INTRODUCTION

How will the parents of Gerrit Paul Hedman teach their infant son to love God and neighbor? What does it take for us to love as God calls us to love? More specifically, how will a nation with a history of hatred for Jews learn to live as good neighbors with Jews? How do Shiites apply the rule of love with Sunnis (and vice-versa)? How do blacks and whites and people of all kinds of different skin colors love God and their neighbors as God calls us to do?

These are not hypothetical questions. They get at the core of human relationships; and the answers to these questions determine to a great extent the kind of relationships we develop in our communities and world. For some, loving God is easy; it’s loving people which troubles them. For others, loving people is easier than loving God. After all, people you can see, and thus focus your love on. Loving Gerrit Paul is not hard to do. He’s cute and huggable. But how can you love an invisible God?

And then, of course, you have those hard cases. For example, how do you love an abusive father, or a mother who withholds from you her acceptance, or a sibling who is jealous of you? Loving God and neighbor is a challenge, to say the least.

Today, the scriptures hold before us the rule of love. That rule of love must be unlocked. Here is the good news: Christ is the key to love. Therefore, let’s apply the rule of love with Christ at the center of our being.

THE RULE OF LOVE

Today we find the Lord Jesus on the spot. We also note that Jesus puts others—and us—on the spot. For example, there are two questions in the Scripture reading for today. The first question comes from the lips of an expert in the Law of Moses, a Pharisee at that and the second question comes from the lips of Jesus. Both questions and their answers pull the passage together and make clear that Jesus is the key to love. In order for us to apply the rule of love, Jesus needs to be at the center of our being.

The Pharisees started this episode of asking questions. Along with the Sadducees, they seek to stump the Lord Jesus with tricky questions from the Hebrew Bible. In fact, they hope to trap him into some kind of false teaching, so that they can accuse him of, for example, blasphemy—which would be a crime punishable by death.

In Matthew 22:15-22 the Pharisees ask the question about paying taxes, hoping that Jesus would speak against the Roman oppressors in Palestine. It does not work. Then the Sadducees follow through with a hypothetical question about marriage at the time of the final resurrection. It does not work. Jesus sets them straight with a clear answer that puts them to shame and silence. Then it is the turn of the Pharisees again. Now they send an expert in the Law of Moses to Jesus: (vs. 36) “Teacher,” he says, “which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”

Now since there are at least 816 commandments in the sacred Hebrew Scriptures, how would you understand the question? Does the expert in the Law of Moses mean: the most important commandment? You know, the one commandment that is primary—first and foremost, of the highest priority? Or does he mean: the most sublime, or noble commandment? You know, the one commandment that stands out the most—that is singular? Or does he mean: the hardest to keep? You know, the one commandment which is so great, so difficult, so demanding, so esoteric, so hard to keep?

Without blinking an eye, the Lord Jesus responds and says: (vs. 37) “You (singular) shall love the your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment.” The Lord Jesus responds with the classic Jewish answer found in the book of Deuteronomy (6:4,5), where the people of God confess the core of their faith, saying “Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.” In response to that confession, God’s people also declare that this one God calls for wholehearted love from all his people, a love that demands our all from the heart, soul, mind, and yes, even strength. In his answer, then, the Lord Jesus echoes the sacred teachings from the Scriptures.

But then he goes on and expands on these teachings by saying, (vs. 39,30) “The second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” That’s a new one for the Pharisees. No, the teaching is not new, but they do not know of such a summary about loving one’s neighbor. The Lord Jesus, however, takes the 10 Commandments given to Moses and the Israelites and summarizes these ten Commandments by bringing them down to the rule of love: The first four commandments are all about our response of love toward God; the remaining 6 commandments are all about our response of love toward the neighbor: honor your parents, support life—do not murder; promote fidelity in marriage; practice honesty; speak truthfully, and live with a heart of purity and contentment. Jesus’ response to the question is so clear-cut, and so simple that it silences the Pharisees. Who can argue against this rule of love from the Scripture?

We shall not argue against this teaching of the Bible. But we do well to make an observation: All of us are in deep trouble, for none of us, not one human being, can live up to this rule of love. Why not?

The Scriptures teach us that there is something fundamentally wrong in our hearts, minds, and in our inmost being or human nature. Listen:

Genesis 6:5 (days of Noah) “The Lord saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time.”

Jeremiah 17:9 (days of apostasy in Israel) “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?”

Romans 7:21-23 “So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members.” We may not like it, but the old confession that says that we “have a natural tendency to hate God and our neighbor” hits the nail of our problem on the head. In our own strength we cannot unlock the rule of God’s love. We are incapable of loving as God calls us to love him and one another. We need a key to unlock and unleash the rule of God’s love. Jesus is that key.

CHRIST, THE KEY

Silenced by Jesus’ teaching, the Pharisees huddle in dismay, for they are unable to trap Jesus into a heresy or blasphemy. And silenced by the realization of our inability, we now look up to Jesus for an answer: how can we apply the rule of loving God and our neighbor? Jesus reveals the answer in vs. 41-45.

“What do you think about the Christ?” asks Jesus. Here Jesus connects these teachers of the Bible with David who speaks of the Christ in one of his Psalms. But Jesus also draws their (and our) attention to himself: What do you think about me? About the Christ?

You see, for the last three years or so, the Lord Jesus has been saying in sermons, in stories, and by way of miracles that he is the Christ—the Anointed One of God to bring salvation to Israel and the world. And the Pharisees are of a mind that Jesus is crazy, out of his mind. They think that Jesus is blaspheming, because they hear Jesus say that he is both—human and divine. They hear Jesus referring to himself as being one with God. They hear Jesus say that he, as the Christ, is both human and divine. Such a thought is outrageous, unthinkable. And thus they reject Jesus as the Christ.

”What do you think about the Christ?” asks Jesus. “Whose son is he?” Now that’s not hard to answer. The Pharisees firmly believe that the Christ of the Scriptures is from the house or family line of David. In fact, he is David’s son, they replied.

They are right. But if that is true, how do you solve this problem: That is, says Jesus, “How is it then that David, speaking by the Spirit, calls him ‘Lord’? For he says, ‘The Lord said to my Lord: ‘Sit at my right hand until I put your enemies under your feet.’”

When the Lord God says to the physical descendant of David, “Sit at my right hand until I put your enemies under your feet,” it is clear that God exalts this human son of David and accords him a divine place of honor. That is, the Lord God treats the son of David as divine. And thus Jesus asks the Pharisees: “If then David calls him “Lord,’ how can he be his (David’s) son.”

The answer, of course, is clear. David can call his son “Lord” because his son is both—fully human as well as fully divine. And that’s how Jesus has been revealing himself to the people and that’s what the Pharisees have been rejecting. They do not believe that Jesus is both—truly a son of David in the flesh, and truly the eternal Son of God, fully divine.

The Pharisees realize what Jesus is teaching. But they do not take the “bait.” Instead of embracing Jesus as the Christ, as the key to loving God and neighbor, they reject him. And in doing so, they cannot apply the rule of love. For Jesus teaches that he must be at the center of our being, so that we may learn to love God and our neighbor. Jesus is the key to unlock—and filter, and purify, and sanctify our love for God and neighbor.

Listen to these Scripture passages and take a good look at Christ, the key to love:

(John 3:16) “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” From Jesus we learn that all the teachings of the law and the prophets depend on (or hang on) the commandments to love God and our neighbor. In fact, we learn that Jesus has come to fulfill the law and the prophets. That is, the rule of love finds complete fulfillment in Jesus—he is the key.

And as our key to the rule of love, Jesus is the model to follow. Listen: (I John 3:16) “This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him?”

You see? Jesus is the key—our model to follow in learning to love God and our neighbor.

Jesus asked (and thus invited) the Pharisees to embrace him as the Christ. They rejected him. Today, I ask all of you here: Will you, will I, embrace Jesus Christ as the key to God’s rule of love? I come to you with the full force of Scripture, which echoes God’s command to us today: (I John 3:23) “And this is (God’s) command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us. Those who obey his commands live in him, and he in them.”

In our own strength, we cannot love God and our neighbor. But when we apply God’s rule of love by faith in Christ Jesus, by embracing Christ, and by having him rule in and live at the center of our being—then we are on the right track of love.

What do you say? Where are you at with Jesus?

In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.