Eighteenth Sunday after Trinity (1883)

Matthew 22:34-46

"Should not a people inquire of their God? Yes, to the teaching and to the testimony!"
1

With these words the divine majesty has pointed all men who want to learn what to
know for salvation and would be necessary to believe to the Scriptures. One should not
consult his reason about it.
2
We should not wait for angelic visitations and immediate
revelations.
3
We should not impose upon ourselves statutes of men as a standard of
faith and life.
4
Rather, we should ask God and hear His Word. This Word of God is
partly Law, partly testimony about Christ or Gospel. The attainment of salvation is
concerned about the fact that we rightly know both Law and Gospel. Our Gospel
contains a total amount of both Law and Gospel.

The total amount of all saving doctrine,
1. the Law,
2. the Gospel.

1. the total summary of the Law. The scribes sent by the Pharisees asked the Lord
Jesus about the foremost commandment in the Law, but only with the
intention to test Him.
5
On the other hand, we want to ask with holy intent to
let ourselves be taught. Christ gives us there the same answer as He did to
those scribes
6
, and with that the total amount of the Law; the one
commandment in which all other commandments, the entire content of the
two stone tablets, are summarized. The entire Law asks nothing else from us
than love toward God and neighbor;
a. love toward God, . God, Whom we should love, is the God Who first loved
us, Who not only created us, and that from nothing, but also has redeemed us,
because we have been lost, and sanctified, because we have been sinful and
unclean. He has bestowed upon us so many good things up to this hour, that
no one in heaven and on earth is worthy of our love than He. He is the highest
good to which we can only attain. Should we not love Him? . the way in

1
Isaiah 8:19-20.
2
1 Corinthians 2:14.
3
Galatians 1:8.
4
Colossians 2:16, 18.
5
Matthew 22:34-36.
6
Matthew 22:37-40.
which He wants to be loved by us. There should be no sham-love and
hypocritical love, but a love from the whole heart, not fickle, but stable, a love
from the whole soul, not existing in mere words, but a love that shows itself in
work, a love from all strength and with all the mind;
b. love toward neighbor, . do you understand who is your neighbor? All people
with whom we somehow come in contact, or of which we only hear when they
need our help and love. The merciful Samaritan. - Misconception, . the way
how we are to love him as ourselves.
7
An easy rule! As you love yourself, i.e.,
as sincerely, as intimately and warmly, as constantly.
The total amount of the Law is contained in these two commandments.
8
Love is
the fulfillment of the commandments.
9
But precisely this love is not found in no human
hearts after the fall. Therefore the Law, that demands only love, now has left nothing
more than the curse for us sinners. Blessed are we, therefore, that there is in addition to
the Law also a Gospel in which we can find salvation;

2. the total amount of the Gospel. The Gospel rests in the knowledge of Jesus Christ
and in the word from the cross. Precisely hereafter, as the main point for us
fallen people, Christ Himself afterwards asks the Pharisees: "What do you
think about Christ?".
10
Because they did not know and did not believe that the
Messiah is the Son of God, their answer was only partially right.
11
They had to
be shamefully silent on the easy to answer question of the Lord because of
faith.
12
But through this Christ teaches us that this is the core and the total
amount of the New Testament, that He, our Savior,
a. is by His nature accordingly both David's son and a true man, as also God's
Son and true God, that He
b. is by His person accordingly God and man in one person, David's son and
Lord, and
c. is by His office accordingly "Christ", . our High Priest, Who has entered into
the Most Holy Place with His blood and has obtained an eternal redemption,
Who sits at the right hand of God and intercedes for us, . our King, Who has
made and will make all His enemies and our enemies His footstool, . our
Prophet, Whose "sweet Gospel is nothing but milk and honey".
Georg Stckhardt

7
Matthew 22:39.
8
Matthew 22:40.
9
Romans 13:10.
10
Matthew 22:41-42.
11
Matthew 22:42.
12
Matthew 22:43-46.