Eighteenth Sunday after Trinity

St. Matthew 22:34-46

October 4, 2026

Theologians enjoy abstract questions. But theology is not abstract. It’s darkness and light. Joy and despair. Life and death. Drowning and emerging.

Theologians ask Jesus an abstract question. “What’s the greatest commandment?” They had numbered them, you see. The Books of Moses had 613 commandments. 365 positive, 248 negative. And then comes the question: How are they ranked? Which one’s most important?

This level of abstraction is folly. The problem isn’t the ranking. It’s the doing.

The Lord Jesus cuts through the endless categorizing and theorizing. The words aren’t for abstraction or analysis. “If you love God, keep the commandments,” Jesus says to the Rich Young Ruler. Don’t count the commandments. Don’t classify the commandments. Do them.

They’re summarized in one word: Love. One word in two parts: Love God, Love your neighbor.

The commandment to love exposes us. “He who does not love his brother abides in death” [1 Jn 3.14]. Whom have you failed to love?

Your body is dying. Is this also true of your soul? Is there any life left? Is it still possible for you to repent?

For repent we must. Jesus demands it.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus responds to the abstract question with what seems like another: “What do you think about the Christ? Whose Son is He?” What lies behind these questions?

It’s this: The Lord Jesus is saying, “You’re asking about commandments, how to rank and order them. But you should be asking about what happens when you break them.”

Everything seems broken. Our politicians have betrayed us. Money is tight. Being a parent is really hard. Friends are fickle. Then along comes the Law, demanding I love God and my neighbor, with everything I’ve got. And the truth is, I’ve got nothing left. Our human loves are deeply disordered. St. Augustine put it this way:

“But my sin was this, that I looked for pleasure, beauty, and truth not in [H]im but in myself and [H]is other creatures, and the search led me instead to pain, confusion, and error.” -Confessions I.20

The question, “Whose Son is He?” points the way out of pain, confusion, and error. Forget for a moment the mystery of the two natures in one person—that the Lord Jesus is both true man and true God. That’s important, of course. But ponder simply this: God searched you out. The birth, the cross, the mission of Jesus is God coming for your rescue.

“Whose Son is He?” God’s Son. For no man can redeem himself. You can’t fix your own problems, let alone the world’s. Also, no politician or priest can help; no therapist or physician can heal us.

We need One from the outside.

The Child in Mary’s arms is God, assuming our flesh, entering our darkness and despair. The Man whose arms are pinned to the tree is God, dying our death. Everything I try leads me to “pain, confusion, and error.” God becomes man, and for pain He gives healing, for confusion He gives clarity, for error He gives truth.

Why? The answer is in those commandments, to love God and love neighbor. The commandments we have not kept describe who God is. He is the One who loves, who gives, who sacrifices. That one word describes His disposition toward you.

If you look up the Ten Commandments in the Bible, in Exodus 20, you’ll find before you even get to what we call the First Commandment, “You shall have no other gods before Me” - before that, the LORD says, “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt.” “I will be your God, and you will be My people.” It’s an articulation of love that precedes human action.

Before the commandment comes the promise. Before the Law already there is love. We fail, He forgives.

And then what? Others fail us, and we forgive. Because we are His people. That’s who God call you to be when you are baptized.

So to the child drawn up from the waters, like Moses, we can then say, “Whose son is he?” And the answer moves from earthly parents to God the Father. Now He says to you, “You are My beloved son; in you I am well pleased.” And the Lord Jesus says, “You are My little brother/sister; I walk with you through fire and flood. Perverse and foolish often you stray, but still in love I seek you, and on My shoulders gently lay, and home rejoicing bring you.” And the Holy Spirit animates you, and breathes out from your groans and sighs prayers beyond words.

The Law says, “Love!” and reveals your sin.

Whose Son is the Christ? God’s Son. In Him is love. He redeems you, though you lack all merit and worthiness.

Whose son are you? You’re baptized. You’re God’s son. In you He is now well-pleased.

And in that good pleasure, you love and forgive the sinners around you. Not because it’s the Law. Because it’s who you are. +INJ+