The Greatest Commandment

As I watch the news or hear many conversations recently, I get discouraged. If I listen to everyone’s thoughts on the candidates, I feel greatly disappointed that we are where we are. It is very difficult to sort through the political minefield today and get to the facts on any candidate. Regardless of which candidate you will vote for there seems to be a mountain of arguments against all candidates and each election we tell ourselves we are voting for the lesser of two evils. Perhaps you are not in that mindset and if so I applaud you for being able to focus in this challenging season. I am reminded of a story in the bible where the Pharisees are seeking to discredit Jesus and how he handled the situation. Listen to Matthew 22:34-46

Matthew 22:33–46 NRSV

33 And when the crowd heard it, they were astounded at his teaching. 34 When the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, 35 and one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. 36 “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” 37 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.’ 38 This is the greatest and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” 41 Now while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them this question: 42 “What do you think of the Messiah? Whose son is he?” They said to him, “The son of David.” 43 He said to them, “How is it then that David by the Spirit calls him Lord, saying, 44 ‘The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at my right hand, until I put your enemies under your feet” ’? 45 If David thus calls him Lord, how can he be his son?” 46 No one was able to give him an answer, nor from that day did anyone dare to ask him any more questions.

Trouble in the Text

In the first verse we heard, it is mentioned that the Pharisees heard that the Sadducees had been silenced by Jesus. This means that while they tried to find something to discredit him by, they were unsuccessful. So the Pharisees thought it was there turn to try. In particular a lawyer, that is an expert in interpreting the Jewish law stepped forward and asked his question to test Jesus.

When you look at the situation of two religious groups here, it is concerning to see them trying to test or discredit Jesus. Why are they doing this? What sense does it make? In our 21st century minds it makes no sense and we can see them as enemies trying to fight against our Lord. However, it a 1st century time, it is a little different than that. These two groups had struggled hard for centuries in trying to preserve the Jewish culture and unity as a people. As a people they had been conquered more than a few times and in that century they were under Roman occupation. They were faced with Hellenistic influences that sought to blend religions together rather than recognizing the culture and people that made them distinct from other groups. They also faced a Roman occupier that is poised to put down any opposition to rule or threats. In the 1st century, there can be more than a few motivations for why the Sadducees and Pharisees sought to discredit and test Jesus over and over.

Perhaps they thought Jesus would start a revolution and feared the Roman occupiers would become hostile and put harsh measures in place that removed any autonomy they had related to worshipping God and teaching in the synagogues and Temple. Perhaps they feared that the Romans would kill many people to set an example against any thoughts of revolution. Perhaps they feared losing power and persuasion over the people. Perhaps it is none of these or all of these. At any rate, the problem was that they wanted to discredit and test Jesus. Jesus was ready and responded,

Trouble in the world

When I listen to this situation in the bible where opponents of Jesus sought to discredit him by testing him, I can’t help but think of the way today we do this same method with any opponents we face. When we disagree with someone, we seek to discredit them and prove them wrong and ourselves right. We see them as a threat our world and our ways of life. We have many reasons and rationalizations and justifications for why we act against others.

What is the last argument or debate you got into with another person? Did you see a social media post that you disagreed with? Did you see or hear something that was untruthful or slanderous towards something or someone you care about or are passionate about?

In keeping that last argument or debate in your mind, lets go one step further with it. Did you respond to it or did you walk away from that person? If you walked away do you now look at that person differently, maybe you look at them as ignorant or foolish or some other colorful word I won’t mention? If you did respond, did you convince them they were wrong and you were right? At the end of the day, did anything positive or hopeful come out of that situation?

I am going to go out on a limb and while in some cases it may have had a positive outcome, most times it does not. In most of these situations, people get hurt and relationships get damaged. We think less of others or maybe we don’t want any further contact with them. At any rate, nothing we do resulting from human thinking and action does any good. We need a new way or a different way in which we deal with conflict and differences that does not tear down or burn down the world like the current mood of the country. As Christians, we set a poor example to the rest of the world if this is how we deal with conflict. We set poor examples for our leaders if this is what we seem to thrive off of or always default to.

A story was shared with me this week that broke my heart to heart. I had a classmate share a personal story of himself and 4 year old son. His 4 year old hit the panic button on the alarm panel because big red buttons are tempting. What ensued after he quickly disabled the alarm and confirmed with the alarm company it was a false alarm, police arrived and handcuffed him and argued with him that he was not the owner of the house. When his 4 year old came to him yelling daddy daddy, the officers looked around and could see his photos on the wall and it was clear he was the homeowner. He was un-cuffed and they left without any further words of sorry for the confusion. When I look at it, it is easy for me to see a million ways in which it could have been handled better. As a police officer, there are probably reasons for which some of that may have been necessary. I don’t know all the facts and I cannot pass judgment on anything in the story. What did result in this is that he is one of many that 9 years later he is still haunted by that terrifying experience. His son is terrified of police officers. I bring this up because sometimes we look at a situation globally and the personal stories get lost in the mix.

For me, it is no different than how we treat politics, there are so many sides to every story that sometimes we pick one side and focus solely on that. We need a better way forward in social justice issues where we can help to heal harm that has been done to others and at the same time work on ways to prevent it happening in the future. We need to leave out the politicizing mentality of picking sides and digging in and get back to seeing one person and one story and asking God what we should do.

We need Jesus to help us change our ways.

Grace in the Text

In returning back to our story, it is interesting that while in this passage you don’t hear any response from the lawyer. However, in Mark’s gospel, the lawyer agrees wholeheartedly with Jesus’ response to his question. He sees and understands that Jesus does truly understand the heart of the law, the purpose of the law. To love God and love neighbor. In their dialogue Jesus even says to him you are not very far off from experiencing the kingdom of God. In the same way, the result of this test by the lawyer left all other questions unnecessary to ask. Jesus answered the question and spoke to the heart of the message of the law. We must love God with everything we are and love our neighbors as ourselves. Nothing else mattered as much as this.

We don’t know what the lawyer did after this. We do know there are stories of Nicodemus who secretly followed Jesus at first and in the end came out boldly for him. Jesus answer the heart of the issue here. While the crowds were listening to Jesus and the fears or other issues came out from opposing groups, the heart of the issue all came down to what is it we are supposed to be like. Jesus silenced any objections because what he taught was in perfect alignment with everyone (Jesus and the opposing groups) with what God expected out of everyone.

The second part of this passage focused on seeing more than the surface level of situations. In other words, Jesus found common ground they all agreed upon by the lawyers question. Jesus wanted to dig deeper with them. Verses 41-46 Jesus challenges them on the subject of the Messiah and the relationship with David. The Messiah based on this passage cannot be merely human because David calls him Lord. In other words, Jesus wanted them to see more than what they currently did. Jesus wanted them to know the Messiah not only taught correctly but also was greater in purpose. The Messiah is also Lord. When you think on that, Jesus was making a bold claim here that the Messiah was not just a human deliverer but also Lord. The title we assign to Jesus is Christ. This is the Greek word for Messiah. So Jesus connected for them the bigger picture that the Messiah they waited for was also the Lord. Jesus fulfilled both these roles as deliverer and Lord for the Jewish people.

Notice that Jesus sought a conversation rather than a confrontation. Jesus sought to help rather than prove them wrong. While Jesus does denounce them, it is after an attempt to engage them. Notice how he gives them something to ponder and instead of engaging they step away because it did not fit the agenda. Jesus gave the disciples, the crowd and even the people who opposed him grace to be engaged in the kingdom of God.

Grace in the world.

Jesus has been, is, and always will be extending grace to creation. We also benefit from Jesus reaching out with grace to teach us a better way. I don’t know the answer to our current climate of division other than changing one relationship at a time. It takes a re-centering of our own attitudes and getting back to the basics of what God asks of us. The same question the lawyer asked Jesus, we also need to answer this question ourselves to see how well we understand what God really wants us to be like. God did not make things complicated but quite the opposite. By grace, Jesus summed up the commandments, the thousands of rules and regulations down to something a child can understand. Love God with our whole beings and love our neighbors as ourselves. The same love Jesus demonstrated here by inviting his opponents to engage in conversation to learn from each other is still being offered to us today. When we see our role is to love God, we want to understand what that love looks like. Christ demonstrated this by listening and loving us even to the point of death on a cross. Christ loved us beyond the death and gave us hope in the resurrection. God loves us so much that he wants a deep intimate relationship with us, to be part of our lives.

God wants to talk with you, to hear your story as told by you. God wants what is best for you. God wants you fully restored and living in freedom from sin and brokenness. Just like the example of Nicodemus, Jesus did not selectively choose which of his opponents to offer hope for, he even offered it to the ones who only wanted to prove him wrong. There are times in life where we get frustrated and perhaps even angry at God or question whether God is present or helping. Jesus showed that even in the crowds that would turn on him, he still loved them. Jesus still loved his opponents even in the midst of them trying to prove he was not the messiah.

The same love and grace shown to us, the same love that we are returning back to God, we also need to be equally concerned with pouring that love and grace into our relationships with our neighbors. When we have disagreements or differing views, choose love and grace to respond by, even when it is not returned. You can hear their story, you can learn their point of view, even if you don’t agree with it at all. We can focus on the relationships that we build with our neighbors by loving them rather than disputing them or arguing with them or worse yet, writing them off.

I have had many conversations with people who think differently than what I think and believe differently than I believe or promote something that I do not support. In each of these situations, my initial reaction is, I don’t want to be part of this because this is not who I am or what I can support. However, once I got past my initial reaction and listened (this is what grace and love looks like), I got to know them as a person and often times heard more of their story and how they got to where they are in their own beliefs. This does not mean I changed my mind but it did allow me to be more open to loving them as a person, regardless of whether we were on opposite spectrum on some hot button topic. When you focus more on finding ways in which you move past the mentality of fixing their incorrect belief or attitude, you start to hear them more clearly from their own story rather than assumptions we make about them. The more that person feels heard by you, the more open they are to hearing from you, even though they disagree with you. This is engaging in dialogue and by looking to Jesus’ grace demonstrated, take the lead and reach out to hear the other person. You probably know what it feels like to not be heard clearly or talked over or ignored. Remember exactly how that feels and remember love is the opposite of that feeling. To be seen and heard by God invigorates you, you feel loved by God. To be seen and heard by your neighbor works the same way in that you feel seen and heard which means you feel loved by others.

As I said earlier, God wants you to tell him your story because he wants to hear it from your point of view. Even though he knows your story, he still wants to hear it from you, with everything you experienced from your point of view. Listen to your neighbor, seek to love them as Christ has loved you. Let that same love and grace Christ has poured into you, flow out of you and into your neighbor.