Pastor Sherry’s message for October 29, 2023

Scriptures: Deut 334:1-12; Ps 90:1-6, 12-17; 1 Thess 2:1-8; Matt 22:34-46

The story is told that…

“Isidor Isaac Rabi, a Nobel Prize winner in Physics, and one of the developers of the atomic bomb, was once asked how he became a scientist. Rabi replied that every day after school his mother would talk to him about his school day. She wasn’t so much interested in what he had learned that day, but how he conducted himself in his studies. She always inquired, ‘Did you ask a good question today?’

“‘Asking good questions,’ Rabi said, ‘made me become a scientist.’

“In order to ask a good question I think you need to have noble motives behind the question. You have to want to know the truth. The Pharisees, by contrast, already had the answers to their questions. They felt they already knew the truth. How many times have we had it in for someone, asking a question designed to trap them? We do it to our loved ones all the time. In a moment like this we are not trying to learn; we are trying to injure.

“The Pharisees come to Jesus once again with a question designed to do damage to the reputation of Jesus. And once again Jesus proves he is equal to the task. Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest? Now, even though this question was used to test Jesus, it is nonetheless an important question. Perhaps in the life of Israel at that time [and in our lifetime today] it was THE most important question.

(Excerpt from a sermon titled “The Two Most Important Questions a Christian Can Answer” as posted on www.sermons.com, 10/29/2023.)

Jesus’ answer to their question came from the Old Testament:

Believing Jews knew the first part, love God above all things, came from Deuteronomy 6:4-5. It was part of the Shema, which believing Jews recite daily Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength [might; mind]. The second, love others as you do yourself, comes from Leviticus 19:18—>Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against one of your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord. Jesus combined these two and pointed out (v.40) that—> All the Law and the prophets hang on these two commandments. The Pharisees and their buddies, the lawyers who specialized in interpreting the Law, counted 613 laws handed down by Moses. Jesus summarized them all into these two, both/and. They are also represented in the shape of the Cross. The vertical is our love for God; the horizontal, our love for others. Furthermore, Jesus strongly asserts that all the Law is based on God’s love for them, as was every action and teaching of each Old Testament prophet. WOW!

Knowing they had set out to stump and to discredit Him, Jesus then turns the tables on them, asking them a riddle: (v.42)—>What do you think about the Christ? Whose son is He? They correctly answer that the Messiah comes from the lineage of King David. Now, He’s got them! “How can Messiah be both David’s son and David’s master?” He’s doing a twist on “which came first, the chicken or the egg?” Remember, a crowd was watching and listening to this debate. Many were no doubt delighted to hear Jesus turn the tables, saying in essence,”two can play this game.”

Jesus, God’s Word made flesh, clearly knows His Scripture. He refers them to Psalm 110:1, which He recites from memory—>The LORD says to my Lord: “Sit at My right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.” Perhaps the Pharisees and lawyers did not know that Jesus was, through His mother Mary, a descendant of King David, making Him, in effect, David’s-many-generations-later son. Perhaps they did not believe His Father was God, through the Holy Spirit, making Him the Son of God and King David’s Master. He was and is both fully human and also fully divine.

Notice, this ends the public debate. The lawyers and Pharisees have no answer for Him. As the English Anglican Bishop, NT Wright says, “The answer the opponents couldn’t question was followed by the question they couldn’t answer.” (N.T. Wright, Matthew for Everyone: Part Two, Westminister John Knox Press, 2002, p.93.) If nothing else, this should have proven that Jesus knew and understood Scripture better than they did!

How humiliating for them! At this point, they stop trying to trip Him up in public. Now they will plot a clandestine attack, at night, in the Garden.

But let’s return to the biggest point His enemies missed: The answer to Jesus’ question of them was standing right before them, both David’s son and David’s master! Moreover, He will soon demonstrate the two greatest commandments, through His arrest, crucifixion, and death. He both loved His Heavenly Father enough to give up His life in order to do God’s will. And He loved us enough to take upon Himself the penalty for all of our sins, for all time, past, present, and future. This is extravagant love, poured out on both the vertical and the horizontal plains of the Cross. Again, as N.T. Wright writes, Jesus reveals that He is both King David’s descendant, “the true king of Israel,” and King David’s Lord and Master (Ibid, p.94).

We know the Jews were expecting a militaristic Messiah, a king who, like King David, would defeat all their earthly enemies. The book of Revelation promises us that when Jesus comes a second time, He will indeed arrive as such a conquering monarch. He will eradicate the enemies of God. He will once and for all eliminate sin and death. But in His first coming, He lived out humility and human servanthood. A military Messiah would be unlikely to inspire us to love God or to love others, especially those we dislike. Instead, God the Father knew we needed a humble, righteous, grace-filled and loving Messiah to both teach and to model for us what it looks like to love God and to love others as ourselves.

A unique and modern way of looking at it is that our suffering servant Messiah took on Satan in unarmed combat on the Cross and won! This is a king worth worshipping!

G. K. Chesterton, the famous British author and satirist, said 100 years ago—>“Jesus…tells us to love our neighbors. Elsewhere the Bible tells us Jesus said we should love our enemies. This is because, generally speaking, they are the same people” (repeated from an old sermon of mine in which, unfortunately, I did not cite the source— Sorry! But I do believe the quote is accurate.) The truth is that it is easier to love God than to love our neighbors—especially the irritating ones, or worse yet, the dangerous, sadistic, cruel, and immoral ones. We can do it, but we must be intentional about it. We begin by praying for them, again and again. We continually offer grace to them, just as Jesus has to us. We do not allow them to harm us—we can protect ourselves—but we try to act in a Christ-like manner toward them. As I have related to you before, my step-father (now deceased) was physically and verbally abusive to me during my childhood. I feared him as a child and this fear stayed with me long into my adulthood. I would not visit him and my mother without my own transportation—if things got dangerous, I wanted to have a means of escape. I had forgiven him but I did not trust him for years after I had left to be on my own. We can forgive but also protect ourselves from being re-victimized.

Our Gospel lesson today illustrates for us that Jesus was/is certainly a brilliant debater! He knows His stuff! He even knows His enemies’ motives, and beats them at their own game. He also walked His talk. Unlike His religious opponents, He was not a hypocrite. He meant what He said and said what He meant. I taught my first group of high school seniors in 1970. My wonderful principal—who mentored me as a new teacher—told me to always say what I meant and mean what I said. Especially around classroom discipline, she advised me to never threaten a disciplinary action I was unwilling to carry out. She also warned me that there would always be at least one student who would challenge whether or not I meant it by breaking the rule. She was right, just as Jesus was right.

Jesus truly knew what it meant both to love God above all things—including His own life–and to love us. May we all, by the power of the Holy Spirit, come to love God with our whole heart, soul, mind and strength. And may we also learn to love our neighbors at least as well as we love ourselves.

Amen! May it be so!

©️2023 Rev. Dr. Sherry Adams