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The
Eighteenth Sunday after Trinity.
The Collect.
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ORD, we beseech
thee, grant thy people grace to withstand the temptations of the world, the
flesh, and the devil; and with pure hearts and minds to follow thee, the only
God; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
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hen the Pharisees had heard that Jesus had put the
Sadducees to silence, they were gathered together. Then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked
him a question, tempting him, and saying, Master, which is the great
commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt
love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all
thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto
it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang
all the law and the prophets. While the Pharisees were gathered
together, Jesus asked them, saying, What think ye of
Christ? whose son is he? They say unto him, The son of David. He saith
unto them, How then doth David in spirit call him Lord,
saying, The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, till I make
thine enemies thy footstool? If David then call him Lord, how is he his son?
And no man was able to answer him a word, neither durst any man from that day
forth ask him any more questions. (Matt 22:34-46)
In
today’s text, our Lord provides us with a summary of the two tables of the Law
– our duties to God, and our duties to mankind.
Many
Bible scholars of our day promote these two Commandments as new commandments
instituted by Christ, but they are not. Christ is simply quoting the Old
Testament Commandments of Moses day:
Deut 6:5
And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all
thy soul, and with all thy might.
Deut 10:12
And now, Israel, what doth the LORD thy God require of thee, but to fear
the LORD thy God, to walk in all his ways, and to love him, and to serve the
LORD thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul,
Deut 13
If there arise among you a prophet, or a dreamer of dreams, and giveth
thee a sign or a wonder, 2 And the sign or the wonder come
to pass, whereof he spake unto thee, saying, Let us go after other gods, which
thou hast not known, and let us serve them; 3 Thou shalt
not hearken unto the words of that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams: for the
LORD your God proveth you, to know whether ye love the LORD your God with all
your heart and with all your soul. 4 Ye shall walk after
the LORD your God, and fear him, and keep his commandments, and obey his voice,
and ye shall serve him, and cleave unto him. 5 And that
prophet, or that dreamer of dreams, shall be put to death; because he hath
spoken to turn you away from the LORD your God, which brought you out of the
land of Egypt, and redeemed you out of the house of bondage, to thrust thee out
of the way which the LORD thy God commanded thee to walk in. So shalt thou put
the evil away from the midst of thee.
Lev 19:17
Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thine heart: thou shalt in any wise
rebuke thy neighbour, and not suffer sin upon him. 18 Thou
shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but
thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself: I am the LORD.
Silences the
Pharisees about the Messiah
Christ
was always the master of every crisis and every challenge:
Matthew 22:15
Then went the Pharisees, and took counsel how they might entangle him in
his talk. 16 And they sent out unto him their disciples
with the Herodians, saying, Master, we know that thou art true, and teachest
the way of God in truth, neither carest thou for any man: for thou regardest
not the person of men. 17 Tell us therefore, What thinkest
thou? Is it lawful to give tribute unto Caesar, or not? 18 But
Jesus perceived their wickedness, and said, Why tempt ye me, ye hypocrites? 19 Shew me the tribute money. And they brought unto him a penny. 20 And he
saith unto them, Whose is this image and superscription? 21 They say unto him, Caesar's. Then saith he unto
them, Render therefore unto Caesar the things
which are Caesar's; and unto God the things that are God's. 22 When they had heard these words, they marvelled,
and left him, and went their way.
This
is one reason they (the Jewish rulers) literally hated Christ. He interfered
with their money greed …… selling in the Temple…house of prayer, but a place of
thieves.
Who is my
Neighbor …. Good Samaritan….etc
Now
Jesus will also present them with a dilemma they should already have known
being Masters of the Pentateuch:
While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them, 42 Saying, What think ye of Christ? whose son is he?They say unto him, The Son of David. 43 He saith
unto them, How then doth David in spirit call him
Lord, saying, 44The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, till I make thine
enemies thy footstool? 45 If David then call him Lord, how is he his son?
Psalm 110:1
The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine
enemies thy footstool
David
also said in Psam 2:12 Kiss the
Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way, when his wrath is
kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put their trust in
him.
Now
these snails crawled away to plan how further they might have Him put to death.
Psalm 58
Let them melt away as waters which run continually: when he bendeth his
bow to shoot his arrows, let them be as cut in pieces. 8 As
a snail which melteth, let every one of them pass away: like the untimely birth
of a woman, that they may not see the sun. 9 Before your
pots can feel the thorns, he shall take them away as with a whirlwind, both
living, and in his wrath. 10 The righteous shall rejoice
when he seeth the vengeance: he shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked. 11 So
that a man shall say, Verily there is a reward for the righteous: verily he is
a God that judgeth in the earth.
Snails
love darkness. They hate Light. They also hate salt.
Matthew 5
Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour,
wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be
cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men. 14 Ye are the light of the world. A
city that is set on an hill cannot be hid.
46 And no man was able to answer him a word,
neither durst any man from that day forth ask him any more questions.
A
common enemy always unites various sects and interests together against it.
Jesus
was a common enemy to the superstitions and power struggles of the Times, just
as He is a common enemy of the political and economic structures of our time.
Though
politics and financial interests are not found in the same common bed in normal
circumstances, they both ally themselves against the True Gospel of Christ.
Text
books promote evolution. News outlets say we must respect the religious faith
of Moslems, Buddhist, and Hindus, yet, with one voice, they press for
condemnation of Christian Faith in our society.
Those
who accept the biblical authority that condemns adultery, homosexuality,
drunkenness, are considered smug and made to look ridiculous in movies and news
specials.
Nothing
has changed in the world’s contempt for Christ since He first ministered as a
boy in the Temple at Jerusalem.
Herodians,
Sadducees, Pharisees, who were constantly at war with each other, made
temporary peace alliances with each other in order to destroy the Man, Jesus.
He was both Man and God. Instinctively, these culprits recognized this from
their study of ancient biblical texts, and the testimony of His works. Yet,
they found Him contemptible to their world of power and money. They all hated
Him alike.
They
cunningly contrived questions to entangle Him in His speech and in His
knowledge, however, they always lost.
The
last of the three questions put to Jesus, and the one question with which He
turned the tables and silenced His questioners, are our subject. In the former,
Jesus declares the essence of the law or of religion; in the latter, He brings
to light the essential loftiness of the Messiah.
As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he. Our Love for
God crowns our love nature. The underside of that love is love for our fellow
man. The Pharisees remained ‘gathered together,’ and may have been preparing
another question, but Jesus had been long enough interrogated. It was not
fitting that He should be catechized only. His questions teach. He does not
seek to ‘entangle’ the Pharisees ‘in their speech,’ nor to make them contradict
themselves, but brings them full up against a difficulty, that they may open
their eyes to the great truth which is its only solution. His first question, ‘What think ye of the Christ?’ is simply preparatory to the second. The
answer which He anticipated was given, — as, of course, it would be, for the
Davidic descent of the Messiah was a commonplace knowledge and universally
accepted.
One
can fancy that the Pharisees smiled complacently at the attempt to puzzle them
with such an elementary question, but the smile vanished when the next one
came.
What think ye of Christ? whose son is he? They say unto him, The Son of David. 43 He
saith unto them, How then doth David in spirit call him
Lord, saying, 44 The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, till I make
thine enemies thy footstool? 45 If David then call him Lord, how is he his son?
Why do teachers often ask questions?
If they ask a question, and you know not the answer, why does a teacher often ask you another question?
The reason is to provide a guided discussion to help you discover the answer which is already a part of your knowledge.
How are Snails like sinners? Both hate Salt and Light. They both love darkness, and eat from the labours of others.
Here is the new commandment Christ gave:
John 13
A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have
loved you, that ye also love one another. 35 By this shall all men know that ye
are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.
These are important words and an identifying command to us.
He gave it the night He was taken in the Garden to be crucified. It is the only new commandment.
But it is not written on tables of stone, but on the soft sinews of our hearts.
Love will release us from condemnation:
Proverbs 10:12
Hatred stirreth up strifes: but love
covereth all sins.
Do not try to argue away your sins and wickedness as the Pharisees. It is easy to love when we have compassion. And when we feed love in our hearts, hate will die of starvation, and our sins will cease.
Jeremiah 31:33
But this shall be the covenant that I will
make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my
law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God,
and they shall be my people. 34 And they shall teach no
more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD:
for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them,
saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their
sin no more.
Do you love God and His Word? Do you agree to follow Christ in all things?
Be richly blessed now and forever!