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No more questions, we are told. No one dared ask Jesus any more questions. He’s finally bested all those who sought to trick him up with queries about authority, the law, Scripture and the commandments. In today’s passage, it sounds like Jesus has won, doesn’t it? Jesus 3, Pharisees and Saducees 0. End of game, end of story. Well, its not the end of the story, But Jesus’ statement in Matthew’s gospel comes at a critical time in the life of Jesus. In fact, it comes very near the end of his life. Jesus has ridden into Jerusalem on a donkey – a humble king, and travels around Jerusalem preaching, teaching, and challenging all who would listen, especially those who take their religion and their practices seriously. There is a sense of urgency, A sense of tension, in the exchange we hear this morning, It is an urgency that runs throughout the entire 22nd chapter – And the 21st as well. It is an urgency that comes from knowing that time is of the essence, that there are important things to be said and important things to be done. It is an urgency that leads to the silencing of Jesus’ opponents. No more questions. No more questions? Can there really be a time when there are no more questions? For it seems that there are so many questions that live in our hearts and our minds. Our questions are not so much to test Jesus, As his opponents did, But in response to the tests we feel as we make our way in the world. Why, we want to know, Do bad things happen to good people? And why do good things happen to those who seem so bad? If there really is a loving God, how can there so much evil and suffering in the world? How can Christians, all of whom profess to be disciples of Jesus Christ, be so divided on a plethora of issues: biblical, religious, and political? I wonder if the Scripture text has a lesson about no more questions for us today. Is it possible, friends, that we are being called to let go – At least for a brief while – some of the questions that we’ve been wrestling with? We live in a time of urgency and stress, Not unlike the urgency and tension of Jesus’ day. The financial markets are on a roller coaster, With retirement and college savings jeopardized. Our country is engaged in a tense electoral season, With each side arguing vehemently for their positions and their candidates. Maybe this is the time – Maybe this is just the right time for no more questions. Maybe this is the time let go And LISTEN – Listen and respond to Jesus’ words of love: “Love the Lord your God with your whole heart, your whole soul, your whole strength. And love your neighbor as yourself.” Hear, dear friends, That the words of love Jesus shares come directly from his Scriptures and from the daily prayer of his people, The Jewish people. In responding to the Pharisee’s question about the greatest commandment, Jesus quotes from the Sh’ma, the most important prayer in all of Judaism. The words come from the book of Deuteronomy: “Hear, Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is One. Blessed be the Name of His glorious kingdom forever and ever. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be in your heart.” And then Jesus, Like some other rabbis, Some other teachers of his day, joined these words with other words from Scripture found in the book of Leviticus. “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Scholar and teacher Marcus Borg calls these two commandments of Judaism – And now Christianity as they are mingled together by Jesus – the two great “great relationships.” We are bound and called to be in relationship, in connection, in covenant with our God and with our neighbor. Jesus’ words invite us to center our lives in God, to make God the primary relationship in our lives. So, as we are able to release some of our questions in these tumultuous days, Jesus reminds us to let our minds think on God and God’s love, To let our souls rest in God and in God’s peace, To let our hearts settle in the embrace of God’s mercy and compassion. It is God, friends - who deserves our loyalty, our love, our worship. Over and above all the other loves and loyalties that reach out to us, That clamor for our attention, Jesus reminds us to claim God the same way that God has claimed us as his own. And the next great relationship, Wedded and woven with the first, Is to love our neighbor as ourselves. Biblical love, The kind of love Jesus talked about and the kind of love Jesus demonstrated is more than a feeling, More than affection. It is about commitment, About expressing that love in concrete actions. Jesus invites us to tend and to grow our relationship with our neighbors – Who in the biblical tradition are friends, strangers, even enemies. Again, if we are able to let go of some of our questions, We can begin to live this love of neighbor in small ways. We can start by praying for others – at church, at home, on the job, in school, on the bus and in the car. Prepare a meal and share it with others in your neighborhood, Or find out if there’s a soup kitchen in the region that can use our hearts and our hands. Maybe some of us can spend a night in a shelter and talk to someone who is homeless. Loving our neighbor as ourselves is to give graciously and generously – Maybe even extravagantly – To and for those who struggle with basic human needs. Let’s think and pray how we will share our resources, How we will respond to the invitation and desire to love deeper and wider than we have before. We can be hospitable and welcoming, Making strangers our friends. Examine our assumptions about those who are different from us. We can take time to examine the boundaries we have set, And discover ways to cross over them. No more questions – but rather listening and loving and living in the way of Jesus. Friends, let us dare to follow the wisdom, the words and the example of our Savior. Let us dare to give our whole hearts and souls and minds To be in relationship with God and with all others. Amen and amen. |