Homily Preview 10/29/2023

We are back in Matthew this week for our homily. Last Sunday Leigh Pylman preached a great sermon on the passage where Jesus says: "Render unto Caesar what is Caesar's and to God what is God's". If you didn't hear it, I encourage you to listen to it online.

This Sunday I I come along a few verses later in the same general context of Matthew where the religious leaders, the elite who hold power in Jerusalem, are continuing to bait Jesus with insincere questions designed to be traps. But just like all the other times, Jesus gives an answer that further indicates that he is the one in the room who is wise and who represents Yahweh and the Old Testament law truthfully and fully.

The exchange this week revolves around the question: "Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” Jesus answer is simple and profound.  "He said to him, 'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’  This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’  On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”

I look forward to thinking with you all about what this meant in its original context and how we might learn from it in our place in time.