On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets

 The same day the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to Him and asked Him, saying:  "Teacher, Moses said that if a man dies, having no children, his brother shall marry his wife and raise up offspring for his brother.  Now there were with us seven brothers.  The first died after he had married, and having no offspring, left his wife to his brother.  Likewise the second also, and the third, even to the seventh.  Last of all the woman died also.  Therefore, in the resurrection, whose wife of the seven will she be?  For they all had her."  Jesus answered and said to them, "You are mistaken, not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God.  For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels of God in heaven.  But concerning the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was spoken to you by God, saying, 'I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob'?  God is not the God of the dead, but of the living."  And when the multitude heard this, they were astonished at His teaching.

But when the Pharisees heard that He had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together.  Then one of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, and saying, "Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?"  Jesus said to him, " '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 great commandment.  And the second is like it:  'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'  On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets."

- Matthew 22:23-40

Yesterday we read that, as Jesus disputed with the elders and chief priests in the temple, the Pharisees went and plotted how they might entangle Jesus in His talk.  And they sent to Him their disciples with the Herodians, saying, "Teacher, we know that You are true, and teach the way of God in truth; nor do You care about anyone, for You do not regard the person of men.  Tell us, therefore, what do You think?  Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?"  But Jesus perceived their wickedness, and said, "Why do you test Me, you hypocrites?  Show Me the tax money."  So they brought Him a denarius.  And He said to them, "Whose image and inscription is this?"  They said to Him, "Caesar's."  And he said to them, "Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's."  When they had heard these words, they marveled, and left Him and went their way.

 The same day the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to Him and asked Him, saying:  "Teacher, Moses said that if a man dies, having no children, his brother shall marry his wife and raise up offspring for his brother.  Now there were with us seven brothers.  The first died after he had married, and having no offspring, left his wife to his brother.  Likewise the second also, and the third, even to the seventh.  Last of all the woman died also.  Therefore, in the resurrection, whose wife of the seven will she be?  For they all had her."  Jesus answered and said to them, "You are mistaken, not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God.  For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels of God in heaven.  But concerning the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was spoken to you by God, saying, 'I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob'?  God is not the God of the dead, but of the living."  And when the multitude heard this, they were astonished at His teaching.   My study bible comments here that Jesus affirms there will be a resurrection, but not of the nature that the Sadducees imagine here.  They consider the resurrection to be a continuation of earthly life (including earthly marriage), and therefore they mock the doctrine of resurrection with this absurd scenario and question.  But Jesus teaches that they are ignorant of the Scriptures, which reveal a total transfiguration of life in the resurrection, and render their "earthly" orientation irrelevant.  Additionally, they don't understand how Abraham and his sons can be living in God even if they're physically dead.  My study bible states that it is the clear teaching of Christ that the souls of those faithful who have passed from this world are "sustained before the face of God in anticipation of the final joy of the resurrection."

But when the Pharisees heard that He had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together.  Then one of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, and saying, "Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?"  Jesus said to him, " '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 great commandment.  And the second is like it:  'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'  On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets."  My study bible comments that the Pharisees had found 613 commandments in the Scriptures, and that they debated about which one was central.  Actually, many of these questions posed to Christ in the temple are representative of questions strongly debated in Jesus' time, such as the issue of divorce, or the doctrine of resurrection.  Here, the Pharisees pose a question of central importance to their own practices.  Jesus answers with a first and second in rank of importance, and states that they constitute a grand summary of the Law (so both are necessary for understanding).  Although this lawyer has come with malice to test Christ, my study bible says, we do know from St. Mark's account of this story that the man is converted through Christ's answer (see Mark 12:28-34).   The second commandment, my study bible adds, needs to be understood as written:  You shall love your neighbor as yourself, meaning, "as being yourself."  Often it's misinterpreted to read "as you love yourself," but this is not the true force of the statement.

It's important to understand that the questions posed to Jesus are not considered to be trivial nor pointless; they are questions hotly debated in His time and reflect disputes over doctrine which were central to the concerns of these religious authorities and the ruling or governing bodies of the people and the temple.  Hence, we're not to take them lightly either.  On them will also hang Jesus' life and death, since several are designed simply to trap Him in order to make a case against Him.  In yesterday's reading, for example, when Jesus is asked about paying taxes to Caesar, a wrong answer could easily have Him put to death for promoting treason against Rome.  Nothing discussed here is taken lightly or without depth of consequences for Jesus, and even for Israel.  Therefore when we read these stories we should understand that Jesus knows full well He's on trial for His life when He answers; He has already several times avoided being put to death both in some sense "miraculously" for example in Luke's reporting of Jesus' rejection in His hometown of Nazareth (Luke 4:16-30) and also deliberately by avoiding direct conflict with the religious leaders for a time, such as when He withdraws to the Gentile region of Tyre and Sidon, made clear in Mark's version of Jesus' encounter with the Syro-Phoenician woman (Mark 7:24-30).  So when we read these stories, it's important to understand the great significance of what Jesus is saying.  His teaching will cost Him His life, and He's well aware of the fact that everything He says will count for the sake of posterity, just as 2,000 years later we read and learn from these stories in the Gospel.  So to give us the power of Resurrection before His death on the Cross, Jesus teaches about the revelation in Scripture (and the Sadducees' ignorance of those Scriptures, for they held only the Torah -- the first five books of the Bible -- to be essential).  This, in fact, is much closer to the positions of the Pharisees -- and so we should understand that yet again, when Jesus speaks and answers, He is putting Himself in the middle of important disputes among the powerful.  Jesus has no position of power except that the multitudes listen to Him and think Him to be a prophet, and so He courts danger all the time -- especially given the fickle nature of crowds.   So powerful is His teaching that He even wins over the lawyer from the Pharisees who questions Him about which commandment is greatest in the Law.  But let us note, interestingly, that once again Jesus holds onto His own authority in a subtly repeated way:  He does not answer the question as it is posed.  There are, in fact, two greatest commandments, one first and one second, but both go hand and in hand and cannot be separated one from the other; moreover, they sum up all the Law and the Prophets.   So powerful is His speaking that eventually He silences all those who approach with important questions.  They will have to find another way to trap Him and render Him worthy of the penalty of death; they won't be able to do so without false witnesses and lies.  In order to give us the truth, Jesus risks His life with every question and every answer.  None of these questions are trivial for His time and neither are they trivial for us.  People who have come after Christ have also risked their lives for faith in His word, for the preaching of these Gospels and the message contained therein.  What does it mean to you that the doctrine of eternal life, of a transfigured state after life in this world, has been given to us by Christ?  How is it meaningful to you that all live in Christ -- those who have passed as well as we who are living and present today in this world?  How is that important to you and why?  Does it make a difference that we are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses, or that when we worship those witnesses, including uncountable numbers of angels, as well as Christ, the Father, and the Holy Spirit are present with us?   Christ gives us a teaching that indicates that there are no real barriers to life, and all is present in God, and with us.  And it is the same with the teaching of the two commandments:  one is not separable from the other, but everything begins with the love of God, for God is the source of everything good, and particularly of the love we can learn and expand so that we live through God's will in the right relation to all.  Jesus risks His life every moment in order to bring to us the doctrine that there is no real separation from God, and that in fact in God all divisions disappear:  we can love neighbor as if there is no division between us, we live together with the saints, and life is one in God's sustaining love.  Let us hold precious this doctrine, as it's been given to us at great cost by those to whom it was most dear.