Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?

 But when the Pharisees heard that He had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together.  Then one of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, and saying,  "Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?"  Jesus said to him, "Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?"  Jesus said to him, "'You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.'  This is the first and great commandment.  And the second is like it:  'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'  On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets."

While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them, saying, "What do you think about the Christ?  Whose Son is He?"  They said to Him, "The Son of David."  He said to them, "How then does David in the Spirit call Him 'Lord,' saying:

'The LORD said to my Lord,
"Sit at My right hand,
Till I make Your enemies Your footstool"'?

"If David then calls Him 'Lord,' how is He his Son?"

And no one was able to answer Him a word, nor from that day on did anyone dare question Him anymore.

- Matthew 22:34-46

In the recent readings we are in Jerusalem -- Jesus has made His Triumphal Entry, cleansed the temple, and been submitted to questioning by various groups of the leadership.  In yesterday's reading, the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to Him and asked Him, saying:  "Teacher, Moses said that if a man dies, having no children, his brother shall marry his wife and raise up offspring for his brother.  Now there were with us seven brothers.  The first died after he had married, and having no offspring, left his wife to his brother.  Likewise the second also, and the third, even to the seventh.  Last of all the woman died also.  Therefore, in the resurrection, whose wife of the seven will she be?  For they all had her."  Jesus answered and said to them, "You are mistaken, not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God.  For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels of God in heaven.  But concerning the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was spoken to you by God, saying, 'I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob'?  God is not the God of the dead, but of the living."  And when the multitudes heard this, they were astonished at His teaching.

  But when the Pharisees heard that He had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together.  Then one of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, and saying,  "Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?"   Coming from the Pharisees, the question makes great sense.  They were the lay experts on Scripture and the Law.  They had found 613 commandments in the Scriptures, and, according to my study bible, "argued interminably about which one was central."  Therefore, the question focuses on the great commandment.

Jesus said to him, "'You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.'  This is the first and great commandment.  And the second is like it:  'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'  On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets."  My study bible explains that Jesus sets forth both the first commandment, and also adds a second.  Taken together they make up "the grand summary of the Law."  He's also aware that they are asking Him maliciously, with particular intent.

While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them, saying, "What do you think about the Christ?  Whose Son is He?"  They said to Him, "The Son of David."  Here, once again, as in the parables told earlier in His confrontations in the temple (see here and here), Jesus goes on the offensive against the Pharisees.  My study bible says He's "further exposing them as pseudo-scholars who do not understand the Bible.  They suppose the Messiah to be a mere man, and therefore reply Son of David to Jesus' question."

He said to them, "How then does David in the Spirit call Him 'Lord,' saying:  'The LORD said to my Lord, "Sit at My right hand, till I make Your enemies Your footstool"'?  If David then calls Him 'Lord,' how is He his Son?"  And no one was able to answer Him a word, nor from that day on did anyone dare question Him anymore.  My study bible explains that "David, as king of Israel, would not address anyone as 'my Lord' except God Himself.  Therefore, this psalm verse describes God talking to God -- the Father to the Son -- which contradicts the Pharisees' view of God as one Person, and introduces the doctrine of the Holy Trinity."    See Psalm 110 for the entire context of the quotation.

Jesus goes on the offensive once again in today's reading, and we remark on the spirit of His discussions.  He's not afraid at all to show the leadership where they're wrong.  He knows very well their attitude toward Him, and He knows who He is.  Secure in His authority, He cleanses the temple and engages the leadership in critical dialogue, particularly in the telling of the parables we noted above (see here and here), where He makes allusion to Judgment.  Although He is a suffering Messiah, although He does not have an army, nor wage a military campaign, His mission is not without its assertive, pro-active style and force.  His strength and freedom are in His truth, which He will assert in the right place and the right time, with vigor and authority.  His assertive style in engaging the leadership now that He is in Jerusalem, His open confrontation, is not in contradiction to the suffering He will endure.  This is what He is here for, to declare a Kingdom coming into the midst of the world, for which He will lay down His life to bring it to the rest of us.  His confrontation here is also teaching and ministry.  He is declaring the Gospel.  Moreover, He is teaching about the Judgment.  Our time, which He has initiated, is the time when all grow together side by side.  It's a time in which we await the Judgment, which is not ours to execute.  As He has said, it's a time in which we endure with our faith, we pray, we practice the Gospel and His commandments of love, and we, too, may assert our truths and live them as best we can  -- but we are to be wise as serpents and harmless as doves.  Let us focus on the great commandments He has given us in our wisdom and simplicity, understanding that all good things -- even including our capacity for and understanding of love -- come from the Father, the "Lord our God," and through this first commandment, therefore, we are able to better carry out the second.  How are you called to assert your mission, to better carry out His commandments, to express the truth of the Gospel in your own life?  How does His sacrifice establish His kingdom in you?  What does His freedom teach you?