Matthew 22:34-46
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.”
41 Now while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them this question: 42 “What do you think of the Messiah? Whose son is he?” They said to him, “The son of David.” 43 He said to them, “How is it then that David by 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” ’?
45 “If David thus calls him Lord, how can he be his son?” 46 No one was able to give him an answer, nor from that day did anyone dare to ask him any more questions.
This scripture feels familiar and yet not familiar, doesn’t it.
An expert in Torah – the Laws of Moses, asks Jesus a super basic question, a gotcha question, if you will, to see if Jesus is really as orthodox as he claims to be, and Jesus responds with the first 2 commandments:
‘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.”
And the reason this is a gotcha question, is because these commandments are like the Apostles Creed of Judaism. These are the words that every Jewish person is commanded to
-place on their door posts,
-to write upon their hearts
– to teach their children before all other things, and
-to recite upon waking and just before sleeping
‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’
But Jesus goes all Abdul El Sayed on them and adds in the second commandment:
‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’
Because like soooo many people of faith throughout history, The experts are thinking that the whole point of faith is the feel-good experience of loving God and being loved by God. Like, we can go to church on Sundays, sing the songs and listen to the stories that make us feel all warm and fuzzy, and then get right back to the way things are done the rest of the week, because that’s just how the world works right?
I mean – this is what I was taught growing up.
You go to church, you go out to lunch, and then you step around the unhoused person on your way into the mall.
I mean, this was literally what Sundays with my grandma were like. And I was just happy that my grandma brought me to church, because my parents didn’t.
But Jesus won’t stop at just loving God.
Jesus insists on loving our neighbors too.
And this is where we feel like we’re missing something, right?
Because in Luke chapter 10, the expert in Torah, pushes his luck, just like Tommy pushed his luck with Abdul, and insists on asking, “who’s my neighbor?”
And then Jesus totally bodies this poor little Tommy by telling the story of the Good Samaritan, where of course, the question is not:
Who is my neighbor?
Because the question behind the question, who is my neighbor, is of course, do I *have to* be a neighbor to “those” people who aren’t “one of us”
Who am I willing to be a neighbor to?
Jesus is straight up pointing out that if we aren’t willing to treat our neighbor how we want to be treated, then we aren’t being a neighbor.
But, this version, the Matthew version, of the conversation with the expert in the law, leaves out the parable.
The content is there – Love God and Love your neighbor, and Tommy the political plant, is still in the audience, but the beloved story that makes sense of the content just isn’t there.
And I miss it.
Because the story of the Good Samaritan is one of those stories that helped me understand that being a Christian isn’t just about what we do on Sundays. It’s about what we do all week long.
And, seriously, folks, I know I am preaching to the choir here!
I KNOW, that our two churches have put in the WORK to seek God’s will for our congregations and for our personal lives!
Y’all are NOT just Sunday Morning Christians!
Y’all have skin in the game!
You have taken your thoughts and prayers and turned them into blood sweat and tears for the sake of loving God and loving our neighbors.
You have had hard conversations and listened deeply with love, and have expanded the definition what it means to be “one of us,” to a radical level of inclusion and compassion.
You have have grieved and rejoiced and done the *heart* work of choosing to love God and neighbor:
-more than you love your buildings,
-more than you love your old ways of doing things
-more than you love your church kitchens
-more than you love control or predictability, or familiarity, or comfort
You have shown through your actions and choices that you love God and your neighbors, because you want for your neighbors the things you want for yourselves.
Things like food, shelter, and community.
My friends, this is not one of those sermons where the Pastor stands up here and tells you to do better!
You are freaking Good Samaritans, already.
You are Good Samaritans in a world where folks like Tommy are still asking gotcha questions.
Because most people haven’t done the work that you have.
Most people haven’t let their thoughts and prayers become actions and change.
Most people are too busy trying to avoid the hurtful truth that I can’t help everyone.
And it does hurt, doesn’t it!
We see so many people who need help and we only have so much capacity, that it feels like we’re going to drown in the daily flood of injustice…
…until we humble ourselves before God and admit that we are small and can only do our small part…
…But God is big, and God can feed 5000+ with 5 loaves and 2 fish.
We are small, but,
God is big and God can grow a forest out of a mustard seed!
We are not enough, but
God so much more than enough, that God can not only raise the bread with one pinch of yeast…
God can take each of us, as if we are tiny grains of red star granulated yeast, and stir us up with a little warmth and a little food, and a little time and grow us into a sourdough mother that can be shared and shared again to spread God’s love, like a commercial bakery rolling up to every grocery store in town with fresh bread.
Friends, we know, WE KNOW – that God has fermented our hearts such that we ARE DOING, WE ARE ACTUALLY DOING, things that are so much MORE than we are capable of!
We KNOW what God can do when we admit that we are not enough, but that GOD is more than enough!
But the rest of the world doesn’t know.
So Jesus decides to ask the Rules Lawyers another question – we’re in verse 41 now, if you were trying to follow along…
I’m saying Rules Lawyers instead of Pharisees because with everything going on in the world, I do not want to go anywhere near talking about the founders of the Rabinic movement as if they are the problem, because there are plenty of Christian Rules Lawyers in the world today!!! Like Tommy!
So Jesus knows that the Rules Lawyers in verse 41 are not ready to deal with the pain of admitting that the hurts in the world are Big and we are small, and Jesus knows that their solution for everything that is wrong in the world is to Restore the Davidic Kingdom. Just bring back the King, kick out all the Romans and Greeks and Gauls and all the other foreigners, and they could Make Israel Great Again.
But that wasn’t God’s agenda.
So Jesus asks them who and what they think the Messiah is supposed to be?
Because to say that the Messiah is the Son of David, is to say that they expect the restoration of the Davidic Kingdom. They expect a descendant of David to retake the throne of Israel and Make Israel Great Again.
But Jesus didn’t come to make any nation great.
The purpose of the Messiah is not to fix anybody’s political mess.
Not our political mess.
Not Israel’s political mess.
Not Russia’s political mess.
I mean — please vote, and please vote for the values of Jesus – the values of loving our neighbors!
But the Messiah didn’t come to restore anything to its previous glory.
Not even the United Methodist Church.
The Messiah came, Jesus came, to show us that the pattern of our faith is death and resurrection.
Jesus came to show us how to let go of what is no longer working and trust God to grow new life out of the rich sourdough mother of the past.
We have not gathered here today to figure out how to save the church.
We have gathered here today to listen to God and one another with deep love, and with the humbleness that acknowledges that we are not enough to fix all the things, but our God is more than enough.
We are willing yeast in God’s capable hands.
Let’s see what God’s going to bake of us!
