On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets

 

 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."

 

While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them, saying, "What do you think about the Christ?  Whose Son is He?"  They said to Him, "The Son of David."  He said to them, "How then does David in the Spirit call Him 'Lord,' saying:

'The LORD said to my Lord,

"Sit at My right hand,

 Till I make Your enemies Your footstool"'?

"If David then calls Him 'Lord,' how is He his Son?"   And no one was able to answer Him a word, nor from that day on did anyone dare question Him any more.  

 

- Matthew 22:34–46 

 

Yesterday we read that, on the same day that the Pharisees sought to trap Jesus with a question about paying Roman taxes, 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 multitudes 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."  My study Bible comments that the Pharisees had found 613 commandments in the Scriptures, and they debated constantly about which one was central.  Here Jesus sets forth the first and the second, which together constitute a grand summary of the Law.  Although this lawyer has come with malice to test Jesus, we know from St. Mark's account of this story that he is converted by Christ's answers (Mark 12:28-34).  My study Bible expands further on the second commandment given by Jesus that it must be understood as it is written; You shall love your neighbor as yourself.  More clearly stated, it would read, "as being yourself."  It's often misunderstood to mean "You shall love your neighbor as you love yourself," which effectively destroys the force of the statement.  How much we love ourselves isn't the standard by which Christ calls us to love others.  My study Bible says that we are called to love our neighbor as being of the same nature as we ourselves are, as being created in God's image and likeness just as we are.  As the Church Fathers teach, we find our true self in loving our neighbor.  In St. Luke's Gospel, Jesus offers these two commandments to a lawyer who asks Him about attaining eternal life.  The law then follows up with a question, "And who is my neighbor?" to which Jesus replies by telling the story of the Good Samaritan (see Luke 10:25-37).

 

 While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them, saying, "What do you think about the Christ?  Whose Son is He?"  They said to Him, "The Son of David."  He said to them, "How then does David in the Spirit call Him 'Lord,' saying:  'The LORD said to my Lord, "Sit at My right hand, till I make Your enemies Your footstool"'?  If David then calls Him 'Lord,' how is He his Son?"   And no one was able to answer Him a word, nor from that day on did anyone dare question Him any more.   My study Bible notes here that Christ asks this question in order to lead the Pharisees to the only logical conclusion:  that He is God Incarnate.  They supposed the Messiah to be a mere man, and so they reply that the Messiah would be a Son of David.  But David, as king of Israel, could not and would not address anyone as "lord" except God.  But in Psalm 110:1, David refers to the Messiah as "Lord."  Therefore, the Messiah must be God.  The only possible conclusion is therefore that He is a descendant of David only according to the flesh -- but is also divine, sharing Lordship with God the Father and the Holy Spirit.  My study Bible adds that the Pharisees are unable to answer any further because they realize the implications, and they fear to confess Jesus to be the son of God.  In the psalm verse quoted by Jesus, the answer is that the first reference to the LORD applies to God the Father, while the term my Lord refers to Christ.  

 

 The commentary on today's reading found in my study Bible invites us to think more deeply about Christ's second commandment listed here.  That is, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself."  The two commandments which Jesus cites here, putting them together as that upon which hang the whole of the Law and the Prophets (that is, the Scriptures known to the Jews at that time), are Deuteronomy 6:5; Leviticus 19:18.  Let us remember that the one who questions Christ here is called a lawyer in the text; that is, he is an expert in the Law, in the commandments of the Scriptures.   The full verse of Leviticus reads as follows:  "You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the children of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord."  So, it seems important to note in this context that the first part of this instruction is a command to refrain from vengeance against "the children of your people."  Its thrust and purpose seems clear; that is, it is meant as a command to refrain from dissension and violence within the community.  We know this is a central problem in the Old Testament, the world having descended from the first sin mentioned in Genesis to the evil of Lamech, who bragged to his two wives in a song as follows:  "Adah and Zillah, hear my voice; wives of Lamech, listen to my speech! For I have killed a man for wounding me, even a young man for hurting me.  If Cain shall be avenged sevenfold, then Lamech seventy-sevenfold" (Genesis 4:23-24).  Of such importance was this growing cycle of vengeance that in the time of Lamech's son, Noah, God would decide to flood the world and start over, preserving the lineage of one "who found grace in the eyes of the Lord" and who was "a just man" "who walked with God" (see Genesis 6:5-13).  God's entire emphasis after that, in creating a people via Abraham's faith (accounted to him as righteousness), who would be led by Moses and through him given the Law, was to create a community in the image God desired.  So, there we come to the prohibition against vengeance and its terrible effects upon community. To love neighbor as oneself, as my study Bible explains, is to know others as "the children of your people;" that is, as one like yourself.  It's most important, in considering today's reading and this commandment, that we consider the story of the Good Samaritan as Christ's response to the question, "And who is my neighbor?"  The lawyer's answer in that passage is that "the one who showed mercy" was neighbor to the other, and Jesus' command follows:  "Go and do likewise."  If we look carefully at that story of the Good Samaritan, we may conclude that this command to show mercy is one in which we are willing to take the first step, the initiative, in being a neighbor.  The first commandment given here teaches us not just to follow or even to have faith and believe, but to love God "with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind."  This establishes the most basic relationship that defines who we are, for in loving God in such a complete way, we wholeheartedly love Love itself (1 John 4:8), and through a depth of drawing toward union with God, we learn love from God.  Let us endeavor, wherever we are, to create the community that God wants from us, learning to follow these commandments, and to be the kind of neighbor God wants us to become.

 

 

 

 

 

Which is the first commandment of all?

 

 Then one of the scribes came, and having heard them reasoning together, perceiving that He had answered them well, asked Him, "Which is the first commandment of all?"  Jesus answered him, "The first of all the commandments is:  'Hear, O Israel, the LORD our God, the LORD is one.  And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.'  This is the first commandment.  And the second, like it, is this:  'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'  There is no other commandment greater than these."  So the scribe said to Him, "Well said, Teacher.  You have spoken the truth, for there is one God, and there is no other but He.  And to love Him with all the heart, with all the understanding, with all the soul, and with all the strength, an to love one's neighbor as oneself, is more than all the whole burnt offerings and sacrifices."  Now when Jesus saw that he answered wisely, He said to him, "You are not far from the kingdom of God."  But after that no one dared question Him. 

 

- Mark 12:28–34 

 

Then they sent to Him some of the Pharisees and the Herodians, to catch Him in His words.  When they had come, they said to Him, "Teacher, we know that You are true, and care about no one; for You do not regard  the person of men, but teach the way of God in truth.  Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?  Shall we pay, or shall we not pay?"  But He, knowing their hypocrisy, said to them, "Why do you test Me?  Bring Me a denarius that I may see it."  So they brought it And He said to them, "Whose image and inscription is this?"  They said to Him,"Caesar's."  And Jesus answered and said to them, "Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's."  And they marveled at Him.  Then some Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to Him; and they asked Him, saying:  "Teacher, Moses wrote to us that if a man's brother dies, and leaves his wife behind, and leaves no children, his brother should take his wife and raise up offspring for his brother.  Now there were seven brothers.  The first took a wife; and dying, he left no offspring.  And the second took her, and he died; nor did he leave any offspring.  And the third likewise.  So the seven had her and left no offspring.  Last of all the woman died also.  Therefore, in the resurrection, when they rise, whose wife will she be?  For all seven had her as wife."  Jesus answered and said to them, "Are you not therefore mistaken, because you do not know the Scriptures nor the power of God?  For when they rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven.  But concerning the dead, that they rise, have you not read in the book of Moses, in the burning bush passage, how God spoke to him, saying, 'I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob'?  He is not the God of the dead, but the God of the living.  You are therefore greatly mistaken."

 

  Then one of the scribes came, and having heard them reasoning together, perceiving that He had answered them well, asked Him, "Which is the first commandment of all?"  Jesus answered him, "The first of all the commandments is:  'Hear, O Israel, the LORD our God, the LORD is one.  And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.'  This is the first commandment.  And the second, like it, is this:  'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'  There is no other commandment greater than these."  So the scribe said to Him, "Well said, Teacher.  You have spoken the truth, for there is one God, and there is no other but He.  And to love Him with all the heart, with all the understanding, with all the soul, and with all the strength, an to love one's neighbor as oneself, is more than all the whole burnt offerings and sacrifices."  Now when Jesus saw that he answered wisely, He said to him, "You are not far from the kingdom of God."  But after that no one dared question Him.   My study Bible says that, in response to one of the scribes, Jesus quotes Deuteronomy 6:4-5, which is the greatest Jewish confession of faith.  This is commonly called the Shema' (which means "hear," the first word of the confession).  Adding to this, He quotes from Leviticus 19:18.  Thus, Jesus combines what is already present in the Old Testament to create a new understanding.  That is, that the love of neighbor is an expression of love of God.  In context, we should understand that the Pharisees had found 613 commandments in the Scriptures, and it was common practice to debate which one was central.  Here Jesus gives the first and the second, thus summarizing the Law.  

If we look carefully at Leviticus 19:18, its emphasis is on peace through righteousness:  "You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the children of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord."  Note carefully that its main prohibition is against retribution:  vengeance and grudge-bearing.  Jesus places -- as He often does -- a positive emphasis on the command.  He says, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself."  It reminds us of the similar passage in Luke 10:25-37, in which Jesus is asked, "Who is my neighbor?"  In response, He gives the parable of the Good Samaritan, which further places emphasis on the positive, as opposed to the prohibitive.  After telling the story of the Good Samaritan, Jesus asks His interlocutor, "So which of these three do you think was neighbor to him who fell among the thieves?"  That man replied, "He who showed mercy on him." Then Jesus said to him, "Go and do likewise."  Again, in this command, "Go and do likewise," we have the positive emphasis on what we are to do, how we are to be a neighbor and to live like a neighbor.  In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus gives a very hard positive command.  He teaches, "I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust" (Matthew 5:44-45).  But He does so in context, and consistently with the passages we're examining in the context of His response to the scribe in today's reading.  He's teaching quite simply that God is love, and that we are to be "like God."  That is, our expressions of mercy, our positive capacity to "be a neighbor," to live righteous lives, these are all in keeping with Christ's summary of the Law -- that we are love God and by extension to practice love for neighbor.   It is important to note, however, that the first of all the commandments is to "love the LORD your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength."  What this does is set down a foundation for what love is and does and means, and how we are to practice discernment in living out these positive commands of Christ.  This is the true foundation for finding our way in life, because to start with the love of God establishes us in the most primary relationship we need for finding Christ's way of life and living it ourselves.  We can abstract out principles all day long, thinking about how we want others to treat us, and how we don't, but more importantly is the whole concept of love and of life.  For example, if I like to indulge myself with things that aren't really good for me, is that loving my neighbor to encourage them to do the same?   Do we participate in gossip because we want to please the neighbor or relative who'd like us to join in?  It is simply too easy to follow theories that sound good, but do not effectively do good.  The positive enactment of these commands -- and especially, to understand what love is -- becomes the most important directive for our lives in Christ's teaching.  It is for this discernment that we practice discipleship, and that we are on a course all of our lives to continue learning to walk in Christ's way.  That can only begin with a foundation in the love of God, setting us in an experiential participation through worship and prayer, learning not only with the mind but also with the heart.  Throughout the Old Testament, and in the Didache, the earliest teaching document in the Church, is described "the Two Ways."  The two ways are the way of life and the way of death.  For Old Testament examples, see for instance Proverbs 12:28, Jeremiah 21:18, Deuteronomy 30:15, 19; Isaiah 1:19-20.  These are about the relationship to God and following God's commands.  Right in the beginning of the Didache, the two commands given by Christ in today's reading form the example of the way of life.  In a world that seems to offer a dizzying variety of variables in terms of what might be prescribed as a "good life" and what might not, we need perhaps ever more diligently to root ourselves in God.  To do good to one's enemies does not necessarily mean that we are to root for what we know is harmful in some dimension, even if this is the choice for some.  To pursue a path that is ultimately harmful and destructive, it would quite obviously seem, is to pursue the "way of death" and not the way of life.  Whether we speak of violence on a grand scale, or even on a personal one that is harmful to the littlest and least powerful, we need to seriously consider the first commandment given by Christ.  For all the questions we have in life, and the increasing proliferation of choices, theoretical lifestyles, and questions of tolerance, peace, and righteousness, there should be no doubt that we must root ourselves in the love of God.  For it is only there, in God who is love, that we can truly learn love -- what is helpful and what is harmful to human beings and human life.  For Christ comes with a promise of abundant life, and we can see so much around us of the way of death, even in things that nominally sound "good."   The saints that we know show us the way of life; let us follow in their footsteps and take inspiration from them. 

 

 

 

Which is the first commandment of all?

 

 Then one of the scribes came, and having heard them reasoning together, perceiving that He had answered them well, asked Him, "Which is the first commandment of all?"  Jesus answered him, "The first of all the commandments is:  'Hear, O Israel, the LORD our God, the LORD is one.  And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.'  This is the first commandment.  And the second, like it, is this:  'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'  There is no other commandment greater than these."  So the scribe said to Him, "Well said, Teacher.  You have spoken the truth, for there is one God, and there is no other but He.  And to love Him with all the heart, with all the understanding, with all the soul, and with all the strength, and to love one's neighbor as oneself, is more than all the whole burnt offerings and sacrifices."  Now when Jesus saw that he answered wisely, He said to him, "You are not far from the kingdom of God."  But after that no one dared question Him.

 

- Mark 12:28–34 

 

Yesterday we read that the chief priests, scribes, and elders sent to Jesus some of the Pharisees and the Herodians, to catch Him in His words.  When they had come, they said to Him, "Teacher, we know that You are true, and care about no one; for You do not regard the person of men, but teach the way of God in truth.  Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?  Shall we pay, or shall we not pay?"  But He, knowing their hypocrisy, said to them, "Why do you test Me?  Bring Me a denarius that I may see it."  So they brought it.  And He said to them, "Whose image and inscription is this?"  They said to Him, "Caesar's."  And Jesus answered and said to them, "Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's."  And they marveled at Him.  Then some Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to Him; and they asked Him, saying:  "Teacher, Moses wrote to us that if a man's brother dies, and leaves his wife behind, and leaves no children, his brother should take his wife and raise up offspring for his brother.  Now there were seven brothers.  The first took a wife; and dying, he left no offspring.  And the second took her, and he died; nor did he leave any offspring.  And the third likewise.  So the seven had her and left no offspring.  Last of all the woman died also.  Therefore, in the resurrection, when they rise, whose wife will she be?  For all seven had her as wife."  Jesus answered and said to them, "Are you not therefore mistaken, because you do not know the Scriptures nor the power of God?  For when they rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven.  But concerning the dead, that they rise, have you not read in the book of Moses, in the burning bush passage, how God spoke to him, saying, 'I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob'?  He is not the God of the dead, but the God of the living.  You are therefore greatly mistaken."

 

 Then one of the scribes came, and having heard them reasoning together, perceiving that He had answered them well, asked Him, "Which is the first commandment of all?"  Jesus answered him, "The first of all the commandments is:  'Hear, O Israel, the LORD our God, the LORD is one.  And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.'  This is the first commandment.  And the second, like it, is this:  'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'  There is no other commandment greater than these."  So the scribe said to Him, "Well said, Teacher.  You have spoken the truth, for there is one God, and there is no other but He.  And to love Him with all the heart, with all the understanding, with all the soul, and with all the strength, and to love one's neighbor as oneself, is more than all the whole burnt offerings and sacrifices."  Now when Jesus saw that he answered wisely, He said to him, "You are not far from the kingdom of God."  But after that no one dared question Him.   In today's reading, one of the scribes comes to question Jesus, as he perceives that He had answered the Pharisees, Herodians, and Sadducees well (in yesterday's reading; see above).   In Jesus' response, He quotes Deuteronomy 6:4-5, which is the greatest Jewish confession of faith.  This is called the Shema' (which means "hear," the first word of the confession).  The second commandment He quotes is from Leviticus 19:18.  Thereby Jesus combines what is already present in the Old Testament to create a new understanding:  that the love of neighbor is an expression of the love of God.  Indeed, in Jesus' teaching, the two are not separable.  

 

 My study Bible comments that the second commandment expressed by Christ (from Leviticus 19:18) is frequently misinterpreted.  It says that it must be understood as written:  You shall love your neighbor as yourself; or more clearly, "as being yourself."  It is often misinterpreted to be understood as "You shall love your neighbor as you love yourself," which is not true to the force of the statement.  How much we love ourselves isn't the standard by which Christ calls us to love others.  My study Bible explains that we are called to love our neighbor as being of the same nature as we are ourselves -- as being created in God's image and likeness just as we are.   Moreover, if we look at the precise commandment, it leads us into an interesting perspective in its fullness:  "You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the children of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord."  Its first impetus is a prohibition against vengeance, and against bearing grudges within community.  That is, it is foundational to Christ's injunction regarding the practice of mutual forgiveness.  In Monday's reading, Jesus spoke about the power of faith and prayer.  But when He spoke of prayer, He added this statement:  "And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him, that your Father in heaven may also forgive you your trespasses.  But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father in heaven forgive your trespasses."  There are many things that open up here for our understanding.  The first is that to love neighbor as oneself is to see an injury to neighbor as to oneself; these are commandments regarding community, after all.   The original commandment also sheds light on the meaning of forgiveness:  that it does not preclude justice or the normal understanding of appropriate conduct in the face of harmful behavior.  But it does preclude vengeance and the exercise of holding a grudge; it limits tit-for-tat harm or injury, and it gives us a context for Christ's teachings on forgiveness -- that we give up our "debts" or "trespasses" to God, first, because community comes from God and our love of God in the first place.  It helps us to more fully understand Christ's teachings on community, and the kind of community He wants His Church to be; that is, the community of His followers, those who belong to Him.  Moreover, to love neighbor as oneself suggests a kind of love that is like a good parent for a child:  it does not imply harmful overindulgence, a nurturing of selfishness or self-destructive behavior.  But rather it implies that whatever discipline is good for us and healthful on any level, this also applies to how we love others.  To love another is not to encourage nor tolerate bad behavior, but to nurture what we believe is good for ourselves and therefore for others.  It supports Christ's notion of mutual correction in the Church found in Matthew 18:15-35.  In that passage, Jesus also speaks famously of forgiveness,  telling Peter to forgive "seventy times seven."  But this teaching is couched in a means of correction, giving us a way to reconcile injury, while at the same time upholding the teachings in Leviticus 19:18 against vengeance and nursing a grudge.  In Christ's important combination of these two commandments, we come to understand that everything begins and ends with the love of God.  We turn to love of God in prayer to help us to reconcile our own sense of injury and the command to forgive; we seek God's love for us to teach us how we are to behave in community, in the world.  We "turn over" our debts to God the metaphorical central Banker, and we find how to conduct our lives free of vengeance and grudge-holding, in order to find our peace and by extension that of community.  Life is full of injury, because life is full of sin and selfishness.  But Christ asks us to find the best way to make our way through this world within the loving embrace of God and the teachings of God, not as frustrated individuals lost without community.  Christ's great emphasis is the centrality of God to our own identity and understanding of community.  Connecting it to Psalm 27, we might say, according to the Septuagint translation in my study Bible:  "For my father and my mother forsook me, but the Lord laid hold of me" (verse 10).  It is in keeping with the understanding that although sin or abuse may interfere with relations in this world, we can still find community in God, the good teachings that will see us through life.  This is the kind of community that Christ offers to us through His teachings.  They are not teachings of self-centeredness or selfishness, but they are teachings for health of self and in community, teachings of true self-love and therein true discipline, offering us what's good for us, like a truly good parent should.  Let us take to heart that Christ's way is both the way of truth and the way of peace:  these are so often hard to reconcile on human terms, but, as the psalm says, the Lord will care for us and teach us the way in our lives.  Everything begins and ends with the love of God, for it is God's kingdom in which we seek to dwell.