In the Name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Tough questions
I am an avid listener to Radio 4's flagship news programme the 'Today Programme'. There is nothing like some good hard questioning on current affairs to set me up for the day. And when John Humphries is asking the questions with his razor sharp approach then breakfast can be slowed up somewhat!
The Pharisees in this mornings Gospel lesson thought that they were asking Jesus a tough question, a question to catch him out when they asked him "Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest". The Pharisee who asked him the question, a teacher, would, have lived by the Law and seen himself as an expert in its interpretation, all 613 laws in total.
Jesus' response must have surprised them all because it silences them and they ask no more questions.
Jesus sums up all 613 laws in a very dynamic way - "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 the second is like it, you shall love your neighbour as yourself". These two great commandments are right at the heart of the Law and provide a principle for obeying all 613 commandments. Not only that, Jesus' commands are positive not negative -you shall' rather than 'you shall not'.
Jesus quotes from the scriptures, from Deuteronomy for his first command 'you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your might' and to Leviticus for his second command - one we heard earlier - 'you shall love your neighbour as your self'. As the Son of God he uses his divine wisdom to give a powerful answer to a tough question. This is the new way that Jesus is trying to explain to the Pharisees, they should not be fixated by the 613 laws but by living the two great and positive commands everything else would follow.
Summed up as duty to God and a duty to our neighbour with both duties being of love.
Jesus gives us the ultimate example of love - of loving God and his neighbour - us, fulfilling these two great commandments through his death and resurrection. In doing so he offers a new life for us for all time.
Without this we would not be leading this new life as members of the body of Christ - the family into which Francesca will shortly join when she is baptised. Baptised into a life in Christ. A life in which we can flourish little by little, not through our own efforts but through God's grace. God's grace that cleanses our hearts and souls of the impurities that hold us back from giving God our full commitment. What CS Lewis calls getting 'ourselves' out of the way to let Him take over, so that we can more truly become ourselves.
But the love we are called to give both to God and our neighbour is no sentimental love, no, it is a much greater and harder to achieve love. Many of us find it hard enough getting along with our fellow man, the members of our families, the people we spend time with day by day, our neighbours. So how on earth do we go about really loving God and our neighbour? Bernard of Clairvaux, the 12th Century French Saint taught that there are four steps of love in loving God. First we have to love ourselves for ourselves, then we have to love God for what he gives us, we should then grow to love God for himself and finally love ourselves for God's sake. And another writer suggests that the 'journey from self love to the love of God never bypasses our neighbour'.
Love, a powerful answer to a tough question.
Having silenced the Pharisees in their questioning Jesus asks a question to test them - "What do you think of the Messiah? Whose son is he?"
For Matthew, as a Jew, ancestry was very important - the first 16 verses of his gospel are devoted to the genealogy of Jesus, descended from Abraham.
Who we are is important to us also; who we are descended from can be important from a medical perspective - knowing our gene pool can help in the prevention of genetically inherited conditions. Some people are interested in tracing their family tree and with the advent of technology has come software to aid the search. Some of us are interested in other people's ancestry and follow reality TV programmes like 'Who do you think you are'.
Our connectedness matters.
The Pharisees answer to Jesus' question - Son of David brings about a different response from the one they would have expected. In naming David, they are following the tradition of expecting a Messiah who is going to save Israel by winning military victories over Israel's enemies. Jesus however knows that his mission is for the whole world not just Israel and the enemies that will be under his feet will be the enemies of the whole human race. Again, Jesus looks at scripture, this time the Psalms, quoting from Psalm 110 - "The Lord says to my Lord, 'sit at my right hand until I make your enemies my footstool'". Jesus is asking the Pharisees - is the Messiah David's son or David's master - how can he be both, in terms of our human understanding he cannot but with God all things are possible. God's ways are not our ways. Jesus was different - being both human and divine. For Him divine genealogy takes precedence over human genealogy.
The Pharisees who had gathered to hear this discussion have no argument - this too is beyond their understanding. Their response will be the passion that follows, a response that will be countered by God with Jesus' resurrection. And this will be followed by the great commission to the disciples to teach the people of the whole world everything that He had commanded them, the heart of which are the answers to today's two great questions.
These two tough questions and their answers have inspired Christians for generations; they inspired the disciples, they inspired Paul who wrote to the Thesselonians of the mission that he and his companions had been entrusted with - the mission of proclaiming the gospel.
As Christians we are called to take forward this mission, the mission to spread the good news, but we cannot do this alone - we can only carry out our mission by living in relationship with God and through his grace. Christianity is a religion of life.
These two tough questions and Jesus' answers are at the heart of our Christian life. For centuries they have been, and continue to be discussed, challenged, and hotly debated. Debated by many a guest of radio presenters and challenged by razor sharp interviewers in the style of John Humphries and long may this continue to be the case.
In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Sermon by: Christine Barclay