Over the last few Sundays, we’ve heard several of Jesus’ parables: the parable of the two sons where one son says he will and then doesn’t and the other says he won’t be then does;
the parable of the tenant farmers who wouldn’t pay what they should to the landowner, ultimately killing the landowner’s son when he came to collect from them;
and the parable of the wedding party given by a king, but none of the invited guests came, so he had his servants go and invite everyone they could find in the streets and roads.
The pharisees and sadducees weren’t really too happy about Jesus’ teaching methods because they had a hunch he was talking about them. So, they came up with three “gotcha” questions. First up, the pharisees who asked him about paying taxes to the government. Jesus got them to answer their own question and stymied them.
Next up, the Sadducees, who didn’t believe in the resurrection. (That’s why they were sad, you see.) They tried to trap Jesus with a riddle of who would marry whom in this resurrection that they didn’t believe in. Once again, Jesus turns their question back on them, telling them that they don’t know scripture nor understand God’s power.
Finally, the pharisees decide to pitch what they think is a curve ball to strike him out. They bring out a lawyer and try to catch him with a question about the law. The law that began with Moses’ trip up the mountain and bringing down the Ten Commandments. “Which is the greatest commandment of the Law”, the lawyer asks?
Jesus answers by quoting Deuteronomy 6:5 — ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and first commandment.’ And a second is like it:
‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.’”
For the life of me, I don’t understand why the lawyer asked this question of Jesus. The very next verse in Deuteronomy says, “Keep these words that I am commanding you today in your heart. Recite them to your children and talk about them when you are at home and when your are away, when you lie down and when you rise.”
Surely Jesus had heard them all of his life. Did the lawyer think that Jesus was just some rube from Nazareth and wouldn’t know?
Jesus not only knew the answer, but understood it. In my thinking, the pharisees, scribes, and sadducees knew the law, could cite it chapter and verse, but they didn’t understand it. They didn’t understand that the Law wasn’t just a list of things to do or not do to avoid punishment, but a way of living in such a way as to truly live in community — in communion — with each other, caring for one another, from the least to the greatest. And, in doing so, being in communion with God intimately. Jesus reminded them that the Law could be condensed into two simple, meaningful statements:
Love God completely.
Love your neighbor as yourself.
Jesus doesn’t separate the two. The second — love your neighbor as yourself — is the natural consequence of the first. Love of God becomes visible through love of the person standing next to you. No matter who that person is.
Our Collect for today asks God to “make us love what you command…”
The Christian life isn’t simply, “Here are a couple of good rules; try to follow them.” Being Christian isn’t merely strict obedience to a list of commandments. The goal is that our hearts should actually come to love the things God loves. Above all, we should love God and love our neighbor.
What does it mean to love God? It means that we should love God in the same way that God loves us. We love God by loving our neighbor.
In First John, (Chapter 4:7–9), the author states: “Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love. God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him.”
In short, God’s love is self-giving. God loves us by giving of God’s self in Jesus. In this act of self-giving, God reveals to us what authentic love is. The Greek word here is agape. Agape means something much deeper than affection, attraction or sentiment. It is love that seeks the good of the other and gives itself for the other. And, in First John 4:19, we’re told: “We love because he loved us first.”
God doesn’t love us because we’re lovable. Lord knows, we aren’t. God doesn’t love us because we’ve earned it. Lord knows we haven’t. God is love. And God’s love comes before all time. If God is love eternally, then love isn’t something God began doing after creating human beings. Love belongs eternally to God’s own being. Love is the very substance of God.
Love of God and love of neighbor cannot be separated. At the deepest level of God’s being, God is eternally self-giving. In Jesus that divine love becomes manifest and visible to us; and when we receive that love, we are drawn into it and become capable of extending it to others.
As I pondered our lessons for today in which the word “love” is so prominent, a hymn came to mind, which has the verse: “And they will know we are Christians by our love.” In other words, if God’s love is made visible in Jesus, then Christian love is made visible in loving our neighbors. Loving our neighbors can be made visible in many diverse ways. How can we self-give as God gives?
Seeing the person others overlook — the lonely, elderly, poor, unpopular or otherwise easily ignored. Jesus repeatedly notices people passed by unseen by others.
Giving without expecting repayment. Time, money, hospitality, transportation, meals, companionship, practical help, without expectations of the favor being returned.
Listening before judging. Taking another’s suffering, fears or convictions seriously, even if we disagree. Scripture instructs us to be
“quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger.”
Forgiving. This is perhaps one of the most distinctively Christians acts of love. And, I would add, for me, one of the hardest to do. It doesn’t mean pretending that an injury didn’t happen or allowing abuse to continue. It means refusing to let vengeance have the final word.
Serving when no one is watching. Christian love isn’t concerned with receiving recognition for being virtuous. It’s about seeking to bring about God’s reconciliation of the world to God by deeds of love, seeking God’s glory in the world, not our own.
Standing with someone who is suffering. Visiting the sick, accompanying someone who is grieving, feeding someone who is hungry, welcoming the stranger, caring for someone who cannot manage alone. Jesus makes these acts extraordinarily important in Matthew 25:31-46 “in as much as you did it to one of the least of these…you did it to me.”
Treating others as you would like to be treated. Of course, this is the so-called Golden Rule, but isn’t it another way of saying love your neighbor as yourself?
There is an interesting thread running through all of these: Christian love is costly. Christian love tends to cost something of the person doing the loving — time, convenience, money, pride, or simply the effort required to pay attention.
Jesus says in John 13:35, “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
The truth of the Gospel, our credibility as Christians is demonstrated by the character of the community proclaiming the Gospel.
A church can have correct doctrine, beautiful worship, impressive buildings, active youth program, eloquent preaching and charismatic leadership. But if its members are contemptuous of those different from them, indifferent to suffering, blind to injustice and hatred, then something is missing from its witness.
We can say, “God is love” but if we just talk the talk but not walk the walk, then as Paul says in his first letter to the Corinthians, “If I speak in the tongues of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.”
At the end of the service, the deacon dismisses the congregation often with the familiar words, “Go in peace to love and serve the Lord.” The two are inseparable. Loving God and serving God are intertwined. Loving God is made visible in loving our neighbor. Serving God is made visible in serving our neighbor.
