Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law? Jesus replied Loved the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and all your mind.

I love westerns. I read all the Louis L’More books some two times. I continue to watch John Wayne movies. How many of you know the name of the longest running TV western? I’ll give you a hint. It ran from 1955 to 1975, there was a character who had a mule named Ruth. It was set in Dodge City. Most of us would know it was Gunsmoke.

How many of you can name the actress who played Miss Kitty? (Amanda Blake) Name the character that Dennis Weaver played? (a stiff-legged Chester Goode) Who played the blacksmith, Quint Asper during the 62-65 seasons? (Burt Reynolds) Marshal Dillon spent a lifetime keeping the peace and rounding up outlaws and bad men who often were hold up over in the ……Longbranch Saloon.

Last week Jesus got word that the Sadducees were hol’ up in the Longbranch Synagogue. Things were getting ugly, there was a lot of tough talk about there being no resurrection. There was talk about doing in this Jesus. You can almost hear, the deputy hobbling down, “Marshal! Marshal! Come quick there’s trouble. With a long sigh the Jesus got up, looked up and down the streets of that dusty town and slowly headed for the Longbranch.

Once He was through those swinging doors the piano player stopped. People, sensing there would be trouble, began moving out of the way. The Marshal, although outnumbered, begins to stare the Sadducee boys down. The big one is the first to speak. Mockingly he says, “Teacher, …Moses told us that if a man dies without having children, this brother must marry the widow and have children for him. He moves in on Jesus his ugly brothers beginning to circle around Him. Now lets say there were seven bothers…the first married and he died. Since he had no children his second brother married and he too died. The same thing happened, dying without children, from the first to the last. Now then Mister Fancy Pants, Son of God, God’s Marshal, whose wife will she be at the resurrection?” The big ugly one had taken a swing at Jesus figuring it wouldn’t take much to take out this hayseed from Galilee.

With lightning in his fists, Jesus took down the ugly one with the crashing blow, “You don’t know the scriptures, not the words nor their intent.” With the skill of someone who had been up against the likes of Satan and with rock hard truths He took on all the brothers and when the dust had settled not one of them was standing. And those who saw this, They were astonished at His teachings.

You would think this would be enough, that the word would get out not to mess around with one called Jesus, God’s Marshal, but that’s never how it works.

Jesus hadn’t any more taken care of the Sadducee boys when his deputy came in all out of breath, “Marshal! Marshal Jesus, it’s the Pharisees! They ‘done heard’ how you silenced the Sadducees and they are coming for you. They are down at the Livery right now.”

By the time Jesus was halfway down the street, the Pharisee brothers were spread out across the street. The town folk began scurrying for cover. There wasn’t much talking. The leader drew first, firing the question with a sneer, “ Which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”

Jesus knew that these Pharisees, these so called Keepers of the Law had added to God’s commandments. They’d come up with 613 commandments: 248 do’s and 365 don’ts. The weight of these extra commandments made them slow and unable to hit their mark. Before the Pharisee had “cleared leather” Jesus nailed him in the heart with the Word of God. He hit him the Words, Love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your mind and all your soul. ..Love your neighbor as yourself. To the other Pharisees who were too sacred to move, Jesus quietly said, all the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments… .and no one not one of those Pharisee boys dared to ask Him any more questions.

I hope you love those kinds of stories as much as I do. I remember when growing up, I could almost see myself with the Marshal fighting for what was good taking on the outlaws. As, I grew up, I realized I was there all right, but in my sinfulness was hanging out with the wrong crowd, riding on the wrong side of the Law, and so are you.

In our sinfulness, we can be found hanging around with the Sadducee brothers doubting God’s Word. We talk tough saying we know more than God does- “I know best for me, I don’t need your Bible study, preaching, nor your Sunday meetings”

We are riding with the wrong brand when we find ourselves giving a head nod of approval to sayings like “all roads lead to heaven,” “it doesn’t matter what you believe as long as your sincere.” We are in trouble when we walk in here to this place (church) and forget whose magnified presence we’ve come into.

And as for riding with the Pharisees, we’d like to think we’d never do that but look again. Have you ever found yourself thinking God owed you one? Ever found yourself demanding of God that your will not His be done in your life? Ever find yourself looking down your nose at someone because he or she is one of “those sinners”? The truth is in our sinfulness we are the guys in the “black hats.”

Left to our own devices we’d perish. Worse than just pushing daisies on Boothill, we’d be in Hell where there is a tormented, weeping and a gnashing of teeth that never ends, but God did not leave us to that fate. In the westerns when all looked lost, a hero comes on the scene. Well, the hero I tell you of is not fictitious. He really lived. He came down from heaven and took up our humanity. That real life hero is Jesus, and he came down from heaven that we might not perish but have eternal life.

Often in the westerns is that one climatic scene when all the odds are against the hero. This is best depicted in the Louis L’More westerns. The hero has been drygulched by the bad guys, beaten to within an inch of his life, and now with all the odds stacked against him has to face down the bad guy. Of course, despite it all the good guy triumphs.

Things went quite a bit different for our real life hero, Jesus. He was drygulched, sold out by one of his own. He was taken and beat’in to within an inch of his life, so disfigured that the prophet Isaiah wrote He was despised and rejected by men…He was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities…He was oppressed and afflicted. (Is 53.3, 5,7) Then they took Him out and they crucified Him.

Jesus could have stopped them all, but He didn’t. Jesus with just a Word could have had them all “ten toes up,” but He didn’t. Jesus could have stepped off the cross, but He didn’t. He took the beating and suffering that should have been ours. He died the death that should have been ours. Then, they took Him down and they buried Him in a tomb that should have been ours. All seemed lost and not much made sense.

Jesus died because He knew sin had all of us on the wrong side of the Law, God’s Law. God’s justice demands that sin, all sin, our sins of twisting God’ s Word, our sins of trusting in our works and reason over God’s, and all the other sins we managed to commit on our own must be paid for- someone did the crime and someone must now do the time, but in our sinful fallen condition none of us could pay the price. Our pockets are empty and the heels of our boots are rundown. Jesus knew that, and this is why he came to do the time and pay the price that had been set for sin. That time and place was the cross. The price was His life in exchange for ours. He died that we might live. The story doesn’t end there. With God’s justice satisfied He rose from the dead. He rose up not seeking revenge for all that had been done to Him. He rose forgiving all of us whose sins He suffered and died for. He rose up to make decent folks of us all. He did that by giving us a full pardon for our sins. That pardon comes to us by and through His Word and Sacraments.

Jesus lived, died, and rose again so that we can quit the outlaw trail and put down roots. He even left us a sidekick, what western is complete without a sidekick. He left us the Holy Spirit. It is that Spirit who rides with us and keeps us out of trouble. He turns us from idols to serve the living and true God. (1Thess 1.9) He calls us back when we begin to stray, and He keeps looking forward to the day that Jesus will come again from heaven.

Out there are people in all kinds of peril. Some have been drygulched by Satan, others by life. Some are living an outlaw’s life and they don’t realize where they are headed. They need to hear of our Jesus. But how will they hear if no one goes after them. “They are in need of help. Time’s a wast’in, let’ s ride.”

Amen