Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord
Jesus Christ. (Rom 1)
Who speaks you this morning saying,
“On these two commandments hang all the Law and the
Prophets.”
To get this out of the way: loving your neighbor does not
mean forcing him to do something he doesn’t want to do. Loving your neighbor is
not just loving those that agree with you or look like you or move in the same
way that you do or believe like you. It's loving those who don't. Your neighbor
does not need coercion at gunpoint, he needs persuasion in love, if you want
him to change. But again, if you don’t want to change, then love your neighbor
as you love yourself.
But you just can’t bring yourself to that point. There just
is never a time when your neighbor becomes as important as you, much less more
important than you. You become a Pharisee among pharisees, looking for
loopholes in God’s Law asking Jesus things like, “what is truth” or “who is my
neighbor” and “what is the greatest commandment” all in order for you to ignore
all the rest of what God is doing.
And it is a Scribe in the Gospels that will teach us just
that. In St. Mark 12, it is a Scribe who asks Jesus not “which commandment is
greatest”, but “which commandment is first”. The difference, I think, is that
the Pharisees today want Jesus to pick one and throw out the rest so they can
call Him a traitor and arrest Him. The Scribe is actually looking for an answer
that pleases God. His question implies respect to all the commands, but
realizing there may be One that is primary.
He is right and he is wrong. He is right in that all God’s
commands are holy, including more than just the 10 Commandments. He is wrong in
that he misses the point of the primary, One Thing needful. Yet he is
struggling with God’s Word, as is the Christian Way. He approaches the answer
in his own response to Jesus in St. Mark 12:
“So the scribe said to Him, “Well said, Teacher. You have
spoken the truth, for there is one God, and there is no other but He. And to
love Him with all the heart, with all the understanding, with all the soul, and
with all the strength, and to love one’s neighbor as oneself, is more than all
the whole burnt offerings and sacrifices” (v.32-33).
To this Jesus replies with a “You are not far from the
kingdom of God” in verse 34.
How did that scribe get close to the kingdom with that
answer? His step in the right direction makes him place the Commands above the
whole burnt offerings and sacrifices. In that, the sacrifices actually,
physically being made is simply moot at that point in the believer’s life of
Faith, because he already trusts God enough to make those sacrifices.
But, many steps had to come into play before that, such as
loving God and loving your neighbor, in other words: belief. Belief has to come
before action. There has to be a revelation in the mind and heart that starts
internal debate, ends with truth, creates faith, and incurs action. First comes
the planning, then comes the action.
Before the planning, however, must come revelation. Some new
insight not previously thought of. A new way of understanding things that would
not have been reached. This is where the, “there is only one God and none other
but He” comes in. This is the ancient Creed of Israel. It is the creed and
confession that reveals Who is ordering sacrifices and Who is demanding love
for God and neighbor.
So what is God doing? To the Pharisees and everyone who does
not believe, God has sat down in iron judgement. These whole burnt offerings
and sacrifices were supposed to be an unceasing thing, never stopping, just as
your prayer life is supposed to be (1 Thess 5:17). Not sacrificing is
punishable by death (Ex 22:20) and is seen as sacrificing to other gods.
This is your God Christians and you live in fear as the
Pahrisees did, willing to fudge God’s Law with Men’s traditions to make
yourself look good to Him all because of His impossible demands.
Repent. God’s Law does not stop there. The Scribe goes on to
confess that even though there was sacrificing going on, no love was in it. 1
Samuel 15:22 says, “Has the Lord as great a delight in burnt offerings and
sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than
sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams.”
Do you think it is enough to fear God and to obey in that
fear? Is that all God is doing, running around handing out laws to induce fear?
Do you not know that there is no fear in love (1 Jn 4:18)? Not only is
obedience demanded, but to listen and to love; to offer sacrifices and obey
God’s commands, loving Him and loving your neighbor.
Repent. Better than sacrifices, is love. Better than love is
having the One, true God present and accounted for, giving the Word of Law.
Thus says the Word of the Lord, I have had enough of your sacrifices (Isa 1:11)
and will not accept them (Amos 5:22).
What shall you go in front of the Lord with now?
Why is the Scribe not far from the kingdom? It’s because
he’s beginning to see a pattern emerge. He was raised on God’s laws: do them,
or else. He has been living the Temple life of constant sacrificing and
praying, loving God and his neighbor as best he can. But Psalm 51:16 has told
him, “For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it; you will
not be pleased with a burnt offering” and Hosea 6:6, “For I desire
steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt
offerings.”
He is but one step away from concluding that God will no
longer accept sacrifices and obedience, because He is going to sacrifice
Himself.
A perfect, unreachable God, immutable iron-clad Law, and a
vote of “no confidence” against the people set the stage for Divine Redemption.
This, now, is what God is doing. He is not instilling fear or creating robots,
He is redeeming people by His Gospel.
His commands even point to this, not only by the impossible
weight of their demands, but also God’s own refusal to accept those sacrifices
made. So He reveals to us the true purpose of the Law and the sacrifices: it is
to sanctify you completely in order that your whole spirit, soul and body be
kept blameless (1 Thes 5:23).
Before offerings, before loving God and neighbor, even
before God is present, we must be sanctified and made righteous. And “faith
was counted to Abraham as righteousness” (Rom. 4:9). Faith must be given by
God in order for Him to be present in front of us. Faith must be given in order
to obey the Law. Faith must be given in order for us to see the Savior Who
purchases it for us.
The Law is not a command or an ordinance, but a man. The Law
of God, the Torah, the Word is Christ incarnate. The Law was always meant to be
succeeded by the Gospel. The Law was meant as only a teacher until Christ
appeared (Gal 3:24). A teacher who specialized in showing just how futile our
sinful actions were.
Of course God was angry. Of course there wasn’t enough
beasts’ blood on earth to atone for our sins. Of course even that would not be
enough, for our love for God fails to our love for sin.
This was our lesson, such that when God would come Himself,
we would recognize Him as coming to tie up all those loose ends and finally
make one sacrifice to rule them all. A pleasing sacrifice. A worthy sacrifice.
A godly sacrifice.
Something more than the whole burnt offerings, and
sacrifices, and commands is here. Jesus makes His way through His own laws,
explaining them, teaching them, and completing them. The confession that is
more than loving God and neighbor is Christ Crucified.
This is because, Jesus is the one thing needful to start the
Gospel ball rolling. At His Name, faith is given. In His Body and Blood, the
one true God is present. The Gospel that Jesus suffered, died, and rose again
is what produces faith.
And faith gives all godly righteousness. It is the Gospel
that opens eyes to see the one, true God. It is the Gospel that opens ears to
hear the commands and sacrifices demanded. It is the Gospel that turns stony
hearts into hearts of flesh to love the way God intended, because the Gospel “is
the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes” (Rom. 1:16).
The ministry of God is the Gospel, the ministry of
righteousness that exceeds the ministry of the Law and far surpasses it in
glory. What once was demanded over and over again, is now a permanent state, in
Christ (2 Cor 3). The demands of the Law have been met. Christ rules once
again.
The Law shows us our sin, which takes the form of not loving
God, not loving our neighbor, not sacrificing enough, and failing to confess
God even though the Law demands the opposite.
The Gospel shows us our Savior fulfilling that Law in Word
and Sacrament. God now presents Himself in Word, water, bread and wine. He is
the culmination of all sacrifices and more. He is Love and outside of His works
you do not find love.
The Scribe needed only to stick around long enough to
witness the resurrection, and the One Thing needful, Jesus, would have taken
him into the kingdom directly. For confessing God is confessing the death and
resurrection of Christ. Loving God is attending His Divine Service offered for
you. Sacrificing to God is eating and drinking His Body and His Blood, given
and shed for you.
You want to follow God’s commands? Believe that God has
already done it. You want to Love God? Believe that He comes to serve you
forgiveness. You want to make yourself right with God? Then believe that He has
given you a clean heart and a right Spirit in baptism, fed you True
Righteousness in His Supper, and speaks you wholly sanctified in His Gospel.
Believe and you have exactly what God’s Word promises, that
His steadfastness has had its full effect on you and so you are perfect and
complete, lacking in nothing, in Christ. (Jas 1:4).
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