Proper 26
Deuteronomy 6:1-9; Psalm 119:1-8; Mark 12:28-34
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I.
It is hard to lead a blameless and consistent life.
Has anyone done it?
No, and our failure to do so leads to emotional and spiritual discouragement.
The Gospel lesson from Mark today takes place after Palm Sunday, after Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem, during a series of confrontational exchanges that Jesus provoked with the Pharisees, Sadducees, and scribes.
Jesus is confronting them on their own turf, in the seat of their power, on the grounds of the Jerusalem temple itself.
The text from Deuteronomy makes it clear that just as there is one God, there is one commandment, one law, to love Him.
(Notice the part about loving neighbor is not mentioned yet.)
Psalm 119, which we just sung, speaks of a blessed consistency that comes to those whose way is blameless and who walk in the law of the Lord.
But what of these “burnt offerings and sacrifices” that take place in the temple and that the scribe makes mention of in his response to Jesus?
As commandments they pale in comparison to the commandment to love.
Mark’s Gospel makes it clear that the first commandment is to love God, the second, to love your neighbor as yourself, and only after that, does the commandment to offer burnt offerings and sacrifices in the temple come in as a distant third.
II.
Today’s readings are about leading a consistent and blameless life before God.
The scribe asks Jesus which commandment is first. In other words, Tell me, Lord, how do I lead a consistent life?
Jesus responds by quoting Moses from Deuteronomy 6:4:
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.
Interestingly, Jesus adds mind to the list, which Moses did not include.
Jesus continues to add to Moses — keep in mind how scandalous this was, to add to the words of Moses (Deuteronomy 4:2 expressly forbids it) — and yet Jesus adds these words in Mark 12:32, “The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”
Actually, Jesus doesn’t so much as add these words as He does elevate the words of Moses found in Leviticus 19:18, “You shall not take vengeance or bear any grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
If you look at Leviticus 19, the entire chapter, you will see that there were about 35 other commandments Jesus’ could have chosen to elevate.
In fact, immediately after the commandment to love your neighbor as yourself comes the commandment not to crossbreed cattle, “You shall not let your cattle breed with a different kind,” or wear mixed fabrics.
Moses gave one great commandment, to love God, and then worked out hundreds of lesser commandments explaining just how to do that.
Jesus says that all of these lesser commandments can be summed up as “love your neighbor as yourself.”
Moreover, this second commandment is actually how you keep the first. You love God by loving your neighbor.
The scribe agrees. He says, “You are right, Teacher.”
To which Jesus replies, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.”
Jesus’ approval of the scribe’s answer made the conversation too dangerous to continue in public. Mark 12:34b, “And after that no one dared to ask him any question.”
When Jesus tells the scribe, “You are not far from the kingdom of God,” He is speaking of what will come after the temple.
The temple, with its burnt offerings and sacrifices for sins, was getting in the way of the kingdom of God.
(Let that be a warning to every church.)
That is why Jesus states clearly that the commandment to love God and neighbor is the only way to clear a guilty conscience.
Mark 12:31b, “There is no other commandment greater than these.”
Moses writes in Deuteronomy 6:3, “Hear therefore, O Israel, and be careful to do [these commandments]; that it may go well with you….”
In other words, live consistently by God’s law and you won’t need to clear your guilty conscience.
Therefore, as a church, we need to work out the implications of our faith in God, a faith that can only be expressed in our love of neighbor.
This is God’s commandment, and it comes with a promise.
If we keep this commandment to love, it will go well for us.
III.
But we hold back some love, keeping it from God and neighbor.
We say, “There are some parts of my life that I won’t let you touch, God. I am not going to work out the implications of loving you in my marriage, my job, my career, my politics, when and if I go to church, or how I educate my children, etc.”
But God says, “you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might,” to which Jesus (as I said) adds mind as well.
All of your heart, not part of it.
All of your soul, all of your mind, all of your strength.
To drive the point home, listen to how Moses describes the totality of God’s commandments. Deuteronomy 6:7-9:
…and you shall teach [my commandments] diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. And you shall bind them as a sign upon your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. And you shall write them on the doorposts of your house….
In challenging Jesus, the scribe is pitting his special carve-out, the temple’s system of burnt offerings and sacrifices (which he and the other Jerusalem religious authorities control) — a system these spiritual elites say is the only way to cleanse a guilty conscience — against the love of God and neighbor.
The irony is, had you loved God and neighbor in the first place, you would not need the scribe or his temple, because you would not have a guilty conscience.
Sin incurs guilt, and guilt makes you vulnerable to all kinds of manipulation, even religious manipulation, perhaps especially religious manipulation.
All the rituals of atonement, the “burnt offerings and sacrifices” offered at the Jerusalem temple had become corrupt.
Corrupt religion is the topic for next week’s sermon but suffice it to say for now that men like the scribe were getting rich off of the temple and its sacrifices.
In other words, they were profiting from people’s sins, profiting from their misery.
They monetized the guilt that people feel from their inconsistent ways of living, their failures and shortcomings, and men like the scribe had become the gatekeepers of God’s mercy.
This is why the conversation between Jesus and the scribe became too dangerous to continue in public.
Religion became then (as it often is now) a means of appeasement, of buying off someone (in this case God) rather than loving God by loving His creation.
How many churches, how many sermons, are aimed at making people feel better about themselves — usually after making them feel bad about themselves first — rather than teaching us how to love God by loving our neighbor?
It’s almost like we need someone to show us how.
IV.
Jesus held back nothing, including His life, out of love for God and neighbor.
Jesus’ death nullifies the temple’s offerings and sacrifices and secures our eternal redemption. We don’t need them anymore to have a clear conscience.
Hebrews 9:13-14 tells us:
For if the sprinkling of defiled persons with the blood of goats and bulls and with the ashes of a heifer sanctifies for the purification of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify your conscience from dead works to serve the living God.
And how do we serve that living God with a clear conscience?
By loving our neighbor.
V.
Now we are saved from guilt to do the good work of loving God and neighbor.
As Christians we can have a clear conscience.
If we don’t, that could mean we haven’t yet understood all that Christ has done for us.
We may still be caught in the cycle of guilt and manipulation.
That makes us vulnerable to external manipulation and internal paralysis.
Christ can save you from both.
Yes, Christians continue to sin and miss the mark, sometimes seriously.
That is why the confession and assurance of pardon in our public worship is so important.
Once we have a clear conscience, we are free to act, free to love God, and to love our neighbors.
Sometimes, that love of neighbor simply means making amends for the wrongs we have committed.
Certainly, if it is within our power to do so, we must.
If we have lied about our neighbor, we must do all we can to restore his good name.
If we have stolen from him, we must restore what we have taken.
Finally, a church with a clear conscience can do great things.
We can work out the implications of our faith, starting with the fact that God’s commandment to love Him is total.
We have to love Him in all areas of our lives: home, church, work, politics, education.
Pietism and a closeted Christianity won’t cut it anymore.
We need to be public as well as private Christians.
That means we must teach, talk, bind, and write of the love of God and neighbor.
These are public acts of Christian witness, because the commandment to love God also means we must hate evil.
Paul says in Romans 12:9 that for our love to be genuine we must “hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good.”
But as we do this, as we disciple and teach others to love God and neighbor, we must be ever vigilant to guard against the old temptation to become like the scribes.
I will have more to say about them next week.
Let us pray.
Almighty and merciful God, it is only by your gift that your faithful people offer you true and laudable service: Grant that we may run without stumbling to obtain your heavenly promises; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
Preached on November 3, 2024 at the First Congregational Church, Woodbury, Connecticut.
Questions for reflection and discussion:
1. It is hard to lead a blameless and ____________ life.
2. The exchange between the scribe and Jesus takes place on the grounds of the ____________.
3. Just as there is one God, there is one ____________.
4. Moses gave one great commandment, to ____________ God.
5. How did Jesus summarize all of the other commandments?
6. The temple, with its burnt offerings and sacrifices for sins, was getting in the way of the ____________.
7. The commandment to love God and neighbor is the only way to clear a ____________ conscience.
8. God’s commandment to love comes with a ____________.
9. If we keep God’s commandment to love, it will go ____________ for us.
10. Guilt for sin makes you vulnerable to ___________.
11. The Jerusalem temple had become ___________.
12. We need to be ____________ as well as private Christians.
Parents and Grandparents, you are responsible to apply God’s Word to your children’s lives. Here is some help. Young Children – draw a picture about something you hear during the sermon. Explain your picture(s) to your parents or the minister after church. Older Children – Discuss with your parents one or both of the following: 1) Describe something you said you were going to do but didn’t. Why didn’t you do it? 2) Has someone ever threatened to tell a secret about you to make you do something for them? Did you go along?
(1) consistent; (2) temple; (3) commandment; (4) love; (5) “love your neighbor as yourself”; (6) kingdom of God; (7) guilty; (8) promise; (9) well; (10) manipulation; (11) corrupt; (12) public
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