| Text: Matthew 22: 35-39: 35 One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: 36 "Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?" 37 Jesus replied: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' |
| INTRODUCTION: My dear friends in Christ, an elderly minister was once driving along a country road with a young man who liked to argue on matters of religion. The wise old minister listened to him without much comment as the youth expounded his views, until he asked, -So you object to the Ten Commandments! "NOOOO!,"stammered the young man; "not their really, but - well, here's how it is: a fellow hates to have a ‘shall’ and a ‘shall not’ flung in his face every minute. They sound so contrary.” The minister slowed down the speed of the car as they passed a road sign: then, speeding up again, he suppressed as involuntary smile as they veered off suddenly to the left. A few minutes later the young man caught at his arm. "You've taken the wrong turn," He pointed out; that signpost we passed said over that way is our town." “Oh, did it?”- returned the other carelessly. "Well, maybe it is a better road, but I hate to be told to go this way and that by an arbitrary old signpost.” The young man laughed, "I get the point!" And they were soon on their way following the directions that the road signs suggested at the best way. |
| I. In our text we see a similar situation, “an -expert in the Law" has questions about the law for Jesus. But the expert does not question the validity of the law as our young friend in the car. He wanted to put a greatest or lesser evaluation on the law. He was asking: “Which commandment is the greatest?” As if we would not be required to keep the lesser laws. |
|
| A. And this really creates problems when we consider trying to keep the commandments. |
|
| 1. The Pharisees saw their relationship with God as based on keeping the most important of these commandments then they were OK with God. |
|
| a. Therefore their status with God was based on their efforts to keep the commandments – especially the most important or greatest commandments.
b. In order to help themselves in their efforts the Jewish groups has invented 613 commandments and categorized them as: 248 positive and 365 negative. -- these commandments were to make the 10 commandments more defined - to give limits. -- actually they made the 10 commandments keepable—you could keep the greater ones and ignore the lesser ones. |
|
| 2. But what they were doing is just what our young man in our illustration was doing - driving down the wrong road. A road different than that which the Maker intended. |
|
| a. The 10 commandments were never intended to be the basis of man’s relationship with God (at least not as the Pharisees thought). b. If that were so then what was the basis of relationship with God before the commandments were given? What about in Adam s day, or in Noah's day, or even in Abraham's day? c. God never intended man to put his greater or lesser analysis on the commandments. He never intended them to be something man could manipulate for his own purposes as the Pharisees were doing. d. He never intended them to be morally empty rules that could be followed rigidly by a certain few.
|
|
| B. But. God gave the 10 Commandments for a much more profound reason. Our epistle lesson states the reason very clearly: “Therefore no one will be declared righteous in His sight by observing the law; rather through the law we become conscious of sin." This passage makes it clear that:
|
|
| 1. The road the Pharisees and the other Jews had taken was the wrong road. Their relationship with God cannot be based on their efforts concerning the law if they hoped to survive
|
|
| a. That route does not lead to being right with God, as a matter of fact it led in the opposite direction. b. The Pharisees still broke the law – they just thought they didn’t because of their man made rules – Or they saw themselves as keeping it better than others but none of this made them right with God. |
|
| 2. Second, that the Law., the 10 Commandments, were designed to show that we are sinful from birth.
|
|
| a. In other words those Pharisees could not keep the Commandments adequately, they started off in the hole from birth. And so do we. b. The commandments show sin. They show that we are not right before God. Our efforts are not enough, they can never be enough. c. They show us that we have no choice but to despair and fall on God of mercy. One of my favorite Peanuts cartoons has Charlie Brown in a classroom. He is trying to explain why he did not complete an assignment. Finally in the last square he cries out “I throw myself on the mercy of the court.” That is what the law does to us too. |
|
| 3. We, too, are trying to go down the wrong road. A road different than the one our Maker intended. We, too, are misreading the commandments and their purpose. |
|
| a. We try to keep the greater ones. We try to be better than others at least in our own minds. b. The Commandments were intended to show us our sin also. We can't keep them. No matter how hard we try. Our efforts are insufficient. c. We, also have no choice but to despair and fall on God’s mercy for salvation. |
| II. But when Jesus answers the "expert in the law's" question, He doesn't throw in any greater or lesser terms, because the commandments are meant to be kept perfectly—all of them. And we can't even come close. He simply adds a word not usually associated with the commandments or any laws for that matter. He uses the word -"love". Love is the only road to keeping the commandments, but it is a road we can't even find on our own |
|
| A. God has had mercy on us, He loves. And Jesus shows and carries out that love. |
|
| 1. In His life He kept the law perfectly - not as the basis of his relationship to God - love was the basis. He kept the law perfectly because He could love perfectly. |
|
| a. He loved God perfectly. In Him we see the perfect love of God. b. Jesus loved and loves man perfectly. In Him we see how God loves even the unloveable. He loved both Pharisee and tax-collector, both teacher of the law and adulterous women. |
|
| 2. He showed His love further. He even went to the cross for sinful man. |
|
| a. He suffered and died at the hands of sinful men. b. On the cross. God punished Jesus for the sins of all men, even us. He filled that hole of sin that we start with when we are born. He died for the sin we commit, when we fail to keep the 10 Commandments perfectly. c. Death could not hold Him. He rose from the dead on the third day. Death could not hold someone who could love perfectly. |
|
| B. He freely gives us the salvation He has earned. The gift is given us in the Word, and in Baptism. |
|
| 1. We are forgiven our breaking of the 10 Commandments. |
|
| a. We are washed clean of our sins. b. We are given the righteousness that Jesus has earned for US. c. Jesus makes us right with God - He did it for us. |
|
| 2. Then we are set on a new road. The Maker's road. The road of love. |
|
| a. We begin to follow the road by wanting to keep the commandments out of love because of the love God has given us through Jesus. b. Much like this Story: Mr. Cecil one day went into a room where his little girl was, bright-eyed and happy as could be. Somebody had just given her a box of beautiful beads. The little girl ran to her papa immediately to show this gift. They are very beautiful, my child, he said, but now my dear, throw them into the fire. The little girl looked for a moment. It was a great trial. “Now I shall not compel you to do it. I leave it to you: but you never knew Papa to ask you to do a thing that was not kind to you - I cannot tell you why: but if you can trust me, do so.” It cost a great effort, but the little child began in her own way to think - "father has always been kind to me, I suppose it is right, and she took the box and with a great effort threw it into the fire. The father said no more for some time. The next day, however, he gave her something far more beautiful which she had long desired—a beautiful pearl necklace that had been her mother’s. "Now," he said, “my child, I did this to teach you to trust in your Father in Heaven. Many a time in your life He will require you give up certain things and you may not see the reasons for what He asks, but if you trust that Father as you have trusted me, you will always find it best. |
| CONCLUSION: We tend to grab our little boxes of beads - our works - our attempts to keep the commandments - our comparisons with others; but God intends to use the commandments to give us a much greater gift. First, He moves us to let go of that box - our attempts at being right with Him on our own. Second, He gives us a greater gift - the true and certain salvation that. Jesus has earned for us. Third, He sets us on a new road, His road, a road of wanting to keep the commandments because of love for Him for Jesus' sake. Amen. And on that road we are brought to love Him and our neighbors. Now we want to keep the commandments out of love for Him. Amen. |
