The Eighteenth Sunday after Trinity
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Words are what make humanity unique among the creatures that the Lord God made. The animals live and move. They have their own personalities. And they even have their own ways of communicating. But it is to humanity alone that God has given the gift of speech. Our logic and ability to use words is a reflection of God’s own character. Indeed, it is a key aspect of the Imago Dei, the Image of God, which He has given to mankind alone. Words are a central aspect of what makes humans unique in God’s creation. And yet, words in themselves are not enough. Man was not made as a purely logical creature—as nothing more than a brain or a spirit. The physicality of man is a core tenet of the threefold nature of humanity reflected in St. Paul’s writings. We are body, mind, and spirit. Therefore, words, which are a reflection of the human mind, do not represent the totality of a man. There comes a time when words are not enough.
The Lord demonstrates this to the Pharisees in today’s Gospel text. It is now Holy Week, with the “Triumphal Entry” into Jerusalem having occurred in the previous chapter of St. Matthew’s Gospel. The Pharisees now come to Jesus one last time to tempt Him, that is, to catch Him in His words: “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?” (Matthew 23:36). With 613 Old Testament laws to choose from, Christ’s response was certain to give them something to nitpick which would launch a full-on war of words whereby they could discredit Him and put Him to shame. But Christ beats the Pharisees at their own game, just as He had done with their question about paying taxes and with the Sadducees’ question about the resurrection.
In His response, Christ speaks to the Pharisees in a way that they cannot refute. The whole of the Law and the Prophets depend on two commands. First, love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind. And second, love your neighbor as yourself. Christ reveals that the Law is not built upon words alone. Eternal life is not achieved merely by what one says—just as important is the law of love toward God and the neighbor and a faith which undergirds this love.
And then, in what appears on the surface to be a complete change of topic, the Lord turns the tables on the Pharisees by asking: “Whose son is the Christ?” The Pharisee’s answer “Of David” (Matthew 22:42b) is not wrong, but it is incomplete. Such is highlighted by our Lord’s riddle about David’s son also being David’s Lord. Whose son is the Christ? He is David’s son, yes. But as David’s Lord He is also God’s Son.
Were the Pharisees genuinely interested in the truth, our Lord gave them opportunity to believe. But the Pharisees rejected Christ. They dared not ask Him any more questions because they recognized that their words could not overcome Him. And this is what they truly wanted—not the truth, but power and prestige. And so, their words failed them—they were not enough.
But for you, dear friends in Christ, the words of our Lord are life-giving. The revelation that Christ Jesus is both David’s son and David’s Lord contains one of the greatest mysteries of the Christian faith. God cannot suffer and die. Nor can one man atone for the sins of all others. Thus the two natures in Christ are at the heart and center of human salvation. For in His Word, we learn that Christ is the eternal Son of the Father—the one through whom all things were made. And yet, for us men and for our salvation, He came down from heaven and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the Virgin Mary and was made man. In the person of Jesus, the eternal Son of God took on human flesh. He became David’s son so that He could suffer and die for the sins of the world. He was crucified for us under Pontius Pilate. He suffered and was buried. And the third day He rose again, according to the Scriptures and ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God, the Father Almighty. And He will come again with glory to judge both the living and the dead.
We cannot fully understand how these things can be. How can God die? How can one man atone for the sins of the world? Our words fail us when we try to wrap our minds around these great mysteries of the faith. But in the person of Jesus, God and man is united and has accomplished all these things for us. In the person of Jesus, the Word has become flesh. He has set aside the limitation of pure auditory communication and has taken up the greatest act of love—namely laying down His life for His friends upon the cross.
Of course, this is not to say that words don’t matter at all. They do matter greatly. For the Apostle has said: “With the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation” (Romans 10:10). Words matter a lot! But they are not the whole picture. In other words, if one says all of the right things but has not love for God and neighbor, his words will fail him, as with the Pharisees. For “Even the demons believe—and tremble!” (James 2:19b).
Thus, Christ points us to the two great commandments of the law. Love the Lord your God and love your neighbor. To love the Lord your God is no more of an exercise of mere words than is loving one’s neighbor an exercise of words alone. But for their similarities, loving the Lord and your neighbor are not identical exercises. And there is a reason why the first and greatest commandment is to love the Lord your God—for this is the foundation upon which the Christian faith and life is built.
There is a real sense in which Christ’s great commandment is but a restatement of the First of the Ten Commandments. “You shall have no other gods” means “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind” (Matthew 22:37). In the end, both commandments are a call to faith. And faith, by its very nature, is more than words. Faith is trust in the promises of God. To be sure, one must know the content of the promises—and words are necessary for this. But faith is also trust in these things.
Now, our human minds often unhelpfully cause us to think that trust is a gut-feeling—either I trust God, or I don’t—and there’s not much I can do to change that. But this is not necessarily true. To be sure, there is a kind of trust which is instinctual—like a child trusting his mother. But there is also a kind of trust which is a conscious choice—like a wife who trusts her husband. She has her own demons from the past. She has experienced broken trust in past relationships. And yet, she chooses to trust her husband in the same way that she chooses to love him.
It is similar with the Lord. He is fully trustworthy, but because of our sin and limitations we often find ourselves with a lack of trust. The antidote is not to say, “I hope that I start trusting God eventually” or “I would sure like to feel love for God.” Trust and love are both a choice.
I cannot understand the infinite wisdom of God. Why does He allow me or my loved one to suffer? Why has He brought such an uncertain situation upon me? Why doesn’t He seem to hear my prayers? In the end, human words are not enough to answer these questions. We cannot understand the works and ways of God. Nor can we necessarily choose to feel trust or love toward God. But we can choose to act in love and trust towards God. We can choose in the face of suffering to confess with Job: “The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; Blessed be the name of the Lord” (Job 1:21). We can choose to fight against our feeling of uncertainty, doubt, and anxiety about the future by saying with the Psalmist: “The Lord is on my side; I will not fear. What can man do to me?” (Psalm 118:6). When we doubt whether or not God hears our prayers, we can choose to say with the Apostle: “We know that all things work together for good to those who love God” (Romans 8:28).
Dear friends in Christ, when our words fail us, the Word of God stands sure. For in Christ Jesus, He has spoken His definitive, unchanging word. And because of the surety of Christ’s love for you upon the cross, I can now echo the Apostle’s words from today’s Epistle:
Brethren, I thank my God always concerning you for the grace of God which was given to you by Christ Jesus, that you were enriched in everything by Him in all utterance and all knowledge, even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you, so that you come short in no gift, eagerly waiting for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will also confirm you to the end, that you may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 1:4-8).
May God grant you the heart, soul, mind, and strength to believe this and to hold fast these words of God until the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ on the Last Day.
In Jesus’ name. Amen.
