The Greatest Commandment

 Read Matthew 22:32-40

We began the new year with a series we call the Words of Jesus. We had spent a year in the Old Testament and wanted some words from our Master. We surely find them here.

This part of Matthew brings the ministry of Jesus to a crescendo. He has his triumphant entry into town—that had to push the buttons of the religious leaders.

Jesus was teaching, frequently in parables. The Pharisees and Sadducees wanted to discredit Jesus.

Jesus was a new force to be reckoned with and he spoke with authority, not like the Teachers of the Law or the Pharisees or the Sadducees. He had been all over the countryside and had a substantial following.

Anyone who could take him down publicly would surely have some street credit. We are not talking a gunfight at the OK Corral. We are talking about discrediting the One who claims to be from the Father with the law that came from the Father himself.

The Pharisees and Herodians teamed up with the perfect question. Is it right to pay taxes to Caesar?

Is it right to pay taxes to Caesar?

It may seem like just a coffee shop question.  Is it right to pay taxes to Caesar?

Answer yes, and many of these people think that Jesus is a sellout.  At the moment when people were ready to follow this revolutionary. Telling the people not to pay taxes to Caesar would certainly end up in a jail cell for Jesus.

You don’t have to be right. You just need to give the Roman soldiers a reason to lock this guy up and throw away the key. The Romans were fond of their taxes.

If the Romans governed your area but you paid your taxes, they didn’t much care if you worshiped the one true God or a carved wooded pole and made offerings to it all day.  Just pay your taxes.

All the Romans wanted was to conquer the known world and have that world pay them taxes. It’s good work if you can get.

Tell people to go ahead and pay taxes to the emperor who said he was god would make Jesus a sellout.  Either way this question will take Jesus down a notch or two no matter how he answers.

It was a perfect setup.  So, there Jesus, is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar?

Jesus said, who has a coin?

A coin is produced.

Whose image is on the coin?

Caesar’s.

Then give Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God that which is God’s. 

What did Jesus say?

First, Caesar is not God.

Second, if it is of this world, don’t get wrapped up in it. It belongs to this world. It is something that the pagans chase after and make into their gods. It is neither here nor there as far as we are concerned. It’s just stuff. If we need it, God will provide it.

Third, there are absolutely things that belong to God and are not to be shared with others.  He is God. He is sovereign. He is holy. He is righteous. The list goes on.

Give to Caesar that which is Caesar’s and to God that which is God’s.

Not only were the people amazed, so were the Pharisees.  They surely didn’t see that one coming. They left the area. There was no victory for them on this occasion. There was no street cred. They had been publicly humiliated in a single sentence.

If the Pharisees struck out, that didn’t mean game over, it meant there was an opportunity for the Sadducees to score big. You see, the events of this day were more like a Shakespearean play than just a day in the town square.

The Sadducees did not believe in the resurrection. That is why they are SAD YOU SEE. That explanation is required neither by law or prophecy but by the pastor’s guild that it be used twice a year.

So the Sadducees had this little scenario dreamed up, probably for the torment of the Pharisees, but surely it would work on Jesus as well. I mean, it was well thought out.

A man had a bunch of brothers. There were 7 in all. The oldest took a wife and then died. The next brother took his brother’s wife as the law required, but he died.

The woman is still unmarried and childless, but her original husband had more brothers. They marry and die without child, so the question is: Whose wife will this woman be at the resurrection?

That’s a good one. The Sadducees had put some effort into this one. They had surely frustrated the Pharisees with this one. It would get Jesus for sure. They could chalk up this victory for sure. This was the no-win scenario for Jesus.

Mathematically, I can prove that 0=2. The math is flawless but the logic is absent. We need to understand that if the premise is false, you can prove whatever you want to prove. If the premise is false, you can make just about anything you want look to be true.

Jesus replied by saying, “Your premise is false. There is a resurrection. The insurmountable question quickly dissipated into nothing.

Jesus said, there is a resurrection. You got that part wrong and everything thereafter that you have painted as truth is false as well.

There is a resurrection of the dead. It’s coming. You might want to prepare. What’s not coming is all this physical restraint. We will be like the angels, ready and able to worship God in everything that we do.

Here is how Jesus ended this encounter.

Jesus replied, “You are in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God. At the resurrection people will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven. But about the resurrection of the dead—have you not read what God said to you, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not the God of the dead but of the living.”

When the crowds heard this, they were astonished at his teaching.

The Pharisees got wind that Jesus had put an abrupt end to the efforts of the Sadducees to trick him. They shouldn’t give up so quickly. They thought they might give it another try.  It was time to pull out the big guns.

Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”

That seemed straightforward enough.

Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

Jesus answered directly and without hesitation. He took over the conversation at this point.  Here’s the typical answer to your question and here is the full answer.

You must love God with everything that you have and are and will be. He is God. He is worthy of you worship and praise, and OBTW—love each other while you are at it.  This is the whole of the law. 

Love God.

Love one another.

Everything in the law and the prophets is anchored to, rooted in, and otherwise connected to these two basic statements.

Love God.

Love each other.

This is our answer to most questions that come up in our lives.  What do I do?  Do that which shows love for God and for each other.

Jesus turned his teaching point into a route of the Pharisees. He flipped the script on them.

While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them, “What do you think about the Messiah? Whose son is he?”

 

“The son of David,” they replied.

 

He said to them, “How is it then that David, speaking by the Spirit, calls him ‘Lord’? For he says,

 

“‘The Lord said to my Lord:

    “Sit at my right hand

until I put your enemies

    under your feet.”’

 

 If then David calls him ‘Lord,’ how can he be his son?” No one could say a word in reply, and from that day on no one dared to ask him any more questions.

 Jesus had answers for those who would confront him. Within those are answers for us. He has more answers for us if we will take his yoke and learn from him.

Jesus has plenty of answers for those who will put his words into practice. He has plenty of answers for those who want to challenge him as well. I prefer his counsel over his admonishment.

I would rather be on the teaching end of a Jesus parable than the stinging end of one of his woe unto you sentences.

Jesus told us in the clearest terms that the essence of what we do—the things that are important in our lives—is to love God and to love each other.  Everything is built upon this very real premise. It’s all about love.

So just what is the greatest commandment in the law?

Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

We know what we need to know to please the Lord. Love God. Love each other. Everything else stems from these two premises.

These premises are true and our instructions for life are clear.

Love God.

Love one another.

Amen.