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It’s all the rage to “simplify.” We want to declutter our homes. We want to go back to eating simple, even raw, food. All our gagdets and technology are supposed to “simplify” our lives. (And yet who among us has not spent hours relearning things when moving to a new phone or a new computer operating system or even a new TV!). We like our news in shorter and shorter bundles. Simplify!
The more I read about what was happening in this encounter with Jesus and the scribe, the more I realized the game “simplify” has been played for millennia. It seems that people asked teachers, rabbis, “What is the most important law of all?” wanting them to show their bias in picking one of the 613 laws that governed Jewish life in Jesus’ day.
They tell a story that Rabbi Hillel was asked such a question, and he responded, “That which is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbor.” And then he added, “That is the whole law of God; the rest is just commentary!”
I find this fascinating for two reasons.
#1—It is solely focused on our relationships to others [although I imagine that Rabbi Hillel would have expected that the Shema, the commandment to Love the Lord your God with all your being (found in Deuteronomy 6:4-6) was a given to people of faith.]
#2—His summary is set in the negative. Do not do that which is hateful to you to someone else. This is right in the tradition of the Ten Commandments—most of which are in the negative as well. No other gods. No graven images. No idols. No using the Lord’s name in vain. No working on the Sabbath. No murder. No adultery. No stealing. No false witness. No coveting.
By contrast, when Jesus is asked the parlor game question, “Which commandment is the first of all?” Which law is most important?, he plays the game, but doesn’t really play the game.
Notice that he is asked for one response and he gives two!
Notice that in some ways, Jesus turns the question on its head. Which commandment is the first of all? Of course, it is the Shema, the call to worship in every faith gathering, the words that people of faith wrote on little pieces of paper and put in boxes that they wore on their arms and foreheads during daily prayer (called phylacteries) or put at the doorway of their house, and touched as they arrived or departed (called mezuzahs)—The Shema—“Hear, O Israel: The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might.”
So what Rabbi Hillel saw as a given, Jesus states out loud. Loving God with everything we have, THAT is most important. And from that, because of that, there needs to be a second “greatest” commandment—to love neighbor as yourself. This also is found in Jesus’ Scripture, in Leviticus itself, in fact, the 19th chapter—verse 17-18, which reads
“You shall not hate in your heart anyone of your kin; you shall reprove your neighbor, or you will incur guilt yourself. You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against any of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.”
Did you notice that Jesus has kept the exact wording, but not the context? Everyone would have recognized (as the scribe did), that this was a direct quote “love your neighbor as yourself.” But when Jesus quotes the Shema, he includes all of it (and in fact adds mind to the list of heart, soul, and strength). Here he cuts out some of the instruction, and by doing so, expands the commandment.
In the original you aren’t to hate in your heart anyone of your KIN. And you are supposed to “reprove” your neighbor or you’ll suffer the same punishment! You are not to take vengeance or bear a grudge against any of YOUR people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself.
In the context, it becomes abundantly clear that this “neighbor” who you are to love in Leviticus, is kin, or tribe, or at very least, “your people.” Jesus did not put such stipulations on his second answer. Some might argue that Jesus did not have in mind the broadness that we now associate with this directive. But given how he lived his life, calling those who were marginalized or unseen to his side, and the fact that the apostle Paul won the argument about whether the gospel was to be extended to the Gentiles, neighbor seems to have a wider reach than our scribe could possibly imagine.
Seasons of the Spirit suggests that we chant
Love.
Love the Lord your God
with all your heart
and with all your soul
and with all your mind
and with all your strength.
Love your neighbor as yourself.
Love.
Love, love, love. What does it mean to love? I was intrigued to see that the writers of Seasons thought this passage was about “the idea of compassion and justice being more important than ‘all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.’” Is love just “compassion and justice”? Was Ruth following her mother-in-law out of compassion? Naomi argued that it wasn’t “just” to Ruth or Orpah for them to follow her, not knowing what awaited them “back home.”
I understand that talking about “loving” our neighbor without including the aspect of justice, of fairness, of being in right relationship, is to make a mockery of the word love. And certainly, compassion, empathy, trying to walk in another’s shoes, is another element of what it means to care, to love. And maybe, the writers were hearing Micah’s words in their heads—to DO justice, to LOVE mercy as we walk humbly with our God.
But I come back to Jesus. We are to love God with a fierceness, with the totally of who we are. And there is no change of word when he adds, “and love your neighbor as yourself.” If we were to love those around us, even those far from us with that kind of intensity, with fierceness, with our all, wouldn’t we want the best for them? Wouldn’t we be driven to all sorts of ministries in God’s name?
The scribe asked “Which commandment is greatest of all?” And Jesus took the 613 laws and compressed them, not into the 10 commandments—but into 2.
Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and all your soul, and all your mind, and all your strength.
And Love your neighbor as yourself.
But in “simplifying” he opened us up to myriad tasks, to unsolvable challenges, to impossible lives. Maybe that is why attempting to live in such a way brings you “not far” from the kingdom of God.
It sounds so simple.
But if you really think about it, it’s crazy.
And yet, it is what Jesus calls us to do
Each and every day
With each person we meet
Not forgetting all the rest of creation.
That is the meaning of love.
May God Enlarge our hearts
Deepen our souls
Engage our minds
And undergird our strength
That we might Love as we have been Loved.
May it be so, Alleluia, Amen.
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