EDITOR'S NOTE: On Oct. 23, 2021, I was ordained as a minister of word and sacrament in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and installed as pastor at Faith Lutheran Church in Wolverton, Minn. I also served the same church for four years from October 2017 to October 2021 a synodical authorized minister. However, my position as CEO at Churches United, a nonprofit homeless shelter, food pantry and supportive housing provider, also provides the opportunity to guest preach at other churches as well. Here is a sermon from guest preaching at First Presbyterian Church in Fargo, N.D., on Sunday, Jan. 12, 2025.
This week's gospel text: Matthew 22:34-40
The Greatest Commandment
34 When the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, 35 and one of them, an expert in the law, asked him a question to test him. 36 “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” 37 He said to him, “ ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the greatest and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”
Can we all agree that nothing holy begins in a plot in which we try to “test” someone else?
The message:
Like in today’s gospel when the Pharisees, this one in particular, an expert in the law no less, devises this plot to “ask him a question to test him.”
That should be an indication to all of us that the Pharisees are up to no good here in today’s gospel. … Right?
Verse 35 isn’t the first indication of the trouble brewing here though.
I think to fully understand just how disruptive Jesus is to the religious apparatus of 1st century Israel, we need to start by backing up to verse 15 of this chapter.
It’s all the way back there that the Pharisees had begun to lay their devious plot … just listen: “Then the Pharisees went and plotted to entrap him in what he said.”
After announcing their intentions, they follow with their infamous question to Jesus about paying taxes … which produces Jesus’ famous line: “Give therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and to God the things that are God’s.”
So in this very dangerous game we may call “Entrap Jesus,” the Pharisees are zero and Jesus is one.
But these religious leaders have much to lose to this upstart rebel rabbi, don’t they? … So they are not done yet.
Next we are told that a group of Sadducees want to take their shot at entrapping Jesus.
You see, the Sadducees were a Jewish political party that was wealthy, influential and closely connected to the temple. And if these things that Jesus was teaching were true … well, they likely stood to lose in a number of various ways.
So the Sadducees take their shot and pose this very convoluted question about resurrection: If seven brothers marry a widow in this life because Jewish law requires them to, then who would she married to in the afterlife?
To which Jesus retorts: “You are wrong because you know neither the scriptures nor the power of God.” … Jesus very quickly peels back the argument to show that the religious scholars do not give a lick about the poor widow, but rather want to make a point.
So now we’re at religious leaders zero … and Jesus two.
Which brings us to today’s gospel text that begins: “When the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, and one of them, an expert in the law, asked him a question to test him.”
And so this expert in the law asks Jesus: “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?”
Well, according to Jewish law -- the Ten Commandments nonetheless -- the answer is easy, right? … In fact, there can only be one answer.
And Jesus quickly -- and rightly in the minds of the Pharisees -- dispatches the question with: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment.”
And if Jesus would have stopped right there … well, then he would have simply answered the Pharisees question and thus proved their point. … We live by the Jewish law.
So Jesus … all this other stuff contrary to Jewish teachings you’ve been hustling about the countryside pedaling … is rubbish!
But Jesus being Jesus isn’t done, is he? … He like, just hold tight for a second there. … While loving God with all your heart, soul and mind is the greatest commandment … there IS a second commandment just like it.
JUST like it … meaning it is equal!
That similar commandment is that “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
And Jesus finishes with this exclamation point: On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.
In other words all of this legalistic religious business that has been guiding you all of these generations was a gift from God to help you live in community … but in your limited human capacity … all you could see is the limitations of the commandments.
You are failing to see the implications of a living God among you.
Faith Family … it’s here in this trap that the religious leaders of the day tried to lay out for Jesus that he upends this notion that we only live for the law.
Yes, he shares with the Pharisees and the Sadducees, “My father gave you all of these commandments -- some 600 or so in the Hebrew Bible -- to help you live in community together … all these generations.”
In addition, my father loves you so much … that he saw something more was needed. … And so I’ve come to live among you. … He has come to live among you. … To show you that the law isn’t enough. … That there also must be love.
From here on out … they are to forever be interwoven, never to be unbound. The law and love. On those two, hangs all of Hebrew Bible and it teaches us how we are to live even today 2,000 years later.
Friends, I’m not sure which version of the Bible you prefer, but I love the fact that in the New Revised Standard Version, they title this section of gospel “The Greatest Commandment.”
While it is very clearly two commandments … isn’t it: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’”
But Jesus says … No, you’re looking at this all wrong. … Yes, you have the greatest commandment to love God, but then you have the other side of the coin which is to love your neighbor. … You can’t have a one-sided coin, right?
And that is what makes this passage so simply beautiful … so joyful: Faith Family … what Jesus is teaching us is that loving our neighbor is the way to loving God. … It’s equal in importance.
And for me … as a pastor … that it’s. That’s what we are commanded to do.
Yes, there are a lot of other trappings we have developed that surround this faith of ours, isn’t there. … You see, we are no different than the Jewish Pharisees and Sadducees of 1st century.
We wrap ourselves in building beautiful churches, and worry about the falling attendance in our houses of worship and we divide ourselves into denominations based on the smallest of differences in doctrine.
In other words, we spend a whole lot of time trying to put Jesus in a box … just like the religious leaders of the 1st century. … When the very same answer rings true today.
“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’”
Faith Family … If only we truly practiced this Greatest Commandment … then our world would look a lot different wouldn’t?
I guess you could probably say that I’m a tad biased.
After all, I have the honor of serving a mission that houses on average … 80 to 90 people per night in an emergency shelter … feeds on average 350 meals a day in our Community Center …. and saw 30,700 come through our food pantry last year.
Staggering figures aren’t they? … And, oh, I can go on.
There’s another 100 or so people we house every night in our supportive housing apartments. … There were more than 2,100 visits made to the nurses who work at our shelter last year. … And on any given night it is likely close to one entire classroom full of children will be sleeping in our mission.
And those numbers … friends … that’s just our neighbors that Churches United serves.
That doesn’t include the dozens of other shelters, food pantries and other direct service providers who serve our neighbors in our community … every … single … day.
Thousands of our neighbors who need our help. … Right here in our city. Not in some far off distance metropolitan area. … Our backyard, every day.
I’m not here today to inspire guilt … or to tell you that your beautiful church isn’t necessary … or burn down our faith as we know it.
But I am here today to hopefully remind each of us that when it comes to faith … what Jesus taught us was this: We are to love God with all of our heart and all of our soul and all of our mind. … And the way we do that is … through loving our neighbor.
You see … in Jesus’ mind … the two are equal in importance. There’s not TWO great commandments. … There is ONE. … And that should tell us something about how important it is to love our neighbor.
And that is the Good News this Baptism of our Lord Sunday, Jan. 12, 2025,
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