Sermon: Trinity 18 – 2022

16 Oct 2022

Text: Matt 22:34-46

In the name of + Jesus.  Amen.

There were two big rivals who both claimed to be right: the conservative Pharisees and the liberal Sadducees.  The Pharisees actually believed in the Old Testament Scriptures, but they misinterpreted them so as to make themselves look righteous.  The Sadducees denied much of Scripture, including the belief in angels and the resurrection.  They believed in the Law (the five books written by Moses), but they denied that the Prophets were part of Scripture.  The two groups bickered over who was right, but they cooperated for the sake of Jewish society and government, and when they had a mutual enemy: like Caesar, or Jesus.

And, of course, our Lord did not favor one or the other.  He told both groups they were both wrong.  He did so forcefully, backed up by Scripture, by His preaching, and by His miracles.  Both groups tried to attack Him by means of loaded questions.

On this occasion, the Pharisees were happy because Jesus had just “silenced the Sadducees.”  Our Lord had just said to them: “You are wrong, because you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God.”  Jesus called them ignorant, and exposed their unbelief.  For the Scriptures testify to the resurrection of the dead (which the Sadducees denied).  The resurrection is also confirmed by the “power of God” – which is how Jesus Himself cured the sick, raised the dead, and will soon rise from death Himself.

The Pharisees are happy about this public humiliation that Jesus doled out to their rivals, and they arrogantly think that they will have better luck in arguing with Him.

And so, “one of them, a lawyer, asked a question to test Him.”

We all know that when a lawyer asks a question, it is not really a question.  This lawyer isn’t looking for truth, but is rather using words to try to trick Jesus for the sake of winning an argument.  This is what we call today a “gotcha” question.  The Sadducees had just tried the same trick to force Jesus to deny the resurrection.  The result was their humiliation.

So our lawyer asks Jesus: “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law.”  And such questions can be scripted so that whatever answer Jesus gives, the lawyer can come up with a reply that would make Jesus seem ignorant or wrong.

Of course, our Lord cites Scripture, and He also explains it in a way that cannot be refuted.  Jesus treats the Pharisee in the same way that might catch a telemarketer or hard-sell salesman off guard: by taking him off script.  So here is Jesus’ summary of the Ten Commandments: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.  This is the great and first commandment.  And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.  On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”

So Jesus also humiliated the Pharisees – who did believe in the Law and the Prophets, who did strive to keep the commandments, but who also missed the part about “love” – both love of God and love of neighbor.

We still study the Ten Commandments this way today in our Catechism: dividing them into two parts: commandments one to three as the “love God” part, and commandments four through ten as the “love your neighbor” part.

Today, there are no more Sadducees.  They died off in the year 70 AD when the temple was destroyed.  But there are still those who “know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God.”  There are many liberal Christians today who deny parts of Scripture that they don’t like.  And they do indeed misinterpret and degrade Jesus’ understanding of the word “love” – turning it into something unnatural and degrading.  They also argue that calling anyone “wrong” – as Jesus did – is a sinful and unloving thing to do to one’s neighbor.

Today, there are no more Pharisees.  But their descendants live on in Judaism, which is no longer based on even the Old Testament Scriptures, but rather on complicated and convoluted interpretations of Scripture called the Talmud.  They are still doing exactly what Jesus called them out for.  And there are indeed still many conservative Christians today who are like the Pharisees: hypocrites who deny the clear teachings of the Bible and of Jesus, distorting and misinterpreting Scripture in a way that is both wrong and loveless, denying the power of God.

Jesus condemned both the liberal Sadducees and the conservative Pharisees.  He publicly humiliated them, not because He did not love them, but because He loves the people who are led astray by them.  He calls them to repent, and does so by means of the Scriptures and the power of God.

Dear friends, we must not fall into either trap.  We must know the Scriptures.  We must know the power of God.  We know the Scriptures, in the words of the ancient prayer, so that we “read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest” them.  If you are not reading the Scriptures every day, you will become ignorant of them – in the same way that you will forget things you learned in school unless you continue to review them.  How many people studied French and Trigonometry and History, and learned how to use tools or developed skills in sports, but can’t remember any of these things today.  Dear friends, if you don’t know the Scriptures, your conscience should be convicted.  If you think you know them already, so did the Sadducees and the Pharisees.  You need to repent of your laziness.  You are a disciple, that is, a student. 

We know the power of God by confessing that God works in our lives by means of the Holy Sacraments: that your baptism matters, that something miraculous happens here at our altar and at the communion rail.  The power of God transforms you from sinner to saint, and empowers you to repent, to hear Jesus not to try to weasel out of the Ten Commandments, not to try to distort the word “love” into sexual license or to try to silence the confession of the faith, but so that you will confess your sins, repent of them, and turn to the only one who can save you: Jesus.

While the Pharisees were licking their wounds after Jesus gave them their rhetorical beat-down, our Lord went on the offensive.  He asked them a question: “What do you think about the Christ?  Whose son is He?”

And this is what the Christian faith is all about, dear friends.  For we do indeed confess the Scriptures and the power of God.  They all point to the Christ, and the Christ is Jesus.  The Christ is the Son of David.  The Christ is the crucified one.  The Christ is the Word of God in flesh.  The Christ atones for our sins by His death.  The Christ rose from the dead and promises that we will too.  The Christ establishes that the power of God would be manifested in Baptism, Absolution, the Lord’s Supper, and the proclamation of the Word.

Jesus takes a simple line from the Psalms – a verse that the Pharisees probably repeated over and over but never understood, to prove that the Christ, the Messiah, is God in the flesh.  And this is something that both the Sadducees and the Pharisees would not accept.  For they will not accept Jesus or His teachings.  Jesus points out that the Christ is the “son of David” but also David’s Lord.  He is a man, and He is God at the same time.  And so He is a man who works miracles and rises from the dead.

There is no arguing with that, dear friends.  It really doesn’t matter who wins the football game, which character in the next movie is a good guy or bad guy, whether or not you are wearing the right clothes or have the right status symbol, what kind of job you have, or how much money you make.  What matters is that Jesus is God, that you are baptized, that the Scriptures are God’s Word, that Jesus calls you to confess and repent of your sins, that you are forgiven, and that in this Holy Supper, Jesus delivers these promises to you.  We receive this Eucharist on our knees for a reason.  It is how we confess the Scriptures and the power of God.

As for the Sadducees and the Pharisees, “No one was able to answer Him a word, nor from that day did anyone dare to ask Him any more questions.”  Let us hear Jesus, confess Jesus, receive the gifts of Jesus, and indeed, let us answer Him a word, one simple word: “Amen” which means: “Yes, yes, it shall be so.” 

Amen.

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