Midweek Lent 4 (2022)

Matthew 22:23-40

We now come to Tuesday of Holy Week, this comes after he has cursed the fig tree, and the disciples see that he has withered up and died, and then Jesus enters into the temple, the temple that he cleansed a day before and continues to do what he had done the days before. He teaches the people of God, what God’s will is, that they might know what God has done for them and the hope that they ought to have for salvation.

Now he does this for a particular reason, the two groups that are ruling in the temple do not understand the Scriptures and are actually teaching against what God has said. We see that here that the first group comes and they are the sadducees, who deny the resurrection. That note is included because they then try to trap Jesus with a question that they don’t even believe in. They just want to try and make a fool out of him.

So what does Jesus do in his answer? He confronts them with the Word of God and condemns their false teaching, and tells them that know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God. For they misunderstand what the resurrection is about, it is not about continuing in marriage which belongs to this life, but we will be like the angels, that is to say unmarried for the purpose that marriage fulfilled here on earth will no longer be needed.

Then, before they can get a word in against him, he addresses their false teaching . Pointing out that when God says I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, he does not say that He was the God of those men, but that I am, which means that Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are living, for he is not the God of the dead, but of the Living.

Now this shows a few things, first that we need to read our Bibles much more carefully then we think. For every one of those Words recorded in Holy Scripture was recorded intentionally. Make no mistake God meant for us to examine and know it well, every word. We do not wish to add to it, or remove anything from Holy Scripture. But to confess it faithfully

The second blessed teaching is that there truly is a resurrection of all flesh. That is why Jesus needed to be there in the temple teaching this just days before His death, and His Resurrection that the people might know what it is that God has promised to do. For these men who were teaching were lying about what God had said, and what God was going to do for them.

The third wonderful comfort that was as Christians can take from this is that those who have died in the faith are with God in paradise. That they are not just dead, but are with Him. Now what does that all mean, we don’t entirely know in the present moment, but they are safe, and alive, and healthy and whole. While they cannot come to us, we will go to them and see them in the land of the living. For that is who our God is, the God of the Living.

So Jesus throws down the Sadducees and when the Pharisees hear this, they send someone to ask a question, now the Pharisees are known for keeping the Law, and they obey them strictly tithing not just their money, but the dried herbs that come out of the garden. The trouble is that they are not motivated by genuine love of God, and so their hands are busy, but their hearts lack love. Now this is not found in our text tonight, but you will find it throughout the rest of the Gospels.

So when Jesus says to them that the most important commandment is to Love the Lord of God with all your heart, soul, and mind, and the second is like it to love your neighbor as yourself. This strikes down the Pharisees, but they cannot refute Jesus for the Scriptures say this in Deut 6:5 and Leviticus 19:34 .

Now the Word Love sounds nice, especially if we think that it is just a general good feeling, but the commandments explain that it is more than that, love is a verb an action that is carried out, but if it is carried out for the wrong reasons it is no longer love. When Paul, who had been a pharisee, explains what Love is in 1 Cor 13, he explains that Love is hard, very difficult, so much so that that it does not serve itself but your neighbor, and not just the good neighbor, but your enemies as well.

The Pharisees stand condemned here, for their focus on fulfilling the Law has been for their own benefit, not the benefit of anyone else not even God, but rather to seek eternal life, and so their love is motivated out of personal gain.

This affects many people still today, that they do good because they are looking to get something from God, and that is all wrong. For indeed then we are only doing it for selfish reasons. Now if you are thinking to yourself, well then why on earth would anyone do good if they don’t get something from it, then your heart right now is like the heart of a pharisee.

But fear not, for Christ’s Words here are for you, to show you your sin that you might be called to repent, and that you might no longer hold on to that sinful corrupt heart, but rather receive a new living heart by what God has done in Christ to save you. Because our hearts by nature do not love God, we are all like Pharisees. But is that the Love of God that is found in Christ Jesus transforms dead sinful hearts, into hearts that overflow with the Love that God has poured into your heart.

The love that we have for God comes because God first loved us, not because we first loved God or chose God, but because there on the Cross is that Christ loves not only His Father that He would submit unto death, but He loves you, for there is no greater love than that a man lays down his life for a friend, and so that Jesus might call you friend, and that you might be His neighbor he was born of the virgin and became flesh and blood like you. He didn’t have to do that, but it was love that motivated Him, love for you and for His Father, for neither desires that you perish, but went to the Cross to suffer and die for your sake.

For it is impossible to love God if all you can think of is His wrath and His stern demands regarding your sins, but there upon the Cross, you see God’s love made manifest. Our love for God flows out of a grateful heart, that He has treated us according to our sins, but has shown us mercy.

This is how you are given a new and living heart. This is then what also motivates us to go out and love our neighbor as Christ has loved us. For indeed we know the joy that comes with this love and we want others to receive that same love that we have. We aren’t looking for anything from them, or anything more from God for what has He withheld from us? This is what the Pharisees didn’t understand it, but some would like Nicodemus, and eventually a hard hearted pharisee who we know as Paul.

So My Brothers and Sisters in Christ, this is not all that Jesus taught on tuesday, He spent many hours teaching and explaining the Scriptures to the people that they might know what God had said, and what He was going to do for them. Take some time this week to read through these sections of Scripture that the Love of God might flow freely from Christ into your heart, and it will then overflow to your neighbor and then we shall love God and man as God has said in Holy Scripture. In Jesus name. Amen.