In today’s Gospel we find Jesus in the temple courts, teaching. The story takes place less than 72 hours before the crucifixion, and the Pharisees, Sadducees, lawyers, and priests have been lining up to take their best shot at discrediting Jesus. They’ve already tried politics as in last week’s Gospel when they asked, “Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar?” 

Each time, Jesus answers so perfectly they walk away embarrassed and humiliated and eventually plot his death. But before this, they try again to outsmart Jesus with one more question, and this one was thought up from their best legal expert. “Teacher,” the man asks, “which commandment in the law is the greatest?” 

It sounds simple, but it’s a loaded question. The Pharisees counted over 600 commandments in the Law of Moses. To pick one as “the greatest” would risk minimizing the others. They hoped they could catch Jesus contradicting or at least minimizing Scripture. But Jesus doesn’t take the bait. He doesn’t pick one law over the others. Instead, He reveals what is at the heart of all of them “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. Then He adds: And the second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets. 

All of Scripture, every command, every story, every warning, every promise, hangs on this. Love of God first, and growing out of that, a love of each other reflecting God’s love. The Pharisees thought holiness meant precision, doing every detail correctly, every ritual, every rule. And those things are good. God’s Law is good! But the law can’t make you holy. It can only tell you how much you need God’s grace.  

Jesus is not saying that learning about God or doing works of charity aren’t important. He’s saying they matter to God when they come from a heart of love for God. Without that, they are empty habits. You can memorize half the Bible, serve on every church committee, give generously, and still miss the point if your heart isn’t anchored in your love for God. 

It’s easy to fall into that pattern: Why do we come here on Sunday? Some come to feel uplifted, and that’s good. God does comfort His people. Some come to learn, and we are called to grow in knowledge, and some come because they value and need community. But those are not the main reasons God’s people gather. 

The primary reason is worship, to love the Lord our God with heart, soul, and mind. That is what gives meaning to everything else we do. 

Now, it’s important we don’t misunderstand what Jesus means by love. Our culture tends to think of love as a feeling, a warm emotion, or attraction, even a desire or affection. But biblical love is not passive or emotional. It’s active. 

The word Jesus uses is agape, the love of commitment, self-giving love. It’s not just about how we feel about God or others, feelings can change for many reasons. It’s about how we choose to act, showing love even when we don’t feel like it. It follows on from God’s love for us. God doesn’t love us because we make Him feel good, but because He chooses to be gracious. He chooses to forgive. He gives Himself for us to redeem us, to call us into being the best we can be. 

To love God with all your heart and soul means to orient your entire life toward Him: your decisions, your values, your priorities, to let your prayers, and thoughts turn continually toward Him. And to love Him with all your mind means to let His truth shape how you think, to study His Word not just to gather facts to support what you want to do, but to seek to know God’s heart. When you love God like that, loving your neighbor becomes the natural overflow. 

The world is in a painful and difficult state; not for the first time I might add, as resources are focused not on the legitimate needs of humanity but on warfare and extreme wealth and power concentrated in the hands of a few.  

Where is our hope in this? Our hope is always that we act from a place of love, flowing from the love of the God who created and loves all of humanity and calls us, his followers to respond in kind. This is not easy in our present time, but we each have a part to play, however small, both individually and collectively. How do we find that response in us, to love, even when it is hard? We find it in prayer, both individually and collectively, as we grow in relationship with the Divine heart of God.  Amen.

 

 

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