10-16-22 Trinity 18

Bible Text: Matthew 22:34-46 | Preacher: Pastor Christian Preus | Series: Trinity 2022 | Jesus is the great lover of the Law. He says, “Do not think that I came to overthrow the law, I did not come to overthrow but to fulfill. I tell you not one jot, not one tittle will fall from the law till all is fulfilled.” And that “until” there doesn’t mean that once Jesus fulfills it, the law will fall with all its jots and all its tittles. When mom leaves the kids at home and says, “Be good till I come back,” she doesn’t mean that the kids only have to be good until she gets back, and then they can be as bad as they want. The law of love toward God and the neighbor, this law remains until Jesus fulfills it and after. Jesus loves the law. The Pharisees don’t. This is the great irony, because the Pharisees make their trade in the law and they talk about it all the time. But it turns out they have a very low opinion of the law. Because they’ve reduced it to a set of rules. They hate Jesus because Jesus breaks their silly little rules – don’t heal on the Sabbath, don’t snack on grain as you walk through the grain field. None of these rules touch the heart. They require nothing more than slavish obedience. You could train a monkey to keep them. But the law is a matter of the heart. We cannot think of the law in terms of a speed limit. We obey the speed limit almost entirely in slavish obedience. Our heart is not in it at all. But the law of God expects exactly the opposite of slavish obedience. It expects love, unforced, totally willing, love of God and our neighbor. This is how Jesus describes it when the Pharisees, the rule lovers, ask him what the great commandment of the law is. He doesn’t list some external rule – don’t touch, don’t taste. He speaks the commandments that touch the heart – love God with all your heart and all your soul and all your mind and love your neighbor as yourself. And Jesus goes further – He says all the Law and all the prophets, that’s all the Bible, all God’s Word to man, hinge on these two commandments, to love God from the heart completely and your neighbor as yourself.

It’s no change of subject when Jesus asks the Pharisees a question and says, “What do you think about the Christ? Whose Son is He?” What you think about the law determines what you think about the Christ. If the law only touches the externals, is only a set of rules, then you’ll only need a Christ who takes care of the externals, who saves the body. But if the law pierces to the heart, expects perfect love which you cannot give, then you’ll need a completely different Christ, a Christ who can forgive sin and free from the devil’s accusations and deliver from hell.

What you think of the law determines what you think of the Christ. This was true for the Pharisees. It’s true for us today. The Pharisees were expecting the Christ. Everyone was, at least every Jew. The Bible prophesied it over and over again. That’s why the people are constantly wondering, “Is this the Christ” when Jesus does his miracles. But they are not expecting a Christ to save them from their sins and from the bondage of the devil and from hell. They aren’t afraid of any of that. The sinners are the tax collectors, the adulterers, the prostitutes, the Gentiles, not them. They’ve kept the rules. They aren’t children of the devil, they’re children of Abraham. But they do have problems. Everyone does. They do still need a Christ. They need a leader, a king, a hero to drive the Romans away. They need a prince to give them political freedom and restore the kingdom to what it was under King David. They need low taxes and low inflation and a good retirement and decent healthcare. So when Jesus asks them, “What do you think of the Christ? Whose son is he?” This is their answer. David’s. It’s not wrong. But it’s not right either. The Christ is David’s Son. But He’s also David’s Lord. He is a man. But He is also God. So Jesus answers, “How is it then that David, in the Spirit, calls him Lord, saying, “The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool?”

Jesus has asked the question before, “Who is the Christ?” He asked his disciples. Who do men say that I am? And they answered, some say John the Baptist, some Elijah, some say Jeremiah or one of the prophets. And Jesus says, But who do you say that I am? And Peter answers, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” And Jesus says, “Blessed are you Simon, Son of Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you but my Father in heaven. And I say to you, you are Peter, and on this Rock I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. On this confession, that Jesus is the Christ, not simply the son of David, but the Son of the Living God, Jesus will build His Church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. Because here is a Christ who can deal with hell, with sin, with death, with the devil, because He is the Son of the living God and has come to fulfill the law of love for us.

What you think of the law will determine what you think of Christ. What kind of Savior do you need? You have problems. Everyone does. But are the problems that occupy your mind the problems of the body – money, job, economy, retirement, inflation, political victory in November? What kind of a Savior do you need from these worries? You only need a man, a hero, a David, a competent Reagan to replace an incompetent Carter. You only need what the masses chase after Jesus to get – a bread king. And what goes on in this holy house of God will only seem strange to you, at best the rule you follow, the rites you go through, because that’s what good Christians do, but nothing will touch the heart.

But if you know the law of God as Jesus preaches it, you will know your need for a far greater Christ, not simply David’s Son but David’s Lord. Not simply a man, but God Himself in human flesh. Jesus says it, “Unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees you will by no means enter into the Kingdom of God.” Far beyond keeping the rules, the law requires perfect love of God and your neighbor. Have you given it? Do you want to give it? Does it touch your heart and do you think of what you owe God and what you haven’t given Him? What you owe your neighbor and failed even to care about? Do you look at your life and see that what is wrong with it is not simply that you don’t have enough money or that your health isn’t the best or that inflation is out of control, but that you’ve doubted your God and not thought of Him and been impatient and selfish in your dealings with the people you should love? Do you look forward not simply to bodily pleasure but to enjoying a righteousness in heaven that is perfect, where you won’t doubt God anymore, won’t be discontent with what He gives, won’t lust after what isn’t yours, won’t ever be jealous or envious or greedy or mean? Then you will long for a Savior who can give you this, a righteousness you don’t have. Then you will see your enemies that need conquering: not simply poverty and political oppression but sin and death and hell and the devil. You will need far more than a man to save you. You will need God Himself in human flesh sitting at the right hand of His Father with all your enemies under His feet.

All the law and the prophets hang on these two commands – love God from the depths of your heart and love your neighbor as yourself. But you can’t give it. So Jesus says, “You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life, and these are they which testify of Me.” All the law and the prophets hang on Him. He is the One who loves God from the depth of His heart. He is the One who loves His neighbor as Himself. He is the fulfilment of love. He is the One on whom all the law and the prophets hang, the One who hangs on the cross and fulfills this love, every jot and tittle of it, pours out His life till death, makes you His neighbor by joining the human race and then loves you by laying down His life in your place and suffering the punishment for your lack of love. He is the One who loves God from the depths of His soul, with every fiber of His being, trusting even as God forsakes Him on the cross that God will not let His Holy One see corruption but will raise Him from the dead and give Him the fruits of His labor – brothers and sisters, children of God, bought by His blood.

This is the Christ you need, the Christ who came, the Christ who is, who sits at the right hand of the Father until all His enemies are put under His feet. The right hand of the Father is everywhere, it is the power of God, His majesty, and the Christ you need, the Christ who came, the Christ who is, rules in that majesty with all power to destroy your enemies, both the enemies of your body and the enemies of your soul. He is God and He is Man. He is not far away in heaven oblivious of your needs. He is your Brother. And He is with you always. So yes, cry out to Him for help for your body, for job, for money, for family, for good government, but do it not because your obsession is with bodily pleasure and peace, but because your obsession is with love of God and your neighbor. You want to see this love in yourself and in the world. Love according to God’s commandments. The Christian soul longs for it. Not keeping a bunch of manmade religious rules, but loving our Creator from the bottom of our hearts and loving our neighbors above ourselves. We want it. But we cannot see it in ourselves much less the world around us. The Spirit is willing but the flesh is weak. And so we cry out to Jesus to give it and He does. He gives it now to you. He speaks your forgiveness. He feeds you with His body and His blood. He gives you His Spirit. And this means your enemies are under His feet. All of them. Bodily and spiritual. You will see it on the Last Day. But it is done now. The gates of hell cannot prevail against Christ’s Christians. He is the great lover of the Law, its great Fulfiller, and He continues to love us by forgiving us and teaching us and He will guide us safely to everlasting life, where we will finally love as we have been loved. In the name of Jesus.

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