“His Law Keeping and Punishment Bearing is Your Salvation”
Saint Matthew 22: 44-46
18th Sunday After Trinity: 3 October Anno Domini 2021
Fr Jay Watson, SSP
Truth wins. It always does. Maybe not in the lifetime of the truth-teller, but truth like sunshine always dispels the darkness. “I am The Light of the world” [Jn. 8.12a] said Jesus. You confessed Him to be God: “Light of Light.” The Lord (Second Person) also said (and St. John wrote it down so it could be preached—Third Person) “I Am The Truth…no man cometh unto The Father (First Person), but by Me” [Jn. 14.6b]
So, The Christ being both Light and Truth incarnate, in the flesh of Mary’s Son, so of course He puts the Sadducees to silence. The genuine article—the very God/Man will always trump vacuous, vain, and pompous ceremonies and secret clubs filled with “empty suits” running Ponzi schemes. It was too bad for the people of Jerusalem that the Levitical priests had descended from the Grace of Aaron and his successors, to the Sadducees on the Sanhedrin. At least the Pharisees believed in something. Sad for them it was Moses and their minutiae of man-made law obedience, rather than The Messiah in their midst.
Which are you? Is your “old Adam” more of a Sadducee or a Pharisee? The answer is yes. You are hypocrites—as are all sinners. But not all sinners are here today, so I’m talking to you the Pharisee. And while the Sadducees denied the existence of angels and the resurrection of the dead. Lutherans in their worst and most sinful moments, demonstrate to me, that they’re (you’re) not far behind. Our lives are lived and are daily trespasses are carelessly “oozed out” as if we don’t believe our Guardian Angels are there to observe our presumptuous rebellion. Lord, bring upon us the shame we should feel.
An “expert” in Torah (the Books of Moses) stands up to try and entangle Jesus in a question wherein the answer may put Christ into a position where He can be charged with some sort of blasphemy.
Jesus is God. Of course, Jesus answers correctly. Matthew was there and heard it; and recorded it.
Now the question is for you.
What’s the greatest commandment? Now, you are Catechized. You know (you memorized) the 10 Commandments. You know (and you say you “believe, teach, and confess”) you know that the first 3 commandments can be summarized (as Christ does) as “love The Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.” And you know the remaining 7 commandments are put into “short-hand” when Christ also says: “the second is like unto it, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.”
Good that you know this. So why don’t you do this? Psalm 50 (written by a sinner like you) ask the same question: “why dost thou preach My Laws, and takest My Covenant (The 10 Commandments) in they mouth; whereas thou hatest to be reformed, and hast cast my words behind thee?” [Ps. 50. 16-17]
Thanks be to God that your inner Sadducee, your tap-root Pharisee has been also “silenced” by He Who is Your Truth, Your Light.
Those two Laws which you don’t obey. Those great commands which The God of all demands that you obey—you don’t. That’s bad. That’s damnable. What’s almost worse is that you don’t realize it enough. You don’t feel the crushing weight of those two tombstones on your “old Adam” heart.
But by the power of The Holy Ghost, you are convicted today. You are found guilty this morning. You feel the contrition that only The Very Word of God can work… and …
“On these two commandments hang all The Law and The Prophets.” Again, code words—God’s Biblical code words. The Law is His Word in the Books of Moses. The Prophets are His Word in the writings of, well, all the Prophets. All Scripture, whether Moses, Joshua, Samuel, King David, Esaias, or Daniel. What did Christ say? “Search the scriptures, for in them ye think ye have eternal life; and they are they which testify of Me” [Jn. 5.39] All of The Law and The Prophets point to Jesus and show Jesus. Jesus is savior. The Law and Prophets, in giving the Law, are oppressors, indictments, and convictions. But your Lord, Jesus, has obeyed The Law and The Prophets and silenced their condemnations against you. You are Saved!
The three sinners, Sts. John, Peter, and James, on their knees (as sinners should be) looked up to see The Very Law (Moses) and The Prophets (Elijah) flanking The God they had talked about and written about. They knew!
Yes, on the two great commands “hang” all the Law and The Prophets. But those two Laws were hanged on Jesus’ innocent and sinless Body. He bore them as His burden, a stole of your sins, for three decades—keeping them perfect, spotless, and inviolate. He let them crush Him to the tree; spiking His two hands of healing with all the bad you’ve ever done. The Apostle puts it best: “blotting out the handwriting of ordinances (The 10 Commandments; the Two Great Laws) that was against (you), which was contrary to (you), and took it out of the way, nailing it to His cross” [Col. 2.14] By letting it be nailed into His Body, seared into His heart.
“For all The Law is fulfilled in one word (That Word is Jesus), even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself” [Gal. 5.14]. Jesus loved you enough to suffer and die for you. To release you into His Kingdom of Grace.
“For Christ is the end of The Law for righteousness to everyone that believeth” [Rom. 10.4]
Even as you have been gifted and given!
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of The Holy Ghost
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