“IT ALL HANGS ON JESUS”
Saint Matthew 22. 34-46
The Eighteenth Sunday after Trinity: 25 September Anno Domini 2005
Fr Watson
"Reward them that wait for Thee, 0 Lord." Faith is the evidence of things not seen but nonetheless "known" in the heart; believed in with certitude born of the Spirit. The faith of a Christian might be compared to that of a loyal dog patiently waiting in front of the door for its beloved master to return from work or school. The reward for those who wait is that, in fact, the one waited for does return, He is the reward himself.
The Pharisee lawyer asks Christ a question; it is a question from a sinful, unbelieving heart asked with malicious ulterior motives. The Lord answers the question directly and forthrightly by speaking the Two Great Commandments of the Law. The Lord summarizes the First Table (Commandments 1-3) "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind." The Lord summarizes the Second Table (Commandments 4-10) "You shall love your neighbor as yourself."
Perhaps the Lawyer was hoping that Jesus might give a wrong, heretical answer. Perhaps the Lawyer knew what the Lord's answer would be, and was already basking in the self-righteousness that he and his friends were doing just what Jesus said God commanded. He was wrong on both counts. Jesus spoke the truth. Jesus spoke the Law which condemns all men. No one loves the Lord God with all their heart, soul and mind. No one loves their neighbor as commanded. Jesus' words were meant to kill that Pharisee's sinful and prideful nature; and yours as well.
Then Jesus spoke the Gospel, also in the form of a question: "What do you think about the Christ, Whose Son is He?" The question is "do you have faith; are you waiting patiently for the Lord; do you believe that He will be the suffering servant that Isaiah prophesied, born of a virgin; that this 'anointed one' will have the Spirit of His Father upon Him and will be The Lord; God?"
The Pharisee, and all other non-believers from then to now, answered the question wrongly. The Lawyer said that the Christ would be the son of David...period. The Christ was not merely andonly a man; which He was, "born of the Virgin Mary." The Christ was, and is, also True God, "begotten of His Father before all worlds, begotten not made."
To correct the Pharisee's answer of "death," Jesus went on to speak Trinitarian "Life." Jesus said: "How then does David in the Spirit (i.e. the Holy Ghost, the 3rd Person of the Holy Trinity) call Him (the Christ, the 2nd Person) 'Lord' (i.e. God) saying: 'The Lord' (the Father, the 1st Person) said to my Lord (the Christ, the 2nd Person) sit at My right hand until I make Your enemies Your footstool." This is an answer that cannot be reasoned out empirically. This is a revelation not given by nature, logic, or senses, but only by the Father through the Spirit in the Son. Or, as Jesus once spoke to Saint Peter, "blessed art thou Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father Who is in heaven." [Mt.16.17] When Christ spoke the wondrous Gospel of the Trinity, when He revealed with His own tongue the Divinity of the Son of God, the Pharisee rejected, refused, and revolted.
How should a Christian react to the Lord's pure Gospel of Who He is? You yourselves answer back not with your own opinions or long-winded philosophical and speculative theories about the Trinity, but with the Spirit-led affirmations of faith. You boldly sing, chant and speak your holy Hallelujahs, Hosannas, Amens, and Kyries. You boldly stand with the Fisherman and say by the Spirit: "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living God." How? How can this all be? How can the answer of Christ, which in reality is the very Body and Blood of the God/Man Jesus of Nazareth, be an answer to the unwavering, irresolute Laws and Demands of the perfect Godhead? That is, how are "the enemies," such as sin, death, the devil, (and the Pharisee in each of us), be made the footstool of the Anointed One?
The answer is found in Christ's work. First He speaks His person, "God of God, light of light, very God of Very God," "sit at My right hand." But He also answered with His mission, His saving activity. It was the "linch-pin" the connective tissue, between His restatement of the Law and His Divine Identity. You remember what He said: "On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets." The word for "hanging," or for fastening and pegging, is also the word that is attached to crucifying, to nailing the arms and feet of flesh & blood to wood. We can't keep the Commandments. They lay at our feet a mess. The Lord picks them up; He picks up both Tablets and hangs them up neatly on a peg, on a hook, on a spiked nail. On His precious body crucified to the cross, the demands of a holy and righteous God are hanged. The requirements laid out in the Torah, the Law, are laid with devastating blows and whips. The mandates of God's word spoken through the Prophets are spread over Him in spittle, sweat, jeers and tears.
There was your love, your life, your Lord, and your answer. Today, here, is your New Life, your Everlasting Lord, and your Peace. You now patiently wait upon Him, not at the cross, but at the font, pulpit and communion rail.
"Reward them that wait for Thee, 0 Lord."
In the Name of Jesus.