Inland Empire
Pastors Conference
Christ Our Redeemer
Lutheran Church, Sandpoint, Idaho
October 9, 2018
Text: Mark 12:28-34
Love,
when demanded of us, is always a Law word.
It trips people up, of course, because it’s a nice sounding word, and we
think nice sounding words are always Gospel, but you know this if you’ve ever
tried to teach Law and Gospel to your Catechism students. You give the students a verse and you make
them identify it as Law or Gospel. I’m
not so sure it’s such a helpful practice, but it’s right there in the CPH
workbook, so it must be right. You throw
out a few softballs. “You shall not kill.” Law or Gospel? “Law!” the students exclaim, with a knowing
smile on their faces. “Go ahead, give us
another one, Pastor! Hit us with your
best shot!” “God so loved the world”… there it is, that nice word, “love”… “God so loved the world, that he
gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have
eternal life” (John 3:16; ESV), you say, and you smile, and they smile, because they
all know it, and you know they know it.
“Gospel!” they yell triumphantly.
And the angels in heaven sing.
But… you have an ace up your sleeve, and they don’t even see it
coming. “Love the Lord your God with all your heart” (Mark 12:30). Two nice sounding words that should be
Gospel: “Love,” and “heart.” At best,
you’re gonna get a couple of confused looks.
Those are the smarter kids, but I wouldn’t tell them that. More likely, you’ll get the self-assured
smiles as the kids exclaim, “Gospel!”
And THEN the look of self-doubt as they see that smug look of schadenfreude satisfaction spread across
your face. Because you got ‘em! You rascal!
You did it! You outsmarted a
pre-teen!
But
it fools every one of us. Not in the
simplistic, “What is the verse, Law or Gospel?” sort of way, but on a much
deeper level. You and I, dear brothers
in Christ, actually think the salvation of the Church and of the world depends
on us and on our love. Oh, you know it’s
wrong in your head, but I’m telling you, Pastor, your temptation is to place
the salvation of your flock and your community and your whole world squarely on
your own shoulders and your ability to love those people. You’ve got a Jesus complex. You know that you have to love God with all
your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and your neighbor as yourself, and you
think that if you love God hard enough and love your neighbor just the right
way the Church will grow like gangbusters and everyone will want to love Jesus
like you love Jesus. But it doesn’t
work out that way. It never does work
out that way in the Kingdom of God, and the theologian of glory is always
either utterly delusional or bitterly disappointed. This is why we pastors are forever running
around in desperation trying the latest and greatest thing, or suffering
silently in the throes of depression.
You bind up your whole worth as a pastor in your ability to love, God
and neighbor. The symptoms are unique to
each individual, but finally every one of us is like the scribe in our text,
who understands that the higher things of the Law, love for God, love for the
neighbor, accomplish much more and are more God pleasing than the minutiae of
legalism. And the Scribe is not far from
the Kingdom of God. He’s not far. But he’s still not there.
Because
Jesus must get us there. It is
interesting that when the scribe asks Jesus which Commandment is the most
important, Jesus doesn’t answer with a Commandment, He answers with the
Creed. He recites the Shema: “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one” (v. 29; Deut. 6:4). And that, dear brothers, isn’t Law, it’s
Gospel (though your Catechism kids might not be able to identify it as
such). It is Gospel, because it is the
self-revelation of God as Israel’s God, our
God, the God who is for us! “Hear” is the imperative. I’m not so sure imperatives are only
Law. In this Word, He is giving us ears
to hear the profound truth: The LORD, YHWH, is one. And that is a little glimpse, though a very
significant one, into the unfolding revelation of God as Trinity, His threeness
in oneness, as it will be unpacked by Jesus in His Naming of the Name (singular)
of God into which we are baptized: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (Matt.
28:19). That’s Gospel. The Creed is the Gospel. The Creed is God for you, God for me, God for
us. And that is where we start in any
discussion of love. We start with who
God is, revealed in Jesus, for us. For
we can only love if God first loves us.
It
doesn’t dawn on the scribe or on us right away that when Jesus says the Lord
our God, the Lord is one, He is referencing Himself. The whole content of the Creed has arrived,
in the flesh. God is born of the Virgin Mary. And now, in that context, He begins to talk
about Commandments. The greatest, of
course, is the First Table of the Law. “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” (Mark 12:30). Your whole
being, your very essence goes it to fearing, loving, and trusting God above all
things, keeping His Name holy by your words and actions, and learning, loving,
and cherishing His Word. The second
greatest is the Second Table: “You shall
love your neighbor as yourself” (v. 31).
Honor your parents and other authorities. Don’t murder your neighbor, but save him by
dying for him. Don’t take his spouse,
but be faithful to yours. Even if she’s
unfaithful to you. Die for her, in fact. Don’t steal.
Give your all, your very self for the neighbor. Don’t give false testimony. Suffer it against yourself, though, even when
they crucify you on account of it. Do
not covet, which is idolatry, but keep commending yourself to the Father, who
will rescue you and vindicate you. And
see, Jesus is the only One who fits this description of the great Fulfiller of
the Commandments. These two great
Commandments, given us to keep, but not kept by us, Jesus takes upon Himself,
and He does them to the very end of Himself on the cross. He loves God, loves you, to His death on the
cross. To bring you, not almost into the Kingdom of God, but all
the way in. All the way in to the throne
room of the Almighty, with a seat at His Table.
And
what He does for you, He does for all His people. Pastor, your salvation and the salvation of
your flock, the salvation of the lost, the salvation of the world does not depend on you or your love. It depends only and entirely on Jesus Christ,
crucified for sinners, and risen from the dead.
It depends only and entirely on His faithful love for God His heavenly
Father, and for you, His neighbor, His blood-bought brother. And this is incredibly freeing news. You don’t have to be delusional or
disappointed. You don’t have to run
around desperately trying to save everyone, and when the demons come around
with their lies to cause you to despair, you can tell them where to go. Hear, O Pastor: The Lord your God, the Lord
is one. And He is for you, not against
you. He forgives your sins. Even your lovelessness. He makes you God’s own child. He loves you with an everlasting love. He will never leave you nor forsake you. Love, when attributed to God, is always a
Gospel Word. And the perfect love
demanded for God and for neighbor in the two great Commandments is the love of
God incarnate, Jesus Christ, for you and credited to your account.
And
now, of course, you should love. You
should love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. You should love your neighbor as
yourself. And now, in Christ, you’re
finally free to do just that.
Imperfectly, of course.
Haltingly. Stumbling all over
yourself. But you do. You love because God first loved you. You receive God’s love in Christ, and His
love flows through you to the dear people in your flock. Pastor, God is graciously using you as a
conduit. He’s pouring out His love on
His people through your ministry, in your preaching and teaching, even pre-teen
Catechism kids; in your baptizing and visiting the sick and the dying and
placing the body and blood of Jesus on the tongues of sinners for whom Christ
died. It’s not all that creative. But it is the mask of God by which He loves
His people. By which He gives them ears
to hear. Hear, O Israel, hear, O Church:
The Lord your God, Jesus, loves you. He
saves you. You belong to Him. In the Name of the Father, and of the Son
(+), and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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