HOW CAN I LOVE YOU, LORD? Hymns 286, 434, 184/494
Pentecost 23—October 20/23, 2005
Mathew 22:34-46 Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: "Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?" Jesus replied: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments." While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them, What do you think about the Christ? Whose son is he?" "The son of David," they replied. He said to them, "How is it then that David, speaking by the Spirit, calls him 'Lord'? For he says, " 'The Lord said to my Lord: "Sit at my right hand until I put your enemies under your feet." ' If then David calls him 'Lord,' how can he be his son?" No one could say a word in reply, and from that day on no one dared to ask him any more questions. Dear Christian Friends: In high school I did not date much. That’s because I went to a school where males outnumbered females two to one. I was also fat, ugly and I had all the social graces of an epileptic moose. But those weren’t the main reasons why I didn’t do well in the high school dating game. Sure, I was interested in girls, but I just could not understand girls. They made no sense to me. I didn’t know if I should try to be funny or serious. I didn’t know if I should talk about myself or ask her about her life. It perplexed me as to why girls could be friendly and kind one moment but then totally ignore you the next moment. So, since the whole subject of dating was so mysterious, I just didn’t do it, or at least, not well. Sometimes that describes us our relationship with God. On the one hand, we love God. The Holy Spirit blessed us with faith in Christ. Faith leads us to love God, thank God and praise God. But on the other hand, we are still sinners. We lack the spiritual graces to love God as he deserves. Furthermore, God is mysterious. God is more perplexing to us than girls are to an awkward high school boy.
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In our text, Jesus talks about loving God. That leads us to turn to our God and ask, HOW CAN I LOVE YOU, LORD? God’s Word shows us the answer: 1) By Never Withholding any love. 2) By Always Holding to the Mystery of faith. Jesus spoke about love in response to the Pharisees. Our text says, the Pharisees got together. One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: "Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?" The Pharisees asked this question because they had an unhealthy obsession with the law. They thought, “We keep the law well enough for God to bless us abundantly. We love the law so much we have come up with a whole long list of extra laws.” Now, Jesus knew that the Pharisees loved the law more than they loved God. So Jesus says, 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments." Jesus basically says, “God did not give the law so you could serve yourself and gain your own salvation by your works. No, the purpose of the law is to love. It’s to serve others, not yourself. That means putting God first. It means putting everyone else ahead of yourself.” So there is no room for selfishness or pride in love. Loving God means never withholding any love—ever. Loving God means all our desires, all our wants and all our feelings focus on God. It means studying his Word night and day. It means never missing church. It means never failing to give the most generous offering we can possibly give. It means never failing to volunteer to help out the church whether in committee work, singing in the choir or mowing the lawn. Loving God means never giving excuses when it comes to giving to charity, helping a friend or giving our best performance at work every day of the week. Loving God with all our heart and with all our soul and with all our mind means never, ever thinking of ourselves first. Do you see what Jesus does? The Pharisees wanted to use the law to serve themselves. But Jesus shows them—and us!—that the law is for serving others. By doing so, Jesus also exposes the truth. We can’t love God with all our heart, all our soul and all our mind.
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Now, by summarizing the law, Jesus did what a lot of people want the IRS to do. It would be great if the IRS simplified the tax code so that the income tax instructions were uncomplicated and easy to understand. Well, that’s what Jesus did. He simplified God’s law code. He summarized it in one word: LOVE. Of course, there’s still a problem with a simplified law code. No matter how simple tax law is, you still have to pay taxes. Likewise, no matter how simply Jesus summarizes God’s law, you still have to obey the law. Of course, we sinners cannot send all our love, devotion and dedication into God. We are selfish. We love our choices and conveniences more than we love dedication and devotion to God. We put our free time, our little luxuries and our comfortable homes ahead of God and others. We look out for number one. Before we do anything kind or generous, we still love to ask, “What’s in it for me?” So whenever we ask, “How can I love you, Lord,” we must in the same breath admit, “How can you love me, Lord? Why do you love a self-absorbed, selfloving narcissist like me?” Well, the answer to that question comes in the second part of our text. Our text says, While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them, What do you think about the Christ? Whose son is he?" "The son of David," they replied. He said to them, "How is it then that David, speaking by the Spirit, calls him 'Lord'? For he says, " 'The Lord said to my Lord: "Sit at my right hand until I put your enemies under your feet." ' If then David calls him 'Lord,' how can he be his son? Jesus turned the tables on the Pharisees. They wanted to stump Jesus by asking a tough question about the law. Jesus stumped the Pharisees by asking a mysterious question about the gospel. Jesus quotes Psalm 110. This psalm prophesied about the Messiah. It says that the Messiah would be both a descendant of David—making him less than David. But the Messiah would also be David’s Lord, making him greater than David. Of course, Jesus was pointing to himself. He was a descendant of David. But he was also David’s Lord and God. So Jesus was basically telling the Pharisees, “Stop nit-picking about the law. Loving the law can’t save you. Even loving God can’t save you. No, only the Messiah can save you. Only the mysterious descendant of David who is greater than David—only this one can save you.”
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That’s also what Jesus tells us. Through his Scriptures Jesus tells us, “You can only love God when you don’t use the law to save yourself. You love God best when you let God love you by sending his Son to be your Savior. You love God best when you hold onto the mysteries of the holy Christian faith.” And it is a mystery why Christ would love us and be our Savior. That love is like the homecoming queen going to the homecoming dance with the biggest loser in the school. He is an ugly, obnoxious, rude, crude freshman oozing with a complete lack of personal hygiene. This kid would make an epileptic moose look attractive. But yet, the most popular girl in school, the most ravishing beauty of the senior class chooses this kid as her date. That is mystery. Everybody would think she was crazy. My friends, that describes the mystery of our faith. We have to ask, “Why would David’s Lord and God choose to become a humble human? Why would the glorious Lord of all creation choose to marry himself to a foul, filthy, ugly, ill-tempered, unfaithful bride? Why would God choose to love us? That is truly a mystery. But the answer to the mystery is love. It’s a love that brought Jesus to the cross just three days after he spoke the words of our text. It’s love that caused Jesus to open his holy veins and pour his precious blood to forgive all our sins. It’s love that leads Jesus to keep on forgiving us for all our loveless, self-centered acts. So, how can we love God? Well, the truth is we can’t love him the way he deserves. But there is another truth. And hold onto to this truth. Your eternal salvation depends on this truth. The truth is God still loves you. Even though you cannot love God with all your heart, soul and mind, Jesus Christ still lived and died for you. Therefore, in Christ God loves you, God saves you and forgives you. AMEN.
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