The Greatest Commandment
One of the teachers of the law came to Jesus and asked him, "Of all the commandments, which is the most important?" The question that was put to Jesus was one that was commonly discussed by the rabbis. They rabbis claimed that there were 365 prohibitions and 248 positive commands in the Law.
In Judaism there were two schools of thought regarding the law. There was the tendency to expand the law limitlessly into hundreds and thousands of rules and regulations. But there was also the tendency to try to gather up the law into one sentence, one general statement which would be a summary of its whole message. Hillel was once asked by a proselyte to instruct him in the whole law while he stood on one leg. Hillel's answer was, " What you hate for yourself, do not to your neighbour. This is the whole law, the rest is commentary. Go and learn."
Jesus belonged to the school of thought that was to make things as simple and as short as possible.
In response Jesus quotes the opening words of the Shema which is recited daily by pious Jews so this is nothing new really. But, when Jesus adds a “second” commandment along side of it and assigns it equal importance the ancient commandment takes on fresh, new meaning.
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 neighbour as yourself.' There is no commandment greater than these.”
The two commandments are inseparable. Unless love for God is expressed in love for neighbour then love for God is empty and hollow. And in Luke’s version this instruction is followed by Jesus’ story of the Good Samaritan making it clear that our neighbour is not the person we are acquainted to or with whom we share similar interests, but our sister or brother in the entire human family regardless of their religion.
The scribe’s endorses Jesus’ teaching and says, “To love God with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbour as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.”
This theme is reflected in a number of Old Testament passages. Hosea 6:6 reads: “For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.” The prophet is not bringing an indictment against sacrifice or worship itself, but rather the attitude and practice that elevates ritual and a show of piety over integrity of life and service. Without love for others and justice for all worship is meaningless; a persons religion has no substance. It doesn’t matter how many prayers we pray, songs we sing, sermons we hear, or creeds we recite, if we can’t love our neighbour, (our sister or brother in the human family) then our faith is useless and meaningless.
This says something significant to us about authentic worship. Genuine worship leads us beyond ourselves into the world of need. Worship lifted up to God must lead us to get our hands dirty in service to the world. If what we do here when we are gathered together in worship doesn’t compel us to scatter about in society spreading the unconditional love of God through acts of compassion and mercy then we are just “going through the motions.”
There is the story about a rough mountaineer who was known for his volatile spirit. He had been in a number of fights and one time almost killed a guy. You didn’t want to cross him. He was known to hold grudges and retaliate against anyone he felt did him an injustice, whether it was actually so or not.
Then one day he fell head-over-heels in love with a school teacher and amazingly she loved him back. With trepidation and fear he asked her to marry him and to the amazement of every one in the town she said yes.
When he got home that night he prayed the first prayer of what would be many more to follow. He said, “God, I have ignored you all my life, but I will ignore you no longer.” And then he said, “God, I ain’t got nothing’ against nobody.”
Can love do that? It can. Love is redemptive. Love is transformational. And this is why Paul in 1 Corinthians 13 right in the midst of a discussion about spiritual gifts that became a means of pride and confusion and division in the church at Corinth Paul says, “Without love it’s all nothing.” Without love he says, “I am nothing” and “I gain nothing.”