Lord and Law Giver

Matthew 22:34-46

Immanuel – 3/9/25

In the summer of 1967, the summer of love, a television production called “Our World” was viewed by 400 to 700 million people worldwide – the largest TV audience up to that point. By far, the biggest moment of the two-hour broadcast was the first ever recording of a very famous song. I wonder if you’ve heard these words before:

[There’s] Nothing you can make that can't be made
No one you can save that can't be saved
Nothing you can do but you can learn how to be you in time
It's easy

All you need is love
All you need is love

When the Beatles wrote “All You Need Is Love”, it was to send a message to the world. Their band manager said, “It was an inspired song and they really wanted to give the world a message. The nice thing about it is that it cannot be misinterpreted. It is a clear message saying that love is everything.”

Love is everything. “All You Need is Love” became the anthem of the sexual revolution. To this day, it remains an anthem for all of those still promoting the sexual revolution, like the ideologues of the LGBTQIA+ movement. You can find their creed posted everywhere – yard signs, flags, pins, clothing, etc. – “Love is love.”

Love is all you need. Love is everything. Love is love.

But we see all over our western culture that this idea of love is inadequate, even broken. If everyone has bought into the idea that “All you need is love,” then why has hate proliferated so greatly? Why is there more polarization, more suspicion, and far, far greater measures of depression and anxiety in our society? I think the message of the Beatles has been misinterpreted.

If we were to boil down into its simplest terms, I think there are two underlying reasons beneath the disparity between the idea of love and the living of love.

1.      Our world does not understand love.

2.      Our world does not know the King who is Love.

It is no coincidence that Jesus’ dialogue with Jerusalem’s religious leaders ends with these two principles. It seems to me that while the religious leaders are trying to trap Jesus, Jesus is actually leading them in to revelation: so they see what it is to love, so they see that the man from Nazareth is truly their King and their God!

Read vs 34-36

Last week we saw Jesus completely dismantle the trap of the Sadducees. I said they walked away in unbelief – which they did – but now we read that they have also been silenced. They have nothing left to say to Jesus. They are disarmed. They have tried to make Jesus look absurd, but it is they who walk away in disgrace.

          Remembering that the Pharisees and Sadducees did not like each other, the Pharisees likely watch this unfold with some level of satisfaction. Jesus upheld their position regarding the resurrection – that there actually is one – and the Sadducees look like fools. And yet, I imagine they were rather concerned: Jesus keeps evading the traps.

          But the Pharisees are a confident bunch- confidence driven by self- righteousness. This time they do not send their disciples, they come as a formal group. A lawyer among them takes the initiative. This is not a lawyer like we would think of one. A lawyer is a scribe that specializes in the law of Moses. And it’s no wonder that specialists – scribal lawyers – arose; for the Torah contained 613 laws.

          With so many laws, the Pharisees and scribes categorized them – which is not necessarily a problem. Some laws were weightier than others. For instance, “you shall not murder” (Exodus 20:13) was weightier than “you shall not wear cloth of wool and linen mixed together” (Deuteronomy 22:11). Of course, to break one law is to become a lawbreaker, and thus incur the punishment for sinfulness. Even still, it was clear, some laws were weightier than others. Thus, a debate arose among the Jews and became a part of the common discourse: which of the commandments were “heavy” and which were “light”?

          It is on the basis of this common debate that the Pharisaic lawyer tries to trap Jesus, Which is the greatest commandment in the law? With a whole group of Torah experts backing up the lawyer, they figured that however Jesus answered, they will be able to corner Him in debate and prove Him wrong. There was a strong possibility that they might tarnish His reputation. The Pharisees desire to sour Jesus for the crowds – the crowds that are presently hanging on Jesus’ every word.

Read vs 37-38

Love and God

Most likely, the Jews were probably expecting one of the 10 Commandments. These were among the greatest of the Mosaic Laws. These were written with the very finger of God. These 10 Commandments, written on tablets of stone, were placed inside the ark of the covenant.

          But Jesus did not choose one of the 10. Instead, He replied with one of the most familiar texts: the Shema. Devout Jews recited it twice a day. It was written on their doorposts, worn on their right hand and foreheads.

          Shema means, “Hear.” Listen to the Shema with some following commands.

“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.”

“And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.”                                                                                                             -Deuteronomy 6:4-9

          When God delivered this command to Israel, it was not an arbitrary demand – like, “Love me because I say so.” No, that would be petulant and capricious. Instead, God’s law of love is given after He has delivered Israel from slavery in Egypt, clothed and fed them during 40 years of wandering in the wilderness, and cared for this young nation like a father cares for his child.  

[God] found him (Israel) in a desert land, and in the howling waste of the wilderness; He encircled him, He cared for him, He kept him as the apple of His eye.                                                                      -Deuteronomy 32:10

God only asks for love after He has demonstrated His great love for His people: powerful, sustaining, caring, compassionate, love. King David understood this. And upon seeing God demonstrate His love towards David, again and again, David wrote:

Teach me your way, Lord, that I may rely on your faithfulness; give me an undivided heart, that I may fear your name. I will praise you, Lord my God, with all my heart; I will glorify your name forever. For great is your love toward me; you have delivered me from the depths, from the realm of the dead.  Psalm 86:11-13

          David has seen God’s great love towards Him, and so He longs to love God with undivided heart; or, you might say, with all of his heart, soul, and mind. And notice how this kind of love results in the glory of God, it results in His praise.

          Consider that amazing truth! God is glorified when we willing chose to love Him over all the things this world offers, when we chose to love Him even over our selves! God is glorified when we love Him!

          And this is why Jesus, the Living Word of God, says that the most important commandment is to love God with all of who you are: heart, soul, and mind. Let there be no hidden parts of you that you keep from God. Love God with the entirety of your being.

          But some might argue that loving God is an entirely internal thing, something you can do only within yourself. What about justice for the oppressed? What about the widows and the orphans? Yes, Jesus does not stop with the Shema. There is more to love. There is more to the commands of God.

Read vs 39

Love and Neighbor

          What Jesus calls the second greatest command is a quotation from Leviticus. Here is Jesus’ quotation with some surrounding verses.

“You shall not hate your brother in your heart, but you shall reason frankly with your neighbor, lest you incur sin because of him. You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.”                                                         -Leviticus 19:17-18

          Elevating this command, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” is nothing new in Jesus’ ministry. He’s been striking this drum all along. Remember this from the Sermon on the Mount.

“So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.”                                           -Matthew 7:12

That’s what has later been dubbed the Golden Rule. The Golden Rule is a reworded version of the second greatest command. And just in case anyone wanted to think that love for neighbor meant only the people who are close to you, Jesus tells a whole parable to expand who neighbor is: the Parable of the Good Samaritan. The lesson that we learn from the Good Samaritan is that anyone can be your neighbor. Your neighbor is your fellow human. Love them – stranger, friend, foe – love your neighbor as much as you love yourself.

Isn’t it interesting, as we’ve progressed into our modern age, and we see our neighbors only as they pull into their garage, sometimes it is easier to love strangers in different countries than it is to love the people who live in the houses next to us.

          We are commanded to love everyone, around the corner and around the world, as much as we love ourselves. In fact, loving our neighbor is how we practically love God. If loving God is internal, we love Him externally – with our actions – by loving our neighbor.

          And again, this is not an arbitrary command found in the law. This is not something we summon within ourselves, grit our teeth, and love our neighbors. None of us can love other people more than we love ourselves. Perhaps we can do it for a short time, and for a select few, but not broadly. We’re too selfish for that.

Instead, we look to the God who pours out His love for us, and realize that He didn’t just do this for me. I am not the only one He loves. (How arrogant would that assumption be!) No! He provides for the righteous and the unrighteous. He sent His Son into the world to perform the greatest act of self-sacrifice for sinners, for His enemies.

          If God’s love for sinners cost Him everything, what a small cost it is to love the person in front of you. We see His love, and we love our neighbor. Just as the Apostle John writes:

We love because He first loved us. If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from Him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.                                       -1 John 4:19-21

Hear that again, If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar. In this context, brother is not merely your sibling, nor is it only a person you have something in common with. It is your neighbor, your fellow human.

John’s words are so helpful. We are able to love God because He first loved us. We are able to love our neighbor because God has first loved us. We are able to love, only when we first receive His love!

What a high calling this is! Especially in an age that is quick to cancel those that disagree with us, quick to write of anyone deemed toxic. Even if our age preaches “All You Need is Love,” it is a self-serving and self-righteous love. For love without God is an aberration, a vanity, a chasing of the wind. Love for fellow man can only be found through loving God. And we can only love God when we see God’s love for us, stretched out on a cross. If God is love, then there is no love apart from Him.

Jesus’ call remains entirely countercultural: love your neighbor as yourself. Love God with all of your being.

Read vs 40

All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two laws of love. Oh, see it brothers and sisters. If God has rested His love upon you, given you eyes to see the glory of His grace, then these laws become the joy of life, not the burdens of slavery. To see God’s love, and give your life to love in return, is the easy yoke and the light burden that Christ promised to you.

          We do not look to the law to find righteousness. We look to the law to remember that we are not righteous; we see we fall short and we see we need a Savior. The law is meant to lift our eyes to Jesus, bleeding on the cross, giving Himself in our place, and we see His love, and our stubbornness melts, our selfishness is broken, and our once stony hearts begin to beat with the righteousness of love. We love because He first loved us!

          Everything in the Law and the Prophets point to this. Everything. Jesus is the fulfillment of the Law and the Prophets! And with such a comprehensive, irrefutable, decisive answer, it is now the turn of the living fulfillment of all law and all prophesy to ask a question.

Read vs 41-42

          As we have seen throughout the Gospel of Matthew, the “Son of David” is a Jewish name for the Messiah. The Messiah was prophesied to redeem Isreal, to conquer the foes of God’s people, to bring the kingdom of heaven to earth, to be salvation and glory for the people. This great Son of David would be like David, and the Jews thought this meant that the Messiah would accomplish his work through the glory of war. David was a warrior, so will this descendant of David be a warrior.

          Though the Messiah did descend from David, is He really the son of David? Will the Messiah most ultimately be a reflection of King David, or will He reflect an even greater King? That’s what Jesus’ question drives at.

Read vs 43-45

The Son

Now Jesus quotes Psalm 110:1. Point of interest, this is the most quoted Old Testament passage in the New Testament; and there is so much we can learn from this single verse – so much more than we have time for today.

          Every Jew understood that David was Israel’s greatest king. David was a king and a prophet. That’s what Jesus means when He says that David wrote in the Spirit. Psalm 110 originated in God the Spirit, and David was the prophet-king inspired to write it.

          When you see the word “Lord” in all capital letters in your Bible, that is a substitution for the covenant name of God: Yahweh. This verse truly reads, “Yahweh says to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.” Yahweh was exalting someone to heaven’s throne, someone that David called Lord.

          The Jews understood that Psalm 110 was about the Messiah. The person God was placing on the supreme throne was the Messiah. David, writing in the Spirit, calls the Messiah “Lord.” The Messiah cannot therefore have merely been a son of Daivd, because David calls Him Lord. It means David regards the Messiah as someone far superior to himself, not as a son.

          The answer to Jesus’ second question is, “I guess the Messiah is not David’s son.” But the first question hangs in the air: “Whose son is He?” In the context of Holy Tuesday in the temple, and the ongoing verbal attacks that Jesus has weathered, the answer to “Whose son is the Christ” is not hard to find.

          When they questioned Jesus’ authority, He implicitly, though clearly, says that He has operated in the authority of heaven.

          In the Parable of the Two Sons, Jesus declares who is and is not in the kingdom of heaven.

          In the Parable of the Tenants, Jesus is the son who was rejected. And as that Son, He declares that the kingdom of God is taken from the Jewish religious establishment.

          In the Parable of the Wedding Feast, Jesus proclaims that the kingdom will be offered to people beyond the Jews, and that it will be received by faith.

          When questioned about taxes, Jesus simultaneously answers and dissolves a world split into Jews and Gentiles.

          Finally, when asked about resurrection, Jesus gives insight into what life will be like in heaven.

          Whose son is the Son of David? He, the Christ, is the Son of God – come from heaven, with the authority of heaven, bringing the kingdom of heaven to earth, giving access to the worthy and barring the unworthy. The Messiah is greater than David; He is the Son of God.

The Pharisees’ understanding of the Messiah’s identity is inadequate. He is not merely a descendant of David. He is not merely a man. The Messiah is the Son of God.

But there is another implication running electric underneath Jesus’ words, another way in which the Pharisees’ understanding of the Messiah is inadequate. Hear again what David wrote.

Read vs 44

Yahweh will seat the Messiah at His right hand, and after that, place every enemy of the Messiah under His feet. Meaning, once the Messiah is seated at the right hand of the Father, then a process of subjugating the enemies of God, and God’s people, will begin.

But this process will not be through warfare, though sword and destruction and violence. The Messiah is not primarily the son of David. He is the Son of God, and He is the exact imprint of the nature of God. And God is love. The Pharisees expect the Messiah to attain victory through war, like David. But their understanding is inadequate. The Messiah will attain victory through love.

          Victory will be through bloodshed; but it will be Jesus, shedding His own blood for the sake of the elect. There will be victory through violence, but it will be violence that breaks the body of Christ. The enemies of Christ will be placed under His feet, just as we – who were once enemies – found love and victory at the foot of the cross.

          Jesus is the Lord and Law Giver. He is our Messiah and our God – our King. And He has given to us a law, a law of love. We love God with all of our being, we love our neighbor, and we are filled with such love as we see His love poured out upon that cross.

          How awesome that our King does not reign through domination. His reign is established in love, love that floods the entirety of your being, a love that cannot help but spill over into neighbor. Love is all you need, but you can only know love if you know King Jesus. Otherwise, all you have is self-righteous vanity.

          All this is only visible on our side of the cross. If the Pharisees had eyes to see it, they would only catch glimmers. But even glimmers it seems they could not see. All they could see for now is that Jesus had bested them and they were defeated.

Read vs 46

          Though Jesus has used reason and argument to defeat the religious leaders, though He will issue very fiery warnings to them, all of it is in love. Because as long as those Pharisees and Sadducees still breath, there is opportunity to see their wrong. There is opportunity to come to Jesus in faith, and embrace Him as Messiah.

He would not turn them away. He never turns any away that seek salvation from Him. He is gentle and lowly. He offers living water without price. He is the King who reigns in love. He is the Lord and Law Giver, and His kingdom is ruled by the law of love, and He is the Lord who reigns in the glory of grace.

Is this not the kind of King that deserves your heart, your soul, your mind? Oh, He is! He is worthy! Let His love fill your entire being. And let that love flow to those around you – stranger, friend, or foe.

Again, the words of John:

We love because He first loved us. If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from Him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.                                       -1 John 4:19-21