RECKLESS FAITH - THE GREAT COMMANDMENTS
Luke 11:4-32
Matthew 22:36-40
It must have been "Stump the Savior Day" down at the temple in Jerusalem. First the Sadducees tried to get him on a trick question about the resurrection, which is kind of funny, 'cause those guys didn't believe in the resurrection.
When the Pharisees heard that the Sadducees hadn't been able to score against Jesus, they huddled in a corner of the temple court.
"All right, men," said the head Pharisee, "Here's the game plan. Seth has the ball on this play. He's an expert on the Law, a lawyer, you might say, so he's going to come up with a question that's going to show Jesus for the fake that he is. Seth, are you ready?"
"I'm ready! Put me in, Coach! I've got a question that will knock him for a loop!"
Then, they all put their hands in the middle of the huddle and yelled, "Go-o-o-o Pharisees!"
Seth swaggered up to Jesus and asked, "Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?" Such discussions were common at the time, and in a debate about the Law, Seth could run circles around any opponents.
Sports analogies aside, this really was an important conversation, because instead of citing one of the ten commandments, Jesus went right to the heart of the Law: love God with all your being, and love your neighbor as yourself. The second is like the first in that we really cant be in right with God unless we do both.
Jesus wasn't telling them anything they hadn't heard before. Moses had told the people of Israel the same thing -- love God (Deut. 6:5) and love your neighbor (Lev. 19:18). That was the theme of the messages God sent God's people through the prophets: we are to love God, but we cannot whole-heartedly do that unless we also love our neighbors as ourselves.
So here a question to chew on. Do we love our neighbor like we love ourselves or do we love our neighbor as we ourselves have been loved by God? For today, let's consider this passage from Matthew from the angle of the latter.
Out of lavish, extravagant love, God created human beings in God's own image. When our sin broke the relationship with God, God never gave up on us and offered God's self to us through Jesus Christ. Jesus provided the way for us to return to the waiting, loving arms of our Heavenly Father. By God's grace through Christ, we are forgiven and the divine image we all bear is restored.
Every person is important to God. To God, we are all worth dying for. It's not a matter of who deserves God's love or how religious we are. It's not dependent on how much money or education we have. It is a free gift of grace that God gives to us because God loves us and wants us to have it.
And I believe that one of God the Father's house rules is not only to love God, but to love our neighbors as God as loved us, recognizing the image of God that they, too, bear.
Now, granted, it's hard to see the image of God in some people. There's the guy who cuts us off in traffic ore the woman who zooms in and takes our parking place. What about the friend who has hurt us or gossiped about us or the parent or boss who, no matter how hard we try, always finds fault with us? There's that co-worker who's a nasty grump who constantly whines and criticizes. Everything.
There's the homeless, addicts, the mentally ill, those born on the wrong side of the tracks or on the wrong side of the blanket -- all those prodigal sons and daughters, and even the elder siblings.
And let's not forget all those people who look or sound or think differently than we do or folks whose political views differ from our own.
These are some of the people who are so hard to love, and yet, God says to us, "love them as yourself."
When you think about these two great commandments, love God and love you neighbor, visually, they form a cross. At the center of the cross is Jesus who turns every commandment into a promise, a promise to be there to help us obey that commandment.
When we can't love our neighbors, we can ask Jesus to be in the middle of our relationships with the difficult people in our lives.
We can ask Christ to help us see the unlovable through his eyes, or to help us to see the perfect image of God in the faces of the imperfect.
We can ask Jesus to give us his love for those we find unable to love or forgive.
God's rules and the example of Christ show us how to live a different way, a better way with God and with others. It is a way that leads to peace, happiness and restoration.
More than ever, the world needs to know about that better way to live that doesn't involve dividing people into factions, mud slinging and fear mongering. The world needs to know that there are better rules for living other than "every person for him or herself" or "do whatever it takes to win."
Our example of how we, as Christians, live in love with God and one another models that way for the world, It is through how we love and the good we do that others see Christ in us.
When we look at others, do we see the image of God?
When others look at us, what do they see?
Matthew 22:36-40
It must have been "Stump the Savior Day" down at the temple in Jerusalem. First the Sadducees tried to get him on a trick question about the resurrection, which is kind of funny, 'cause those guys didn't believe in the resurrection.
When the Pharisees heard that the Sadducees hadn't been able to score against Jesus, they huddled in a corner of the temple court.
"All right, men," said the head Pharisee, "Here's the game plan. Seth has the ball on this play. He's an expert on the Law, a lawyer, you might say, so he's going to come up with a question that's going to show Jesus for the fake that he is. Seth, are you ready?"
"I'm ready! Put me in, Coach! I've got a question that will knock him for a loop!"
Then, they all put their hands in the middle of the huddle and yelled, "Go-o-o-o Pharisees!"
Seth swaggered up to Jesus and asked, "Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?" Such discussions were common at the time, and in a debate about the Law, Seth could run circles around any opponents.
Sports analogies aside, this really was an important conversation, because instead of citing one of the ten commandments, Jesus went right to the heart of the Law: love God with all your being, and love your neighbor as yourself. The second is like the first in that we really cant be in right with God unless we do both.
Jesus wasn't telling them anything they hadn't heard before. Moses had told the people of Israel the same thing -- love God (Deut. 6:5) and love your neighbor (Lev. 19:18). That was the theme of the messages God sent God's people through the prophets: we are to love God, but we cannot whole-heartedly do that unless we also love our neighbors as ourselves.
So here a question to chew on. Do we love our neighbor like we love ourselves or do we love our neighbor as we ourselves have been loved by God? For today, let's consider this passage from Matthew from the angle of the latter.
Out of lavish, extravagant love, God created human beings in God's own image. When our sin broke the relationship with God, God never gave up on us and offered God's self to us through Jesus Christ. Jesus provided the way for us to return to the waiting, loving arms of our Heavenly Father. By God's grace through Christ, we are forgiven and the divine image we all bear is restored.
Every person is important to God. To God, we are all worth dying for. It's not a matter of who deserves God's love or how religious we are. It's not dependent on how much money or education we have. It is a free gift of grace that God gives to us because God loves us and wants us to have it.
And I believe that one of God the Father's house rules is not only to love God, but to love our neighbors as God as loved us, recognizing the image of God that they, too, bear.
Now, granted, it's hard to see the image of God in some people. There's the guy who cuts us off in traffic ore the woman who zooms in and takes our parking place. What about the friend who has hurt us or gossiped about us or the parent or boss who, no matter how hard we try, always finds fault with us? There's that co-worker who's a nasty grump who constantly whines and criticizes. Everything.
There's the homeless, addicts, the mentally ill, those born on the wrong side of the tracks or on the wrong side of the blanket -- all those prodigal sons and daughters, and even the elder siblings.
And let's not forget all those people who look or sound or think differently than we do or folks whose political views differ from our own.
These are some of the people who are so hard to love, and yet, God says to us, "love them as yourself."
When you think about these two great commandments, love God and love you neighbor, visually, they form a cross. At the center of the cross is Jesus who turns every commandment into a promise, a promise to be there to help us obey that commandment.
When we can't love our neighbors, we can ask Jesus to be in the middle of our relationships with the difficult people in our lives.
We can ask Christ to help us see the unlovable through his eyes, or to help us to see the perfect image of God in the faces of the imperfect.
We can ask Jesus to give us his love for those we find unable to love or forgive.
God's rules and the example of Christ show us how to live a different way, a better way with God and with others. It is a way that leads to peace, happiness and restoration.
More than ever, the world needs to know about that better way to live that doesn't involve dividing people into factions, mud slinging and fear mongering. The world needs to know that there are better rules for living other than "every person for him or herself" or "do whatever it takes to win."
Our example of how we, as Christians, live in love with God and one another models that way for the world, It is through how we love and the good we do that others see Christ in us.
When we look at others, do we see the image of God?
When others look at us, what do they see?
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