The Pharisees of Jesus' day were the really religious people. They were the interpreters of the Bible and the Law of God and the traditions that went along with all that. The Pharisees were the absolute experts in knowing how to live and what to say and do and think every moment of their lives. To the people around them, they appeared as super-holy, always doing the right thing, having righteousness and religion down to a science. All of which is why they don't know anything about God! They know nothing of His heart, His attitude toward us sinners or anything else about God's will and promises and faith and hope and trust in His Word! Beware of those holy folks who think they've got God all figured out! Watch out for those who live their lives convinced that somehow they have earned God's love and favor but have no real regard for His Word. Avoid those who love to ask questions just to test Jesus and see if they can get an answer that backs up their own notions and opinions. Funny, isn't it? The Sadducees and Pharisees disagreed on most religious matters. When the Jesus silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees were glad and tried their own hand with Jesus. By the time Jesus is done with them, however, they too have nothing to say! Today then, learn from Jesus words. Learn religion and holiness from Jesus' lips, not from what you think or want to believe. Learn to love the Lord and love your neighbor in and through Christ. Seek your salvation in Him. Seek your service to Him in your neighbor.

The Pharisees ask what the greatest commandment is. But notice Jesus' answer. He gives them two! “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul and strength. And the second is like it. Love your neighbor as yourself.” Wait a minute! They didn't ask for two commandments! They asked which is the greatest! But Jesus teaches them to love God and to love neighbor. By telling them both He is teaching them that there is no love of God apart from love of neighbor. Listen well to that, brothers and sisters. The Pharisees did the “church thing” very well but did little to care for others. Remember last week when they were concerned that Jesus might actually heal a man on the Sabbath! Brothers and sisters in Christ, listen carefully. If you come here to church, and you sing and pray and say all the words and people can drive by on Sunday morning and see YOUR car here—but then you go back into the world and your week with only YOU on your mind, then repent! If you think that doing your Sunday duty today makes you more special or greater in God's sight while you neglect to care for and support and uplift the people God puts in you life, then think again! If you are proud of your being a Christian and a Lutheran, and you are glad you are a churchgoer and regular prayer and hymn-singer, but you walk out the door and back to your grudges against others and your playing favorites and your ignoring others, then weep at your sinfulness! Jesus teaches us that there is NO loving God apart from loving our neighbor. If you don't care about the people around you, don't dare to think that you can somehow still love the Lord! Jesus tells the Pharisees and us this to condemn our sinfulness and to turn us to Him.


Now don't for a moment think that your lack of love for your neighbor can be cured by a kick in your backside, pulling yourself up by your boot straps or by making some self-help resolution to change your ways. No, the only answer to this sin is the Son and Lord of David. Christ would teach the Pharisees and us that love of God and love of neighbor go hand in hand, but that all of the Commandments and the Law are wrapped up and hang upon Jesus. That's what the second part of the Gospel reading is all about. Jesus is teaching the Pharisees here about his divine and human natures. Let's work this out: The Christ is the Son of David. That means He is a man born in the family tree of King David. Yet David calls Him Lord. That's because He is before David. What Jesus teaches and the Pharisees don't get is that He is the Christ, and the Christ is true God and true man. He is David's Son because He takes on flesh and is born into David's line. But He is David's Lord because He is the eternally begotten Son who is true God. Here is the miracle of the Incarnation: The divine nature of the Son of God taking upon Himself a human nature, together as one Person, Christ.


But more than that! Jesus is God and man and that means He is the focus and substance of the Law! Love God. Love your neighbor. Jesus is both at the same time! God and Man. Lord and neighbor. All of the law and the prophets hang upon that because God and Man in Jesus hang upon the tree of the cross. Where we have failed to love God and love our neighbor, that has been hung upon Christ. Where we have falsely served God and abandoned our neighbor, that is hung upon Christ. He who perfectly fears and loves His Father and also selflessly serves His neighbor takes into Himself not only the doing of the Law but its punishment as well. Jesus keeps the commandments and is killed by our breaking them. Taken into Jesus the Law is fulfilled and we are rescued from its curse and it is all bound up and held together in Jesus who rises the third day to send us His Spirit to bring us to faith in His salvation.

Now in Christ we have everything sorted out for us. Love and glorify God. How? By receiving what He has to give us, the forgiveness of sins. Love God by NOT trying to impress Him with what you've done. Rather, love and receive from the Lord what He has for you: forgiveness, life and salvation. Hear and learn His holy word. Live daily in the washing given to you in Baptism. Confess your sins and be absolved for Jesus' sake. Be filled with the body and blood of Jesus by which He lives in you to do good works for others. Receive what the Lord has for you in His church, not for your own sake, but that in receiving the gifts of God, you are made into a gift for your neighbor. So there it is: Love your neighbor. Here we have Jesus as our example: go above and beyond for those around you. Give the extra cloak, go the extra mile, turn the other cheek, for the good of others. Let your first thoughts of others be to ask what they need and what you can do for them. Here is true religion, brothers and sisters: to care for others and to help and support those whom the Lord has given you in your life. Your Baptism, your Absolution, Jesus' body and blood: these are all given to you so that you might have in you the One who kept the Law. Jesus, who loved the Father and who served His neighbor. By these gifts you are rescued from the condemnation of the Law and turned into those who know the right way to glorify God and serve your neighbor. Having Christ, now you learn that to love and serve your neighbor is the same as loving and serving the Lord. You have been forgiven of what you have failed to do and taught by the Spirit what good works there are to do. And this is your Christian life: to love God by loving your neighbor, yet struggling and even failing at it. Then being forgiven by the Lord and sent back into service. Over and over again in Christ.


Today we thank the Lord for the women of the Lutheran Women's Missionary League. We thank the Lord for their example of selfless service to others not only in our congregation but around the world. Whether its in a group like the LWML or in your individual daily life, learn what the Lord would teach us today. Learn what it is to love God and neighbor. Confess your sins in neglecting that holy Law of God. Rejoice in the fulfilling of the Law and the rescue from it's judgment in Jesus. Put your faith and trust in the gifts of water and word and body and blood by which the Lord is glorified in us. Secure in your salvation in Jesus, go out and live in the world as one who serves God in the very people with whom you live and work. There is true religion: to receive salvation arranged by the Father, accomplished by the Son and delivered by the Spirit. And to learn the Law now as your guide to loving and serving God by loving and serving the people who are in your life. Now you don't have to be silent like those religious Pharisees but you can open your mouth to confess this holy faith. Knowing the true religion, you now live in Christ and serve Christ in your neighbor. Amen.