“JESUS THE ANSWER”
Saint Matthew 22: 34-46
18th Sunday after Trinity: 16 October Anno Domini 2022
Fr Jay Watson, SSP
It does depend upon who is asking the question. When the devil asks a question: “did God really say…” a Christian knows evil abounds. Satan has his minions, “brood of vipers” constantly asking questions—peppering peace with shards of venomous acid. This is what the Pharisees and lawyers did in the Gospels. This is what heathen do today—be they Muslim, Hindu, or even worse—smarmy agnostics and autistic atheists. This is what you do in your “old Adam” sinful moments as well. Repent of the clever questions, shut your mouths, and listen to the Word of The Lord.
Jesus is God. Jesus asks some pointed and ultimate questions in Scripture. God asks you the same questions that The Christ asked the participants in the Bible.
Last week you heard The Christ ask the question to your sinful self “is it lawful to heal on the sabbath,” i.e., does the mercy of The Gospel trump and have precedence over the “rules” you were taught in Sunday School. The answer from God is yes. You can, you must, go home from church on Sunday and help your neighbor remove all the storm damage (trees, limbs, shingles, parts of out-buildings) that destroyed his back yard on Saturday night. The Law is not the answer. Jesus is the answer.
So, the real question with its Christ answer is not so much “Master, which is the greatest commandment in the law” as the Torah scholar asks The Lord, but what is The Law, What is God, Who is God? What does this mean?
It’s Jesus’ answer to the lawyer that matters. Which Commandment of the 10 is the most important (the one you should obey, I guess, while letting the others no affect your life too much?)?
And what does Jesus answer? He says all of them are the most important. The first three of the Decalogue are subsumed in the 1st Word: “Thou shalt love The Lord thy God with all thy heard, soul, and mind.” But the second, the second table of commandments four through ten, are “like unto it,” “thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” Well, good. Now you all have a systematic and theological frame-work to either argue about, satisfy in your own sinful mind, or…ask questions about. What Christ is saying is BE PERFECT; be perfect like Adam was perfect…BEFORE he stopped being perfect to become his blackened, twisted, sweaty, hungry, cold, frightened self—on the outside looking in.
How is that working for any of us. Jesus’s answer kills; it kills you; it’s meant to kill.
Jesus is the only answer. He gives a hint, a prophetic look to the Himself as answer right before He asks the final question. First, He says, “On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” Ponder Who did the hanging. Meditate on Who had all the Law-breaking which Moses and all the Prophets condemned, hanging on His precious sinless body while nailed to the tree?
Christ is both the question and the answer. Not the doctrine, not intellectual processing, but the Reality that is Present! Identity and Work.
When this pericope for the 18th Sunday after Trinity closes, Our Lord’s question: “What think ye of Christ? Whose son is He?” He is asking the same question Matthew records Him asking the Apostles: “Who do people say that I am?” Peter’s answer then: “Thou art The Christ The Son of The Living God” is the same answer that Jesus is soliciting here from the crowd—from you—every day, every minute of your life. “The Lord (i.e., The Father, 1st Person of The Godhead) said unto My Lord (i.e., The Son, 2nd Person of The Godhead), sit Thou on my right hand, till I make Thine enemies Thy footstool.” And this David wrote by The Holy Ghost, 3rd Person of The Triune God.
So, Jesus’ answer to their question of “which is the great commandment in the law” is Himself—The Blessed Trinity—The Person and Work of The Divine God in the flesh and blood of The Present Messiah. Because Jesus kept the Law and The Prophets, The Ten Commandments for you; because Jesus suffered and died on the Cross with all of that, all of you, hanging upon Him—slowly asphyxiating Him to death, you now this glorious Easter morning dine with Him at this Holy Table, This High Altar, while His enemies, your enemies, your “old Adams” are your footstools.
Fear and love God above all things. Jesus did for you. You so do in Christ. You made the Christ answer when you spoke The Creed. You will make the Christ answer when you speak the Amen. No more questions. Just Jesus The Answer.
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of The Holy Ghost
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