Matthew 22:34-46 Commentary

These two sections seem like odd bedfellows, as though Jesus seized the opportunity of having the Pharisees “gathered together” to give them a little food for thought. But maybe they are more connected than they seem.

Are these the same Pharisees that sent their servants to challenge and entrap Jesus earlier in the chapter (last week’s lectionary passage)? Have they already received their servants’ report—that Jesus is amazing? A part of me hopes that it was so, and that the Pharisees, having heard about Jesus from their servants and hearing about his ability to meet the challenge of the Sadducees (skipped by the lectionary), now want to encounter this teacher for themselves. Maybe, just maybe, their desire to test Jesus this time isn’t about catching Jesus out but about seeing whether he is worth listening to.

Noting that the Pharisee who speaks to Jesus is a lawyer is a bit of overkill. Pharisees are already experts on interpreting the law, but telling us that he is a lawyer seems to me to emphasise that this is a well-informed audience who is going to have strong opinions about whatever Jesus says in response. 

As Donald Hagner points out in his Word Biblical Commentary Series, Jesus’s answer seems to sit just fine with the Pharisees since they offer no rebuttal or critique. (In the Luke version of this conversation the Pharisee asks a follow-up, and in Mark the Pharisee praises Jesus’s answer.) As experts in the law, they see the wisdom in what Jesus identifies: instead of identifying one specific law, the two laws that summarise all of God’s intentions are most important.

Of course, these two laws exist in the Hebrew Bible. The Shema is in Deuteronomy 6:5 and the call to love one’s neighbour is in Leviticus 19:18. And better than any other single command, these two help us understand how we are to be, not just what we are to do or not do. Love is a disposition, a choice, an act of worship that takes all of who we are to reach its fulfillment. Love is the way that we bear the image of the one we belong to, the way we give to God what belongs to God (last week’s text).

The Pharisees appear to be open to this sort of wisdom, able to consider their field of knowledge from a grander scope or perspective. It seems to me that this ability to widen one’s vision is what Jesus is attempting to turn to another area of shared interest: the identity of the Messiah. Their ability to widen their sense of who the Messiah is—from a human “son of David” to the union of the human and divine standing right in front of them—is pivotal in leading them to acknowledging Jesus as Messiah and Lord.

Essentially, Jesus knows that they can think differently and he is giving them something to chew on for a while. If they do so, they will realize that some of the things that they have figured out (especially about who God is) need to be unsettled a bit. If they allow that to happen, then they will be able to encounter God in new, wisdom-filled ways.

Like their servants and the Sadducees before them, the Pharisees are amazed by the way Jesus interacts with and challenges them. They too walk away silent, knowing when it’s time to just be quiet and sit with what you’ve heard. 

The gospel writer tells us that after all of these volleys and invitations to awareness, no one else dared to ask Jesus any questions. It seems like they decide to not wander further down the road of curiosity with God and instead will choose to cling to the things they clung to before they met with Christ. It does not have to be this way! We can choose to follow God’s prompts to expansive understanding and experience with him. We can be open to the Spirit’s wisdom, not only in the way we bear God’s image through love but also in remembering that Jesus Christ is always more than we know him to be. 

Textual Point

There is a pattern in the gospel of Matthew for when religious leaders want to challenge Jesus: they call him “Teacher.” We see it in three times in chapter 22 as well as earlier in the book. What at first seems like a term of respect turns into a biting, snarky, and manipulative weapon.

Illustration Idea

I was introduced to a guessing game at the high school I teach. It consists of trying to guess the object in a picture, starting way zoomed in and slowly moving backwards, like this series. Interestingly, I think this game fits for both of the sections of our passage today. First, it reminds us that our small acts of love for God and neighbour weave together and reveal the whole of who we are and who we belong to. Similarly, Jesus’s riddle about the Son of David being the Messiah reminds us that we don’t always see the whole when we’re considering things; sometimes we need to change the perspective or scope of vision to realize how we’d been limiting our own understanding.