10/19/08 - Pentecost 23 - Matthew 22:34-40

LOVES IS NOT AN EASY THING
- It takes all your heart and soul and mind
- It takes God to do it right

Jesus was a master at simplifying the most complicated of issues. He was a great teacher, of course, the best, in fact, and so he always spoke in clear language that even the youngest in his audience could understand. Even when his enemies challenged him with difficult and potentially dangerous questions, Jesus had a knack of giving them a straight-forward, true, complete, and simple answer. And in Matthew 22 there are three examples of Jesus doing just that all in one day. Last week we heard about the Pharisees who “went out and laid plans to trap him in his words” by testing Jesus with a politically charged question about paying taxes (v.15). But Jesus disarmed their trap by simply stating: “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s” (v.21). That same day the Sadducees came to Jesus to challenge him with a multi-faceted question about marriage after the resurrection from the dead. But instead of getting into an argument about the resurrection, Jesus simply explained to them that there would be no marriage in heaven, so the question itself was faulty. After Jesus answered the Sadducees in that way, our Scripture lesson that we read for the gospel lesson today picks up. “Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: ‘Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?’” The Pharisees apparently didn’t learn their lesson earlier that day! Even though Jesus had left them speechless after their failed ploy concerning a tax issue, they sent one of their “experts” to Jesus in order to test him again. “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” It seems like a simple question at first, but it was a little more complicated than we might originally think.
Throughout the centuries, the Old Testament teachers of the law came up with quite a few commands that they were to follow. 613 of them. There were 613 things that they found they were to do and not to do according to the Old Testament rules and regulations, the ceremonies and the rights in effect before Christ came. And so this expert of the law asks Jesus this specific question trying to stir up some disagreement among those following him. Whatever command Jesus would pick from those 613 rules would inevitably cause others to say things like, “Why that one? Why not this one? What about this commandment over here? How could you say that that commandment is more important than another?” But instead of picking just one out of those 613, Jesus simplified the entire law with really just one word: love. “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” Love. Jesus summed up the entire law of God with that one word. Love. A simple command. An understandable directive. But Jesus also made sure that those who heard him knew that love was not an easy thing to do. In fact, he wanted to make sure they knew it was impossible.
We know what love is, don’t we? We love our parents, our spouse, our children, some of our relatives, and maybe some of our friends. And when we say that we love these people we mean that we care for them, we like them, we pray for them, we lend them a hand, we help them, etc. And so we would also say that we love God. All of us here would say that we love God. And we should. That’s a true statement. But realize that the way we love others and the way we love God isn’t even close to how Jesus tells us we should love here. “Love the Lord your God with all of your heart and all of your soul and all of your mind.” All of your heart and all of your soul and all of your mind. This kind of love is more than just an emotion of the heart. It is also a spiritual response of the soul and a conscious decision of the mind. Your heart and soul and mind are to be completely dedicated and focused on loving the Lord at all times in every way. You should do nothing but love. Think of the implications of that command. Think of the effort that would take. Think of how engrossed in God you’d have to be to love him like that.
We all get engrossed in certain things, don’t we? We get so involved with something that we sometimes don’t even notice what is going on around us. Some of you may get engrossed in a book. Your mind is so concentrated on what you are reading that you become oblivious to what else is happening around you. For some of you that happens when you watch tv, or when you play a video game - for those of the younger generation. Your mind and emotions are so involved with what you are seeing on that screen that everything else gets shut out. Others of you throw yourselves into your work to such an extent that hours fly by without you even being aware of it. All of us, in our own ways, get engrossed in certain things at certain times. And in a very small and insignificant way, that is similar to how we are to love God: with all of our hearts and all of our souls and all of our minds. We are to be engrossed in God… always. We are to have tunnel vision to our Lord. We are to concentrate and focus on loving him so intently that nothing else will distract us. And not just while you’re here in church. Not just when you’re reading your Bible at home or saying your prayers at night. No matter what you are doing: eating, working, talking, resting - you are to be engrossed in God. There should never be anything else on your mind than loving God and obeying his commands. This kind of love takes all of your heart and all of your soul and all of your mind. This kind of love takes all of you at all times. That is the kind of love the Law demands. And it’s not easy.
And if that weren’t tough enough, Jesus then adds, and “Love your neighbor as yourself.” And that’s not easy either! Because loving your neighbor is not just “liking” someone. It’s not just “putting up with” someone or treating your neighbor “nicely.” This kind of love is a total and complete commitment to everyone else. This kind of love is sacrifice. It is a state in which you are always thinking about the needs and the wants and the benefit of all others - just like you would think about yourself. Paul sums up this kind of love in that famous wedding chapter: 1 Corinthians 13. You’ve heard these words before, but really listen this time to what this love for your neighbor is supposed to be. “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails” (1 Corinthians 13:4-8). That is true, Christian love. And that is the kind of love the Lord asks you to show to your neighbor on top of the love you are to dedicate to God. Love is not an easy thing. Love takes constant work. Love is exhausting. In fact, love - true love of the type that the Lord demands for both God and your neighbor - is impossible.
And that’s the point. That’s what Jesus is saying to the Pharisees in this story. That is what he is saying to us. We can’t even carry out the simplest command in all of Scripture. And if we can’t keep this greatest of commands that sums up the entire law of God, where does that leave us? How can we possibly keep any other command if we cannot keep the simplest and best of them all? We can’t. We cannot love like we are supposed to love. We do not love the Lord with all of our heart and all of our soul and all of our mind and we do not love our neighbor as ourselves. We need to understand our failure at love before we understand the full love of Christ.
Jesus spoke about the law of love so that it would point to the Savior of love - himself. And Christ really loved. He loved his Father with all of his heart and all of his soul and all of his mind. He loved his neighbor as himself. He loves you. At all times. In every way. And there has never been a moment he hasn’t loved. Love is still not an easy thing. It wasn’t easy for Christ to do. It took all of his effort and concentration in every way. It took all of his heart and soul and mind.
Jesus loved his Father so much that he dedicated his entire life to his Father. He publically gave his Father the glory whenever he had the chance. He carried out his Father’s will every day he was on this earth. He humbled himself and prayed to his Father on countless occasions. He conceded to his Father’s will in the Garden of Gethsemane even though he knew what was to come on the cross. He willingly took his Father’s wrath when God forsook his Son on Calvary. Jesus loved his Father with all of his heart and all of his soul and all of his mind all of his life. He concentrated and focused on him at all times. And it wasn’t easy. It was demanding. It was exhausting. But Christ loved his Father perfectly. He loved his Father as only God can love.
And because he loved his Father perfectly he also loved his neighbor with that same kind of love. Jesus constantly healed the sick and the demon-possessed. He had compassion on the lost sheep that came to him. He often times went without sleep to care for those who needed him. He traveled from place to place without a home, without money, and without protection so that he could show his love to as many people as possible. He prayed for them - as he prayed for us. He performed miracles for them - as he did for us to prove that he was true God. And he stood in their place - as he stood for us. In fact, Jesus said these words about love that we are looking at today during the last week of his life. Only a few days after Jesus explained how to love - he showed us the full extent of his love. He walked to his betrayer in the Garden so that he could be arrested. He stood on trial in front of both Jews and Romans so he could be convicted. He accepted the scourging and the beating and the mocking. He didn’t object to the sentence of crucifixion. He expected it. He wanted it. He didn’t avoid the pain of the nails. He let his blood flow. He didn’t stay away from the tortures of hell. He went there to suffer as he still hung on the cross. He didn’t decide to save his own life. He decided to give it up. “This is how we know what love is,” Scripture says. “Jesus Christ laid down his life for us” (1 John 3:16). He loved us so much that he died for us! God died for sinners! And it wasn’t easy. It wasn’t a pleasant thing for him to do. It was difficult and grueling and completely draining of every ounce of energy that Jesus had as a true human being. But that’s what it took for our forgiveness. That’s what it took to love us. And so he did it. He loved us like no one else could. He loved us because no one else would. That love is our life. It is our forgiveness and our heaven. And that love is why we are here this morning. That love is why we praise and thank and glorify the Lord every day. Because that love is what our love can never be: perfect.
Christ’s love for us is perfect. Just like real love should be. And so John says “We know and rely on the love God has for us” (1 John 4:16). We know and rely on the love God has for us. We do not and cannot rely on the love we have for God. Because our love is imperfect and faulty and sporadic. God’s love is perfect and pure and constant. His love never fails. And that is what he wanted the Pharisees of his day to realize. That’s what he wants us to realize: His love saves, not ours. He does not love us because we love him. We love him because he first loved us. And that’s a good thing. Because love is not easy. It takes constant work. It takes 100% dedication. It takes all of the heart and soul and mind. It takes God to get it right. And he got it right for us.
Amen.

“May the Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal encouragement and good hope, encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good deed and word.” - 2 Thess. 2:16-17