Bloghardt's Reflector

So, until Good Friday, Jesus sits in the temple being tested by the chief priests and teachers of the Law.  They want Him dead.  But, they can’t kill Him yet, because the people, says St. Luke’s Gospel, “hung” on His every word.  So, they went about trying to discredit Him before the people.  

It’s kinda comical, if you think about it.  They come at Him with their best stuff and Jesus turns them back.  First, the Sadducees try and fail to stump Jesus. Leaving the Pharisees to gather together in a little huddle.   

What a sight!  The Pharisees are all huddled up on one side and there is Jesus on the other, knowing already what they want to do and how Good Friday and Easter end up.  

And while they come up with what they think will be the winning touchdown play, a lawyer moves forward between them and asks, “Teacher, what’s the greatest commandment in the Law?”

The One who gave the Law, summarizes it for this lawyer.  “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your life, and with all your mind.  This is the great and first commandment.  And a second is like it:  You shall love your neighbor as yourself.  On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”

Love God perfectly.  What He wants before what you want.  Without complaining or grumbling.  Not begrudgingly or as if He’s holding something back.  I wish I could do what I want to do but this God I believe in won’t let me.  

No, love Him because He’s God and He’s good to you, because He’s saved you.  And love Him with more just your words.  Love Him by what you do and how you do it.  Do what He commands of you with everything you do, all the time, every time.  Don’t just talk about how much you love God, live in His love.

As you do what He commands, your thoughts and desires count too.  Love God with all of your mind.  What you are thinking can damn you just as surely as what you do.  So, do what you do for God with your heart and soul in the right place. 

And you can’t go on about loving God and continue to hate those around you.  No playing word games either - it’s not hate, it’s just strong dislike. No, there is no dodging God.  He knows what’s going on in your heart and how you hate those around you.  Love God with all your heart.  Quit your grudges, your holding things over that person’s head, your tearing them up behind there backs, your building yourselves up by pushing them down.  This is not the way love.  It’s the way of death.

Yet, death and hate is how you treat those you love, isn’t it?  You find nothing but fault with them, you point out their sins, and you judge them.  As if you are God and given to judge them.  

“But, it’s their fault, Pastor.  If you only knew.  I mean, it might be a little my fault, but ... more theirs than mine.  And if they just owned up to it, our relationship would be so much better.”

Do you think they deserve that treatment?  Is that how you want them to think about you?  Do you really think I’m talking about them, ‘cause I’m actually talking about you!

Dear Beloved of God, love those in your family, more than you love yourself.  Put them before you.  Love them not just with words, but actually love them with what you do.  And not just what you do, what you think, and what you feel.  Be for them before you are for you.  

Well, I am loving?  Are you?  I mean, it’s easy to talk about loving people, until you actually have to be loving.  What about someone unloving?  Like the other team’s quarterback?  Or your own quarterback?  Can you love them too?

Or harder.. take a look around you.  It’s usually the same people near you in the pew every week.  Easy to love them - well not really, there is that person... With what they did... You know... Their sin.. Can you love them too?

What about new people?  People from out there.  Can you love them too?  What if they look different from you?  Different culture?  Different color?  Can you love them before you love you? 

What if their brand of Lutheranism was too traditional for you?  Too contemporary?  What if they didn’t know a thing about Lutheranism at all!  Could you love them and reach out to them?  

I hear that Lutherans love to sit in the same place every week.  We don’t need our names on our parking places, we really need our names on our pews.  That way visitors wouldn’t sit where they’re not supposed to.

Could you love them enough even .. shudder the thought.. to give up your seat?  I’m not joking.  Seriously.  Can you love others enough to give them your spot in the pew?  To look after them through the service, to show them hospitality, to not only say hello to them, but to be that loving, and treat them like you would like to be treated?

Or do you want things the way you want them - your way, your church, your seat.  Bring those new people in pastor, but as long as they don’t sit where I sit, or want something that I don’t want, or make me sing hymns that I don’t like, or look differently then me...  I mean, I’m all for loving them - as long as they love me more and leave things the way I like them.  

I’m a loving person, Pastor.  I know how love others.  I do it all the time, as long as they love ... me.  How dare you, Pastor, or Rabbi Jesus, tell me to love those around me!  

The Law of God is clear:  Love God with all that’s you and love your neighbor as you love yourself.  Love God when things go well.  Love Him when they don’t. Do, think, and feel what He would have you do, think, and feel.

Then, Love your neighbor who loves you.  Love your neighbor who doesn’t.  Love all your neighbors as you love yourself.  

On these two simple commandments, says Jesus, hang all the Law and the Prophets - all the Old Testament!

So, what happens when you don’t keep those two little commandments?  When you don’t love Him with all your heart, mind, and soul?  What happens when it becomes very clear to you that you love you more than anyone else.  What then?  

That’s why the lawyer left.  He had come to stump the Son of David, and the Son of God stumped Him.  

And as the lawyer leaves the scene, our eyes land on the Pharisees.  They’re still huddled in the corner, trying to come up with another trap.  

But before they can, the Son of God, the Lord engages them... “What do you think about the Christ, whose son is He?”

They answer without hesitation - everyone knows that the Christ is David’s Son.  Remember, that guy who rode into Jerusalem with the songs and the coats on the road!

But Jesus answers, “How is it then that David, in the Spirit, calls Him Lord.  How can David’s Son be David’s Lord?”

St. Matthew records that the Pharisees were so stunned, they dared not ask Him another question. Thank God.  Jesus didn’t have time for any more questions.  It’s on to Good Friday, on to the Cross. 

But.. You know the answer.  The Christ is the Son of David, the One born of the royal line of David who would save His people from their sins.  

The Christ is also David’s Lord.  True God, begotten of the Father before all eternity - even before David.

We know that Jesus is both.  True God and True Man.  He’s David’s Son and David’s Lord.  He takes upon Himself what the Law requires of you.  He loves God with all of Himself even being obedient unto death, even death on the Cross.  He loves His neighbor more than Himself - dying on the Cross made by  the Pharisees’ sins, the Sadducees’ sins, that lawyer’s sins, your sins, my sins, and the sins of the whole world.

Christ bears all our sins, all our failures, all the times we love ourselves more than God and those around us.  

In solidarity with us, the Son of David lives the life that we should live.  And for our sake, the Christ, David’s Lord, dies the death we deserve.

And in turn, we receive life - His life delivered to us in our Baptism, where the water and His Name wash away our “have-to-have-it-my-way” spots and blemishes.

We receive His forgiveness in His Word which offers, delivers, and proclaims to us what the Christ did for us on the Cross by His holy life and bitter suffering and death.

We receive what He deserves in the Supper.  Take eat His Body, broken for you.  Take drink His Blood shed for you for the remission of all your sins.

Upon this word of Law: Love the Lord with all your heart, mind, and soul and love your neighbor as yourself, hangs all the Old Testament.

Where you were unable to live, the Father has hung the whole Law - all of it - upon His Son.  “Hung” on a Cross - same word in Greek.  And as He hangs there answering for your crimes, He shows you true love - love for God and love for your neighbor - love that dies for others - even those who don’t deserve it.

Risen from the dead in Christ, He enlivens you to pick up His Law and keep it.  To set aside your way and receive His Way.  To put aside what you think, know, and feel about God, and receive His Word, His Washing, and His Body and Blood.

He has raised you from the dead to be a Church filled with people who put others first - in your families, in your homes, in your workplace, even in your church.  Those people before you.  Each one, a person for whom the Christ died.  

Whether they are different than you in the way they look or act - each one loved specifically by the Son of David who is also David’s Lord - who died for you, them too.

Sometimes it helps to know the where and the when.  The where and the when of God’s love for you is on a Mountain called Calvary on Good Friday.

The where and the when of your love for those around is the very same where and when too - with Jesus’ dying on the Cross answering for all your sins and theirs.

He gave up His life for you.  You give your life, your time, your love, even your seat, or a smile, or a “hello” to those around you.

Not because the Father requires this for you to be saved, but because He himself has hung the Law upon His Son and saved you from all that would keep you from Him.  In the Name of Jesus.  Amen.