The Commandment to Love
Matthew 22:34-46
When the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, and one of them, an expert in the law, asked him a question to test him. “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” 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.’ 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.” Now while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them this question: “What do you think of the Messiah? Whose son is he?” They said to him, “The son of David.” He said to them, “How is it then that David by the Spirit calls him Lord, saying, ‘The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at my right hand, until I put your enemies under your feet” ’? “If David thus calls him Lord, how can he be his son?” No one was able to give him an answer, nor from that day did anyone dare to ask him any more questions.
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There's a story about a Jewish sage and scholar, Hillel the Elder, who encountered a gentile who wanted to convert, but only if Hillel could explain the Torah within the time the gentile could stand on one foot. Hillel gently tells the prospective convert, "What is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow: this is the whole Torah; the rest is the explanation; go and learn." (Babylonian Talmud, Shabbat 31a)
As we look at the entirety of the Word of God and the teachings of Jesus, we discover that love is at the core, and everything else is an explanation. Yet, these days, it feels as though we have drifted away from the heart of what makes up the life way of God and instead substituted the command to love God and neighbor with a distorted truth that emphasizes the love of self and self-righteousness.
I often hear complaints about "young people" not showing respect or people in general not holding social decorum. Yet, the truth is that we, too, have not set a good example for each other or for the next generation regarding how we love our neighbor.
It seems people feel entitled to call the staff of politicians and bureaucrats they do not like and threaten them; we hear about ongoing racial/religious discrimination (such as Wadea Al-Fayoume, a 6-year-old in Illinois who was stabbed to death), and with the ongoing conflict in Palestine-Israel, there is a rise across the board of anti-semitic/anti-Muslim acts.
We cannot trust that politicians will teach us how to love our neighbor, and we cannot turn to economic systems that view love or neighbors as a favor or commodity to be bought and sold for more. That is where Jesus enters the picture. Jesus, who so often is painted as being at odds with the religious leaders of his days, demonstrates that the teaching of loving one another transcends even deep divides.
Jesus continues to overturn our expectations, preconceived notions, and biases and transforms them. For all the times we attempt to limit the scope of love, Jesus swoops in to expand our ability to love. Or, at the very least, Jesus pokes, prods, and turns us in the direction we need to be going to embrace our neighbors in love. Jesus understands and wants us to realize that life is more prosperous (not when we have the most material goods or won the most fights) when we live it together and embrace the image of God in one another.
It takes an act of love to inspire love, to be love, to live as love made incarnate by Jesus Christ. We should make loving our neighbor a priority. It is the good news of the gospel! And if we love more and believe in that love, we will embody it sincerely and authentically. Lord knows that we need to exercise love (hopeful love) now more than ever. And isn't that what we are called to embody? We are bound not by earthly loyalties but to the sacred calling of living in the kin-dom of God.
How will you love your neighbor today and tomorrow and the day after tomorrow? How will you love your neighbor in such a way that each time you love, you honor the spark of the Creator that exists within them? We need one another if we are to thrive in this thing we call life and faith; it is not something that we can do alone or with an attitude that detracts, not adds, to the kin-dom of God. And if you aren't sure how to love your neighbor, sometimes it's just showing solidarity or letting them know you are there for them.
During my previous call, I received news that White supremacists vandalized a local synagogue's menorah. After hearing what happened, I worked with other church members to organize an interfaith gathering in one of the local parks to stand in solidarity with our Jewish siblings. It was a moment that will stick with me because we didn't have the answers to solve centuries of anti-semitism or eradicate ignorance or hate, but we did have the power to stand with our neighbors in love and to be with them.
I mention this instance because it is essential for us to stand, especially with our neighbors who are vulnerable because of their race, gender, or religion. And the work of loving our neighbor never ceases, as just recently, a swastika with the name "Adolf Hitler" was found carved into a school tennis court in the same town as the synagogue we stood with almost a year before.
Jesus' reminder to love our neighbor and subsequent conversation with the religious leaders who gathered around him reminds us that we are only people, people who, in many ways, are also broken. Who among us has not required the love or help of a neighbor? Who among us has not made a mistake that required grace and forgiveness from a neighbor? Jesus embodies the standard of living in a complex world while still having the capacity to love and converse even with those whom we might not see eye to eye.
One of my favorite theologians, Gustavo Gutiérrez, once wrote, "The neighbor, as has been said, is not the one whom I find in my path, but rather the one in whose path I place myself, the one whom I approach and actively seek." We find in scripture that Jesus sought out neighbors of all sorts, including prostitutes, tax collectors, Roman soldiers, and religious leaders. Perhaps the lesson for us today is the reminder that our definition of neighbor is constantly growing. Maybe we must expand our hearts' capacity to love, as Jesus demonstrated.
In a cultural climate rife with division, fear, and hatred of the "other," this is our time to live as Jesus would have us live, following in the footsteps of the teachings and prophets who came before us.
We can love our neighbor as ourselves, we can love God as God loves us, and we can do this if we take seriously the transformative calling of our faith. Love changes us. Love will change us, and that’s a promise made by Jesus. Our hearts may be hardened or struggling now, but they will be reformed and renewed if we ask God for help and trust that the kin-dom of God can hold all our worries and fears. And let us not forget the wisdom of Hillel, "What is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow: this is the whole Torah; the rest is the explanation; go and learn."