The Greatest Commandment
(based on Mark
12:28-34, and Matthew 22:34-46)
Last year the lectionary gave us this
very same passage, but it was the one from Matthew 22:34-46. Today we read it from Mark. First, let’s take a look at how these
passages from the two gospels differ.
And then we’ll get into a bit more depth on what Mark has to tell us.
(Read both passages again.
Matthew and then Mark.)
It’s important to note that Matthew
was writing to a Hebrew and Jewish readership in order to qualify Christ as the
Messiah, the one they’d been hoping would come.
And it is believed by most biblical scholars that Mark was written first
and in that sense, has an urgency in how it is written. Because of this, most
stories that are in the synoptic gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke) Mark will
have an abbreviated story. Matthew and
Luke are more expressive and give more details.
Mark was writing to an audience who believed that Jesus was returning to
earth within their lifetimes, during their own generation. Therefore, he gets right to the point and
doesn’t waste too much energy on detail.
Because of the difference between these gospels, two things stand out.
The first one in Matthew is the set up. The Sadducees and the Pharisees, two separate
sects of the Jewish faith at the time, were trying to bait Jesus into a trap to
disqualify him as the Messiah. Jesus
navigates their questions well, in fact shuts down their arguments and in turn
asks them some of his own regarding the Messiah.
The second one in Mark is Christ’s answer to
the questioner. When Jesus saw that he
answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.”
Understanding the background to both the
readership and the authorship can give us a more in-depth understanding about
the passages themselves. Since we are
neither a Jewish readership and needing validation that Christ is the Messiah,
nor do we have the notion that Christ is coming back any time soon, since it
hasn’t happened yet in 2000 years, what are we to take away from the
differences in these gospel accounts?
The meat of the passage is in Christ’s response
to the question regarding which one of all the commandments in the law is the
greatest commandment. But he wasn’t able
to pin the Greatest Commandment down to just one. Instead, he chose two of them, as if they
were one; as if they were nearly equal.
These two commands are part of one another.
First, he said to “love the Lord your
God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.” Then
he said, “And a second is like it: love your neighbor as yourself.”
The connecting bond between these two
commands is love. And yet, that concept
is more than we can possibly fathom.
It’s important to note that God created the world out of love. The light that shines in the day and the moon
that shines as night, the stars that amaze our children and make us breathless
when we try to grasp the infinity of it all.
The water that flows down a mountain stream as fish like salmon brave
the journey home to spawn, water that surges in the ocean depths with behemoths
like humpback whales who frolic and live there.
Water that rains down to nourish the earth that brings forth the trees
and plants, each bloom and blossom. Each
bird that flies above the landscape, that soars in the air; every tiny insect
that crawls or burrows beneath the surface to every elephant that stomps on the
earth was created by God. Even the oddest
and strangest among them; birds that swim, fish that walk, mammals that lay
eggs, and males that give birth. All
created by God in amazing and pure love.
But it was all made for us, for our
living and growing, for our enjoyment and enlightenment. A Creator who loved us more than anything
else in all of creation. God created you
out of pure love. God created each human
being out of love.
You were not created as an experiment
by God to see what mess he could make.
No, you were created in the image of God, perfect and holy. You were created out of love, to be
loved. And here’s the challenge that
we’ve twisted and changed, marked as unattainable in this maddening world of
ours: we are to love in return. Not just
God, who created you, but the other command that goes along with it – to love
one another, as well.
I think it is in this part of the
command that we fall short. For us, as
Christians who stand on our faith and our beliefs, it’s easy for us to say that
we love God, that we love the Lord, that we would do anything for God.
Last year I challenged you to the second part
of the greatest command. I know how well
you are doing with the first part of the command. It’s obvious with your attendance and
commitments here at church that you love God, but how well are you doing with that
second part? “Loving your neighbor as
yourself”? And here’s where it gets a
bit more personal in asking that question.
I’m not talking about doing for others.
I’m not talking about volunteering for the Food Bank, or to visit a
shut-in or to collect socks for the homeless.
I’m talking about the heart. I’m
talking about the inner voice that sometimes says something completely differently
than what the outer works show.
What is the condition of your heart for
others? Are you always generous, kind,
humble, in your thoughts, words, actions towards others?
To be perfectly honest, we, as Christians, aren’t
very good at being charitable people when it comes to matters of the
heart. Think about the 3 main religions
that have a common background in monotheism and believe in the same one true
God, Yahweh, or Allah. Over thousands of
years, Moslems have broken off into two main branches: the Sikhs and the Sunnis. Jews have broken off into three main branches:
Conservative, Orthodox, and Progressives or Reconstructionists. But Christians have broken off into many main
branches: Catholic, Lutheran, Methodist, Baptist, Presbyterian, Episcopalian,
Eastern Orthodox, Seventh Day Adventist, Church of God, Church of the Brethren,
United Church of Christ, Nazarene, Mormons, and I’m sure I’ve forgotten a
few. And each of those branches have
broken off into perhaps even hundreds of others. All over, in my opinion, matters of the
heart, more than anything else. If we
were truly generous, kind and humble, most of our arguments would have gone
away a long time ago rather than breaking us up into smaller and smaller
pieces.
The central command, the first and most
important, that Jesus referred to in this passage, was given to all three
religions of this monotheistic faith: Love the Lord your God with your entire
being, and your neighbor as yourself.
Jews, Christians and Moslems – all three were given this same great
command.
And yet, members of three of the main religions
in the world, complain about everything from the minute to the ridiculous. I hear us chastise those who believe
differently. I hear us criticize those
who are morally ambiguous. I hear us
slander and hurt, lie and steal and berate another who has done the same, but
the only difference is that the other got caught.
We aren’t perfect people and we should stop
pretending that we are. We struggle with
the same sins that everyone else struggles with. We struggle with the same inner battles, the
same heartaches, the same demons. Maybe,
just maybe we’ve learned over many, many years of struggle how to cope with
them better, how to ignore the voices that lead us down an instant
gratification and easier road. But we
are no better than those who are still struggling and still perhaps losing in
those struggles.
This challenge is not meant to be an indictment
against you, but rather as a serious consideration for us to take a closer look
at what Scripture tells us, what God wants from us, and how we are actually
living.
There is too much hatred in the world. Look around, it’s everywhere. We know it and have experience it. It’s on the news daily, it’s in our city
streets, at shootings and massacres around the globe and now even here at home. There is only one way that this will
end. And that way is for the cycle to be
broken. For love to win out over hate.
We cannot expect someone who has known misery
and heartache and pain, who has not found or known the love of God through the
actions of God’s people, to suddenly wake up one morning and think, “Oh, maybe
I’ll be nice today.” It’s not going to
happen. It has to start with us. It has to start with the people of God who
refrain from judging others, who refrain from speaking badly about others, who
refrain from idle gossip and slanderous speech.
It has to start with us, truly taking this commandment that Jesus spoke
about, to love one neighbor as we love ourselves, to heart as a challenge for
better behavior on our part. To show the
world a different way of living. That is
why Jesus came to earth. Not just to be
a substitution on the cross for paying the penalty of our sins, but more than
that – to show us the way, the truth, and the life.
There is too much hatred in the world and the
only way that it will end is if we take Christ’s commandment to heart as a
challenge to do better.
The connection that Jesus made when asked the
question about which commandment is greatest, reaches back to the purpose of
the cosmos, when God out of pure love created the stars, and it settles in the
heart of who you are, of whose you are.
God created you out of love and joy.
And Jesus asks us to give love and joy back to God and to one another.
AMEN.
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