Leviticus 19: 1-2, 15-18 (New Jerusalem Bible)
Matthew 22: 34-46 (Common English Bible)
The Torah (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers & Deuteronomy) contained 613 commandments because the Jewish rabbis sought ways to enforce believers to strictly follow the Law of Moses. But Jesus’ mission is placing the love of God and the love of neighbor, even foreign, on equal footing.
Matthew’s gospel is clearly indicating that Jesus is a teacher, but more. Jesus is the son of David, but more. He is the Messiah, but more. Jesus is the Universal Christ for everyone. Now it is the Pharisees, the keepers of the Law, and not the Sadducees, who are closing in on Jesus during his last days on earth.
The basic meaning of the Law of Moses is the love of God and neighbor. Jesus’ own sense of his Messianic mission is not just to fulfill the Law of Moses but to go beyond it, for a deeper meaning. This new meaning is far more important than the physical lineage of King David, it is the call to follow God to a new kind of kingdom on earth, a completely new society based on love and justice.
The most common title of the expected Messiah was the son of David. The Jewish people in the 1st century expected a great warrior from David’s lineage who would destroy the Roman occupiers and lead his people to conquer all nations. The Messiah was most commonly thought of in nationalistic military terms of power and glory.
Jesus quotes Psalm chapter 110, verse one, “Yahweh declared to my Lord, take your seat at my right hand, until I have made your enemies your footstool.” The “Lord” in this reading is the Messiah. It can get confusing, but it means that King David says Christ is his Lord. But if the Christ is King David’s son, how could David call his own son “Lord?”
Well, the Christ is not King David’s son, but he is David’s Lord. The Christ existed from all eternity even before the Universe was created. King David by contrast was born into a historical era by human procreation. It is not enough to think of Christ as a prince of David’s line and an earthly conqueror.
So what did Jesus mean with his reply to the Pharisees? He meant only one thing, the true description of the Christ is the Son of God. This is Jesus’ greatest claim. Jesus came not as an earthly conqueror who would repeat the military victories of King David, but as the Son of God who would demonstrate God’s love to everyone.
Jesus became the Christ because he saw that sin and death are still at work within Israel which prides itself with its special status. This is what Jesus opposed so strongly and any attempt to create a nationalistic ideology. That is why Jesus also opposed any attempt to bring Israel into a war with Rome. Jesus correctly saw a complete disaster for the Jewish people if that happened. He realized that sin, power and death can only be defeated by Christ in single, unarmed combat on a Roman cross of execution.
In our day, where can we learn how to practice the fruit of God’s reign? Potential peacemakers can learn to resolve violent international conflicts peacefully at the US Institute of Peace. Seminary students can learn about nonviolence, conflict mediation and peacemaking at several colleges in the US. Earlham College in Richmond, Indiana is one example. Laypeople interested in peacemaking and justice in the service of nonviolent social action can find like-minded people in the Fellowship of Reconciliation. There are many ways to learn the paths of peace that please God and silence the demonic voices of war. Those actions will make the angels in Heaven dance and sing in joyous abandon.
In the Hebrew Bible, it seems that God’s people are always in danger of being overwhelmed by the larger and more dominant culture surrounding them. The worship of the one true God, Yahweh, looked rather subdued compared to the Canaanite fertility cult to their gods. I can only imagine. When the Jewish intellectuals returned to Jerusalem from their exile in Babylon, they were strict, maybe too strict with the foreign people who migrated into Jerusalem’s area during their absence. Jewish men who had married a foreign woman had to divorce her, or leave. It was a kind of ethnic cleansing.
Sometimes we too are surrounded by a culture we dislike. It is a culture that exists by a debit/credit economy of human relations and a scoring on who is ahead. As people of God, where we are asked to live in such a way the world around us gets an idea of what God is like. It doesn’t mean destroying the current system, but to show God’s alternative society. We witness the redemptive reign of God whose justice is ruled by love, who makes provisions for the poor and will not let the disabled be exploited. Obeying the commandments that prohibit theft and slander upholds the integrity of others and shows God’s regard for us that justice for the poor will be upheld.
In the reading from Leviticus chapter 19, the question is asked, what does it mean to be “holy?” To be holy has come to mean more of an individual's personal behavior, a way of being that reinforces a pious facade, instead of taking positive actions towards others. This should not come as a complete surprise when we consider how European and American hyper-individualism dominates us. An extreme example of this was a true story I watched about a very pious, religious fundamentalist preacher who shot and killed two of his neighbors in 2022 because he didn’t agree with their lifestyle, even though their activity was completely legal in California. I saw that on “Fear Thy Neighbor” which never has a happy ending. There should be a series, “Love Thy Neighbor” instead.
Leviticus chapter 19, verse 18, offers the law of love as a contrast to typical human actions. We are wrong to seek vengeance. In a divided political climate, we must expand the meaning of “neighbor” beyond the person next door. Neighbors should include people across the world. We should view the Palestinian people as our neighbors, even though most of the Western world does not. Rather than following our typical culture by disenfranchising the political “other,” Christ’s followers must elevate all sides to the status of “neighbor.”
Most Christians have read Jesus’ summary of the Law of Moses with his two-fold command to love God and neighbor. It’s one of Jesus’ most familiar teachings. Less familiar is what sort of “love” does Jesus have in mind?
First it’s a love that looks like listening and keeping God’s commandments for the purpose of communal and personal well being. And second, it’s a love that looks like kindness, generosity and respect for our neighbor and rejects hostility and violence. As a dangerous and heartbreaking war seems to be on the horizon in the Middle East, this kind of love should be taken seriously.
Jesus is creating the idea of keeping the Law of Moses, not as a catalog of duties, but as a gift God has given us for the sake of a holistic life with people. Jesus evokes the merciful spirit of the Leviticus writer of chapter 19 to avoid violence.
Jesus’ call to be his disciple sets the bar very high, “Love God and your neighbor with every strength you have.” And when you reach the place where authentic discipleship begins, when one’s helplessness needs hope, that is the time to reach out to Christ. The people who reach to Christ are those who have tried everything by themselves and finally realize they cannot do it alone. The people who pray are the ones who understand what needs to be known. Martin Luther King Jr. prayed often during his mission for civil rights.
Jesus never promised to take away every overwhelming challenge we face. Jesus did promise that if one does follow him, he will show them how to become a true human being that God created us to be. Jesus loved the Living God he called “Father.” And Jesus loved every human being the same way. If we follow Jesus and his teachings, he will show how to do the same way, step by step.
So, if you’re not sure how to love God or neighbor, local or foreign, even yourself, read the gospels, the most important books in the Bible. And Jesus is the greatest teacher to ever set foot on earth. His words will be, “It’s OK, I will show you how.”
AMEN
