Pastor Tom Johnson, October 23, 2011
Everybody was trying to stump Jesus. Like a tag-team wrestlers, the Sadducees fail to take Jesus down. They exit the ring, slap the hand of their unlikely partner, the Pharisees, and they enter ready to finally pin Jesus with a trick question: “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” Maybe they thought Jesus would choose one commandment over another. And when Jesus did, they would accuse him of neglecting the rest of the commandments. Or maybe they were legitimately interested in knowing how Jesus would sum up the the meaning of the Bible. What is the primary message of the Hebrew Scriptures? What is the core of the faith?I believe that Jesus thinks this is an important question. If he didn’t think so, he would do what he normally does with ridiculous questions—he asks a better question or turns the tables on his opponents. But here Jesus answers the question. What is the greatest commandment? What is God most concerned with in the lives of human beings? What is our highest purpose? Or to be really philosophical: “Why are we human beings on this third planet from the sun in the Milky Way Galaxy? Why are we here?”
For many, this is a troubling question. There are few things more frightening than the thought that you and I are nothing more than improbable creatures in a vast, cold, and impersonal universe—simply here by accident without a purpose. To add to this disturbing thought, is the reality that we are incurably social beings—filled with an unsatiable need to relate to others. We need relationships. We ask why are we here because of our human need for meaning and purpose.
Jesus’ answer not only gives us the greatest commandment but also the meaning and purpose we long for as human beings. Jesus does not just satisfy the Pharisees’ intellectual curiosity. He gives a vision of what our lives are all about. “‘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.”
Jesus gives the greatest commandment: to love God with our whole being. But there is a second commandment that must follow, because it flows from the first: to love one another. Jesus is quoting two Old Testament verses—one from the book of Deuteronomy and the other from Leviticus (Deut 6:5; Lev 19:180). To love is the greatest calling we have—to love God with our whole being and then let that love flow to those around us. Our greatest call is to enter into a loving relationship with God and those around us. The greatest commandment is not for us to do something for God; it is to respond to what God has already done for us.
We should remember that the very first sentence on the tablets of stone that had the ten commandments is what is sometimes called the preface to the Ten Commandments, which says: “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.” In other words, God does not give specific commandments or expectations for behavior until after he has first established his love for us. “I am the Lord your God! I took the initiative to free you as a people. I am the one who made you my own—adopted you as my daughters and sons. I have loved you with a tremendous love first. It is unconditional love. But the relationship is incomplete until you love me back.”
To love God begins by believing that he has adopted us and already made us his own—not by bringing us out of the land of Egypt and physical slavery—but out of our sin and brokenness through the death and resurrection of his Son, Jesus Christ. We begin to love God when he not only gives us his Son but also the faith to believe—to believe that we have forgiveness and eternal life in him. Our love is in response to God’s love. Our love flows from him. We love God when we trust in him to take us safely through our journey here on earth. We love God when we acknowledge and give thanks for all his gifts. We love God when we worship him. We love God when our thoughts, words, and deeds are transformed by his redeeming power.
And that is why Jesus is quick to add that this greatest commandment is not alone or isolated from another one like it—to love our neighbor as ourselves. The love that flows through his Son,toward us, continues to flow out through us as well. This is what it means to live—the greatest commandment is to enter a meaningful relationship—a relationship with our Creator that transforms our lives and relationships with one another. The greatest commandment is the greatest privilege that a creature could have—to experience the love of God in his Son, Jesus Christ and for that same love to extend through us to the world.
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