David's Son and David's Lord

A Homily for Trinity 18 (2006) on St. Matthew 22:34-46

I must confess that it has always struck me as rather a disjointed Gospel reading. I mean, what on earth holds together the two parts? First a question from the Pharisees about the great commandment of the law and then a question from Jesus about the Christ – whose son he is. Seems like you could either pick the first or second half of the Gospel reading to preach on, but not both. But maybe the two parts are more closely joined than we realize with a cursory read or hearing.

A Pharisee, and particularly a lawyer, that is an expert in the Jewish Torah, the Law of Moses, the first five books of the Bible, asks Jesus a question to test him out. Why the test? I suspect because the Pharisees already knew exactly what answer they expected, but they were having a hard time understanding how Jesus could claim to love God with everything he had and yet associate with sinners the way he did. The Pharisees expressed their love for God by avoiding sinners – and by that I mean those who flagrantly broke the law and seemed not to care at all. Jesus seemed to seek such people out!

So the test: “Teacher, what is the great commandment in the Law?” Jesus at first surprises them not at all. He nails it, citing Deuteronomy 6: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment.” See, he had paid attention in Catechism class as a lad and he knew what the first duty of every person was.

But what is interesting is that he doesn’t stop there. Just as the Lawyer is nodding in his head in agreement, Jesus goes on: “And a second is like it.” All eyes on Him now. A second? Like the first? “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” He was citing Torah, no question that what he said was God’s Word, but he was putting together two commandments that sinful human beings – especially RELIGIOUS sinful human beings – have a tendency to let fall apart. “On these TWO commandments,” says Jesus, “depend all the Law and the Prophets.”

On these two hang everything that the Lord of Creation has been trying to get through to His people from the moment He revealed Himself to them: love Him with your all, love Your neighbor as yourself. Both together, and never the one in the place of the other. No showing God how much you love him by vigorously hating your neighbor. Rather, showing God how much you love Him by loving and serving the neighbor.

And then in awkward pause, Jesus shoots out his question: “What do you think about the Christ? Whose Son is He?” They’d been to Catechism too. The Pharisees didn’t have to stop to think about that. “The son of David” they answer, surprised at him asking such a simple question. But then comes the zinger: “How is it then, that David, in 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 then David calls him Lord, how is he his Son?” No one said a word. They walked away thinking about it.

We should think about it too. Jesus was inviting some thought with the question about the surprising connection between the two great commandments. Lord the Lord with your all; love your neighbor as yourself. How inseparable the commandments become when you know the answer to how David’s son can be David’s Lord!

For the one who is sitting there, discoursing with them, is both David’s Son and David’s Lord. David’s Son, for He is the child of the Blessed Virgin Mary, a true human being, yet born without sin, but flesh of our flesh and bone of our bone. He is our neighbor. And David’s Lord, for He is the only begotten Son of the Father, born of His Father before the ages, God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God. He is our Lord.

He who is David’s son IS David’s Lord, that means that the Lord our God whom we are to give all and unending love to is also our neighbor. Do you see the unimaginable beauty of it? When we speak about loving God we don’t have to search the skies or the grasp behind the visible world for the invisible one. Our God, who is invisible, became visible for us. Became one of us, for us.

The Lord our God whom we are to love with our all is the unborn child growing in the womb of the Blessed Virgin, the little one laid in the poverty of a manger, the lad playing hide and seek in the streets of Egypt and later of Nazareth, the man who works up a sweat planning wood in the workshop, the man who reached out and touched those whom everyone regarded as unclean and brought them healing, the man who sat among us and taught us about the world we cannot see using human words to tell us things beyond all words. And finally, the man who loved us so much as to journey to Jerusalem, be betrayed into the hands of wicked men, and be nailed to a cross in order to secure forgiveness for all who share in his nature as son of David – forgiveness for the countless ways we have failed to love God with our all and our neighbors as ourselves. You see, the cross is the unfathomable mystery of one who loved the Lord with all His heart, soul, mind and strength precisely as He loved his neighbor – you and me – as Himself, even to the giving of His life for us.

Risen from the dead, freed forever from death, He has become the source of eternal salvation for all who will believe that in Him we encounter both David’s Son and David’s Lord; that is, that in Him we find that one who is our neighbor and who is also our God.

His cross keeps glued together the two great commandments on which hang all the law and the prophets. And His cross gives us new eyes to see then in our neighbor, the brother or sister of God. So that by loving them, we truly love Him. By serving them, we truly serve Him. By honoring them, we truly honor Him.

Today again He sets before us the fruit of His cross, the very sacrifice He once offered in burning love for us: His body and His blood. And uniting Himself to us through them, He would strengthen us in faith toward God and in fervent love toward one another. Love God and love your neighbor, for in the Son of David you have met David’s Lord and Yours: Jesus, Son of God and Son of Man, to whom with the Father and the Holy Spirit be all glory and honor forever and ever! Amen.