23rd Sunday after Pentecost
Proper 25
Matthew 22:34-46
’How Simple Can It Be?"
34 ¶ But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they came together.
35 And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question, to test him.
36 "Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?"
37 And he said to him, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.
38 This is the great and first commandment.
39 And a second is like it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
40 On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets."
41 ¶ Now while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them a question,
42 saying, "What do you think of the Christ? Whose son is he?" They said to him, "The son of David."
43 He said to them, "How is it then that David, inspired by the Spirit, calls him Lord, saying,
44 ’The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand, till I put thy enemies under thy feet’?
45 If David thus calls him Lord, how is he his son?"
46 And no one was able to answer him a word, nor from that day did any one dare to ask him any more questions.
Grace and Peace to you from Our Lord and Saviour, Jesus who is the Christ. Amen
" A newcomer had come to school for the first time The children all stared. His skin was a different color than their skin, he was small for his age, and he had a club foot. But one girl, Heidi, quickly and easily made friends’ with this newcomer.
One day on the play ground, some of the children began to tease and make fun of this newcomer. Heidi came to his rescue by saying he was still’ his friend. And she proved her loyalty by playing with him. Still the teasing and name calling persisted. She told the other children ’to stop, and eventually, the kids got to pushing and shoving, and finally the teacher came to stop the fight. Heidi had stood alone in the fight defending, her new found friend
It was unlike Heidi to fight and because her clothes were torn, her teacher called her mom to come to school with clean clothes and to have a talk with Heidi about the fight. After Heidi was all cleaned up, she met with her teacher and mother. Heidi was asked to describe what had happened and why she did what she did. Her reply was simple. The newcomer, the little boy, was her friend. The others should not make fun of him.
"Jesus loves me," said Heidi, "And Jesus loves all the little children. I wanted the other boys and girls to love my friend and be kind to him like I am. He can’ t help it if his skin is a different color, if he is small and has a funny way of walking."
Heidi was an ordinary girl, but there was something very special about her, she was special because the grace of God had visited her, and she knew about God’s love so she could accept and love others, especially this little boy. Heidi was like most little children, but she was also different, different because she lived her faith, she lived the love that God has for her through Jesus Christ. Heidi felt good about herself, she felt she had self worth because of Jesus, so then she could love others with the love of Christ.
She fulfilled Jesus’ commandment in our gospel lesson this morning where Jesus said, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and ’with all your mind. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. " Heidi knew that Jesus’ love didn’t just apply on Sunday, but it shaped her whole life everyday.
As Thomas Huxley once said, "It doesn’t take much of a man to be a Christian, but it takes all there is of him"
Yes, it takes our whole self to serve Jesus.
The Pharisees had come to Jesus to try an trick him again. Jesus had foiled a trick of the Sadducess about the resurrection and now the Pharisees are thinking they are more clever and sought to trick Jesus, themselves.
The Pharisees had made 613 laws to explain the 10 laws God had given Moses on Mount Sinai. Some of these laws had weights to them, meaning some laws meant more than others, some were more important than others. 365 of the laws were prohibitions and 248 were directions for living. Which were most important? This was what they were trying to trick Jesus into saying.
Jesus turns something that men had made very difficult into something very simple. Jesus is saying, "How simple can you be" How simple do you want it? Here it is summed up in two laws.
Love God with your whole being, and love your neighbor as much as you love yourself. This is how to respond to the amazing love that God has for you says Jesus. This is how to respond to the salvation history that has done for you, says this.
This is what god wants from you, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and ’with all your mind. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. "
Jesus turns what the Pharisees had made into something very difficult into something so simple that everyone could understand with these two sentences, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and ’with all your mind. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. "
Heidi in our story knew what it meant to make the laws simple, she loved Jesus and in turn she loved the new boy who was different. It was that simple for her. Love Jesus and then you will be able to love those around you. How simple can it be?
With these tow commandment from Jesus, his only commandments in the New Testament, Jesus made the laws simple for everyone.
Love God first, then you will be able to love your neighbor is what Jesus is telling us this morning.
But how do we love God.?
I would like to venture to say that loving God with all of one’s heart means we love God with a genuine love, with a sincere love, with a love that means something. The opposite of that is to love God with a convenient love, with a love that is turned on and off, with a love that falls away when it doesn’t suit us. To love God with one’s whole heart means, I think, to have an attitude that fears, loves and respects God all the time.
Our lives need reflect that love we have for him every moment of life.
This kind of loves says it is important for me to be in contact with God, to learn more about him, to becomeacquainted with him in a very intimate kind of way. It says that I want to go to places where I can find God, and where more especially he can find me.
What does it mean to love God with all of our soul? I would like to say that means for me, to love him enough to respect his authority, to know what he wants for me as I make the decision of right and wrong in my life.
Dietrich Bonhoffer in his book "The Cost of Discipleship" tells us that we cheapen God’s grace for us when we do not take it seriously in our lives.
He says:
"Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession, absolution without personal confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate."
Our lives need to be well aware of the costly grace of Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross as we take seriously our love of God.
But notice Jesus doesn’t stop here. He says’, yes. we are to love God with our,whole heart, with our whole mind, with our whole. soul, but then he says the second is like the first.
We are to love our neighbor as ourselves. Jesus is saying that the first commandment is to love God, but equally as important any less o f. importance is to love our’ neighbor as. ourselves.
Loving ones neighbor is another way that we respond to the love that God has for us. Loving our neighbor is not second to loving God, but equal to it. Loving, my neighbor does not, come after I have learned to love God, but it. comes along with it.
For loving God is not something I have to achieve before I can love my neighbor , but loving God and loving. neighbor is all of the same part. of the one process. Loving God and loving neighbor goes along together as well as a sock and and a shoe, as well, as ice-cream and apple pie. Loving God and loving myneighbor cannot be separated, but must work together as the way we respond to the love of God, as we respond to the saving work of God in our lives.
There is a story I would like to tell you that shows what I am trying to say very clearly.
Once upon a time there was a king who owned a beautiful orchard which contained fine fig trees. He hired two watchmen, one blind and one lame to care for this orchard while he went away on a trip.
One day while they were in the orchard, beggars, blind men, lame men, poor widows and hungry children came to the wall surrounding the orchard.
They cried out to the watchmen: "Have mercy on us, members of your own race, for we are poor and need to eat just a morsel of the fruit of the fig tree."
Hearing their plea, the lame man said to the blind man: "Come and take me upon your shoulder, so that we may gather figs and give them to the members of our own race at the gate."
So the lame man climbed onto the blind man reached the fruit picked it and both gave it to their fellowmen at the gate. The next day and each day afterwards the same request was made.:
And each day the watch men picked fruit for their fellowmen.
Sometime after, the owner of the orchard came back and asked,"Where are my figs? How did you pick the fruit since one of you is blind and the other lame. Why did you pick it?
The watchmen then related the past events.
The owner then replied; "Blessed be God,for the blind. and the lame have shown,me that regardless of position you must love your fellow as one of your own. Blessed be the name of the Lord, in his law I will delight."
Heidi had it right when she said, "Jesus loves me," and "And Jesus loves all the little children. I wanted the other boys and girls to love my friend and be kind to him like I am. "
How simple can it be, just this simple "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and ’with all your mind. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. "
Amen
Written by Pastor Tim Zingale October 17, 2005
