Pentecost 19

Pentecost 19 (Matthew 22:34-46) You shall love.

Love is not just an option- it is an imperative.

The different religious groups in Jesus’ day challenged him on many different points of belief and behavior. The Sadducees did not believe in an afterlife. They challenged Jesus for teaching the resurrection.

Jesus did not debate the merits of theological speculation with the Sadducees. He simply affirmed: God is life. God is the God of life, not death.

The Pharisees believed in the resurrection but only for the righteous. Resurrection was a reward for right belief and right behavior. The Pharisees wanted to know for sure what the minimum requirement was to earn God’s reward and avoid God’s wrath.
And so, after Jesus answers the Sadducees question about the resurrection, the Pharisees ask Jesus to tell them what he thinks is the greatest law. By the context we understand their question proceeds from their assumption that in order to earn the right to be resurrected you must fulfill certain laws. So the question in context becomes: which law is the bottom line requirement for God to reward us with the resurrection?

Jesus answers the question by quoting Moses. The quote is part of the basic creed of Judaism, the Shema. Hear O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is One; and, you shall love the Lord your God with all of your heart, with all of your soul, and with all of your mind. Then, Jesus adds a command from the book of Leviticus: you shall love your neighbor as you love yourself.

Jesus answers the legalistic Pharisees by quoting the Lawgiver, Moses. And, Jesus summarizes the law with a single command: You shall love.
You shall love God, other people and yourself.

You shall love God with all of your heart (you emotions), all of your soul (your personal identity) and all of your mind (your intellect). The imperative to love is different from the lists of dos and don’ts- the “thou shalt” and “thou shalt not”.
It is not something you can do once and then place on your balance sheet to claim a reward. The call to love has no place on the balance sheet of credits and debits, rewards and punishments. We don’t do good works in order to get love and obtain a reward. The love itself, or rather Himself, produces the good works and is Himself the reward.

Love is an ongoing process of transformation of an attitude that produces a set of actions.

Love is a choice.

The source of love, the active dynamic creative power of love, is outside the various biochemical reactions that produce the sentiments of love. The source of love is God. God is love.

Jesus is the incarnate co-eternal Beloved of God the Father. The Holy Spirit is the personal presence of Divine Love in our midst.

The imperative to love is the Father’s call through the presence of the Holy Spirit to embrace the Beloved, Jesus Christ.

Jesus answers the question: “which is the greatest commandment” in the words of Moses. Moses experienced the reality of God in the burning bush and in the ineffable Shekinah Glory of God on Mount Sinai.

God’s revelation to Moses is: I am who I am. God’s command to Moses is: since I am who I am I call you to become who I have created you to be. I call you in love, through love and for love to be the beloved of the co-eternal beloved.

The various laws God revealed to Moses are presented to us to show us that the problem we as a species embody is separation from God. No matter how hard we may try we cannot obey the Law. We, like the legalistic Pharisees, look for the minimum requirement and devote our energy to creating the loop holes to get the maximum credit for the minimum effort. We like the people of Moses’ generation rebel against the law and insist on asserting self- will over Divine will.

The Law convicts us that we need something more. We need something different. We need something more personal and even more intimate. We need Jesus.

Jesus is the co-eternal Beloved in human flesh. He is the original pattern of the Law. He is the ultimate purpose for the Law. He knows the answer to the Pharisees’ question and indeed their deepest longing and most profound fear. He knows this because He himself is the Plan for humanity.

The answer to the questions the Pharisees asked is in the nature of God and the pattern by which God the Father created each of us. The answer is Jesus Christ.
Hear the answer again. You shall love the Lord your God with all of your heart, all of your soul, all of your mind. All means all. It means perfection. That is the standard of the Law, the pattern of the Law and the plan of the Law.

Jesus allows for no minimum. Jesus allows for no loop holes. Love is personal. The subject of love is also the object of love. It is Jesus Himself. Jesus is the particularity of the infinite and eternal love that is God.
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The point is that we cannot keep the law by our own will. We cannot keep the skeleton outline of the Law revealed to Moses in the commandments. We cannot keep the fleshed out fullness of the law made manifest in Jesus Christ.

We can receive the gift Jesus offers us: reunification with God the Father and a new life and a new way of living in the transforming Presence of the Holy Spirit. Jesus is the Father’s invitation to immerse ourselves in the very essence of the Divine. That essence is infinite and eternal love.

For us, Love is an imperative.

The imperative comes from Moses and it comes from the prophets. It comes through the very call to salvation in the word of God made flesh in Jesus Christ. It comes in the call to worship.

Jesus not only issues the call he makes it possible to fulfill the imperative. Jesus is the infinite and eternal love of God reaching out to each of us with the transforming power of love.

Our part is to make a real choice. Our part is to make a choice to surrender self- will to divine will. Our part is to ask Jesus to change the way we think, the way we feel, the way we make choices so we can become the unique person God the Father created us to be.

The resurrection is not a reward. Reunification with God is not a right. They are gifts that come to us as we embrace the One whom God sent into the world to embrace us. We cannot submit to God to earn his love. We can only surrender to the wonderful gift of his love in Jesus Christ.

Jesus not only summarizes the Law in his answer to the Pharisees, he summarizes the plan, pattern and purpose for our existence. You shall love.