Out of Death, There Is Light

Holy Innocents

December 28, 2014

Matthew 2:1-18

Out of Death, There Is Light

†

In the name of the Father and of the † Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

I.

Herod was a king of small little country called Judea. He ruled over the Jews. He was allowed to rule by the king of the Roman Empire, the Caesar. As long as he toed the line with the Romans, Herod could do what he wanted. It was like being prime minister of Denmark. You have power, but you try not to upset the Americans.

Herod was not a politically correct liberal European ruler. Herod was cruel, clever, and rational. He did was right for himself. So when the Magi appear from the East and ask where to find the King of the Jews, Herod is worried. Like many others Herod assumes that Jesus came to push him off the throne.

After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, "Where is the One who has been born king of the Jews? We saw His star in the east and have come to worship Him."

When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. When he had called together all the people's chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Christ was to be born. "In Bethlehem in Judea," they replied, "for this is what the prophet has written: " 'But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for out of you will come a ruler who will be the shepherd of My people Israel.' "

Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared. He sent them to Bethlehem and said, "Go and make a careful search for the child. As soon as you find Him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship Him."

After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen in the east went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. On coming to the house, they saw the child with His mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped Him. Then they opened their treasures and presented Him with gifts of gold and of incense and of myrrh.

And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route. . . . When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi. (Matthew 2:1-12, 16)

King Herod did the right thing for himself. He'd get the address of what he thought was his future rival. Then he'd send in an assassin to quietly murder Jesus. This surgical strike against Jesus seems likely as we watch how sweetly and secretly he manipulates the Magi, "Please tell me where Jesus is so I can go and pay my respects, too."

II.

Note the contrast between his initial pretend concern with his later loss of control. His outburst led to the open murder of a score of babies boys and toddlers. This violence can only be described as pure evil. Let make sure we're clear on what pure evil is. Pure evil is simply the love of yourself that is out of control. Most of the time our narcissism is held in check. But when we don't get our way, look out. And the more power we have, the worse the damage will be.

King Herod had some power and he used it to murder innocent little children and brought unspeakable suffering to many families. Today we might speak of this dead boys as collateral damage, a term that doesn't pass along the horror of this dark deed.

III.

Darkness is always trying to put out the Light of the world. In doing so, it causes pain and suffering. But here's the promise: The Light has conquered the darkness and it will never be put out.

Jesus is the Light. He came into the world to save us from darkness:

I am the light of the world. Whoever follows Me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life. (John 8:12)

I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in Me should stay in darkness. (John 12:46)

Herod tried to put out that Light, but he failed. Whenever darkness comes to extinguish the Light, it will fail. We trust in the Light. Even though we are by nature dark, Jesus came to take us into Himself, into the Light. And by His Word that creates light out of darkness, we will remain in His Light.

Our trust in Christ doesn't take away or lessen the pain of the dark deeds that we have committed or the ones committed against us. But our faith does change how struggle with evil. For example, there are many who have murdered babies with an abortion. These parents will carry this darkness with them their whole lives. But in Christ, they flee for refuge from their sin and find mercy in Him.

For us who have never murdered, we consider our hatred of others and our grudges and our secret murders of our hearts. And in Christ, we flee from from our sin and find mercy in Him.

Light exposes sin. And our Light, the Light of the world, exposes our darkness, so that He might have mercy on us and bring us the warmth of forgiveness for all our sins.

Christ Jesus came into the world

to save sinners—

of whom I am the worst.

Alleluia! Amen.

Could Anyone Love You More?

Commentary for Christmas Eve

Could anyone love you more? God is born in a barn. The angels sing, not to their God or His mother, but to the shepherds. He comes to the lowly who have nothing to give Him, who only want to receive. Nothing must mar this lowliness that exalts the greatness of God’s love.

It’s worth noting, if only in passing, that the angels rejoice! We might have expected them to be angry or at the very least to weep. He whom they love perfectly has humbled Himself completely in order to suffer and die for fallen mankind.

We might have expected their hearts to ache, or even to ask, How come for them and not for our fallen fellow angels?

But there is none of that. So perfectly is their will in harmony with the will of God that they rejoice beyond measure that He whom they worship and adore has come down from heaven just for you, just for me! “Let us hasten to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about!”

Don’t talk about bringing Him a present—not today. Today He is the only present! Just receive! Just sing!

(From Daniel M. Deutschlander, Planning Christian Worship, Year B)

The Preacher Is Nothing

John 1:8

The Preacher Is Nothing

†

In the name of the Father and of the † Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

When I'm in the pulpit, I must admit that I want to make you laugh. I want to make you cry. I want to rivet you. I want to make you feel. I want all these things and more because I want you to like me.

When you compliment my sermon, I let it go to my head. When you smile and nod at my preaching, I let it go to my head. When you attention wanders, I let it go to my head. When you fall asleep, I let it go to my head.

Where is Jesus in all of this wanting and let-it-going? Right, He isn't. It's all about me, me, me.

And so when fellow preachers came to this most remarkable human preacher by the River Jordan, all they wanted to know about was John. Six times they asked him, "Who are you?" And every time John basically said, "I am nothing."

This is John’s testimony when the Jews from Jerusalem sent priests and Levites to ask him, “Who are you?” He did not refuse to answer, but he declared: “I am not the Messiah.” They asked him, “What then? Are you Elijah?” He said, “I am not."

“Are you the Prophet?” He answered, “No.”

They asked, “Who are you, then? We need to give an answer to those who sent us. What can you tell us about yourself?”

[John] said, “I am a voice of one crying out in the wilderness: Make straight the way of the Lord—just as Isaiah the prophet said.”

Now they had been sent from the Pharisees. So they asked him, “Why then do you baptize if you aren’t the Messiah, or Elijah, or the Prophet?” John answered them, “I baptize with water. Someone stands among you, but you don’t know Him. He is the One coming after me, whose sandal strap I’m not worthy to untie.” (John 1:19-27)

They wanted John to be something. You can hear it in their leading questions, less are you Elijah, and more you're Elijah, right? He would have made them happy and he would have felt great answering yes. He could have justified a yes to Elijah because he had a proof passage from the Bible.

See, I will send the prophet Elijah to you before that great and dreadful day of the Lord comes. (Malachi 4:5)

John preached in a climate demanded that the preacher himself must be something or else his message is nothing. This is the same climate we live in today. I justify my wanting you to like me by saying to myself that if you don't like me, then you won't listen to me, and then you won't hear Jesus. With the best of goals, with the desire to grow the church, making myself into something would only accomplish making Jesus into something less than He is.

If John had said, "Yes, I am Elijah," that's all the crowd would have heard. John would made himself into an obstacle to presence of the true Light. By faith John the first Lutheran points to Christ and Him alone as the forgiveness of our sins:

Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! (John 1:29)

Later in His own preaching Jesus would commend John and of every preacher and all the baptized who reveal not themselves, but instead reveal the Light of the world.

No one lights a lamp and hides it in a clay jar or puts it under a bed. Instead, they put it on a stand, so that those who come in can see the light. (Luke 8:16)

And so John stands today as the witness of the Light. Think of how often John pointed the people and their Pharisees to Jesus. Yet so many wouldn't listen.

It is worth noting the parallel incident when Jesus answered the unasked question on the minds of all the people: "Who are you?" When Jesus Himself testified to His identity, and said, "Yes, I am the Light you've been waiting for," they would not have it.

When Jesus spoke again to the people, He said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows Me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”

The Pharisees challenged him, “Here You are, appearing as Your own witness; Your testimony is not valid.”

Jesus answered, “Even if I testify on My own behalf, My testimony is valid, for I know where I came from and where I am going. But you have no idea where I come from or where I am going. You judge by human standards; I pass judgment on no one. But if I do judge, My decisions are true, because I am not alone. I stand with the Father, who sent Me. In your own Law it is written that the testimony of two witnesses is true. I am one who testifies for Myself; My other witness is the Father, who sent Me.”

Then they asked Him, “Where is Your father?”

Jesus replied, “You do not know Me or My Father. If you knew Me, you would know My Father also.” He spoke these words while teaching in the temple courts near the place where the offerings were put. Yet no one seized Him, because His hour had not yet come. (John 8:12-20 NIV)

Preachers see the reaction of these influential people and are tempted to make themselves more and Jesus less, all in the hopes of saving Jesus from Himself. Jesus is so clear and final in everything He says. People don't like that. People want nuance and subtlety. People want wiggle room. And so preachers wiggle. And we wiggle out of saying clear and final things. We use current events, humorous stories, personal anecdotes as filler. That's fine as long as the preacher gets to clear and final things. And the first sermon and the last sermon that a preacher must preach must be to himself. And no one preached it better than John.

A man can receive only what is given him from heaven. You yourselves can testify that I said, "I am not the Christ but am sent ahead of Him." The bride belongs to the bridegroom. The friend who attends the bridegroom waits and listens for him, and is full of joy when he hears the bridegroom's voice. That joy is mine, and it is now complete. He must become greater; I must become less. (John 3:27-30)

These are the first words of the newly ordained rookie pastor. These are the last words of the preacher before death. Jesus is everything; I am nothing. He must become greater; I must become less. For He came to lift up the poor and lowly, including pastors who are nothing.

Christ Jesus came into the world

to save sinners—

of whom I am the worst.

Alleluia! Amen.

Locusts and Honey

Second Sunday of Advent

December 7, 2014

Mark 1:6

Locusts and Honey

†

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

Amen.

I.

In order for Jesus to be the Savior as promised, God needed to send a messenger into the world. His message was to prepare the way for the Lord. John was this promised messenger for the promised Savior Jesus. And John's preparation for Jesus was locusts and honey.

Locusts are a type of grasshopper. In the days of the Old Testament, while many insects and animals were not to be eaten by devout Jews, locusts were listed as acceptable for eating. And they were cheap, so typically the poor would eat locusts. Out in the wilderness John, who didn't have much money, if any, ate locusts.

But locusts represented judgment. When the Lord God sent Moses to deliver the Jews from Egypt, the eighth plague was billions of locust swarming into the land and eating all plant life and making the humans and animals miserable.

So Moses stretched out his staff over Egypt, and the Lord made an east wind blow across the land all that day and all that night. By morning the wind had brought the locusts; they invaded all Egypt and settled down in every area of the country in great numbers. Never before had there been such a plague of locusts, nor will there ever be again. They covered all the ground until it was black. They devoured all that was left after the hail—everything growing in the fields and the fruit on the trees. Nothing green remained on tree or plant in all the land of Egypt. (Exodus 10:13-15)

This plague of locusts was the last and worst of the animal plagues. The only plagues left were the plague of darkness and the plague of the dead firstborn. Locusts represented judgment.

So the first part of John's message was the judgment of the Law.

John said to the crowds coming out to be baptized by him, "You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not begin to say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our father.' For I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. The ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire." (Luke 3:7-9)

John called on the crowd to confess. In the original language confess comes from the idea of admitting to the truth about yourself. So John called on the individual souls in the crowd to be honest about who they were: bad trees that produced bad fruit. Just as the Devil came as a viper to Adam and Eve in a garden full of trees, John preached that we are snakes, bad trees, dead rocks, sinners who think far much too much of ourselves and far too little of the true God. In a word, we are sinners who deserve punishment, just as that old Egyptian pharaoh brought locusts on himself.

II.

But John's preparation wasn't only locusts. His message was honey, too. To point out the obvious, honey is sweet. Even today someone who takes a spoonful of honey might wonder why they don't enjoy honey more often. It's sweet and delicious nectar.

And just as locusts were never more awful than in Egypt, honey was never so sweet as in Egypt. When describing the promised land to the Hebrews slaves in Egypt, the common phrase used is that it was a land flowing with milk and honey (first mentioned in Exodus 3:8).

III.

My beloved fellow Jews—Jews by faith, not by blood—today we are in Egypt. And we are waiting to go into the promised land. We are waiting for the Great Deliverer to come to us, to advent, and take us into the land flowing with milk and honey. In this land of honey the bitter judgment of locusts will be a distant memory.

Until He comes, heed the locusts and honey of John and prepare the way of the Lord. Prepare yourselves just as the crowds who came to John prepared: they listened to God's preacher and were baptized and repented. They confessed their sin and trusted in Jesus to wash all sin away.

Earlier I mentioned the plagues of Egypt. The final plague was the plague of the dead firstborn. This event also has another name: the Passover. The Jews as they were taught put lamb's blood on their doors and the angel of death passed over their houses.

This blood in Egypt symbolized the coming blood of the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. This holy blood of Christ takes sin away because He became our sin and allowed Himself to be devoured by the locusts of judgment. He died. And His death is the sweet honey of the Gospel. It is the forgiveness that He gives us to eat that prepares His way for us.

Every day eat locusts and honey. Receive the Law and the Gospel. Confess this trustworthy saying:

Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst. (1 Timothy 1:15)

Alleluia! Amen.

Watch!

First Sunday in Advent

November 30, 2014

Mark 13:37

Watch!

†

In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

I.

What is a good night's sleep? It's many hours of uninterrupted oblivion. When insomnia or a kid wakes you up at 2 am, you're likely to be a bit grouchy, because you've been taught that your hope for a good night's sleep has been ruined.

But the normal way of sleeping today might not be the way it always was. Sleep patterns in olden times may have been different.

Before clocks and then factory shift schedules, sleep was broken up. Just like your day is morning and afternoon, the night was also segmented. Before lighting became affordable with whale oil lamps and then light bulbs, people went to sleep when it got dark, around 9 or 10.

But they'd wake up on purpose at midnight after "first sleep. They'd stay awake and spend an hour or two doing things. They prayed and meditated. They considered their dreams. They visited neighbors. And being sinful like us, some even used this midnight hour to steal from their neighbor's orchard. Then they'd go back to bed for their "second sleep" and then awaken around dawn.

The ancients numbered the segments or watches of the night. Jesus speaks of these watches in Mark 13.

Therefore keep watch because you do not know when the owner of the house will come back—whether in the evening, or at midnight, or when the rooster crows, or at dawn. (Mark 13:35)

In Jesus' day there were four watches of the night: evening, midnight, cock-crowing (at three), and morning. These were used by soldiers for taking turns on lookout posts. But it seems likely that civilians used these segments of the night for their own sleeping and watching as well.

II.

With the practice of segmented sleep in olden times, Jesus' words seem to fit nicely with the words of Psalm 119.

My eyes stay open through the watches of the night, that I may meditate on Your promises. (Psalm 119:148)

Soldiers on guard duty were watching for enemy soldiers. What do Christians watch for? The Day of the Lord. Paul wrote,

For you yourselves know very well that the Day of the Lord will come just like a thief in the night. . . . So then, we must not sleep, like the rest, but we must stay awake and be serious. (1 Thessalonians 5:2,6)

III.

Staying awake means that we believe and confess what we used to be, who Jesus is, and what He has made us to be.

We used to be fast-asleep sinners. But our Savior Jesus, who shed His blood for all sleepers, wakes us up from our sleep with blessed Sacrament of Holy Baptism. It is as though you are woken up at midnight and can't get back to sleep. What do you do with your time?

Soldiers on night guard duty use their ears, just as much as their eyes. Christian do likewise. We watch by listening.

At dawn before you turn on the radio or the television, or at least before you turn on the ignition, spend some moments in prayer and meditation, listening to Jesus, God's Word. And then go to work or school. My guess is that His Words will stay with you. They'll keep you watchful through the day. And consider pausing at noon for a few more moments of prayer and contemplation.

IV.

The technology of the clock has caged many into unhealthy patterns. Even when believers complain about our busy lives, we don't know how to put our finger on the root of the problem. It's not the schedule or the clock or time itself that is the problem. It is the misplaced trust that time is going to keep on spinning, spinning, spinning into the future. It won't. It will end. Clocks and schedules are often the cages that those who are still asleep (unbelievers) willingly lock themselves into.

Even we who are awake (believers) are tempted back to sleep. But Jesus says, "Watch! Stay awake! Be alert!" And by faith we do. Through our prayerful listening and faithful service to others, we are awake and watchful in Christ. And at the end of the day of work, when we go to sleep, we know that even while we sleep, we are watchful, for we belong to Him. And one of these nights, He will return with glory of the noonday sun to confess His own before His Father.

In the name of the Father

and of the † Son

and of the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

For more on segmented sleep:

https://soundcloud.com/backstory/roger-ekirch-on-segmented

Now Thank We All Our God

Thanksgiving

November 27, 2014

Now Thank We All Our God

†

In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

A long time ago a war that lasted 30 years swept through central Europe. Armies from many nations fought battle after battle in Germany and the destruction from the battles and their fallout were catastrophic. Imagine all of the conflict of World War II bottled up in Iowa and Illinois for 30 years.

For example, the Lutheran town of Eilenburg was invaded once by the Austrian troops and twice at different times by Swedish soldiers. The armies would pass through and pillage the land. They abuse the people and steal their crops. And the plague killed thousands. It was awful.

During this time of destruction Lutherans suffered terribly. During the war Eilenburg was told by the occupying Swedish army that the town needed to pay a tax of 30,000 thaler, a huge sum in good times. The Lutheran pastor in Eilenburg, Martin Rinkart, went out and pleaded the unreasonable tribute down to 2,000.

Pastor Rinkart was the only pastor in Eilenburg. In 1637 he buried the two other pastors who died from plague; he was left alone even more when his own wife died. Yet surrounded by death and in his grief, clinging to Christ's promise of life through forgiveness Pastor Rinkart praised his merciful Redeemer and wrote this song for his children.

I invite to turn back to Hymn 610 and we'll read Pastor's Rinkart's words of stanza one together.

Now thank we all our God

With hearts and hands and voices,

Who wondrous things has done,

In whom His world rejoices,

Who from our mother's arms

Has blessed us on our way

With countless gifts of love

And still is ours today.

We thank our God with everything He has given us: hearts that beat, hands that make, and voices that speak. All the food that sustains our hearts is His. All the wood and dirt and metal we create with is His. Our voices describe things that only exist because He speaks into being. Our mothers are from Him. All these things are ours because He is the maker of heaven and earth.

But all these earthly blessings come and go. Pastor Rinkart and his family and parishioners didn't have enough food; some of our loved ones may not be able to eat easily. Some have good mothers; others don't have moms; and others have bad ones.

But Pastor Rinkart confessed that through the gains and losses of life, one thing remains ours: the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. We speak stanza two.

Oh, may this bounteous God

Through all our life be near us,

With ever-joyful hearts

And blessed peace to cheer us

And keep us in His grace

And guide us when perplexed

And free us from all ills

In this world and the next.

Jesus' presence is always near us. His presence is real, but He hides Himself from our senses. But as often as we receive the Word of the Lord, we hear His voice that speaks blessed peace that cheers us up and cuts through perplexing situations. We hear His voice that cuts through all the worries that we have and will have until the end. But until then His simple words are so clear and cheerful.

Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?

Matthew 6:25-26

How simply He reassures us with ideas we can easily grasp! Birds are great, but you are far more valuable. And when you doubt this, Jesus promises to come to you and speak value into you. In and of yourself, you are worth less than a bird. But Jesus says that He makes you valuable to Him.

And so we speak stanza three.

All praise and thanks to God

The Father now be given,

The Son, and Him who reigns

With them in highest heaven,

The one eternal God,

Whom earth and heav'n adore!

For thus it was, is now,

And shall be evermore.

When these thirty years of war finally ended in 1648, Pastor Rickart's hymn was sung in thanksgiving to Christ for His mercy by the Lutheran survivors of war and plague. They thanked Him for sustaining their trust in His promise of forgiveness and life, even when everything else was taken away.

Today we praise Christ for the same forgiveness and life, but for a different reason. We thank Him that all our earthly abundance has not taken away our trust in Him.

We raise our voices to God with Pastor Rinkart and the Prophet Isaiah:

I delight greatly in the Lord; my soul rejoices in my God. For He has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of righteousness

Isaiah 61:10

In the name of the Father

and of the † Son

and of the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

Our Thorns Crown Our King

Last Sunday of the Church Year

Christ the King Sunday

November 23, 2014

Matthew 27:27-31

Our Thorns Crown Our King

†

In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

A crown of thorns You're wearing,

My shame and scorn You're bearing

That I might ransomed be.

My bondsman, ever willing,

My place with patience filling,

From sin and guilt has made me free.

Paul Gerhardt

Upon the Cross Extended

Lutheran poet Paul Gerhardt wrote of the shameful-looking Jesus with our sins laid upon Him on the cross. He pictures the crown of thorns as our sin, our shame and scorn. Shame over the sins which we alone are aware, yet trouble us. Scorn from others, especially our family, for sins that hurt them. Shame and scorn are the fruit of our sinfulness. And Jesus takes up our sin-soaked crown and wore it to set you free from sin, shame, and scorn.

Then the governor's soldiers took Jesus into the Praetorium and gathered the whole company of soldiers around Him. They stripped Him and put a scarlet robe on Him, and then twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on His head. They put a staff in His right hand and knelt in front of Him and mocked Him. "Hail, king of the Jews!" they said. They spit on Him, and took the staff and struck Him on the head again and again. After they had mocked Him, they took off the robe and put His own clothes on Him. Then they led Him away to crucify Him. 

Matthew 27:27-31

So many awful and amazing things here. These Roman soldiers are cruelly creative in mocking Jesus. But in their mockery they couldn't help but tell the truth about Jesus. They dressed Him as a king to ridicule Him, but their mockery, which ended 2,000 years ago, stands for all time as the truth that Jesus is the King.

Jesus said, "My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, My servants would fight to prevent My arrest by the Jews. But now My kingdom is from another place."

"You are a king, then!" said Pilate.

Jesus answered, "You are right in saying I am a king. In fact, for this reason I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me." 

John 18:36-37

Jesus is the King, but He doesn't rule with laws or swords. He is a King who rules with the Truth. He came to Bethlehem and into this world in the flesh to preach the truth: that all humans are thorny sinners and that He is the One who saves sinners from their thorns by being crowned with them and wearing them on the cross.

But He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon Him, and by His wounds we are healed.

Isaiah 53:5

His faithful sheep listen to Him, who is the Truth. And the truth is that our sharp thorns pierce Jesus. This means that Jesus suffered the painful awful punishment for our countless sins so that we will never go to the cross. Jesus willingly was crowned with the thorns we make. By His crown of our thorns, we will never be abandoned by our heavenly Father.

In the past many kings have been captured in battle and take prisoner. Their nobles and subjects then had to gather up heaps of treasure to pay the ransom.

Our superb King turns the tables forever. Instead of dying for king and country, our King died for all nations. Instead of demanding our treasure before He will save us, He ransomed Himself to His own justice and offered His own precious blood as the price for our freedom. Praise be to the King, who wears our crown of thorns!

A crown of thorns You're wearing,

My shame and scorn You're bearing

That I might ransomed be.

My bondsman, ever willing,

My place with patience filling,

From sin and guilt has made me free.

Paul Gerhardt

Upon the Cross Extended

In the name of the Father

and of the † Son

and of the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

The Law Hangs on Love

Twenty-third Sunday after Pentecost

November 16, 2014

Matthew 22:40

The Law Hangs on Love

†

In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

I.

The definition of insanity is trying the same thing over and over and expecting something different to happen. By this definition, the enemies of Jesus were insane. They were so jealous of Jesus and so offended by His teaching that God's forgiveness is free that they tried to stump Him with trick questions many times. And every time their questions and traps only revealed that this Man was not just a man, but the Son of God, holy beyond all goodness and wise beyond all wisdom.

But here's the upside: Because of their many failed attempts to ambush Jesus with words, we today get to enjoy the wisdom of our Lord.

Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. One of them, an expert in the law, tested Him with this question: "Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?" Jesus replied: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments." Matthew 22:34-40

Today is a fine example of Jesus' brilliance. A man asked Jesus which commandment was the greatest. He was asking Jesus which of the Ten Commandments was the most important to keep. Maybe Jesus was a big proponent of Remember the Sabbath. Or perhaps He was a backer of You Shall Not Commit Adultery. Whichever commandment Jesus proclaimed was the most important, then this questioner would have Him. Or so he thought. He thought once Jesus committed to Third Commandment (Remember the Sabbath), His enemies could jump in and slam Him for giving adultery a pass. This was the trap they set for Jesus.

II.

Here I think I should point out that what this expert in the law was doing is something that all sinners do. We compulsively rank God's commandments and our sins.

Perhaps you get physically ill with only a little wine, but your live-in boyfriend can put the beers away. So you rank sobriety as the greatest commandment. On the other hand you chide your drunk boyfriend. Strangely no attention is paid to the Sixth Commandment, which tells us about God's gift of marriage and how the blessing of a man and woman living together as husband and wife is only for those who are husband and wife.

Perhaps you rank the gift of parents as the most important. You had great parents and always found it easy to Honor Your Father and Mother when they were alive. But you complain to anyone who'll listen about how disrespectful young people are. So you rank the Fourth Commandment (honor your parents) highly, but the Eighth Commandment (don't be a busybody) takes a distant ninth in your book.

Examples aside, the bottom line is that sinners always rank the sins that they think they don't struggle with as most important, and ignore the other ones.

III.

So back to Jesus and His answer. When asked which is the greatest commandment, He didn't pick one commandment and pit it against all the others. Instead, the very same God who wrote the Ten Commandments cuts to the heart of them all: Love.

The greatest command of the Law is love. Love God and love all other people more than yourself. Everything hangs on love. And when we insanely try to find happiness in being loving to others and being loved by them in return, we will always be disappointed in the end.

Since ancient times no one has heard, no ear has perceived, no eye has seen any God besides You, who acts on behalf of those who wait for Him. You come to the help of those who gladly do right, who remember Your ways. But when we continued to sin against them, You were angry. How then can we be saved? All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away. Isaiah 64:4-6

We are sinners whose righteous acts are filthy rags. This means that no matter how hard we try to put others first, we always find a way to look out for number one, Me. Even when we are kind to others in order to force God to love us, we reveal that we are only using other people as a means to an end. We don't love them in and of themselves. We are trying to use our niceness to others to get something from them and from God.

IV.

Jesus' answer devastated His enemies. He preached the absolute demands of love. Anything less destroys those who try to love. But Jesus loves His enemies and doesn't want them to be destroyed. So He followed up with a question of His own.

"What do you think about the Christ? Whose Son is He?" They replied, "The Son of David," they replied. He said to them, "How is it then that David, speaking by the Spirit, calls Him 'Lord'? For [David] says, " 'The Lord said to my Lord: "Sit at My right hand until I put Your enemies under Your feet." ' If then David calls Him 'Lord,' how can He be his son?" No one could say a word in reply, and from that day on no one dared to ask him any more questions. Matthew 22:42-46

Jesus told these men that He is the Son of God who has come to save the world from its filthy attempts at love. Everything these men had believed about religion was swept away. Jesus told them that the only Way to life is not through their love, but through His.

And through His love, we become His children who love in truth and purity. And our filthy rags become the messy drawing of sons and daughters.

Kids love to draw. But most of it isn't going to any museum or art gallery. Most of it is only worth the fridge or the circular file. The kid thinks its great and offers the dog-monkey-bird to their father with delight in their eyes: "Look at what I drew!" And the father praises the child's good work and treats it like the Mona Lisa. The father takes pictures of the drawing and posts online for all world to see: "Did you what little Ezra drew?!" Wow!

This is how our heavenly Father treats our good works, like they are the greatest thing since He created sliced bread. He proclaims our works as the greatest, all for the sake of His good and holy Son, Jesus Christ.

In the name of the Father

and of the † Son

and of the Holy Spirit.

Amen.