Begins with the greatest commandment, by the end of it, no one has the courage to ask him any more questions
What does Jesus say right at the climax of his teaching?
Greatest commandment
Talmudic schools
Many of the questions that Jesus’ is asked lie at the heart of the Talmudic tradition. Divorce and marriage in the afterlife, who is my neighbour, salvation of gentiles, work on the sabbath
Story of Hillel and Shammai. “That which is hateful, do not do it…”
Jesus begins with the shema, concludes with a masterful summary of the finest rabbinic tradition.
Climax of rabbinical teaching.
Jesus is being treated by the Pharisees as if he is setting up his own talmidic school, and up to this point, his teaching seems consistent with this
It seems like a bit of an anti-climax when Jesus responds with a strange, technical question about how King David addressed the Messiah in the Psalms.
But, having summed up the teaching of the Torah, Jesus takes the discussion in a new direction. Away from the territory or teachers, and into the realm of the divine.
Jewish tradition saw the Messiah as the Son of David. That is, a man who would come and complete what King David had begun.
Jesus pokes a hole in that understanding.
He points out that David called the Messiah “My Lord”. Now the only one the David would call Lord, is God most high. If David calls the Messiah Lord, then that opens up a whole can of worms. Especially when the one making this point is being spoken of as Messiah himself.
This is why the teachers and Pharisees will go no further. They are wandering onto dangerous ground. Holy ground.
It is not until later that Jesus’ followers take this line of reasoning to its logical conclusion and begin to speak of Jesus not as the son of David, but as the son of God.
For now, this is where angels fear to tread. Because if the son of David was to complete what David had begun, then the son of God is to complete what God has begun.
This then is the climax of Jesus’ teaching in Matthew’s gospel. A perfect summary of Torah, the greatest commandment, and a question that rocks the foundation of the world itself. Whose son is the Messiah?
Two questions around which the world revolve, “How can we live in a way that is pleasing to God?” and “Who is Jesus?”
500 years ago this weekend Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to the door of the church in Wittenberg, the flashpoint that sparked the reformation into life.
Ironically, if you’d been able to tell Luther that day what effect his theses would have, he would have been horrified.
We think of the Reformation as the great schism between the Catholic and Protestant churches, and it is. But more importantly, the reformation was the great move of the Holy Spirit that brought the church back to consider these two questions that Jesus presents us with at the climax of his ministry.
“How can we live in a way that is pleasing to God?” and “What role does Jesus play in all of this?”
Luther lived in a world that was obsessed with guaranteeing salvation. People were terribly afraid of ending up in purgatory or in hell.
Luther became convinced that he could not live a life wholly pleasing to God in his own strength. He wrestled with holiness and sin. He was also enraged at the sale of indulgences around Germany.
“As soon as the coin in the coffer rings/ The soul from Purgatory springs.”
For Luther, the key was not jumping through the right hoops, or giving the right gift to the right church, the key was in the nature of Jesus himself. The son of God whose mission it was to complete what God had begun – the salvation of all creation.
Reformation became known by its great rallying cries. We are saved by grace alone. We live by scripture alone. We are the Body of Christ, the priesthood of all believers.
These two questions are relevant not just for the high and mighty, the rabbis and the priests, but for all believers, for us too.
What does it mean for each of us to live a life that is pleasing to God?
What role does Jesus play in your life and in mine?
In our reformed tradition, the church has come to recognise and ordain elders as those God calls to encourage and build up the believers in love.
Elders have many roles
We are disciples
We are leaders
We are teachers
We exercise pastoral care
But whatever it is that we do in exercising our eldership, we are called to be shaped by these same two questions: “How can we encourage one another to love the lord our God with all of our heart and soul an mind, and how can we love our neighbours as we love ourselves?” “How can we encourage one another to live lives that are pleasing to God?”
“What role does Jesus play in our lives?” “How is our Messiah fulfilling God’s mission among us?”
One question of behaviour that sums up all that is good and true among us, and one question of discernment that draws us beyond what we’ve known before, and more and more into the realm of God’s plans for our lives.
All of us are called into these questions as the children of God, as the priesthood of all believers. Our special calling as elders is to encourage that call to take root in all of our lives, together.
“Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.” — 1 John 4:11-12. Powered by BibleGateway.com.
