In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit

Is Jesus a conservative or a liberal? People have tried to make the case for both. Some would say He's conservative because His Word clearly speaks against abortion and homosexuality and it speaks for truth that doesn't change or get watered down with the times. Others would say He's liberal because He railed against certain traditions and opposed the rich and the powerful and because He reached out to the outcasts and showed mercy to the worst of sinners. Jesus is not easily categorized, is He. He is bigger than our attempts to classify Him in such a way that He fits our agenda and promotes our causes. He gets into trouble with people across every part of the spectrum.

There were two particularly significant religious groups in the days of Jesus. One was the Pharisees and the other was the Sadducees. Now the Pharisees we're pretty familiar with. They were the steadfast legalists, the fundamentalists of the Jewish religion. The Sadducees, however, were on the other end of the spectrum. They were more like the liberal theologians of today. The Sadducees didn't believe in the resurrection of the body. They didn't believe in the existence of angels. They basically believed that all that was real was the physical, material world, and that's what you should focus on in seeking to live a holy life. The Sadducees tended to be more the elite, upper-class types. The Pharisees tended to be more popular with the masses.

Both of these groups had problems with Jesus. For He didn't fit in with the agenda of either of them. And so when they spoke to Him, they would often try to trap Him in His words in such a way that their point of view would be shown to be right. However, neither group was able to do this with any success at all. The wisdom and the truth of our Lord Jesus always won the day and triumphed over the scheming of these men.

For instance, just prior to today's Gospel, the Pharisees tried to entangle Jesus by asking Him a question about paying taxes. This was a hot political topic because the taxes were paid to an oppressive Roman government, and many of the Jews had other ideas about who should be ruling them and what should be done to the Romans. Jesus silenced their deceitful questioning with the familiar words, "Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's."
Now after Jesus' answer to the Pharisees, the Sadducees came to Him, perhaps perceiving that they had an opening. They came up with a story to try to show that there is no resurrection. They presented a hypothetical case about a woman who had had seven different husbands during her lifetime because each of the first six had died prematurely. They asked Jesus, "In the resurrection, whose wife of the seven will she be?" I'm sure they thought they had Him cornered. But Jesus answered them, "You are mistaken, not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God. For in the resurrection they do not marry, but are like the angels of God in heaven." The Sadducees falsely assumed that the resurrection would be a restoration of things to how they are now in this fallen world. But at the close of this age all things will be brought to their completion and fulfillment in Christ. Believers will be like the angels, not that we will become angels, but rather that just as the angels dwell in the glorious presence of God, so will we. We will not be married, for the Church will live forever in the perfect love of her heavenly Groom. And Jesus gave decisive evidence for His case of life after death by quoting the Old Testament. 500 years after the days of Abraham God had told Moses, "I am (present tense) the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob." Jesus said to the Sadducees, "God is not the God of the dead, but of the living." Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are alive with God, their bodies awaiting the day of the resurrection.

The way the Pharisees and the Sadducees tried to relate to Jesus can show itself in us, too. All too often we want Jesus to fit into our way of thinking rather than trying to fit our thinking into His. By nature we want to use God's Word to justify what we already believe rather than giving up our preconceived notions to believe what God's Word teaches. We want Jesus to help us further our own agenda rather than desiring to follow His agenda, His ways. It's much easier for us to be a part of some group than it is to be like Jesus, who didn't conform to the definitions of any worldly group or organization. In the end every attempt to make Jesus or His Word fit our mold will fail.

The question posed to Jesus in the Gospel is an example of that. In an attempt to make the Law manageable, the Pharisees ask Jesus, "Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?" Putting it in our terms, the question might be, "What's the main thing I've got to do? What's the bottom line here? What's the minimum that's necessary for me to be a Christian? How much do I really have to pray or hear God's Word or give in offerings?" This approach tries to domesticate the Law, turning it into a household pet that you take for a walk whenever you want to look religious. It substitutes values for perfection, decency for holiness. But God didn't say, "Have family values" or "Do your best to be a nice person." He said, "Be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy."

Jesus answers, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind." That's not something you can reduce down to a bunch of do's and don'ts. For that Law commands you to love God with every fiber of your being, all that you are, with nothing held back from Him. God seeks not the minimum but the maximum. He wants the entire devotion of your heart; all of your love, your allegiance to be with Him alone.

And Jesus doesn't stop there, in case someone thinks that loving God means leaving ordinary life and your fellow man. He goes on, "And the second (great commandment) is like (the first): 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'" These two go side by side, hand in hand. The love of God and the love of the neighbor are inseparable. You cannot claim to love God if you don't love your neighbor. For God seeks to be loved in your neighbor. The Lord Jesus-who took up our nature and truly shares in our humanity-is present in all those around us, particularly those in need, to receive our acts of kindness and self-giving. That's why Jesus says that the commands are alike: Because God is served both in love for Him and in love for the neighbor.

So if you had to summarize the Law of God, it would be in that one word, "love." And love is never a lowest common denominator, a minimum requirement. It is limitless in how it is to be expressed and shown. It requires all that you are and all that you have.

And that's where we run into trouble. The Law always accuses and condemns us for falling way short of that. It exposes our lovelessness. It exposes our self-satisfying motivations when do engage in loving works. It leads to nothing but judgment and death.

Repent, therefore, and turn to Christ. For Jesus here gets us back on the track that leads to salvation and life. The Pharisees had asked a Law question, but now Jesus asks a Gospel question, not one that focuses on us, but one that focuses on who He is. Jesus asked them, "What do you think about the Messiah? Whose Son is He?" They said to Him, "The Son of David." And that was correct. God had promised King David in the Old Testament that the Messiah would be one of His descendants.

Jesus then asks them this question, "How then does David in the Spirit call the Messiah 'Lord' in one of the Psalms?" You see, under ordinary circumstances in Jewish culture it would be the son who refers to the father as lord or master, not the other way around. And yet here David, the father and the great ancestor of the Christ, refers to his descendant as Lord. Jesus asks them, "Why is that?" Just as the Pharisees had tried to trap Jesus in a Law question, Jesus here tries to "trap" them so to speak in a Gospel question, to get them to see the saving reality of who He is.

The Jews had been conceiving of the Messiah as being a combination of a great prophet and a powerful political leader, but always in the end only a man. But Jesus here is leading us to see that He is more than just a man. David calls Him lord and master because Jesus, his literal descendant, is also truly and fully God, the everlasting Son of the Father.

Here, then, is where the good news is for us. Jesus, thankfully, does not come fitting into our mold. He does not act according to our expectations, but in a manner that is infinitely higher and better. He comes not in the way of our fallen, self-serving humanity but in the way of His perfect self-giving humanity. Jesus is the only man in whom God's love is perfectly embodied. Jesus kept the Law perfectly for us and in our place. He loved His heavenly Father with all His heart, with all His soul, and with all His mind. And Jesus loved His neighbor as Himself. He gave Himself completely to those around Him, healing them, helping them, teaching them saving truth. In the end He gave His life away, laying it down for us on the cross. Through that perfect act of love and self-giving, Jesus won for us the full forgiveness of our sins. Baptized into His body, trusting in His love, we share in His image. His self-sacrifice has saved us from judgment and has brought to us instead everlasting life. For Jesus is risen from the dead as the conqueror of the grave. True God and true man, He is now seated at the right hand of the Father to pour out His life on us by His Holy Spirit and to prepare us for the day of the resurrection.

So then, it's best not to say that Jesus is conservative or liberal. Better said, He is your Savior, the One who is pure love in the flesh, who gave everything for you. You are sanctified and cleansed in Christ Jesus. You are saints before God-not because of the Law and what you have done, but because of the Gospel and what Jesus has done. Continue, therefore, to believe in Him and cling to Him, eagerly waiting for His return. For He will confirm you to the end, that you may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful. Let your confidence be in Him.

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit