Grace and Peace to you from God our Father, from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and from His Holy Spirit by whom we can say Jesus is Lord. Amen.

Our text for today’s meditation is the Gospel of Matthew Chapter 22:34–46

³⁴ When the Pharisees heard that [Jesus] had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. ³⁵And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. ³⁶"Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?" ³⁷And 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. ³⁸This is the great and first commandment. ³⁹And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. ⁴⁰On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets." ⁴¹Now while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them a question, ⁴²saying, "What do you think about the Christ? Whose son is he?" They said to him, "The son of David." ⁴³He said to them, "How is it then that David, in the Spirit, calls him Lord, saying, ⁴⁴"‘The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand, until I put your enemies under your feet’? ⁴⁵If then David calls him Lord, how is he his son?" ⁴⁶And no one was able to answer him a word, nor from that day did anyone dare to ask him any more questions.

Today we hear about what happened after Jesus silenced the Sadducees after they asked Him about the resurrection. The Sadducees didn’t believe in the resurrection so they tried to trick Jesus. He gave them the proverbial "smack down." He did this when He asked them if they had read the scripture given to them by God, it said; "I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob" and then Jesus declared that God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.

The Pharisees saw what Jesus had done to the Sadducees and they were pleased because they did not agree nor did they get along with them. Even though they saw what Jesus did to the Sadducees, their pride blinded them to the fact that Jesus could do the same to them. They thought that they were so smart so they plotted to trap Jesus anyway with a question. The lawyer among them or in modern terms a biblical scholar, came up with a question sure to trap Jesus, he said; "Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the law?" The Jews had three kinds of laws: moral, ceremonial, and civil; and the lawyer was looking for Jesus to name one of these when he asked the question. If Jesus answered with one of these types he would have been exposed as a liberal who did not place God’s law in as high esteem as He should. They knew all the laws were equal because God commanded them. Once again Jesus trumps them with His answer, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. ³⁸This is the great and first commandment. ³⁹And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. ⁴⁰On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets." Notice Jesus calls God "The Lord", "You shall love the Lord,…" which is a clear reference to the God of the Old Testament, who revealed Himself to Moses. Turn to Exodus 3:13-15…..Then Moses said to God, "If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, 'The God of your fathers has sent me to you,' and they ask me, 'What is his name?' what shall I say to them?" ¹⁴ God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM." And he said, "Say this to the people of Israel, 'I AM has sent me to you.'" ¹⁵ God also said to Moses, "Say this to the people of Israel, 'The LORD, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.' This is my name forever, and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations. (Exo 3:13-15 ESV) "The Lord" is the name God gave Himself for all eternity and the Pharisees knew that. Jesus also calls Him your God, "You shall love the Lord your God," signifying that there is a relationship with Him and the Pharisees. Their God has delivered them and their ancestors; and His commandments reveal who He is and what He is like. He wants them to respond to what their God has done and who He is with love, not only for God but for their neighbor. They were so caught up being the religious leaders they didn’t have time for people other than people like themselves, and they forgot to love both God and people because they were so focused on all the laws and not loving.

So, after Jesus added the Pharisees to the proverbial smack down club He turns it back on them, not to do one up on them, but to teach them who He was. He asked them what seemed to be a slam dunk question for the Pharisees, "What do you think about the Christ? Whose son is he?" and you know what? They got it right they said, "The son of David." But did they get it right? They were thinking the earthly son of David that would restore the earthly kingdom of Israel on David’s throne. They saw Him just a few days earlier declaring He is the

long awaited Messiah when he came into Jerusalem to the cheers of many on what we call Palm Sunday. Yet He was more humble than most earthly kings, He rode a borrowed donkey. In His question to the Pharisees, whose son is he, He is declaring that He is not the earthly messiah reigning on the throne of David but instead He reigns at the right hand of God, Himself. He shows them the relationship of David and "The Lord" by quoting scripture in His answer. Turn to >Psalm 110 verses 1-2…….A Psalm of David. The LORD says to my Lord: "Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool." ² The LORD sends forth from Zion your mighty scepter. Rule in the midst of your enemies! (Psa 110:1 ESV)

Jesus shows them the proper relationship of the earthly king David and the prophesied "Lord" through scripture and He shows it to them by standing in front of them, teaching them! But they cant see Him. When He says, what do you think about Christ, He is really saying, what do you think about Me? Why can’t they see that?

Wow, this is better than TV, two smack downs in one day. So, the Son of David is God and sent by God and, just like the Pharisees, He is our God signifying a relationship. Let’s let this vertical line represent God sending Jesus to earth and our relationship with God. The Son of David was sent for a purpose. He was sent to honor His Father and do His will, again, signified by this line. He was also sent to love and serve His neighbor. He took the love of God to the people. He took it from Himself and went out just like this line which came from itself and goes out. This love for His neighbor was so strong that He fulfilled another purpose of God. God needed someone perfect to suffer and die a horrible death so that all people, you and me, would be able to live eternal life with Him. Jesus filled that role, He suffered the death of a criminal for you and I, but that’s not all, that’s only the beginning. You see, He rose from the dead to lead the way for us so we too can rise from death and live with God as He meant for it to be, in a perfect world. Jesus’ death set the world right and we will see that perfect world when Christ comes again.

We too have a relationship with God. It is through the faith in the Son of David that the Holy Spirit gives us the desire and the strength to love God. We are grounded by our relationship with God. And, just like the Pharisees, we and our ancestors have been delivered but we have been delivered from sin, death, and the devil by Jesus’ free and undeserved gift and we can be sure of that relationship and rejoice in its magnificence. Grounded in our relationship with God through the Son of David, the joy that the deliverance gives us sends us out to our neighbor.

Who is our neighbor? What about your family, are they your neighbor? Is it the people around you here at church? I’m sure you have more neighbors than that. Oh, the people that live in your neighborhood are your neighbors? There has to be more than that. The people you work or play golf or cards or dance with are your neighbors? Yes, they are but so is everyone else in the world. Jesus died and rose for all, that is the definition of neighbor, all! We do a very good job of caring for our neighbors here in church, we have a recent example. We love and care for the Rettko’s in their time of suffering and loss and we will continue while Linda is away and when she returns home. There is a need for love and caring everywhere we look and we can care and love all our neighbors. We need not be like the Pharisees who focused exclusively on people of their same status. Through faith in the Son of David the Holy Spirit gives us the desire and strength to love our neighbors. When Jesus said, And a second is like it. He is indicating equal importance with the first commandment. His reply is an enduring teaching about the heart and what God’s will is to be for man. As you saw, the line comes from within and goes out, we take Christ from within and go out to our neighbor, the Holy Spirit gives us what we need and we take Christ with us, we are Christ to our neighbors.

What Jesus said is all the laws and commandments are wrapped up in these two commandments. It is impossible for us to fulfill them and it is in the Son of David that we find forgiveness for all those times when we failed to love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength and when we failed to love our neighbor as ourselves. By living out the second commandment we live out the first commandment. Turn to …. 1 John chapter 4 verses 9-12….. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. ¹⁰ In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. ¹¹ Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. ¹² No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us. (1Jo 4:9-12 ESV)

Be Christ to your neighbors! Amen