Final Question


Matthew 22:34-40
34But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together.
35And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him.
36“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?”
37And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.
38This is the great and first commandment.
39And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
40On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”

The verbal beating that the Pharisees (and Sadducees) have taken from Jesus is about to come to an end. They have questioned His authority, His power, His message; all to no avail. Now they have one final question to lay at His feet before He asks them a question of His own (which we will get to on Monday.) They want Jesus to address the Law and declare which is the greatest commandment. Again, this is a trap because in the Jewish mind all of the Law is equal in stature and importance. Jesus’ answer is that Love trumps everything else; love for God and love for each other. Of course, it is the perfect answer.

In my examination of this passage this morning I came across a prophecy from the Psalms that falls right into this story. Pay special attention to the verses I have highlighted.

Psalm 2
1Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain?
2The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord and against his Anointed, saying,
3“Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us.”
4He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds them in derision.
5Then he will speak to them in his wrath, and terrify them in his fury, saying,
6“As for me, I have set my King on Zion, my holy hill.”
7I will tell of the decree: The Lord said to me, “You are my Son; today I have begotten you.
8Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession.
9You shall break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.”
10Now therefore, O kings, be wise; be warned, O rulers of the earth.
11Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling.
12Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way, for his wrath is quickly kindled. Blessed are all who take refuge in him.

As the Pharisees continue their pursuit of Jesus they are simply fulfilling what the Psalms said would happen when the Lord’s Anointed arrives. Even as they plotted and planned the will of the Father was being worked out in all its beauty. Our salvation was being forged in the words of King David a thousand years before those Pharisees were even born. God’s plan sweeps over all of time and carries us into His Kingdom. Even the ugly actions of a few men cannot undo what the Father has set in place. He in fact uses their ugly plots to accomplish His goal of our salvation. As per usual, I stand in awe of a Holy and perfect God.

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