Re-Tell the Old, Old Story: The Greatest Commandment – Deuteronomy 34:1-12 and Matthew 22:34-46
PASTOR JEFF
Today is Reformation Sunday. This is the day of the year that churches whose formation stems back to folks such as Martin Luther and John Calvin are reminded of where we come from and what truths formed us. But I believe it should also be a day when we think about the truths that unite us, not only amongst those of us within the Protestant traditions, but amongst all who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ! And perhaps the most central of those beliefs is the ideal of love…loving God and loving our neighbors. As Jesus says, upon these two things rests all the prophets and the law. Within the Christian faith, we can disagree about many things, but on this we cannot disagree. Without love, we are like a clanging cymbal, as the Apostle Paul puts it. But Jesus, in our passage for this morning from Matthew’s gospel, talks about love in two forms: love of God and love of neighbor.
Now, while both of these are named in Jesus’ answer to the question, ‘What is the greatest commandment?,” Jesus chose to list love of God first. That may seem insignificant but I find two reasons to think that it is actually an important factor in how we interpret these commands. Jesus didn’t speak without consideration for how his words might be heard and understood. So I believe Jesus had reasons for talking about love of God first. And I believe those reasons are important for us to think about as we strive to love God in the midst of our current situation.
REASON #1: God should be the number one priority of all who believe. In the Ten Commandments, we read, “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.” In most protestant and Catholic churches, this statement serves as a sort of prelude to the commandments. It sets up what God is about to tell the people to do. But when I took our confirmation class to a Jewish synagogue last year, the rabbi at that synagogue visited with us after worship and told us that for Jews the statement I just read from the Ten Commandments is actually Commandment #1. It doesn’t really sound so much like a commandment, but for the Jewish people, remembering who God is helps them to put God first. Remembering who God is helps us to see God’s importance in our lives. And then we follow with what Christian churches deem the first commandment, but would be the second commandment for Jews, “You shall have no other gods before me.” God comes first. God is priority numero uno. And God is number one because it is God who created us, God who sustains us, and God who saves us. And we acknowledge that by choosing to “love the Lord [our] God with all [our] heart, and with all [our] soul, and with all [our] mind.” This is the first and greatest commandment.
REASON #2: Loving God helps us to love our neighbor better. When we love God, draw ourselves closer to God and to who God is. And we know from Scriptures that God is love and peace and goodness and mercy and grace and so many other good qualities. And when we love God we begin to take some of those qualities onto ourselves. That is not to say that Christians do things better than others or that we are not still prone to sin. But it’s kind of like the movie Pollyanna. Pollyanna is a sweet girl who loves unconditionally and has a joy in her heart that burns bright. And the more people are around her in the movie, the more it begins to change them. The more they see her joy and her love, the more they find that same love and joy in themselves, no matter how grumpy or grouchy or angry they had been previously. Pollyanna’s joy becomes sort of contagious. And when we are around God, who is the very essence of love and joy, we cannot help but be changed by it. And if we allow it to change us for the better, that is when our love for our neighbors grows exponentially.
Loving God comes first because that is at the heart of our faith, but loving God changes us and opens us up to loving our neighbors better. That is why it is the first and greatest commandment.
PASTOR APRIL
In Matthew 22, the Pharisees and Sadduccees took turns asking Jesus questions to test him. Each time, Jesus answered their questions in ways that defied their expectations and avoided all of the pitfalls and traps they expected him to fall into. The Pharisees decided to regroup, and they chose a lawyer to ask Jesus another question. Our passage for this morning says the lawyer asked this question “to test” Jesus. I find it interesting that the word Matthew used to describe the way Jesus was being tested was the same word he used in Matthew 4 to describe “the tempter” or “the tester” who tested Jesus in the wilderness. Jesus wasn’t being asked a simple question; he was being asked this question to sift everything away and prove who he really was. The gathered crowd was standing by and watching to see how Jesus would answer. Who would he show himself to be?
Jesus was asked to choose the greatest commandment, and instead, he gave the people two. He answered: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.” There would have been no argument on this one. Jesus was referring to Deuteronomy 6 – the Shema – and a verse that would have been recited frequently by the people he was talking to. For many Jewish people, the Shema is the most important prayer, and Deuteronomy 6 specifically commands the people to recite and remember its words. It says this: “Hear, O Israel: The Lord is our God, the Lord alone.You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. 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 you are away, when you lie down and when you rise.” When Jesus said this was the greatest commandment, I doubt he would have received any disagreement. But, he didn’t end there.
Jesus gave them a second commandment, one that he said is like the first. The little word “like” is the Greek word that means “similar to” or “equal in strength.” Jesus wanted us to listen to this commandment just as much as we did the first. He said, “And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” Within this second commandment, there are really two related commandments: love your neighbor, and love yourself. I think most of us probably know that Jesus said we are supposed to love our neighbors as ourselves, but I wonder how often we’ve stopped to consider what that truly means. We often separate one from the other without even realizing it. We show love and kindness to our neighbors, but we are ungracious to ourselves. Or, we think about ourselves without considering our neighbors. The key to this second commandment is the word “as.” We are to love our neighbors as we love ourselves. We need both pieces in balance, or they both fall apart.
Former Surgeon General of the United States Vivek Murthy noticed in his research an undercurrent of loneliness in many of the people he encountered. He realized that loneliness was contributing – in epidemic proportions – to the overall poor health of the people he saw. In his book on loneliness and human connection, Murthy shares the stories of many people who felt disconnected from others and unhappy in their own lives. One of the people in his book – Serena – ended up in a situation where she had to learn to befriend herself. She dug deep and began listening to her own interests, her needs, and her passions, and it began to heal her in a way that enabled her to give and receive friendship and community. Murthy wrote this, “In order to move independently through the world, we all need to learn to treat ourselves with the kindness, encouragement, and candor that we would offer a good friend…But it takes time alone and consistent practice to develop the habit of being compassionate toward oneself.” In other words, the way we connect with other people is from the inside out. If we are not able to love ourselves, we are going to struggle to love our neighbors.
I don’t know about you, but this Covid-19 pandemic has been a crash course for me in needing to learn to love myself all over again. The space and time that has been opened up has been an invitation for me to think about what really matters to me, what brings me joy, and what gives me hope. How about for you? As we think about this second greatest commandment, I wonder which thing you have the easiest time with – loving yourself, or loving your neighbors? During this season, may we show ourselves the love that we need, not just by treating ourselves now and then, but by asking ourselves what is important to us. As we do so, I believe God will open our eyes to the way we are called to love our neighbors – as we love ourselves. Amen.
