The Eighteenth Sunday after Trinity
Matthew 22:34-46
Questions have been part of humanity since the beginning of time. The world’s chief doubter, Satan, asked the first question. The serpent said to the woman, Eve, “Did God actually say, you shall not eat of any tree in the garden?” (Genesis 3:1) Here, the trickery, deception, and leading away from the will of God by the serpent began.
It started with a question.
The result of Adam and Eve’s actions brought mankind into sin by disobeying the command of God not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The question by Satan ultimately was a test of Adam and Eve’s faithfulness and obedience to God’s command, a test they failed.
Now, it is not wrong to ask questions. Quite the contrary, it is good to ask questions. Hang out with a child for more than a few minutes, and you'll get more than a few questions.
"What does that word mean?”
“When’s lunch?”
“Are we there yet?”
Questions, of course, come in many forms; most often, they seek to gather information and knowledge, but they are also used to test the respondent. The question posed by the Pharisees in today’s Gospel was meant to trap Jesus, and not in a good way. They weren’t genuinely interested in learning about the commandments, God’s will, or the kingdom of God. The Pharisees were insincere in asking, “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?” They hoped to catch Jesus off guard.
Yet, Jesus answers their question by quoting the Old Testament, Deuteronomy 6:5: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul and all your mind.” This means they are to love God in a way that reaches the core of who they are. This love encompasses every part of their being—heart, soul, and mind. To expand on that, their heart should always be turned toward God and His Word; the soul represents the life of a person, which should be focused on God and His will every year, day, hour, and minute. The mind is the seat of intellect and reason, along with all of a person's senses. Together, the whole person should always depend on and be focused on God.
However, the Pharisees were not interested in learning what the great commandment was, any more than being dependent upon God or loving God.
Just as Satan tested and tempted Adam and Eve in the Garden, so these Pharisees set out to test and tempt Jesus. As in the world today, these Pharisees were not interested in the will of God; they were more interested in how to wash their hands, what they were to wear, and how their own works would achieve righteousness or good in their lives. In this way, they would never truly love God with all their heart, soul, or mind. In turn, they would never truly be able to “love their neighbor as themselves.” All because their life was focused on their works and their own wills.
How do you ask questions of God? Do you ask to test God? Or do you ask to learn the will of God?
Martin Luther, in his wisdom, laid out the Small Catechism in a question-and-answer format. He keeps things simple, so the head of a household may teach the children and family the will of God plainly. In the Ten Commandments, you are taught that there are two tables of the Law. Jesus summarizes the two tables in today’s Gospel, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
This is God's will for you.
However, the sinful nature you inherited from your first parents prevents you from doing good apart from Christ. You are unable to love God as you should, but instead create your own gods of this world. You become frustrated with your children, your spouse lets you down, and your neighbors abandon you. Moreover, you find yourself asking God, what is the love you command me to give? Why have you placed these people in my life?
God’s response to you, love your neighbor.
Paul writes in First Corinthians regarding the kind of love we are to have, saying,
“Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”
However, we have not lived our lives in this manner for our neighbors no more than we have for God. Here we have sinned, and our recognition of our sin is a call to repentance. It is a call to look to Jesus with contrite hearts and faith that He will forgive you, as He is the seed promised to Eve in the Garden, the promised Son of David whom David will call Lord.
In the final question of today’s Gospel, Jesus flips the script on the Pharisees. He asks, “If David calls the Christ Lord, how is He his son?” The Pharisees were unable to respond, leaving the conversation in silence.
Dear friends, do not grow silent in your faith. When you are asked the question, “Who is the Christ?” what will you say? Especially when your closest neighbors ask you this? Your father or mother, your husband or wife, your child, or those who bring the most considerable harm against you?
Do not be silent, but confess and give answer for the faith you’ve learned from the simple questions laid out in the Small Catechism. Confess the faith anchored in the love of Jesus Christ, that He would die for you and your neighbors, in order that together you may receive forgiveness and the certainty of eternal life. +INJ+
Rev. Noah J. Rogness
Good Shepherd Lutheran Church
Tomah, WI
