READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:
Deuteronomy 10:10-21
1 Corinthians 1:1-9
St. Matthew 22:34-46
Grace, mercy, and peace will be with us, from God the Father
and from Jesus Christ the Father's Son, in truth and love. (2 John)
Who speaks to you this morning saying,
“On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”
But, on which two commandments is Jesus demanding that we hang all the Law and the Prophets? We could say the two He mentioned, love God and love neighbor, and we would be technically correct, even textually correct so as to get a doctorate of theology or something. But what if, by Jesus following up with a question about the Messiah, Jesus is pulling a “but the temple He was speaking of was His body”?
As in, Jesus is talking about one thing, but revealing a part of Himself behind it. And that may be what Jesus is doing, because we know the Law does not save, it only brings wrath, says Romans 4:15. Even if we love God and our neighbor, we don’t do so enough and still fall under judgement. But, Jesus is not inciting more wrath by giving us more Law. He is showing His absorption of all that wrath into Himself.
What helps get us started here is Jesus’s talk about “hanging”. “Hang” is a crucifixion word, as St. Paul reminds us in Galatians 3, “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree’” (v. 13).
Thus, in the first place, Jesus is saying that loving God and loving your neighbor begins with Jesus on the cross. The love needed to love God is purchased with the Body and Blood of Christ. The love necessary to sustain your neighbor in this sinful world is gained only in the Body and Blood of Christ. In this way, the Law and the Prophets “hang”, have their very being and existence in Love: hanging, suffering, dying on the cross.
This is a prophesy from Jesus of how He was going to purchase and win righteousness for all. This is why His follow up question about the lineage of the Christ fits right in. Because the prophesy is not which commandment is greatest in order that we avoid all the others to fast-track God’s reward to us. The prophesy is that ALL the Law, ALL the Prophets must be fulfilled, must hang, not just those we can get to whenever.
Why? Because, “sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me” (Rom 7:11). The Commandments, the Law of God, prophesy death (John 14:10). They have become our foes, however Jesus will reign until every foe will lie beneath His feet, even ours.
The Law and the Prophets are our foes in God’s eyes, which is the only way to see things. To us, they look like helpful teachers, ready to send us on a righteous and holy path. Yet, they only ever accuse us of not doing enough or excuse us in our sinfulness, making us believe that God will just sweep everything under a rug (Rom 2:15), when the time comes. The right path gets further and further away from us as we simultaneously get things wrong and are excused, falsely, for doing so.
Repent! St. Paul, in his epistle reading today, mentions “lacking gifts” (1 Cor 1:7) and you are lacking. As we already heard, you have a pharisaical heart, which lusts after excuses in regards to the Faith. Just as the Pharisees asked “which one law can we follow in order to ignore the rest”, you also ask “how much is just enough to remain faithful”. What is the least amount I can do in Christ’s Church to be counted among the Blessed?
Begin to find your way back by answering Jesus’ question, instead of the Pharisees’. Do not ask “who is my neighbor” (Lk 10:29), to try and excuse yourself just because you can’t see God, to love Him. Do not ask which prophet had it best, in order to only follow that one. Do not ask which Pastor is the best, so that you may quarrel and fight for the most team points for God.
Dear Christians, ask, do not answer, but ask, “Who is the Christ and whos’ Son is He?”
Then, in all humility because of the weight of your sins, let Jesus answer how He wants to answer and he will say, “I AM”.
I AM is David’s Lord. King David saw Jesus and worshipped Him. Not only was David led and spoken to by God’s chosen prophets, but His hand spared David’s life and accepted his offering on an Altar with fire from heaven, calling it down Himself. The Lord answered David at the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite, and at the site of that same threshing floor, the Lord’s Temple was built (1 Chron 21).
I AM is David’s son. This is God’s Promise made to David. Though we all thought it was King Solomon, the promise was, “I will raise up thy seed after thee, which shall be of thy bowels, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build me a house, and I will set up his throne forever. I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son: and my mercy will I not withdraw from him, as I withdrew it from them that were before thee. And I will establish him in my house and in his kingdom forever; and his throne shall be set up forever”, from 1 Chronicles 17 (v.11-14).
This “forever seed” is not Solomon, he’s dead. It is Jesus Who is the Seed, the Word of God, Who falls into the ground, dies, and produces a crop of believers a hundred times over, rising again from the dead. He is the Son, both God and man, able to die and rise again in order to occupy His father David’s throne forever. It was His in the first place!
Greater than the Law and the Prophets is the God Who gave both. And God is love, so the focus is on Him. You, too, focus on Him. Hear of His wonders, see Him be made man, hear the words of His preaching, and watch His Way of the Cross as He is Crucified for you.
What does this mean? It means that to the Pharisees and those with their heart, He is a stumbling block, not allowing any part of the Law or the Prophets to be ignored or cast aside. You could sooner cast aside God in His own Creation, than do something like that.
It means that to the Gentiles and those who think they are super-spiritual, Jesus is a Fool, taking on the position of “son” rather than king. A king can command, demand, and kill others for transgressions. Much more exciting to follow the powerful! A son can be ignored and cast aside, even killed. Humility and weakness are not words that usually come to mind when speaking of God.
For us, it means that loving God and loving our neighbor come second to the Greatest Command: that of believing in the Lord Jesus, Who gives both Law and Prophets for the building up of His Church and in order to accomplish His work of salvation.
Hear and believe. At the Transfiguration the first command was given: “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him” (Matt 17:5) which is a parallel to Moses and the Burning Bush where Moses and all Israel was commanded to listen, to hear what God was saying and what He wanted done.
Believe. From the beginning, it was all about believing. Belief is counted as righteousness (Gen 15:6). Belief is rewarded with eternal life (John 11:26). Belief produces salvation (Mk 16:16), blessing (Lk 1:45), and most importantly access to all of God through the Apostles’ Word (Jn 17:20).
This is what the Gospel is. That we hear what the Lord has to say, what the Lord is doing, and how the Lord gets it done. And if we hear His Word, we know that He has already answered our questions, even about the Commandments.
Hear Deuteronomy 6:
“When your son asks you in time to come, ‘What is the meaning of the testimonies and the statutes and the rules that the Lord our God has commanded you?’ then you shall say to your son, ‘We were Pharaoh's slaves in Egypt. And the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand. And the Lord showed signs and wonders, great and grievous, against Egypt and against Pharaoh and all his household, before our eyes. And he brought us out from there, that he might bring us in and give us the land that he swore to give to our fathers” (v.20-23).
Therefore, when you dwell and meditate on God’s Commandments love them and do what they say, but recognize and believe that they point to the Word Made Flesh, first and foremost. They point to the Holy Son Who brought us out of sin, death, and the power of the devil with a mighty hand. And showed signs and wonders, great and grievous, against death and against the devil and all his hosts, before our eyes in Word and Sacrament. He brought us out from there and gave us an undying country in His Church that He swore to our fathers: His true Body and life everlasting beside Him.
Who speaks to you this morning saying,
“On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”
But, on which two commandments is Jesus demanding that we hang all the Law and the Prophets? We could say the two He mentioned, love God and love neighbor, and we would be technically correct, even textually correct so as to get a doctorate of theology or something. But what if, by Jesus following up with a question about the Messiah, Jesus is pulling a “but the temple He was speaking of was His body”?
As in, Jesus is talking about one thing, but revealing a part of Himself behind it. And that may be what Jesus is doing, because we know the Law does not save, it only brings wrath, says Romans 4:15. Even if we love God and our neighbor, we don’t do so enough and still fall under judgement. But, Jesus is not inciting more wrath by giving us more Law. He is showing His absorption of all that wrath into Himself.
What helps get us started here is Jesus’s talk about “hanging”. “Hang” is a crucifixion word, as St. Paul reminds us in Galatians 3, “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree’” (v. 13).
Thus, in the first place, Jesus is saying that loving God and loving your neighbor begins with Jesus on the cross. The love needed to love God is purchased with the Body and Blood of Christ. The love necessary to sustain your neighbor in this sinful world is gained only in the Body and Blood of Christ. In this way, the Law and the Prophets “hang”, have their very being and existence in Love: hanging, suffering, dying on the cross.
This is a prophesy from Jesus of how He was going to purchase and win righteousness for all. This is why His follow up question about the lineage of the Christ fits right in. Because the prophesy is not which commandment is greatest in order that we avoid all the others to fast-track God’s reward to us. The prophesy is that ALL the Law, ALL the Prophets must be fulfilled, must hang, not just those we can get to whenever.
Why? Because, “sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me” (Rom 7:11). The Commandments, the Law of God, prophesy death (John 14:10). They have become our foes, however Jesus will reign until every foe will lie beneath His feet, even ours.
The Law and the Prophets are our foes in God’s eyes, which is the only way to see things. To us, they look like helpful teachers, ready to send us on a righteous and holy path. Yet, they only ever accuse us of not doing enough or excuse us in our sinfulness, making us believe that God will just sweep everything under a rug (Rom 2:15), when the time comes. The right path gets further and further away from us as we simultaneously get things wrong and are excused, falsely, for doing so.
Repent! St. Paul, in his epistle reading today, mentions “lacking gifts” (1 Cor 1:7) and you are lacking. As we already heard, you have a pharisaical heart, which lusts after excuses in regards to the Faith. Just as the Pharisees asked “which one law can we follow in order to ignore the rest”, you also ask “how much is just enough to remain faithful”. What is the least amount I can do in Christ’s Church to be counted among the Blessed?
Begin to find your way back by answering Jesus’ question, instead of the Pharisees’. Do not ask “who is my neighbor” (Lk 10:29), to try and excuse yourself just because you can’t see God, to love Him. Do not ask which prophet had it best, in order to only follow that one. Do not ask which Pastor is the best, so that you may quarrel and fight for the most team points for God.
Dear Christians, ask, do not answer, but ask, “Who is the Christ and whos’ Son is He?”
Then, in all humility because of the weight of your sins, let Jesus answer how He wants to answer and he will say, “I AM”.
I AM is David’s Lord. King David saw Jesus and worshipped Him. Not only was David led and spoken to by God’s chosen prophets, but His hand spared David’s life and accepted his offering on an Altar with fire from heaven, calling it down Himself. The Lord answered David at the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite, and at the site of that same threshing floor, the Lord’s Temple was built (1 Chron 21).
I AM is David’s son. This is God’s Promise made to David. Though we all thought it was King Solomon, the promise was, “I will raise up thy seed after thee, which shall be of thy bowels, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build me a house, and I will set up his throne forever. I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son: and my mercy will I not withdraw from him, as I withdrew it from them that were before thee. And I will establish him in my house and in his kingdom forever; and his throne shall be set up forever”, from 1 Chronicles 17 (v.11-14).
This “forever seed” is not Solomon, he’s dead. It is Jesus Who is the Seed, the Word of God, Who falls into the ground, dies, and produces a crop of believers a hundred times over, rising again from the dead. He is the Son, both God and man, able to die and rise again in order to occupy His father David’s throne forever. It was His in the first place!
Greater than the Law and the Prophets is the God Who gave both. And God is love, so the focus is on Him. You, too, focus on Him. Hear of His wonders, see Him be made man, hear the words of His preaching, and watch His Way of the Cross as He is Crucified for you.
What does this mean? It means that to the Pharisees and those with their heart, He is a stumbling block, not allowing any part of the Law or the Prophets to be ignored or cast aside. You could sooner cast aside God in His own Creation, than do something like that.
It means that to the Gentiles and those who think they are super-spiritual, Jesus is a Fool, taking on the position of “son” rather than king. A king can command, demand, and kill others for transgressions. Much more exciting to follow the powerful! A son can be ignored and cast aside, even killed. Humility and weakness are not words that usually come to mind when speaking of God.
For us, it means that loving God and loving our neighbor come second to the Greatest Command: that of believing in the Lord Jesus, Who gives both Law and Prophets for the building up of His Church and in order to accomplish His work of salvation.
Hear and believe. At the Transfiguration the first command was given: “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him” (Matt 17:5) which is a parallel to Moses and the Burning Bush where Moses and all Israel was commanded to listen, to hear what God was saying and what He wanted done.
Believe. From the beginning, it was all about believing. Belief is counted as righteousness (Gen 15:6). Belief is rewarded with eternal life (John 11:26). Belief produces salvation (Mk 16:16), blessing (Lk 1:45), and most importantly access to all of God through the Apostles’ Word (Jn 17:20).
This is what the Gospel is. That we hear what the Lord has to say, what the Lord is doing, and how the Lord gets it done. And if we hear His Word, we know that He has already answered our questions, even about the Commandments.
Hear Deuteronomy 6:
“When your son asks you in time to come, ‘What is the meaning of the testimonies and the statutes and the rules that the Lord our God has commanded you?’ then you shall say to your son, ‘We were Pharaoh's slaves in Egypt. And the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand. And the Lord showed signs and wonders, great and grievous, against Egypt and against Pharaoh and all his household, before our eyes. And he brought us out from there, that he might bring us in and give us the land that he swore to give to our fathers” (v.20-23).
Therefore, when you dwell and meditate on God’s Commandments love them and do what they say, but recognize and believe that they point to the Word Made Flesh, first and foremost. They point to the Holy Son Who brought us out of sin, death, and the power of the devil with a mighty hand. And showed signs and wonders, great and grievous, against death and against the devil and all his hosts, before our eyes in Word and Sacrament. He brought us out from there and gave us an undying country in His Church that He swore to our fathers: His true Body and life everlasting beside Him.
Thank you, Pastor!
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