Mark 12,28-34. 18th Sunday after Trinity

✠ One Message: Christ crucified and risen for you ✠

The Word of the Lord Endures Forever

Verbum Domini Manet in Aeternum

Mark 12,28-34; Matthew 22,34-40; Luke 10,25-28 4615

18. Sonntag nach Trinitatis  063

Francis of Assisi, France. Founder of a monastic order, ✠ 1226

4. Oktober 2015 

1. O Merciful God, without Your grace, the world is lost. Pour out Your mercy far and wide so that sin is forgiven and the enemies of life are driven out. (VELKD Prayer for 18. Trinitatis § 1).  Amen. 

2. And one of the scribes went up and heard Jesus and the Sadducees disputing with one another, and seeing that Jesus answered them well, asked Him: „Which commandment is the most important of all?“ Jesus answered: „The most important is: »Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.« The second is this: »You shall love your neighbor as yourself.« There is no other commandment greater than these.“ And the scribe said to Him: „You are right, teacher. You have truly said that He is one, and there is no other besides Him. And to love Him with all the heart and with all the understanding and with all the strength, and to love one’s neighbor as oneself, is much more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.“ And when Jesus saw that he answered wisely, He said to him: „You are not far from the reign of God.“ And after that no one dared to ask Jesus any more questions. 

3. In this discussion between Jesus and a scribe we see that both take the Law (torah) seriously, and so should we. Jesus tells us that the heart and will of God is that we first love Him and then our neighbor. Jesus exhorts the proclamation of the psalmist, who says by Divine inspiration: »Blessed is the person whose delight is in the torah of yahweh; and who meditates on His torah day and night« (Psalm 1,1-2). 

  4. This summation of the torah convicts many people. To the pious person who says: „I love God “, and worships God every week in church, gives a weekly offering, reads the Bible everyday and prays, but does not help or love his neighbor, such a person does not truly love God. To the philanthropist who says: „I love my neighbor“, and goes out of his way to help him, speaks well of him and gives liberally to charities, but does not love God or even denies His existence, such a person does not truly love his neighbor. For the Apostle John exhorts us: »We love because God 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 Jesus: whoever loves God must also love his brother« (1. John 4,19-21). 

5. The two go together: love God and love your neighbor.  Understanding this is one thing, but it is another to practice this commandment for loving God and our neighbor is a difficult thing to do. Even more difficult is the next question Jesus answered. The scribes and Pharisees taught that loving God and loving the neighbor were the heart of the torah. The scribes and Pharisees also taught that the Christ is the son of David (Mark 12,35). This is also a difficult teaching, for how can this be when David himself declared: »The Lord said to my Lord: „Be seated at My right hand until I put Your enemies under Your feet“ (Mark 12,36). Jesus then said: »David calls the Christ his Lord, so how then is the Christ David’s son?« (Mark 12,37). While the scribes and Pharisees could understand that loving God and neighbor is the central commandment, they could not answer how the Christ could be both David’s son and Lord. They only thought in human terms that the Christ was to be a human descendant of King David. They did not entertain the understanding that the Christ would also be Divine. Many people today hold the same view of Jesus. 

6. We do not worship and love a generic God. We do worship and love the Triune God who speaks a particular way and does specific things. The One True God is One God comprised of Three Persons of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The Apostle John writes in his epistle: »Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him« (1. John 4,15-16). 

7. God is not a generically loving God. He is a God who speaks about His love and acts on His love. Jesus is the Word of God made flesh who arrived on this earth to redeem fallen humanity (John 1,14). God the Father so loved the world that He gave His Only-begotten Son to save the world (John 3,16). Jesus is also the Love of God the Father made flesh. We see this in the Gospels where Jesus taught the crowds, prayed with people and for them, healed those who were sick and gathered in those cast out by the religious elite. 

8. Jesus told His apostles on Maundy Thursday: »Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends« (John 15,13). Jesus did this very thing the next day. We call this the passion of Christ. Jesus suffered humiliation, crucifixion and death on the cross. Jesus took up this vicarious sacrifice to save the world and make the payment for sin. Before He gave up His spirit and died, Jesus promised the seditionist crucified next to him: »Today, you will be with Me in paradise« (Luke 23,43). Jesus was buried in a grave and He descended into hades. 

9. Yes, the God who loves is revealed in Jesus Christ. He loves God His Father and you, His neighbor. Jesus has fulfilled the law and all its demands for you. Jesus sends to us the Holy Spirit who empowers us with the gospel to love God and our neighbors. 

10. The reign of God is not far from you. God’s reign was manifested with a dead Jesus hanging on the cross and a living Jesus risen from His tomb three days later. The reign of God is in your midst, and you have access to Jesus, to God’s reign and its benefits through faith in Jesus. God the Father loves you. He has forgiven you. He now sanctifies you to love God and your neighbor, and through this love you bear forth the fruits of faith for God’s glory and your neighbor’s benefit. The Apostle John teaches: »God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. We love because He first loved us« (1. John 4,19).  Amen. 

11. Let us pray. O Beloved Lord, who has established with the world a covenant of grace, teach us to fear, love and trust You so that we receive from Christ the everlasting life that He has obtained for us.  Amen. 

To God alone be the Glory 

Soli Deo Gloria

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All Scriptural quotations are translations done by The Rev. Peter A. Bauernfeind using the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia, 4. Edition © 1990 by the Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart, and the Novum Testamentum Graece, Nestle-Aland 27. Edition © 1993 by Deutsch Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart.  

ELKB. Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche in Bayern. www.bayern-evangelisch.de/www/index.php. Copyright © 2013 Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche in Bayern. 

Martens, Gottfried. A sermon preached on 27. September 2009 (16. Trinitatis) in Berlin-Zehlendorf, Germany on John 11,1-3.17-27.41-45. Copyright © 209 St. Mary Church in Berlin-Zehlendorf (SELK). All rights reserved. The Rev. Peter A. Bauernfeind, Tr. © 2015. 

VELKD. Vereinigte Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche Deutschlands. www.velkd.de. Copyright © 2013 Vereinigte Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche Deutschlands.