The Rev’d Stephen E. Stults
St. Barnabas Anglican Church
18th Sunday After Trinity 2010
October 3, 2010

“What is the great commandment in the Law?”

(Mat 22:35) Then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked him a question, tempting him, and saying, Master, which is the great commandment in the law?

This passage of Matthew, taken for today’s Gospel, may possibly be one of the pivotal moments in the New Testament and, quite possibly, for the entire Christian faith. This is, indeed a very large claim, but there are a couple of reasons for it. First, in what Jesus says next, he will turn the entire religious system of the ancient world on its ear. Second, he will give us the most concise and eloquent restatement of the Law of Moses to the very experts of the Law, those who were tasked in keeping it holy and undefiled as possible. Let’s consider each point in turn.

First of all, we all know the story, as Christ was “tempted” by a lawyer. As usual, the Pharisees were playing their deadly games with Him by attempting to get him to say something with which they might accuse him. Being schooled in the finer points of the law, they made the study of legal minutiae their life’s work. So, we presume that they were trying to get Jesus to emphasize one part of the Law over another, thus leaving himself open to some sort of theological charge that Jesus was denigrating one section of the law, while exalting another, or that he was invalidating the Law altogether. They were, as usual, preparing a trap.

This is a trap which Jesus deftly sidesteps, while profoundly altering their understanding of the Law with just one or two statements. In his reply to the lawyer, He completely altered the way Man looks to God and the way God appears to Man. How?

The answer lies in the question of the lawyer itself. He asks, “Master, what is the great commandment in the Law?” On the surface, it sounds like an honest question. Yet, the word in the Greek is peira,zw (peirazo {pi-rad'-zo}). This word, if used in a bad sense, means “to test one maliciously, craftily to put to the proof his feelings or judgments, or to try or test one's faith, virtue, character, by enticement to sin.” Translated in the Authorized Version as “tempted”, we may easily surmise that the question was laid out with evil intent.

It also shows the understanding of the ancient mind, and especially the ancient Jewish mind, in regards to Deity. What was the basis of the Law? How did Man relate to God? We know that it was simply based on obeying the precepts of the Law and included frequent sacrifice. Once became righteous by doing, by acting, and by performing. In short, one became righteous because of what one did, not because of what one was. Righteousness, and thus the possibility of salvation, was based on works. Thus one built, through “sweat equity”, their own personal house of salvation in the ancient world. It is the same in every single works-oriented system of salvation today as well.

The problem is, as St. Paul reminds over and over again, is that such a house is built on a foundation of sand. No one is justified by his works because, at our core, despite our best efforts, we run into our own sinfulness again and again. Recall St. Paul’s anguished cry of frustration, as he says from Romans 7:24: “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” This cry comes at the end of a long discussion of his desire to do what is right and proper, according to the Law, as well as his utter inability to do so. Again, despite what the illuminati of the world desperately want to believe, that the heart of man is basically good, we know that this is not so. History belies that wish with complete consistency..

Thus, works are not the answer. There is not one commandment in the Mosaic Law that man can do to save himself. His work and obedience and effort come to naught because in the end, salvation does not come from works. Instead, Christ sums up the law by saying that man can do one thing: he can love. How is he to do this? Simply, 1) love God with your whole being: with all of your heart, with all of your mind and with all of your soul; and 2) love your neighbor as yourself. We Anglicans recognize this is as the Summary of the Law; which we hear each time we celebrate the Divine Eucharist.
In beautiful brevity, Jesus “boils down” the hundreds of legalistic commandments developed by the Scribes and Pharisees to two short commandments: love God and love your neighbor.

This was so radical that it must have shaken the Pharisees to their very roots. Their whole belief system, if only they realized it, had been changed. Now, man no longer looks fearfully to the heavens as he seeks to ingratiate or placate the Deity through legalistic obedience, sacrifice and rigid behavior. After all, how does one know when one has done enough to merit salvation? In a works-type system, how does one even know that one is saved?

Now, because of Christ, things were changed. Now man was called upon to love his God with his entire being and to love his neighbor as himself. Man was called upon to open himself to the infinite possibilities of an infinite Love. Man’s understanding of God, through Christ, had been altered irrevocably, forever. Love was the answer for man’s salvation, not his own feeble works.

For those of us who may think this type of statement sounds rather like a platitude, let us remind ourselves what life in the ancient world was like. It certainly did not run on love, but on raw power, merciless military might, the subjugation of entire peoples, and ruthless exploitation. At the risk of overextending this thought, let us say that the ancient world moved on the pitiless lubricant of human misery. To top it off, it was ruled by law, stern and foreboding.

Now, comes Jesus Christ with this radical, the incredible statement: Love God with all of your heart, soul and mind, and love your neighbor as yourself. For those who heard Christ in the past, are hearing Him in the present, and will hear Him in the future, things will never be the same. A new law has come to town. For those who hear the words of Jesus, it is a whole new ballgame.

Actually, what Christ did was to clarify the great dichotomy in the Ten Commandments. You will recall that originally, there were two tables of the Law that Moses carried down from Mt. Sinai. The first table dealt with God, the second with man. If we truly love God and love our neighbor as ourselves, these commandments will be the focus of our efforts, with the help of the indwelling Holy Spirit..

The other vastly important point in this passage of Scripture is that Jesus testifies to Himself as the completion of the Law and the completion of the Covenants made with Israel in an indirect, yet forceful way.

This is why Jesus turns the tables on the Pharisees by asking them a question: (Mat 22:42) “What think ye of Christ? whose son is he? They say unto him, The Son of David.” Their answer is instructive, as they respond, “The Son of David” and it is correct, being taken out of the Prophets of the Old Testament. But Jesus shows their incomplete understanding of the Messiah when He says,

(Mat 22:43-45) “He saith unto them, How then doth David in spirit call him Lord, saying, The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, till I make thine enemies thy footstool? If David then call him Lord, how is he his son?”


What Our Lord is talking about here is the miracle that is Christ. He is referring to that once-in-history happening when God took on manhood. Thus, Jesus is the son of David in the flesh, as he is of the house and lineage of David. Yet, he is also God, whom David in spirit and in devotion calls Lord. Jesus Christ is the hypostatic union, where God and Man co-inhere perfectly in one Person, Jesus Christ.

Remember this is not as the Muslims claim, that Christians are idolators, and saying that we believe Man became God. We don’t believe this. Rather we affirm the Incarnation of Jesus Christ, where God became Man. This is very important, because to be orthodox, we must believe that Christ is both perfect God and perfect Man. The two natures do not intermix, or get confused, or get set aside.

Instead, this perfect God-Man came to save us from our fallen-ness, our “self”-ishness, to be united with Him in bliss forever. This Christ is not only the complete revelation of the Law, he is also the complete and final covenant with Man. St Paul sums it up in: Col 1:18-19: “And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence. For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell;”


This is what Christ was telling the Pharisees. They must have got the message, if not to the point of belief, then to the point where they realized that further debate was pointless. The Gospel for the day tells us: (Mat 22:46) “And no man was able to answer him a word, neither durst any man from that day forth ask him any more questions.”

So it is, when the arrogance of man meets its match in the infinitude of God. Instead of faithless questions, may we ever offer endless affirmation and praise to Jesus Christ, our only Lord and Savior.

(Jud 1:25) To the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen.


In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost,
AMEN