Catchphrase

•Third Sunday of Lent

Matthew 22:34-46

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• That’s what’s going on around the country…
(here’s what’s happening in your neck of the woods) (Al Roker)

and now you know…
(the rest of the story) (Paul Harvey)

Your turn: Walter Cronkite (and that’s the way it is).

KerryBart (I love you and there’s nothing you can do about it) (By the way, I first heard that from the Rev. Rudy Rasmus) 

How about Jesus? What signature saying did Jesus have?

Last week I entertained some mission statements & shared Jesus’ emphasis on teaching and healing and leading, but catchphrase? Before I get there…

•Today we read the fourth event where the Pharisees seek to test Jesus – the same word used when Jesus is tempted in the wilderness by Satan. In chap 21:23, by what authority. Last week question about taxes. Then a question about the resurrection and marriage in 22:23-33, and now what is the greatest commandment.

Greatest commandment? Not a genuine question. (akin to who is your favorite child?)

Commandments are generally viewed without hierarchy, part of a whole… you break one, and the whole is broken. The question is something of a trick, trying to trap Jesus into denigrating the word, or at least get him off balance in a debate, at least show some prowess. Also note gathered: they huddle up, like a football team on the offense.

And Jesus responds not with one of The Ten (as our ears might expect) but with Deut 6:5, the morning prayer, the Jewish “creed” if you will: Love the Lord your God with all your heart soul and mind. Called “the Shema.” Worth repeating. WAS repeated. The Centerpiece of morning and evening prayer.
The command to love God is a no brainer.

Love = agape = commit without condition, without reserve.

And Jesus continues with a second commandment: love your neighbor like yourself, Lev. 19:18.
NOT a no-brainer. Love = agape = commit without reserve. In Luke, this commandment is the setup for the parable of the Good Samaritan.

•Once again, Jesus deftly avoids the Pharisees’ trap.

And this is not the first time we’ve heard Jesus say love your neighbor as yourself (Lev 19:18).

We heard him quote it to the crowds, early in his basic teaching in the sermon on the mount in chapter 5 (you’ve heard it said love your neighbor and hate your enemy but I tell you love your enemy and pray for those that persecute you.)

And we heard him quote Lev 19:18 just three chapters ago when a rich young man asked him what he needed to do to get eternal life, and Jesus lists five commandments relating to relating to other people (expected answer) and love neighbor as self.

And now a third time, not to the crowds or to a potential disciple but to a lawyer, a teacher of the law.

If it seems like I’m belaboring a point, it is this:
the OT passage Jesus quotes THE MOST is this.
Love your neighbor as yourself.

You might call it Jesus’ catchphrase.

Jesus quotes this verse three times. It’s important.

•It’s important to measure up a person’s words with their actions… in Jesus… in political candidates… in yourself… and in community.

How do we “Share the love of God with people in a hurting world”? Really, how do we?

How does our mission and Lev 19:18 affect what we do as First Church, in worship & everything?

And aside: after tolerating Pharisees’ tests 4x, Jesus shuts them down with one question, and finishes his interactions with them. The next we hear Jesus say is his final speech, to the crowd…

• Hymn 463 Lord Speak To Me

Matthew 22:34-40     (Common English Bible)

³⁴ When the Pharisees heard that Jesus had left the Sadducees speechless, they met together. ³⁵ One of them, a legal expert, tested him. ³⁶ “Teacher, what is the greatest commandment in the Law?” ³⁷ Jesus replied, “You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your being,^{[Deut. 6:5]} and with all your mind. ³⁸ This is the first and greatest commandment. ³⁹ And the second is like it: You must love your neighbor as you love yourself.^{[Lev. 19:18] 40} All the Law and the Prophets depend on these two commands.”

⁴¹ Now as the Pharisees were gathering, Jesus asked them,
⁴² “What do you think about the Christ? Whose son is he?”

“David’s son,” they replied.

⁴³ He said, “Then how is it that David, inspired by the Holy Spirit, called him Lord when he said, ⁴⁴ The Lord said to my lord, ‘Sit at my right side until I turn your enemies into your footstool’?^{[Ps. 110:1]} 

⁴⁵ If David calls him Lord, how can he be David’s son?”
⁴⁶ Nobody was able to answer him.
And from that day forward nobody dared to ask him anything.