Loving God, send your Holy Spirit among us this day, that it might be your Word that is both spoken and heard; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

‘Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’...[and] ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these (Mk. 12:29-31).

    The scribe who came to Jesus, and all of the teachers in Israel, had 613 commandments to choose from.  The rabbis often had discussions with one another about how they might rank these commandments in order of importance.  And so, when the scribe comes to Jesus and asks him which commandment is first of all, he is treating Jesus as a fellow rabbi and is sincere about his question.

    It is entirely likely that many of the rabbis would have agreed with the first commandment that Jesus mentions - those verses from Deuteronomy (6:4-5) known as the Shema.  The Lord is one.  Love God with your whole self.  (That’s the short version.)  However, as with many of Jesus’ answers, he puts a twist on things that others wouldn’t necessarily add.  In this case, Jesus makes a point of adding a second commandment that comes from Leviticus (19:18), “you shall love your neighbour as yourself.”

    It is no accident that later in today’s reading we hear about some scribes who think that they are honouring God but are ignoring the needs of others.  These are the people who should know better - the people who have studied the Scriptures and are supposed to be teaching others.  These are the people who are well-respected and who say long prayers and who are in the synagogue every week and who give large gifts to the Temple treasury.  Yet, these same people are full of pride and “devour widows’ houses,” taking from those who are most vulnerable and leaving them with nothing.

    This is why Jesus connects love of God with love of neighbour.  It is impossible to love God while ignoring the needs of others.  It is just like we hear some years later in the first letter of John:

Those who say, “I love God,” and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen.  The commandment we have from him is this: those who love God must love their brothers and sisters also (1 Jn. 4:20-21).

    So which is easier, do you think? - To love God, or to love the people you come in contact with every week?...  As I think about this question, loving God seems to me to be easier as well as less complicated.  I find it easy to imagine myself going to worship, kneeling in confession, singing and praying, giving an offering, receiving God’s love and forgiveness in the Lord’s Supper, spending time in prayer and reading the Scriptures.  To me, this is all part of strengthening my relationship with God and loving God with my whole heart and soul and mind.

    However, when I start to think about loving my neighbour as myself, everything gets a lot more complicated.  For example, when I come across a panhandler standing on the median by the traffic light, what is the most loving thing to do?  Or what about when there is somebody who is phoning me all the time and asking for help, always needing a little bit for this and a little bit for that?  What does it mean to show love to this person?  And what about the people who are just plain needy? - always needing somebody to talk to, always needing help, never able to look after themselves in a healthy manner?  What does it mean to show love to them?

    While today we certainly could be talking about the widow who gives everything, it is also good to ask if that’s a good thing or not.  We probably tend to think that Jesus was commending the widow for her generosity, but if you read it carefully, Jesus never says that this is a good thing.  In fact, he could just as easily have been denouncing the system that had left this widow with so little and required her to give it to the Temple.  What Jesus actually says is that she had given more than all the others, because the magnitude of the gift depends on how much you have in the first place.

    And so, I’m not so sure that loving your neighbour as yourself means giving and giving and giving until you have nothing left.  In fact, perhaps it is more helpful (and more healthful) to think about a healthy balance in loving God and our neighbour and ourselves.  The thing is that all three of these loves begin with God’s love for us.  “We love,” says 1 John, “because [God] first loved us” (4:19).

    Our attitude of love begins with the realization that we are created in the image of God and valued by God and are loved so deeply that God would come to be among us in the person of Jesus Christ.  Our love for God begins when we realize what God has done for us and are aware of God’s mercy and forgiveness in our lives.

    At the same time, our love for others and for ourselves comes from the same source.  To love ourselves is to see ourselves from God’s point of view and to see what gifts God has given each one of us and to acknowledge that we are worth the death of God’s Son.  The thing is, though, that every other person we come into contact with is also worth the death of God’s Son.  Jesus is inviting us to see both ourselves and other people from God’s point of view and to allow God’s love to spill over into our lives.

    And so, while it is not always easy to discern how best to live out God’s love, if we can at least approach each situation with an attitude of love for God and for others and for ourselves, we will be able to learn and to grow from there.  While all of us are called to do what we can to pass on God’s love to others, all of us are human and have our limits.  Even Jesus needed to take time out for prayer and sometimes caught a nap in the middle of a boat ride.  When we are not caring for ourselves, we are of no use to anybody else and are unable to love and serve others.

    And so, be aware of the depth of God’s love for you.  Meditate on the lengths to which God was willing to go in order to save and redeem and bless you.  Allow God’s love and mercy to fill your hearts and minds, until that same love spills over to all the people you meet.  Love God with your whole heart and soul and mind and strength, and love your neighbour as yourself.  “There is no other commandment greater than these.”  Amen.

Lent 4 (NL 2)                                Mark 12:28-44
March 6, 2016
St. Luke’s Zion Lutheran Church
Pastor Lynne Hutchison

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