commandment.
But where does a person learn to break God’s Law in these ways?
At home, silent actions and examples are often shown to one another. The child learns most from what is done, not from what is said.
So ask yourself this question. What do the day-to-day actions in your home teach others about the faith that is within you? In other words, what silent aspects of life are confessing your faith, or lack thereof…
For instance, when someone comes to your home, do you invite them in? Do you expect them to remove their shoes, or do they keep them on? Do husband and wife serve one another, or is one expected to serve the other?
Are the toys scattered throughout the home, or do the parents get down on the ground to help teach the child how to put their toys away?
When the family sits down for a meal, do they quiet their voices, fold their hands, bow their heads, and pray, or do the conversations continue as if God hadn’t provided the food before them?
As the day comes to its close, does a parent or grandparent tuck in their little ones, sing a hymn, teach them to pray, and entrust their lives to God’s care? Or is the child simply sent off to bed and reminded to turn off the lights?
Within all of these situations I just brought up, we see unspoken commandments of a home, a way order is being instilled into the hearts and minds of those dwelling together, especially children.
And reflect on this. If the removal of shoes or the picking up of toys is as important in your home as it is in many, how much more important is the keeping of God’s Word, His Commandments, the way He orders your life, the way He wants you to walk throughout this life, so that you might inherit eternal life?
Just reflect on the words of the Old Testament reading from Deuteronomy,
And now, Israel, what does the LORD your God require of you, but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments and statutes of the LORD, which I am commanding you today for your good? (Deuteronomy 10:12-13)
In order to walk in the ways of the Lord, Moses says that one must have a godly fear, that is, a sense of amazement and respect for God and His Word. This happens only when you know God’s will, found in His commandments, and put it into action.
That is, to learn to walk in His ways.
Too often, though, we know but don’t do.
We know and were taught the commandments in Sunday School, Confirmation Class, or the opening of Bible Class, but we don’t put them into action- not then, not now.
Our hearts are silent toward them, silent toward God’s Law.
However, some have summarized Martin Luther’s teachings on Law and Gospel this way: “The law can show you the way to go, but it can’t give your legs the strength to get there. Only God’s good news can do that.”
The idea here is that the Law reveals God’s will for you, showing how He wants you to come to Him and how He wants you to go to your neighbor in love. But you also need to let the Holy Spirit stir up the good news of Jesus Christ within you so you can listen, be forgiven, obey, walk in His ways, and put His love into action toward your neighbor.
Again, it’s not always our knowledge of God’s will that’s lacking; you’ve been taught; it’s the failure to live according to it, to put it into action.
And here lies the problem for the Pharisees in the Gospel this morning as they attempt to entrap Jesus when they ask, “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?”
One of the challenges for the Pharisees is that they have read and interpreted the Scriptures absent of mercy.
Through the lens they have developed for interpreting God’s law, they do not see mercy and love as they ought, and throughout Jesus’ engagements with the Pharisees, they have consistently attempted to challenge His authority and knowledge of the Scriptures.
But listen again to how Jesus responds; He says,
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. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” (St. Matthew 22:37-40)
Upon these two commandments rests all the law and the Prophets…
Jesus says that everything that has been spoken up to this moment was to lead you into the way of love, for my Father, and for you, my neighbor.
But was that how the Pharisees interpreted the Law? Is that how you interpret the Ten Commandments?
Through a lens of love and mercy?
No, and this often comes from a narrow understanding of the Law.
Often, we only see the Law through what we call its second use, through the mirror that reveals our sin. But Lutherans see three ways the Law functions in and throughout our lives.
The first use is like a curb; the Law keeps us from going into the ditch.
As I mentioned a moment ago, the second use of the Law is to reveal our sin, as a mirror reflects your image.
But the third use of the Law is to guide you in the way of loving the Lord your God and your neighbor as yourself.
We need to pay as much attention to the first and third uses of the Law as to the second, because all three functions lead us back to God and propel the Christian to action.
And here’s the thing: when a parent turns on the lights in their sleeping child's room and says, “Get up, we’re going to church,” that is love, because you want the child not only to learn about Jesus, but to receive His forgiveness.
Or when you pick up the phone, go and visit, or take an elderly parent to a doctor’s appointment, you teach the young not only to care for their elders but also to show love and mercy toward those who first loved you.
When a cohabiting couple stops masquerading as a couple and marries, they become an image of Christ and His Bride, the Church. Their sacrificial love for each other, and for those who witness it, strengthens the home, the church, and the community.
And yet, we struggle to do what is right and good; we know God’s Word, but we do not keep His Law and His Commands, and for this, our lives are not in the order they ought to be, but in chaos.
This is where the second use of the Law comes into play. It reveals what we try not to acknowledge: that we have sinned against God and our neighbor, and that we have not loved our Father in heaven as we ought, or our neighbor as ourselves.
But look to this cross, and you will see the fulfillment of the Law and all the words of the Prophets. You will see a Savior whose sacrifice kept the will of His Father perfectly, a love that performed the greatest act of mercy by taking the place of sinners, by taking your place upon the cross.
Here, love lives not only in word but in deed.
But now, having heard these words, you must also begin to put them into action. You must learn to truly love the Lord your God by examining yourself, your heart, and mind, confessing your sin, and seeking your Father’s forgiveness for how you have lived. Then pray for the Holy Spirit to bring you the forgiveness of Christ won on the cross into your heart so you may walk in this new way of life, the way of Christ.
The way of love for your Father in heaven and love for your neighbor, understanding how the Christian faith is never silent, but active and always confessing the love and mercy of Christ Jesus who was willing to die upon the cross for you. +INJ+
Rev. Noah J. Rogness
Pastor, Good Shepherd Lutheran Church
Tomah, WI
Good Shepherd Lutheran Church Website: www.goodsheptomah.org
The Shepherd’s Voice Podcast: https://goodsheptomah.podbean.com/
