Greatest Commandment; Greatest Son
Matthew 22:34-46
Harry Stoliker
April 18, 2010 EBC
Greatest Commandment; Greatest Son
This text gives us the excellent opportunity to ask ourselves what
we were created for! What do you exist for? Do you exist to pursue pleasure,
comfort, ease and riches? Why do you take up space and breathe air
on planet earth? It challenges us to think about how and why a man should love
God. It also gives us the opportunity to ask ourselves the hard question
of whether or not our love for God is supreme in our lives.
Vvs. 34-40 are enormously important to our lives this morning!
The second paragraph (V.41-46) is a mouth-shutter.
V.46 "No one could say a word in reply, and from that day on no one dared
to ask him any more questions." Jesus rocks their understanding
of who Messiah really is! Jesus masterful understanding of the meaning
of the OT is again what confounds his opponents.
The Greatest Commandment
V.34 The Pharisees get back into the ring against Jesus in
what amounts to round 3 of this heavyweight title fight for truth
and the correct grasp of Scripture. The Pharisees lost round 1
in their attempt to trap Jesus on the question of paying taxes
in V.15-22. The Sadducees lost round 2 in their attempt to
make Jesus look foolish on the question of the resurrection
in V.23-33. Now the Pharisees get back in the ring at V.34
with the question: "What is the greatest commandment?" V.35
shows their motive: "One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question…"
So, what's up the sleeve of this rabbinic, Pharisaic lawyer? The
rabbis talked about this question often and debated which of the 613 commandments
in the Torah was the most important. It was a risky question because
you were sure to alienate someone by choosing one that
they didn't think was supreme. They have been trying to alienate Jesus
from the people all along, trying to make it look like they were on
God's side and Jesus wasn't.
We do find some summary statements in the OT about what God considers
important. Isa. 33:15-16 "He who walks righteously and speaks what
is right, who rejects gain from extortion and keeps his hand from accepting bribes,
who stops his ears against plots of murder and shuts his eyes against contemplating
evil- this is the man who will dwell on the heights." Micah 6:8
"He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To
act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God."Prov. 6:16
"There are six things the LORD hates, seven that are detestable to him: haughty eyes,
a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked schemes,
feet that are quick to rush into evil, a false witness who pours out lies and a
man who stirs up dissension among brothers."
But Jesus chooses Dt. 6:5 as the summary of the central duty
of man. "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." This
was recited twice daily by all pious Jews and written
on their doorposts as instructed by Dt. 6:8-9. They knew it well.
So rather than get into some useless rabbinic theological debate,
Jesus just goes for their hearts and implies that they are not loving God
the way they should! Loving God supremely is the greatest thing
God wants. Wrangling about conformity to exterior regulations is not
what God wants. Why is loving God supremely the greatest commandment?
Because it shows that you are not an idolater who worships something
other than God. Idolatry is loving something or someone more than God.
Exodus 20:2-3 "I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of
Egypt, out of the house of slavery "You shall have no other gods before me."
God is saying He is the Supreme God, the Only God and He is to be loved supremely.
Bernard of Clarivaux(1090-1153) "You wish to hear from me why and how God
is to be loved? My answer is: the reason for loving God is God Himself, and the
measure in which we should love Him is to love Him without measure."
Loving God supremely is the greatest commandment because it recognizes
and responds to who God is in Himself! Loving God is not loving
a set of rules and rituals! That brings up an important question:
"How is it that you think you are loving God?" If you think you are
loving God by external rituals or regulations and are not focused
primarily on who He is in Himself, your love is false.
John Piper: "To love God does not mean to meet His needs, but
rather to delight in Him and to be captivated by His glorious power
and grace, and to value Him above all other things on
earth. All the rest of the commandments are the kinds of things that we will do
from our hearts, if our hearts are truly delighted with and resting in
the glory of God's grace." It is only Grace-Driven love
that pleases God, love that is fueled by seeing Father as the God
of all Grace and Mercy. It is only Grace-Driven obedience
that pleases God, obedience that results from truly
humble and rejoicing hearts in all that God is for us in Christ.
Jonathan Edwards understood this in the 18th century: "Real
Christians do not first see that God loves them, and later on
find out that He is lovely. They first see that God is lovely,
that Christ is excellent and glorious. Their hearts are captivated
by this view of God, and their love for God arises chiefly from this view.
True love begins with God and loves Him for His own sake. Self-love
begins with self, and loves God in the interests of self." How do
you love God? Do you start out by seeing how excellent and glorious
Jesus Christ is for dying on the Cross for your sin, or do you start out
by thinking what you can gain by loving Him, what God will do
for you if you obey Him?
One more quote from Sinclair Ferguson will settle this point: "The foundation
of our love for the Lord lies in the recognition of His holiness, our sinfulness,
and His grace…those who are forgiven much, love much. He does not love
us if we love Him. He loves us with an unconditional love; therefore, we
should love Him. The message of the new covenant is
one of God's totally free grace to His people. Of course, it calls
for a response of total commitment. But notice the order:
God's covenant love is not the result of our commitment;
it is the cause of it."
But can we love God supremely on our own? Can you live up to
this commandment in your own willpower? No. We are
so weak, depraved and sinful that there is no way we can love God supremely
on our own. We need to be born again by the Spirit of God in order
to love God as we should. 1 Jn. 4:19 "We love God because He first
loved us!" 1 John 4:10 "In this is love, not that we have loved
God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for
our sins." Romans 5:5 "and hope does not put us to shame, because God's
love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given
to us."
This is the glory of the gospel! The good news is that the commands
of the law become the gift of grace in Christ. The Spirit pours out the
love of God into the hearts of those who repent and believe.
When God sets his electing and saving love upon us, the result is
that we love him as our God. Listen to Jer. 31:31 "This is the covenant
I will make with the house of Israel after that time," declares the LORD. "I will
put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will
be their God, and they will be my people."
How do you think you are loving God supremely? Just by coming to
church once or twice a month? By speaking some religious jargon
about God? By playing in the band or serving on a committee? Do you
think it is true love for God to just have a religious tradition
that has no impact on your heart? Oh, don't be so self-deceived.
How are you showing God supreme love?
Our love for God must begin by recognizing His majestic holiness,
your utter sinfulness in yourself, and His amazing grace and mercy
upon you in Christ Jesus. You must be captivated and delighted by God Himself.
Not by God's gifts, not by theology, not by philosophy,
but by God Himself. Love is a burning desire for the
one who is loved. "Whom have I in heaven but you, and besides you, I want nothing
on earth!" (Ps. 73:2). Paul said "I count everything as rubbish just to
gain Christ!" (Phil. 3:10) Is that how you feel
about Jesus Christ? Is he of supreme value to you? C.S. Lewis said:
"Every Christian would agree that a man's spiritual health is exactly proportional
to his love for God." How healthy are you spiritually?
To love God supremely mean to quickly and willingly turn away from sin,
to hate sin and find your spiritual joy and satisfaction
in Knowing God in Christ!
V.41-46 The Greatest Son
Jesus wasn't finished with the Pharisees. It is His turn to completely
stump them, since they were totally unable to stump him.
He asks in V.42 "What do you think about the Christ? Whose son is he?"
What is He getting at? He is asking them to clarify their understanding
of the expected Messiah. He knew they were woefully and pitifully confused
about just who Messiah was. Their thoughts about Christ were far,
far too human. They expected a human King in the line
of David to come as a deliverer. Everyone was expecting
that and little more, if anything. The same problem exists today;
people don't understand that Jesus was fully man and fully God in the flesh!
We are not worshipping and supremely loving just a mere man like
other human religions do. We are worshiping the unique Son of God,
fully human by virtue of the incarnation and fully divine by virtue
of His innate deity!
Jesus brilliantly sets them up by asking "Whose son is messiah?"
They give the automatic and accepted answer that Messiah was the
Son of David. Throughout the gospel of Matthew Jesus has been hailed as
the Son of David by the people. The Pharisees didn't but they still knew
that Messiah would be a son in the line of King David. God had promised
David a son to reign on his through back in 2 Sam. 7:12 and Jer. 23:5
"The days are coming," declares the LORD, "when I will raise up to David a righteous
Branch, a King who will reign wisely and do what is just and right in the land."
Jesus masterfully uses the powerful Messianic Ps. 110 to show that
under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, King David called his
son, his Lord! V.43 "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?" This points
to an inter-Trinitarian conversation between Yahweh
and the "Lord" that David is recording under the inspiration of
the Spirit. Jesus is saying that David called Messiah his Lord
and not his son in this key Psalm. David says in Ps.
110 "The LORD (Yahweh) said to my Lord: Sit at my right hand until…" So,
the one described as "my Lord" is definitely superior
to the author of the Ps. who is King David. In Hebrew the first "Lord"
is YHWH, name for God, and the second "Lord" is Adonai. Both
these words in the Hebrew and their Greek translation "kurios" – could
not have been applied to David and show that David saw himself as
inferior to his "Lord." God was having a conversation with Messiah,
telling Messiah to sit at his right hand while he subjugated all his enemies.
That meant that Messiah was more than just the physical son of David.
He was/is the divine son of God!
CONCLUSION: V. 46 "No one could say a word in reply, and from that
day on no one dared to ask him any more questions!" No one can outsmart
the Lord Jesus Christ. Rather you should love Him with supreme love,
and show that love through loving other people with sacrificial
love. Supreme love for God shows itself in sacrificial love for our neighbors!
1 Jn. 4:20 "If anyone says, "I love God," yet hates his brother, he is a liar.
For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom
he has not seen. 21And he has given us this command: Whoever loves
God must also love his brother."Saint Augustine said: "What does
love for God look like? It has the hands to help others.
It has the feet to hasten to the poor and needy. It has eyes to
see misery and want. It has the ears to hear the sighs and sorrows
of men. That is what love for God looks like." Here's the key question for us today:
Do you love God supremely and will you love your neighbor sacrificially?
Let's pray.
What does love look like? It has the hands to help others. It has the feet to hasten
to the poor and needy. It has eyes to see misery and want. It has the ears to hear
the sighs and sorrows of men. That is what love looks like.
Saint Augustine
O Lord our God, grant us grace to desire Thee with our whole heart; that, so desiring,
we may seek, and seeking find Thee; and so finding Thee may love Thee; and in loving
Thee, may hate those sins from which Thou hast redeemed us.
St. Ansel
Every Christian would agree that a man's spiritual health is exactly proportional
to his love for God. C.S. Lewis
Jn. 14;21 He who has my commands and keeps them, he it is who loves me… obedience
is the demonstration of love…so love is the driving force behind obedience. Obedience
is the evidence and fruit of the existence of love. If love doesn't exist, no true
heart obedience exists. Outward conformity to regulations is not heart obedience.
Heart obedience is joyful and rooted in gratitude for grace. Outward conformity
is done for selfish motives or from a works mentality that is full of pride.