Matthew 22:34-40

William F. Schnell

October 26, 2008

   The title of our message for today is “The Supremacy Clause.”  The Supremacy Clause is the common name given to Article VI, Clause 2 of the United States Constitution providing that federal law is superior to and overrides state law when they conflict.  This requires all judges to uphold federal law even when it means preempting the laws of their own states which conflict with it.  Similarly, judgments of the Supreme Court can override judgments of all other inferior courts. 

   Churches also have “Supremacy Clauses.”  Ours is stated in our Code of Regulations thus: “The government of this church is vested in its members and it shall be subject to no denominational body in its faith or practice, except that it shall strive to cooperate with all religious bodies and share their common aims and work.”  In other words, ours is a congregationally governed church with final authority residing with the congregation.  Any staff initiative, any board decision or any committee vote can be overturned by the congregation when meeting to conduct church business. 

   In the Roman Catholic Church authority is arranged hierarchically, with the pope being the supreme authority.  A supremacy clause may be found in the Catechism of the Catholic Church: “For the Roman Pontiff, by reason of his office as Vicar of Christ, and as pastor of the entire Church has full, supreme, and universal power over the whole Church, a power which he can always exercise.”  An example of papal infallibility would be his ex cathedra teachings which are upheld by Cardinals, Bishops, Priests and ultimately the people in the pews.

   So while the Christian Church evidences many different polities or governing arrangements, there is always a supreme authority stipulated by a supremacy clause.  I believe our assigned text for today from the Revised Common Lectionary is such a supremacy clause which can help inform our understanding of the myriad religious rules and regulations, the various teachings and theologies, the innumerable dogmas, doctrines and decrees, not to mention the many commandments, ordinances, precepts and laws that are articulated throughout Christian scriptures, history and tradition. 

   Religion is a very complex thing and therefore easily misunderstood and misused.  Therefore it is very important to have a supreme principle from which all subsequent understandings are derived and against which they may be properly understood.  Today we are going to find that supreme principle—that supremacy clause--articulated in our text, which begins with a little contextual background.  Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together (Verse 34).

   It is said that one should not mix politics and religion, but the Sadducees and the Pharisees had done just that by becoming the political/religious parties of their day.  Normally they were at odds with one another, much like Democrats and Republicans can be at odds with one another today.  However in the case of a common enemy, they tend to come together as one.  The Sadducees and Pharisees had found a common enemy in Jesus.  Jesus interpreted scripture differently than they.  Jesus did not abide by their religious rules and regulations.  Worst of all, Jesus’ disrespect of their authority was becoming contagious among the masses.  In short, Jesus had to go.

   And so they plotted together against him.  They plotted how to discredit him, they plotted how to get him to slip up with the Roman powers-that-be, they plotted how to arrest him and they plotted how to kill him.  All this plotting took place behind the scenes because the Sadducees and Pharisees were, after all, religious leaders, and religious folk are supposed to be above reproach.   Religious folk learn to hate in the most nuanced ways.

   I learned beginning Greek from a Marianist Priest named Father Drisenour at St. Mary’s University in San Antonio, Texas.  I was the only fellow who signed up for the class, so he taught me at the dormitory where he and the other members of the order resided.  Father Drisenour had taken a vow of poverty which I respected greatly.  One day I saw two priests walking down the hall toward each other.  They passed and went on their way without saying a word.  I asked Father Drisenour if the two had taken a vow of silence.  He said, “No, they do not like each other.  They haven’t spoken to each other for 20 years.”

   This absolutely floored me at the time, naive pre-seminarian that I was.  Then I took Greek Readings at the Lutheran Seminary in Columbus and noticed that certain seminarians would not eat with other seminarians who were more liberal or conservative than they.  But it was while I was at the Methodist Seminary that I saw passive aggressive Christianity developed into an art form.  It is really interesting to hear prayer used as a weapon.  Imagine struggling through an inaugural sermon in front of a homiletics class and having a competitor in the congregation shout, “Help him Lord.”

   And so it is that the Pharisees found the most learned fellow among them and sent him to do what the Sadducees had been unable to do, which was to trap Jesus in his words (a la Sarah Palin).  One of them, and expert in the law, tested him with this question: “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the law?” (Verses 35-36).  Keep in mind that there were 613 Mitzvot, or commandments, that good observant Jews were required to keep, including 365 negative commandments (or things not to do) which corresponded with each day of the solar year, and 248 positive commandments (things to do) ascribed to the number of bones and significant organs in the human body.

   Which commandment was the greatest among them all, hmmm, I think I would have to use one of my lifelines, but not Jesus.  Jesus replied: “’Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment” (Verses 37-38).  Excellent answer!  Jesus quoted the Shema, which was the centerpiece of all morning and evening Jewish prayer services and closely echoes the monotheistic message of Judaism.  This prayer is written on a small piece of parchment and rolled up and inserted into a mezuzah, which is attached to the doorframes of Jewish homes.  Observant Jews to this day will always touch it on the way in and out the door, sometimes kissing their finger in the process. 

   But then Jesus qualifies his answer with a second commandment.  “And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”  Here he is quoting a text from Leviticus 19:18.  More importantly Jesus is summarizing the Ten Commandments, the first tablet defining our relationship with God (have no other gods, don’t make idols, don’t misuse God’s name, remember the Sabbath), and the second tablet defining our relationships with one another (honor parents, don’t murder, commit adultery, steal, lie or covet). 

   But most important of all Jesus is yoking these two commandments because, if you think about it, there is no other way to express our love for God than by loving his other children.  We can’t buy him anything from Walmart, we can’t send him to Cabo for a vacation, and we can’t mow his lawn.  The only thing we can do for God is love his other children.  Oh, I suppose that we can tell him we love him through praising and praying and preaching.  It’s nice to hear someone say, “I love you.”

   I like it when people say they love me and my sermons and my awesome talent and extreme good looks.  Sure it feels good to hear a little praise now and then, especially during Pastor Appreciation Month, and it makes me favorably disposed to those who express such things.  But I have to say that if somebody said kind words about me and then went out and mistreated my son or daughter, I’d have a real problem with that!  You cannot love me and mistreat my kids.  Mistreating my kids would make any kind words you have to say about me absolutely hollow and meaningless.

   And so it goes with God.  We can praise him all we want, but if we mistreat his other children he is going to have a real problem with that.  Who are his children anyway?  Jesus calls them our neighbors in this text.  In another text—a.k.a. “The Parable of the Good Samaritan”—Jesus uses the word “neighbor” to describe a Samaritan.  A modern day equivalent of that story would be called “The Parable of the Good Muslim.”  And to be an accurate equivalent, not only would an Iranian Muslim be the good guy, and American Priest, Pastor and Rabbi would be the not-so-good guys.  No wonder shock-jock Jesus got into so much trouble with the powers-that-be in his world.

   Jesus’ point would be that we are all God’s children, from Iranians to Inuits.  God has a problem when we hate his other children, especially when we hate them in his name.  Case in point: the religious leaders from Sadducees to Pharisees--from Chief Priests to Experts in the law—hate Jesus who is God’s only begotten son.  They hate God in the name of God.  They may fastidiously keep 613 commandments, but they violate the greatest of them all.  They fail to love God by loving his other children, beginning with Jesus.

   Jesus concludes:  “All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments” (Verse 40).  This is the Supremacy Clause of the Bible.  All other commandments must be understood in terms of this clause and measured in terms of this clause.  We are not only to love our neighbors, we are to love those who have made themselves our enemies just as Jesus demonstrated when he prayed for his enemies while they

   We are to love all God’s children everywhere—no exceptions.  Granted, some children need disciplined, as when Jesus drove out the moneychangers in the temple area, but there is a difference between disciplining in love and demonizing and destroying with hate in our hearts.  When we act out the hate in our hearts for God’s other children, God has a real problem with that.  We can shout, “Lord, Lord” all the while we are doing it, but we are closing the doors to the Kingdom of Heaven in our own faces. 

   We can differ on the doctrines and theologies, we can agree to disagree agreeably on the patterns and practices of worship, we can take issue over the polities and the approaches to interpreting scriptures, but we cannot ignore the Supremacy Clause and we cannot violate the two greatest commandments of them all, upon which all the others hang.  Neighbors among the races of the world, brothers and sisters in the extended family of the faithful, children of God by every name he is known, let us love one another.  Amen.