The Sunday night message given in the Gettysburg United Methodist church on Sunday, February 6, 2022. The Bible verses used are Mark 12:28-34.
Most of us would say that
there’s nothing more essential to our Christian faith than love. But you
know what? In all the words of Jesus Christ that we have recorded in the Bible,
there are very few times when Jesus talked about love.
That’s surprising, don’t you think? For all that we
think of love as being what our Christian faith is all about, Jesus rarely
talked about it. In fact, our reading for today is the only time in the
gospel of Mark in which Jesus is quoted as even uttering the word.
And Jesus uses the word in a surprising context. You
know, we’ve heard this so much, that Jesus said the two most important
commandments were to love God and love our neighbor, that we’ve kind of come to
take it for granted. We don’t think about it all that much. “Well,
of course the two most important things to do are to love God and love our
neighbor. That’s what our faith is all about.” But that’s not what
the people who first heard Jesus say this would’ve thought. So let’s look
at it.
This is not something that Jesus just said out of the
blue. Jesus is talking with a bunch of Jewish religious
leaders--Pharisees, Sadducees, a variety of others. They’re trying to
trick him, to trap him, to stump him, trying to do anything they can to
discredit Jesus. But of course, it does not work. Jesus is able to
answer every question, and in fact often turns the questions back on them.
We don’t know how the others reacted, but at least one of
them, a teacher of the law, had a mind that was open enough to be
impressed. So he asks Jesus a question. And when you think about
it, it’s a really good question. “Of all
the commandments, which is the most important?”
It’d be a good question anyway, but
remember how important the law was to the Jewish people. They had all
kinds of rules and laws they were supposed to follow. So many, really,
that it was very hard to follow them all. So it would be helpful to know
which was the most important, so you could really focus on at least following
that one.
Now, when you and I hear the word
“commandment” in a religious context, a lot of us think right away about the
Ten Commandments. And people would’ve thought of that in Jesus’ time,
too. Yes, as I said, they had a lot of other rules and laws, but the Ten
Commandments were considered foundational. Following them was a
given. In fact, a lot of the other rules and laws came about as an
attempt to give a more precise definition to the terms used in the Ten
Commandments.
But it’s interesting that Jesus does not
cite any of the Ten Commandments in his answer. And if we really look at
the Ten Commandments, I think we can see why. Because here’s the thing
about those Ten Commandments. This is a question I ask my confirmation
students every time we study the Ten Commandments, and I don’t think any of
them has ever gotten it right. Let’s see if you do. What one
important concept, one that we consider essential to our Christian faith, is
not even mentioned in the Ten Commandments? Anybody know?
It’s love. Love is not mentioned in
the Ten Commandments. Not even love of God. They say we should have
no other gods. They saw we should not worship anything or anyone but
God. But they do not say we should love God.
The Ten Commandments do not say we should
love our neighbor, either. They do tell us we should not do certain bad
things to our neighbors. We should not kill them, for example. We
should not steal from them, we should not lie about them, and we should not be
envious of them. But they do not say we need to love them.
But Jesus
does. Listen again to what he says: “The most important one,” answered Jesus,
“is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love
the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your
mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor
as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”
Jesus agreed
that we should have no other gods. He agreed that we should only worship
God. He agreed that we should respect God and honor God and serve
God. But Jesus knew that, for us to really do those things properly, we
need to love God.
And Jesus knew it was not enough for us to
just not treat our neighbors badly. We could do that by totally ignoring
them. But Jesus wants us to do more than that. Jesus knew that we
need each other. We need to support each other and encourage each other
and be there for each other. And the only way we can do that is to love
each other.
Now, Jesus did not just pull his
statements out of the air. They did have a basis in the Old Testament.
The part about loving God came from Deuteronomy Chapter Six. Moses is
giving the law to the people of Israel, and one of the things he says is “Hear,
O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all
your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.” Jesus
added to that that we should love the Lord with our minds as well.
And we should not just skip over that
addition. Jesus did not just add that because he forgot the original
commandment, nor was it a slip of the tongue or anything. Jesus added
this deliberately. Jesus wanted us to know that it’s important to love
the Lord with our minds, as well as with our hearts. It’s important that
we allow the Lord to guide our thoughts as well as our feelings. Both our
thoughts and our feelings need to work together if we’re going to truly love
God the way God deserves.
The part about loving your neighbor as
yourself has a basis in the Old Testament, too. It comes from Leviticus
Chapter Nineteen. God is telling Moses a bunch of things the people of
Israel are supposed to obey, and among them is this: “Do not seek revenge
or bear a grudge against anyone among your people, but love your neighbor as
yourself. I am the Lord.”
But here’s the question we don’t ask often
enough about all this: why? Why would Jesus say that the two most
important commandments are that we love God and that we love our
neighbor? Why is it not enough that we just do what God wants us to
do? Why is it not enough that we just don’t treat our neighbors
badly? Why do we need to love God and love our neighbors?
Well, here’s why. Every once in a
while, Wanda will ask me to do something. And sometimes, I’ll do it right
away and do it cheerfully and happily. Other times, she’ll have to ask me
several times, and I’ll do it grudgingly, making it clear that I really don’t
want to.
Now, either way, I’ve done what Wanda
wanted me to do. But which way is going to make her pleased with
me? Which way is more likely to feel love for me? Well, it’s
obvious, right? The first of those ways shows love to Wanda. The
second does not.
And there’s one other point. If I do
what Wanda asks right away, and I do it cheerfully and happily, I’m probably
going to take the time to do it well. If I do it grudgingly, making it
clear that I don’t want to, I’m probably just going to do it to get it
done. I’ll do it as quickly as I can, and I won’t really pay attention to
whether I’m doing it well or not. I’m just doing it to get it over with.
And in fact, there’s one more point.
If I do what Wanda asks right away, and I do it cheerfully and happily, she’s
probably going to be a lot quicker to forgive me if I mess it up. She’ll
know I was doing my best, and she’ll be pleased with my effort, even if I make
some mistakes. But if I do it grudgingly, and I mess it up, she’s
probably going to be upset with me. She’ll know I did not give it my best
effort, and she’ll know that’s why I did not do it right.
The attitude I bring to the things Wanda
wants me to do is, in many ways, more important than what I actually do.
And that’s how it is with God. If we do what God wants us to do
cheerfully and happily, and if we take the time to do our best--in other words,
if we show love to God--God is likely to be pleased with us. And we’ll
probably do a good job of serving God. If we do what God wants us to do
grudgingly, if we make it clear that we really don’t want to, if we’re just
going through the motions, God is probably not going to be as pleased.
And we’re probably not going to do a very good job of serving God.
God wants our service. But more than
that, God wants our love. Because, when you think about it, there’s
nothing we can do for God that God could not do without us. There’s
nothing we can give God that God could not have without us. Except for
one thing. The one thing we can give God is love.
And the best way we can show God that we
love Him is to love other people. Because each and every person on earth
was specifically created by God. Each and every person is special and
important to God. God loves each and every person. And when we show
God that each person is special and important to us, too, when we show God that
we love them, too, we are showing our love for God.
So let’s renew our commitment to
love. To love God, and to love our neighbors. It’s the one thing we
can do for God. And according to Jesus, it’s the most important thing
we’ll ever do.
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