2026 10 25 Pentecost 22 a Proper 25 A
Deuteronomy 34.1-12 Psalm 90.1-6, 13-17 1 Thessalonians 2.1-13 Matthew 22.34 -46.
Ahhh the two great commands! Only two.
Simple commands to say, but if only we could keep them! God gave us the law, but God is also love and
the law is about love. These two commands
that Jesus speaks of, are the essence of the ten commandments that God gave
through Moses, and in our reading tonight we recall the ending of Moses life on
earth.
When Moses was shown the land that the nation would
inherit, he was shown the land he could see from that high vantage point, but
then God showed him more. God showed
Moses all the land that the nation would inherit. This means that God enlarged Moses vision and
supernaturally enabled him to see the fulfilment of the promise. Moses saw a vision of the future and was
comforted. We all need to hope in a
future. At this time, in every
direction, it feels as though there is so much brokenness in our church and the
world. We too need to ask God to enlarge
our vision, so that we can see His kingdom.
Moses was such an
incredible hero of our faith. He spoke
with God. He led people through the Red
Sea. Can you imagine what it would have
been like if we knew the burial site of Moses?
The tourists would flock there!
But God has wisely kept the site secret.
We are prone to have our vision… near sighted. We’d be inclined to focus on Moses and not on
the God he served.
There is a mysterious
verse in the New Testament that mentions this event in passing. In the book of Jude 1:9, it describes the archangel
Michael disputing with Satan over the body of Moses. We are told that Moses was 120 years old and
he was still strong. His eyes and his
energy were like that of a much younger man.
He didn’t need to die – from a physical viewpoint, but he could not
enter the land, we are told, because of a prior incident where Moses didn’t follow
God’s directions.
It’s always seemed a
bit strange to me, that God forgives so much and yet this sin was held against
Moses. But the law of God is the law,
and that is that.
Moses is synonymous
with God’s law. We need to remember that
God rescued the Israelite nation before He gave them the law and he had chosen
them and loved them before the giving of the law. By extension, we need to remember that God
does not love us because we are good people who keep his law. He rescues us and has chosen us because he
loves us. The law was given to show the
community how to thrive. Keep the law
and blessings will flow, not because it is God’s reward for keeping the law,
but because the law is intended to bring life.
For example; when we covet (or desire) our neighbour’s goods, we are not
living in harmony. When we murder, we
are certainly not living in harmony. The
law was given for our benefit, but it also reveals God’s nature. Fallen humans that we are, we are unable to
keep God’s law.
When we think about
the law of God, we generally think of the laws about stealing and coveting and
murder, but what about those other commandments? What about commandment number
one? Have no other God. In the book of Deuteronomy, it is written
this way; ““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.” This is
known to Israelites as the “Shema” and it is what Jesus was quoting to the
Pharisees. We often only hear the first
part, but the rest was so well known and understood that the Jewish people
didn’t need to be told the rest.
The Israelites, still
today, physically attach this “Shema” in a container they call mezuzah, to the
door posts. As they pass through, they
touch the container and either kiss their fingers or touch that hand to their
heart. THEY REMEMBER…. Always… this
whole commandment. And remembering is
not just mental, it is an action that they deliberately place as highest
importance.
Moses gave the law to
God’s people, but those ancient people constantly broke all the commandments….
We do too. Just because we fail to keep
the commandments doesn’t mean we do away with them. They are life… but they ironically perhaps,
reveal why we experience disaster. We
can’t keep them. God is good and His law
is perfect, but we can’t keep his law.
Moses was the herald
of God’s goodness and God’s law. Because
the people – and we- can not keep the law, there needed to be something else…another
way to enter God’s Kingdom - the promised land.
We need a saviour.
Sometimes, in the Old
Testament, the lives of key people are prophetic parables of the message of
salvation. Moses was equated with the
law, but the law doesn’t make anyone righteous.
It simply reveals that we are fallen and need a saviour to bring us into
the promised land…. God’s promised land… the Kingdom of God. We need Jesus. Moses could only take the people so far, then
he handed over to Joshua, who led the Israelites into the promised land. Joshua just happens to be the same name as
Jesus, meaning “God saves”.
Jesus was asked which
commandment in the law is the greatest and he told them… and then he added “and
love your neighbour as yourself”. On
these two, hang all the law and the prophets.
In that conversation, Jesus laid the foundation for how we desperately
need a saviour. He then asks the
Pharisees a question; “Whose son is the Messiah,” and he quotes a well-known Psalm
(110). The common understanding at that
time was that the Messiah would be a human, probably a great political and
military leader.
God’s plans are
always so much greater than what we imagine!
Jesus broadens their understanding by his question; "How is it then
that David by the Spirit calls him Lord, saying, 'The Lord said to my Lord,
"Sit at my right hand, until I put your enemies under your feet"'. "If David thus calls him Lord, how can
he be his son?" It was widely acknowledged that this was a prophetic psalm
about the Messiah, who would be the descendant of David. In the original language the Psalm reads “Yahweh
said to my Lord”….No one would ever call his son, “Lord” and the concept of
sitting “at the right hand”, is a proclamation of equality. Therefore, this left the Pharisees with no
answer. Can you see what Jesus is trying
to tell them? The Messiah was to be
David’s son but also greater than David’s son and equal to God.
God’s law reveals the goodness of God and the way of life
in the Kingdom of God, but the way to enter the promised land is through the
Messiah. God’s law and the Messiah – the
saviour. Scripture tells us that it is
only the perfect who can enter the Kingdom of God and so, people would try to
keep God’s law perfectly. No human has
ever been able to keep the law- bar one – Jesus! However, Jesus is both human and God. We enter the Kingdom of God through Jesus,
not the law, but Jesus didn’t do away with the law, Jesus finished it… or
accomplished it…. He is the only human
who could ever completely keep the law, and through our unity with him, God the
father sees us as having also kept the law.
This doesn’t mean that we don’t need to worry about
God’s law. Jesus simplified the law for
us by putting it into just two simple commands – which I’ll summarize as “love
God and love others”.
How many sermons have you heard about loving
others? Lots? The golden rule of treating others as you’d
like to be treated, is widely accepted beyond the church walls. No one could ever hate you for being
loving. But how often do we consider the
first and MOST important commandment? The
two go together, because when we understand God’s love, we know that loving him
means loving those he loves.
Moses could not enter the promised land because he
broke God’s law. It was only something
that, to us, seems small. This story is
important because it lays down the fact that even the greatest mere man fell
short. For certain, Moses was taken by
God to the ultimate promised land because of his relationship with God, yet the
story is a parable to show us that God’s law is unbending – a standard that can’t
be broken. Note the 120 years of
Moses? This is what, after the flood of
Noah, God said man’s years would be.
Moses’ life was to highlight God’s standard – God’s law.
The law is good and brings life, but we can’t, by the
law alone, enter the promised land (the Kingdom of God) – because we fail to
perfectly keep the law. That is the bad
news.
The Good News?
Jesus kept God’s law and through our unity with him we are seen as perfect
law keepers. The only way to the father
is through the son. Jesus is the Messiah. He is equal to God… He was with God in the
beginning and He is God - that is why David called him Lord. There are spiritual laws governing the
spiritual realm and God, himself, went to extreme lengths to make the way to bring
us into his kingdom. The first and
greatest command is about having a relationship with God, and this is
ultimately what Jesus came to restore; our relationship with God where He is
ever on our mind and in our hearts. In
him, and through the gift of his Holy Spirit in us, our vision is supernaturally
enlarged. We are all here because we
glimpse the Kingdom of God…. But sometimes we REALLY need that vision enlarged
so that we have the hope to carry on, come what may. In the midst of our broken world this day,
let’s ask God for His vision.
No comments:
Post a Comment