The New Judge

Over the last month, we’ve explored how Matthew reveals the parallels between Moses and Christ. We’ve seen both act as lawgiver, provider, and deliverer.

Today, we finish on the final great role played by Moses: he was the first great judge over Israel. We’re told in Exodus 18, and unfortunately we don’t have time to go into that passage in detail this morning, that all of the people of Israel came before Moses from morning until night, bringing him their disagreements and their disputes, and that he passed fair judgment over them.

And I’m sure we can only begin to imagine the burden that placed upon him: one man, acting as the sole judge for the people of a nation, working full time. It wasn’t a feasible system, and ultimately Moses had to appoint others to assist him in the burden.

And that was before God set out to the people a system of 613 laws that they must follow.

But whilst Moses was one mortal, limited judge doing his best to wisely lead in navigating a complex legal system, Christ the divine and immortal judge takes those laws and, in one profound statement, simplifies them to a simple yet powerful core meaning. Where Moses and his successors interpreted the law, Christ reveals its meaning and purpose in pointing us to Him.

And that’s where we turn today, as we examine the Greatest Commandment.

The Greatest Commandment

We’re told that one of the Pharisees, a lawyer, wished to test Jesus by asking him, “which commandment is greatest?”

Now remember, this question wasn’t an honest enquiry: it was one which this man, being an expert in the law, knew would almost certainly be answered in a manner which would court controversy. It was a hotly debated question amongst Jewish leaders, and any given answer could have been used to pit Christ’s followers against him or to accuse him of negelcting parts of the law to favour others.

This was a question intended to create division.

But Christ recognises this trap, and instead of division he gives an answer based in unity.

Because he answers, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and with all your mind.”

And this answer was one that everybody would be immediately familiar with. Because it’s part of a prayer known as the Sch’ma, which was, and still is, prayed by devout Jews first thing in the morning and last thing at night. It’s largely a compilation of verses from Deuteronomy, and I won’t go into the full thing but it begins like this:

Sh’ma Yisra’eil Adonai Eloheinu Adonai Echad.

(Hear Oh Israel, the Lord your God is one)

Barukh sheim k’vod malkhuto l’olam va’ed. (Blessed be the name of His glorious kingdom for ever and all time.)

V’ahavta et Adonai Elohecha b’chol l’vavcha u’vchol nafshecha u’vchol me’odecha.

(Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might)

Christ is telling them, “the greatest of commandments is the one which you are reciting every morning and every evening. It’s the one upon which you yourself put so much emphasis, that you repeat it multiple times daily.”

Notice though he doesn’t just say it’s the greatest commandment, he says “this the greatest and the first commandment.” And that’s interesting because looking back to Moses we see that the commandments begin, “I am the Lord Your God who brought you out of Egypt, you shall have no Gods before me.”

Christ is telling us that to have no Gods before the Lord is not simply a passive matter of not worshipping idols. No, he’s saying that it’s active.

He’s saying that in order to have no other gods, we must love the Lord our God with all our heart and soul and mind.

We have to dedicate our being to God.

The Foundational Law

Remember back to the beginning of the month, when we looked at the ten commandments. We saw that this opening statement,

Exodus 20:2 NRSV

I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery;

is a statement of intent, creating the constitution of the people of Israel by reminding them of just who it is that is giving them these laws: the Lord, who brought them out of Egypt.

But here’s another thing: it’s a statement of freedom. It’s saying that these laws are not a means to bring the people out of slavery, but rather they’re being given to a people who have already been freed.

The law is a gift to God’s chosen people.

A gift which marks them out as his.

And then the first commandment tells us “you shall have no other Gods before me.” Or if you prefer, “above me,” although the original Hebrew is “before my face” - an interesting image because it reminds us that when we put our faith in idols, we’re actively flaunting in God’s face our rejection of him. To use the analogy of marriage which scripture is so fond of, this isn’t just cheating on your spouse but it’s inviting the person you’re cheating into your house to meet them and to ensure that they understand the depths of your infidelity.

So when Christ tells us that “love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul and all your mind” is the first commandment, he’s highlighting that to have other gods is to demonstrate our lack of love.

It’s saying that anything which takes a place of importance in our lives such that we dedicate our love to it with all of our person, it becomes a rival to God.

That anything which causes us to love God less than we should, becomes a rival to God.

And so we need to examine our lives to ensure that we’re not creating those idols.

And this might sound like a very difficult commandment to keep, because let’s be honest: it’s a lot easier to love your friends and your family, who you see regularly and whom you have spent good times and bad, than it is to love a God who is unseen and who can at times appear distant.

And I think it’s good to name that: for all that we talk about loving God, many of us struggle to really understand what that means. And it can seem that a command to love God with all your heart and soul and mind and to have no other gods can seem unfair - as though it’s a command to place our loved ones in a secondary position, and at worst that can even create a sense of guilt when we identify our feelings to those loved ones as being stronger than those we easily identify with God.

It could even lead to pushing people away.

And it’s vitally important that we realise, that’s not the message that Christ wants us to take.

He’s not telling us that our love for others is wrong, or that it needs to be tempered.

However we recognise a distinction: just as a concern for our own comforts and satisfaction and belongings can become an idol, so too if our loves for others is transformed into a fixation on providing their comforts and provisions those things may also become an idol.

We must trust that just as God provides our needs, so too He provides theirs.

Christ continues, making it clear that love for others is not something to be avoided or tempered when he draws attention to a second commandment.

He says,

The New Revised Standard Version The Greatest Commandment

A second [commandment] is like [the first]: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’  On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”

This second commandment, which is taken from Leviticus, is like the first - or it’s similar or it’s of the same kind.

And all the laws and the prophets hang on these two.

Imagine if you will a huge, beautiful tapestry on which is represented all of the laws, all of the messages of the prophets. And this tapestry hung, suspended from two hooks which are the greatest commandment and the one which is similar. If one of those hooks were to be removed, the whole thing would come crashing down to the floor and be soiled in the dirt.

To the lawer who asked for the greatest commandment, Christ is clearly stating: the laws and the prophets are worthless if they aren’t being followed according to these two basic commands. It is these commands that are the motivation behind following the law. It is these commands which motivated the words and warnings of the prophets.

And to those of us who are concerned that the first commandment seems to demand conflicting loyalties to those who are love naturally flows towards, Christ is assuring: loving your neighbour is akin to loving God. We must do both, or we demonstrate that we are failing in both.

Which leads us to one of the greatest, and perhaps most misunderstood, of Christ’s parables. A parable in which Christ acting as the great judge of God’s people highlights exactly how we should understand this greatest commandment. The parable popularly known as the sheep and the goats.

The Sheep and the Goats

“When the son of man comes in his glory then he will sit on his throne, and all the nations will be gathered before him and he will seperate the people as a shepherd seperates the sheep from the goats.”

Now there’s a lot we could or could not read into this: at its most simple, Christ is simply using a simple and standard administrative task as a metaphor: in the culture of the time, shepherds were commonly tasked with tending over a mixed flock of sheep and goats.

During the day the two would be allowed to mingle and roam together, the sheep eating grass and the goats eating bushes and other growth.

At night, however, it was neccessary to seperate the two for various practical reasons: the goats, lacking the warm wool coat of the sheep, required a warmer and more enclosed sleeping environment. The sheep, sleeping in a more exposed environment and lacking the horns for use in their own defense of the goats, required a closer protective watch by the shepherds.

Further, it was when they were seperated that the real work could begin based on their distinctions: the sheep would be milked in the evening and the morning, and the resources for which the animals were kept: wool, milk, and mutton from the sheep, and hair, milk, and tougher meats from the goats.

Although the sheep and goats may have looked similar from a distance during the day as they mingled together, ultimately they were different animals of different natures, who must be seperated for their different ultimate purposes.

At a more complicated level, we might look at the differences between the sheep and the goats as having a spiritual significance.

Christ tells us that he is the good shepherd, and repeatedly uses the metaphor of sheep and a flock to refer to his followers.

And that’s an important metaphor for the relationship between us and Christ: because sheep are docile and they implicitly trust the shepherd to lead and to guide them, and they’re also defenseless and they rely on the shepherd to protect them from attacks.

For his part the Shepherd acts with care and compassion to the sheep, leading them along safe paths between home and their grazing spots and ensuring that their needs are met. At night, in the culture of the time the Shepherd would even sleep with the sheep, blocking the entrance to their pen with his own body to ensure they stayed in and that wolves and other animals stayed out, and risking or even losing his life to fight away those same predators if neccesary.

But goats? Goats are agressive and independent-minded, and they often rebel against the shepherd and cause trouble. Especially, they’ll eagerly create new paths along which the sheep might stray and follow them if the shepherd is not alert enough.

At night, once they were secured in a shelter they would be left by themselves: their natural defenses and tough nature was enough for their protection, and so the shepherd would leave them alone in order to concentrate on protecting the sheep.

And so the parable sets up a dichotomy: all the peoples of the nations are divided into the sheep and goats, two groups of different natures and different ultimate purposes.

On the right, that is to say the place of favour and honour, are the sheep - those who are the embodiement of faith and trust.

On the left, the goats - the embodiment of wilful independence and rebellion.

And then he turns to the sheep and he says, Matt 25:34-36

Matthew 25:34–36 NRSV

‘Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.’

And they respond by asking him, “when did we do these things?”

And his reply? “Just as you did it to the least of these my family, you did it to me.”

“Just as you did it to the least of these my family, you did it to me.”

The New Revised Standard Version The Greatest Commandment

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.’”

When we see our neighbour hungry, and we love them by giving them food, by loving our neighbour we also show our love for God.

When we see our neighbour thirsty and give them something to drink, by demonstrating love for our neighbour we also demonstrate our love for God.

When we see a stranger and we welcome them - actually let’s stop and really break this one down.

Because this passage really doesn’t translate well into English.

This word stranger - in Greek, xenos, doesn’t simply mean someone who is unknown. Xenos also means a foreigner - someone who is out of place in the location they find themselves. But also in the ancient Greek and Hellenistic Jewish cultures it holds the dual meaning of a guest. There was an understanding of a sacred duty to offer hospitality to any stranger one encountered if need be, such that all strangers should be viewed as potential guests.

So when Christ talks about welcoming strangers he isn’t suggesting the listeners should have been going out of their way but rather that they were meeting a basic societal expectation: they would have heard him say, “when I was an unprotected person who was entitled to be recieved as a guest.”

But then here’s where it gets interesting, because Christ could have said the stranger was welcomed using the the related word xenizo, but instead he says synagagete which means something like gathering. It’s where we get the word synagogue - the place of gathering - and it suggests that this hospitality isn’t merely inviting the stranger in for a drink and a conversation: it’s an active stepping out into the streets and inviting the vulnerable in to your home and into your family and into your community.

It’s a making the stranger a part of your people, so that they are no longer a stranger - no longer a foreigner, but a part of the local populace.

Which isn’t something we can do as individuals: it requires the active participation of the community as a whole. It is something that Christ’s people do as a people.

Christ says “When I was a stranger you all gathered me in”

“I was naked and you all clothed me, I was sick and you all cared for me I was a prisoner and you all visited me”

“And because of that you are blessed by my father, come inherit the kingdom.”

One final thing before we move on to look at those on his left: I’ve heard some people point out that the people on the right seemed surprised by all this - that expressing confusion as to when they’d done these things it implies that they perhaps did not know Christ. The argument here goes that the key thing is in how we treat others, and so there are those who will be saved through their good deeds and their love for others despite not having put their faith in the saviour.

And that’s a dangerous line of thought, and it’s not one that I think is supported by the scriptures.

And part of that goes back to the commandents: we’re told that the commandment to love our neighbour is like the commandment to love our God, but notice that we’re not told that to love our neighbour is the greatest commandment. We’re told that it’s like the greatest commandment.

If we love our neighbour but we don’t actively love God by placing Him first and foremost in our lives, then we have gods before him. We’ve violated the first and greatest commandment. And what good is it to follow a commandment that is like the greatest, if the greatest is neglected?

And further, remember the corporate nature of welcoming the stranger: it’s a gathering into the community of God’s people. It’s corporate. And you can’t be a part of a corporate welcoming into a group that you are not a part of.

So we need to be careful that when we read scriptures such as this, we don’t inadvertently read things into it that seem to contradict the words found elsewhere.

Meanwhile on Christ’s left side:

Those on the left are ordered to depart, because they did not do those things for which those on the right were praised.

And just as those on the right were confused, so are those on the left.

The New Revised Standard Version The Judgment of the Nations

Then they also will answer, ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not take care of you?’ 45 Then he will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’

This is a stark warning. Recall that goats and sheep look alike when they’re together in the fields, although their behaviours differ.

And so it is in the church: there are those who appear to be a part of Christ’s people, may claim that title, but rather than being docile and trusting in the Lord they choose independence and rebelion.

And when it comes to the final judgment Christ says to them: “you didn’t love your neighbour as yourself. You neglected that second commandment which is like the greatest.

You didn’t feed the hungry or give water to the thirsty or clothe the naked.

You didn’t visit the sick or the prisoner and show them love and concern.

You didn’t gather the stranger into the community of my people, and make them no longer foreigners in a foreign place.

And now I tell you to depart, because you are accursed.”

How terrible will it be to hear those words?

And friends, there are those who puport to love God with all their heart and strength and mind,

who study scripture and can tell you all about doctrine

and about sin and salvation

and even about the need to turn to Christ and be saved

And they might even actively spend their time telling those truths to others.

But they still miss the mark, because they fail to love their neighbour as themself.

They fail to see that Christ is in front of them, suffering alongside those who society had negelcted and cast out.

And in doing so they fail to uphold the greatest commandment.

Because if we cannot show love even to our neighbour how can we possible dedicate ourselves to loving the one who is above all, who demands and who displays an even greater love?

The apostle Paul says

The New Revised Standard Version The Gift of Love

If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

And he’s no doubt offering a warning to those who will find themselves among the goats: piety and prophecy and doctrinal knowledge and even performing miracles are worthless if you do not love your neighbour as yourself.

GIving away your possessions is worthless if you don’t do it from a place of love for your neighbour.

Even martyrdom is simply a meaningless death if in life you had no love for your neighbour.

Where Love Waits

The emphasis in Christ’s judgment here is that salvation is not based on knowledge, or on having perfect doctrine.

Knowledge and good doctrine matter, but they aren’t what matters most.

It isn’t based on perfect church attendence, or on how often you go to bible studies, or on regularly recieving sacraments.

Of course those things are important, but they aren’t what’s most important.

It isn’t about how much time you spent studying the scriptures, or about how zealous and eloquent you were in telling others about the faith.

Those things should not be neglected, but they shouldn’t be prioritised so that we neglect the greatest commandments.

No, we see that the judgment is based on how we followed the simple instructions which Christ calls the greatest commandment: Love for God, made visible in our love for our neighbour.

And that terrifying admonishment, “depart from me,” is spoken not to those who have committed some great and awful sin that surely they knew was deserving of punishment, but rather for those who have omited that which was most important.

“But aren’t we saved by grace alone through faith alone?” you may ask, “this sounds like a works-based salvation.”

And it’s vital that we be clear that no, that’s not what is happening here. Rather we need to understand that this love for God and for our neighbours which is manifested in these good works is itself a reflection of the work of the spirit in us.

These works are not a price paid to enter the Kingdom, but rather a fruit of those to whom entrance has already been promised.

Because to be clear: loving God with our heart and soul and mind and our neighbours as ourselves is an impossibly high standard for fallen humans.

We can’t do it by ourselves.

But the promise of the God who demands of us that love is that he will renew us within and enable us to manifest that love.

The promise of the new covenant is that we will be made new and we will be transformed to more and more reflect Christ’s love.

The entirety of the laws and the prophets hang on the two commandments of perfect love.

And so I challenge you to ask yourself: where is your love misplaced?

What “other gods” are you placing before the one true God?

And where is the Good Shephered standing before you, waiting to be seen and welcomed?