Proper 25 :: Leviticus 19: 1–2, 15–18 / Psalm 1 / I Thessalonians 2: 1–8 / Matthew 22: 34–46
This
is the homily given at St. John’s, Huntingdon, Pennsylvania by Fr. Gene Tucker
on Sunday, October 25, 2020.
“BLENDING DETAILS WITH THE WIDER PICTURE”
(Homily text: Matthew 22: 34-46)
With
today’s Gospel text, the arguments and disputes that the Lord has been having
with His adversaries, the chief priests, the Pharisees, the scribes and the
Herodians, come to an end. Today’s text describes the back-and-forth with, this
time, the Pharisees, one of whom is described as a “lawyer” (who would have
been, most likely, a scribe).[1]
Our text
this morning divides into two parts: The first part describes the Pharisees’
question about the Law of Moses. They want to know which is the most important
commandment to be found there. Then, Jesus turns the tables on His questioners,
and asks them about the identity of the Messiah.
In both
cases, it seems to me, the Lord works to widen the focus of the Pharisees, for
these Pharisees are the sort of people who focus in on minute details, but who
manage to miss the wider picture as they do so.
Let’s
explore this idea a little.
The
Pharisees’ question may have come from their preoccupation with the details of
the Law. After all, they are the ones who seem to be preoccupied with the
smallest bit of those requirements. For example, they are concerned that no one
should walk further on the Sabbath than the Law allows. They are concerned,
also, with numerous other, added, requirements, requirements of their own
creation, like the washing of pots and so forth.
Perhaps,
then, we could surmise what they might have been thinking as they ask the Lord
to tell them which is the greatest commandment of the Law. Maybe their thinking
went like this: “Our estimation is that the greatest commandment is the proper
and faithful observance of all the ceremonies that take place in the Temple.”
Or, perhaps they thought, “Our concern is that people observe the Sabbath in
every way, for that is one way that we exhibit our identity as Jews, those who
are faithful descendants of Abraham.”
We don’t
know for sure what their answers to their own question would be, but we can
guess with some certainty about their thinking, based on the responses that
Jesus offers to their thinking and their behavior in different circumstances.
Jesus’
response quotes Deuteronomy 6:5, and it summarizes all the requirements of the
Law, casting those requirements in terms of love: Love for God, and love for
others.
So, for
example, one would want to faithfully worship in the Temple out of love for
God. One would want to give generously to the poor out of love for one’s
neighbor.
But that
sort of thinking and that sort of doing seemed to be a foreign idea to the
Pharisees, for the picture we get of them is that they are into judgment and
hate, not love.
But these
Pharisees should have been motivated by the requirement to love, for
Deuteronomy 6:5 was required to be recited twice a day, every day. The text
would have been, no doubt, familiar to them.
Jesus
recasts the requirements of the Law, seeking to get these recalcitrant
Pharisees to see things from a larger, more comprehensive perspective.
In the same
way, Jesus turns the tables on the Pharisees, asking them about the identity of
the Messiah.
In so
doing, Jesus challenges them to see the Messiah in a much larger context, and
eternal context, the sort of context that God challenges us to see.
Again, we
can speculate about the Pharisees’ concept of the Messiah might have been, but
I think our guess might be somewhat reflective of reality. Perhaps those
Pharisees were waiting for a charismatic figure would ride into Jerusalem on a
white horse, leading a large army whose work would be to throw out the
occupying Romans and restore the kingdom to Israel in the same way that it had
existed a 1,000 years before under Kings David and Solomon.
Many Jews
in that time harbored such an image and expectation of the Messiah.
But Jesus
recasts their vision, reforming it into a timeless plan, a plan which emanates
from God himself.
The vehicle
for Jesus’ reformed vision is Psalm 110:1, and Jesus uses this verse to inform
the Pharisees that David, writing so long ago, calls the coming One his “lord”.
How then, Jesus asks, can the Messiah be David’s son (as the Pharisees have
just claimed) if David calls the Messiah “lord”?
I think the
point here is that time is erased when David’s pronouncement and the Messiah
are considered. God’s timing, God’s plan, come into view, and the purview which
results is much wider than the narrow conceptions of the Pharisees.
What might
all of this prompt us to consider?
Perhaps
this: Life is often lived in and among the details of things. Everyday stuff
consists, oftentimes, of details. But it’s possible to get lost in the weeds of
the details, only to lose sight of the big picture of things.
For we live
our lives in the sight of God, every single detail of life being known to Him.
That tells us that the details are important, they matter. But so does the
great, big picture of God’s will and God’s intent for our lives and for the
world.
Mature
Christian living requires seeing both the details and the big picture, all at
the same time, incorporating one into the other.
AMEN.
[1] Since this final showdown takes place with the Pharisees and with a scribe (lawyer), today’s text leads naturally into chapter twenty-three, which records seven of Jesus’ “woes”, which are directed against the scribes and the Pharisees.
