The Great Commandments - Matthew 22:34-46

When the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, and one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?”

No surprise in today’s Gospel, we find the Pharisees again trying to trip up Jesus, especially in the light of His having silenced the Sadducees. The Pharisees are authorities on the Law of Moses, they live by the Law, and they attempt to see to it that the rest of Jewish society does the same. Today they present Jesus with a pop quiz: name the greatest commandment.

The request is not what we might take it to be, to name the top commandment of the Ten Commandments. The Pharisees want Jesus to consider the 613 commandments found in the first five books of the Bible, known as the Torah, or The Teaching, and to select the cornerstone, the greatest. These commandments include 365 “negative commandments”, sometimes described as one for every day of the year, where you are ordered not to do something, like, “Do not commit murder.” Then there are 248 “positive commandments” which describe what one is to do to faithfully follow the Torah, the teaching given to Moses.

This is a contest. Matthew reminds us that Jesus silenced the Sadducees, the priests who served at the Temple in Jerusalem. They asked their thorniest question about the Torah, and Jesus passed that test. Now it is the Pharisees’ turn. We use the term Pharisee today as a term of derision; we say someone is pharisaical if he or she is hypocritical or self-righteous. But this way of seeing the Pharisees would not have been true during Jesus’ ministry.

At the risk of restating what we already know, the Pharisees were a sect within Judaism, which worked as a social movement seeking to change society with a greater faithfulness to following the Torah. The Pharisees championed synagogue worship in addition to going to the Temple. Jesus taught faithfulness to God and worshipped in the synagogue. Because of this, many Jews of that day would likely have seen Jesus as a Pharisee, or at least as being in line with the Pharisees’ school of thought. So this debate might be seen by those who witnessed it as something of an in-house argument.

But - the stakes are higher than a mere in-house debate, as the Pharisees in Jerusalem see Jesus’ growing influence on the crowds, and they seem to want to shut down this movement before it goes any further. We, hearing this Gospel today, realize their question comes from a place not of wanting to learn, but desiring discredit the rabbi from Galilee. Jesus immediately answers with what is the most succinct statement of everything He taught and His every action:

“‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”

We are not just to love God, but our neighbor, and not just God and our neighbor, but we are to love ourselves, as only then can we love our neighbors as ourselves. Everything hangs on love.

The love Jesus is talking about here cost Him His life, so this is love beyond mere sentimentality or emotion. Jesus teaches about the form of love that in Greek is called agape. This is a self-giving love, which is more concerned about the other person than oneself. Agape love starts with God, and God’s love for us. With this love of God and God’s love for us, we can then begin to see other people as God sees them. We can even begin to see ourselves as God sees us. From this experience, we reach out in love to others with the love that begins in the very life and nature of God.

The love that is within the Holy Trinity is not merely a feeling or emotion. And so, God’s love for husband or wife or partner is not dependent on their likes and dislikes, job, mood, or anything else so changeable. God’s love for our siblings does not depend on whether they get on our nerves. God’s love for our co-workers does not depend on their lovability. God’s love for our friends does not depend on whether or not they let us down. God’s love for everyone else is a lot like God’s love for each of us. This love is a lot more dependable than we are, even on our best days.

Love that is more concerned about others than ourselves is not about self-loathing, or being abused. Real love can also come with a hard edge, for it is not loving to become co-dependent and support someone in their abuse of their own bodies with drugs—legal or illegal—or alcohol, or food. It is not about being a doormat, and letting others trample on us. Real love can mean setting clear boundaries, something that many find difficult, and not letting negative actions continue.

The love that wants something better and acts to make changes to end needless suffering is part of the love God has for all creation. The love of God that was in the Trinity before creation, overflowed into this world of ours, and that love continues even though we are fallen and not deserving of it. This love that was in the very life of God before Creation is the love that never fails. This is the love Jesus had, so that as He died on the cross He could look out at those who killed Him, as they mocked Him, and say, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”

And in these words of forgiveness from the cross, we see that God’s love is more concerned about the other than our own self.

Agape love is a decision, an act of the will, a choice we have to make. Decide to see others as God sees them. Act on this decision rather than just whether you feel the emotions of love. Do you want to experience that sort of Godly love for your friends, your family, your spouse? Then the love you have for them cannot start with you and go out to them. The love we have for others must start with God, and we must ask God to give us this gift. In our prayers we need to ask God to reveal to us the way He sees these other people in our lives, especially the difficult people we deal with.

Often, we come to places in our lives when the next move is difficult to determine. Should we forgive? Should we pick up the phone and make a call? Should we write a letter? Should we make a visit?

First, we need to carefully set our own limits, our boundaries, as there are some people in our lives who would abuse us and who, yes, we may need to avoid, though we continue to pray for them. Setting aside those relationships that are toxic, and looking at the many “garden-variety” painful relationships in our lives, the answer to our questions is love. The decision to forgive, or call, or write, or visit, or whatever it is that will make this love concrete should not depend alone on whether we have been hurt or could be hurt. The answer should depend on answering the question, “What would Love do?” This is how the ideal of loving God and loving your neighbor as yourself is made real.

Have you perhaps just thought of someone who has hurt you, someone with whom you have lost contact, or broken off your relationship? Trust that the Holy Spirit has been involved in this person coming to mind. If this applies to you, then love is speaking to your heart—the love of God is calling you to act on agape love.

Agape love is a choice, a decision, an act of the will, and it belongs in the heart of our relationships with our spouse, our children, our parents, our siblings, our friends, our co-workers, with everyone we meet. We all need to have the courage to not simply talk of love, but to put love into action, and that includes tough love. The love God has for us is patient and kind and will never fail. We are called to share that same amazing love with all the people in our lives.

It is so difficult, we say, but really it is not. As Mother Teresa once said, “When you know how much God is in love with you, then you can only live your life radiating that love.”

Let us pray:

Bless us with Love, O Merciful God; that we may Love as you Love! That we may show patience, tolerance, Kindness, caring and love to all! Give us knowledge; O giver of Knowledge, that we may be one! O Compassionate One, grant compassion unto us; That we may help all fellow souls in need! Bless us with your Love O God. In Jesus Name, Amen.