One of the techniques that wise people use to get things
accomplished is a checklist. You put on the checklist the things that you would
like to accomplish during the day. As each task is completed the item on the
list is checked off. It feels good to check off those things. I know a person
who puts stuff on a checklist that has already been accomplished just for the
joy of crossing it off. When you are done with the checklist you sit back and
look at all things that are checked off. The feeling of accomplishment and
pride is the payoff that a person gets for working wisely and efficiently.
Checklists can be made on paper, or they can be made in a
person’s head. One way or another something like checklists are made by
everybody as they plan out what they are going to do. It’s not surprising,
then, that something similar might be done with the Law of God. The Law of God can
be turned into a checklist of things to do and not to do. The items can then be
checked off one by one. This might have been the mentality of the expert in the
Law in our Gospel reading who asked Jesus, “Which is the greatest commandment?”
Another way of asking the same thing would be, “What should be at the top of
the list?”
Jesus responds, “Love the Lord your God with all your
heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.” This is the first and
greatest commandment. The second is like it: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
That is what should be at the top of the checklist. In fact, these two things
can be the entire checklist. But here we run into a problem as far as checklist
gurus are concerned. One of the rules for good checklists is that the tasks on
the checklist actually have to be accomplishable. If a person puts something on
a checklist that can never be checked off, then what good is the checklist? For
example, if I put on my checklist, “1. Grow twelve feet taller, 2. Swallow the
moon with one gulp?” What good are such goals? It doesn’t matter how hard I try
or how much money I spend, such things are impossible. I can never check them
off.
What Jesus says we are supposed to do is also something that
cannot be accomplished. To love the Lord our God with all our heart, with all
our soul, and with all our mind means that we would be completely consumed or
obsessed with the Lord God. Sometimes people become obsessed with certain
things—maybe a hobby, maybe a job, maybe a love interest. When that happens all
that they want to think about and talk about and do has to do with the
obsession. But even with these things that we might enjoy getting obsessed
with, we are not doing it with all
our heart, all our soul, all our mind—maybe a good chunk of these
things, but not all of them. God says that we are to love him with every fiber
of our being so that there isn’t a scintilla left over for anything else. Even
those who are converted and are possessors of the Holy Spirit cannot do such a
thing in this life.
With the second part of Jesus’s answer we see something
similar. Loving God means that we thereby love our neighbor as ourselves, but
this is something that we cannot do in a genuine way. If you haven’t read the
quotation from Luther on the back of your bulletin yet, you should read that
sometime today. We might be friendly and nice to those who are friendly and
nice to us—a kind of “I’ll scratch your back; you scratch mine”—but such
friendliness and niceness dries up in a hurry when the other person does not
treat us nicely. Jesus does not say, “Love the neighbor who is your friend, but
hate and treat like dirt everybody else.” He simply says, “Love your
neighbor.” That includes those who would like to hurt you and do hurt you,
commonly known as your enemies. The very best that can ever happen in our
dealings with those who hurt us is hypocrisy. Maybe we can, with great effort,
pull off something that looks nice on the outside, but on the inside there is
going to be resentment and ill will. Even those who are converted and
possessors of the Holy Spirit, will find that there remains some part of them
that is not kindly disposed towards their enemies.
So with both elements of this checklist of the Law that
Jesus gives us, we have things that cannot be accomplished. We can’t love God
and we can’t love the neighbor. Nobody—not a single person—is able to do what
Jesus says we should do. Jesus himself is the only exception. So what do you do
with a checklist that you can’t ever check off? You pitch it. It’s a bad
checklist. Another checklist should be made. This is so obvious that we don’t
even really think about such things because they are ridiculous to think about.
For example, it is stupid for me to open my mouth bigger and bigger, working
hard at it every day, in the hopes that one day (if I never give up) I can
swallow the moon in one gulp. That is a waste of time. Some other goal or goals
should be set to make up our checklist.
This is what happens with Jesus’s words. They are not taken
seriously. Who tries to love God and the neighbor with even half their being? And
yet, nobody feels bad about this. Perhaps this is because nobody can do it, so
why feel bad? Nobody can swallow the moon in one gulp, either, so I don’t feel
bad about not being able to accomplish that. So what if I can’t love God with
all my heart, with all my soul, and with all my mind? We’re all in the same
boat. God can’t judge and condemn everybody, can he?
The answer, so far as the Bible is concerned, is that he can
and he does. The Bible says that no one is righteous, no, not even a single
one. The tragedy of sin is so massive that there isn’t a single one who hasn’t
been totally corrupted by it. And God means it when he gives this standard,
even though nobody is able to live up to it.
History proves this. At the time of the flood he wiped out
the entire human race save eight souls who were kept safe in the ark. He destroyed
the whole magnificent cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. Jesus says that at the time
of the end of the world it will be like it was at the time of the flood and at
the time of Sodom. At the time of the end of the world there will be very few
believers. The rest of the world will be condemned as evildoers.
This shows that God is not a liar like us. When he gives a
standard, you can be sure that that standard is not going to change. Whoever
does not love God with all his heart, with all his soul, and with all his mind
and his neighbor as himself is a bad person. That’s what God’s Law says. It
doesn’t matter that the whole world is thereby condemned. God is God, not you.
And so we would be making a terrible mistake if we allow
ourselves to be led astray by our reason into thinking that some other goals
for life is what we should be after instead of the ones that Jesus gives us in
our Gospel reading. That is a terrible mistake that is made all too often. We
want to be proud. We want to feel good. We want to be justified in whatever way
we live our life. The Law of God will not allow for any of these things. In
despair, even those who should know better go whoring after other gods.
But this is very foolish, because it is not just the Law
that God has given to us. He has also given us the good news of great joy that
is for all people. Unto us a child has been born. He is the Son of David, and
yet he is David’s Lord. He took upon himself all our sin. He took upon himself
the way that we have despised God, paying him no mind, and the selfishness that
has worked itself out in coldness toward our neighbor or even active hostility.
Jesus took upon himself the sins that you committed and suffered and died the
punishment that is due because of them. You made Jesus suffer with your sins.
And yet, Jesus did this gladly, for in this way atonement for sin was
accomplished, and sinners were saved.
God’s free grace is therefore offered to the entire world
without exception. No one is excluded because Jesus died for all. Yes, it’s
true that you are a poor miserable sinner. You have not loved God with your
little finger. But God has loved you and ransomed you, so that you no longer
belong to the devil, but to the Lord God. Through faith in Christ you have a
complete justification and righteousness before God that you could never
achieve on your own by trying to fulfill the Law. The Law says, “Do this,” and
it is never done. The Gospel says, “Believe this,” and it is done already.
God’s Word teaches us two things about ourselves that
couldn’t be more different from one another. God’s Word of Law teaches us that
we are damned sinners who deserve God’s punishment in this life as well as in
the next one in hell eternally. It is not God’s fault that this is so, nor is
it his Law’s fault. It is our fault. We are the ones who have not kept his Law.
The other Word of God, the Gospel, says that we are perfectly righteous before
God because we have the righteousness of Jesus that has been given to us as a
gift. According to the Gospel we do not have a single spot or blemish before
God for Jesus’s sake, even though we have sinned and, unfortunately, will
continue to sin because of this wretched sinful flesh.
Therefore, you must believe that God loves us completely,
just as he has loved his own dear Son Jesus. Jesus and we are one, we’ve been
united with him, and so the love of God radiates down upon us now in this life
as well as in the next in heaven eternally. This is what the birth, life,
death, and resurrection of Jesus has accomplished. What no man could do because
it is impossible, Jesus has done. According to these two Words of God we are
evil and belong in hell according to the Law, but according to the Gospel we
are holy and belong in heaven together with God.
These two teachings must both stand for the Christian Church
to continue to exist. Our reason is opposed to both of these teachings. Our
reason can never understand the Christian situation where we are both sinners
and saints at the same time. When reason takes the wheel, either the fullness
of the Law is pared back or the fullness of the Gospel is pared back to make
all this more understandable and seemingly believable.
However, wherever the fullness of the Law and the Gospel
rings out in spite of the protests of our reason there you are going to find
Christians—people who believe that they are loved by God for Jesus’s sake. The
Law and the Gospel creates a new life in the one who hears, and by the power of
the Holy Spirit, believes. New thoughts, new goals, new loves, new hopes are
instilled in such people so that they are set apart from the unbelieving world.
Christians want to go to heaven so that they can see Jesus who has sacrificed
himself for their salvation. They also want to go to heaven so that they can
finally begin to love God with all their heart, all their soul, and all their
mind, and be filled with love for every creature. Even with the first fruits of
the Holy Spirit that are given to us in this life, we do not really understand
the transformation that will take place with the resurrection from the dead
when our purification and sanctification will be complete. If we have ever
looked forward to anything, then we should realize that whatever it is, it
pales in comparison to heaven. No eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor has it
entered into the imagination of the heart of man what God has prepared for
those who love him.
Wisdom dictates, therefore, that we set aside whatever
thoughts come from our Old Adam and our reason and to embrace the teaching that
comes from the Holy Spirit. Jesus has redeemed us. He gives us his
righteousness as a gift. The Holy Spirit will sanctify us completely on the day
of Jesus’s second coming. This is what God says, and you should believe it.
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