Matthew 22:35-40
The Most Important Command:
One of the Pharisees spoke for the others, posing a question they hoped would show Jesus up: “Teacher, which command in God’s Law is the most important?”
Jesus said, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your passion and prayer and intelligence.’ This is the most important, the first on any list. But there is a second to set alongside it: ‘Love your neighbor as well as you love yourself.’ These two commands are pegs; everything in God’s Law and the Prophets hangs from them.”
This is not the reading I originally planned to speak on today. That was another Matthew reading, but one I just wasn’t getting any message from. If there was something there for us right now, I was not hearing it this week. Meanwhile, I had stumbled upon another quote -- yes, from Frederick Buechner (it's always Buechner - he just says things that make me really think). His quote spoke to me and I just had to look up the scripture he referred to and see it in the context of who Jesus was speaking to and when he was speaking. And while I read there, a switch got flipped in my brain (or my heart - I’m never sure which is which with scripture) – and I knew what I had to preach on today.
The reading we just heard is from the 22nd chapter of Matthew’s gospel, toward the end of Jesus’ human life among us. Jesus and the disciples have just come into Jerusalem together for the final time. The people of Jerusalem have welcome him with palm branches and hosannas and proclaimed him David’s son...the one who comes in the name of the Lord.
Immediately after this, according to Matthew’s timeline, Jesus had gone into the Temple and caused havoc by driving out the money-changers. From here he had gone out to Bethany for the night, but the next day he was back, teaching again, in the Temple. Today’s reading is one of the long series of teachings that comes now – as if Jesus was trying to cram as much as possible into the short time he suspects he has left to teach us.
Here we have the stories of the Man with Two Sons - the one we call the Prodigal Son – as well as the story of the King who gave a great wedding banquet and invited all his friends – and others. All through these teachings, both the Pharisees and the Sadducees had been baiting Jesus – asking him trick questions, hoping to trip him up into saying something they could label as 'blasphemy'. And so we come to today’s story. Their question: “Which command in God’s Law is the most important?” And his answer: “Love the Lord your God with all your passion and prayer and intelligence.’ This is the most important, the first on any list. But there is a second to set alongside it: ‘Love your neighbor as well as you love yourself.’ These two commands are pegs; everything in God’s Law and the Prophets hangs from them.”
There is a term used in art and literature, called, “framing.” It refers to the effect of singling out a particular moment in time – an historical moment, a fleeting emotion, one day in a person’s childhood – anything, really – and by painting just that moment, writing about just that moment – the artist “frames” the moment and sets it apart and says to us - stop a minute and pay attention here. It may appear ordinary as any other moment but the artist sees something there and wants us to see it as well. Stop and pay attention - this moment may not come again.
In effect, that is what Jesus is doing here with this discussion of the greatest commandment. He has been teaching for three years – the prophets had preached for a thousand years. And yet, how often must it have seemed as if no one was paying attention – ever?
Now, back to the Buechner quote that first set me in search of this scripture. The quote comes from Whistling in the Dark, specifically an article about Art and Framing. Here it is in its long-form version:
The reading we just heard is from the 22nd chapter of Matthew’s gospel, toward the end of Jesus’ human life among us. Jesus and the disciples have just come into Jerusalem together for the final time. The people of Jerusalem have welcome him with palm branches and hosannas and proclaimed him David’s son...the one who comes in the name of the Lord.
Immediately after this, according to Matthew’s timeline, Jesus had gone into the Temple and caused havoc by driving out the money-changers. From here he had gone out to Bethany for the night, but the next day he was back, teaching again, in the Temple. Today’s reading is one of the long series of teachings that comes now – as if Jesus was trying to cram as much as possible into the short time he suspects he has left to teach us.
Here we have the stories of the Man with Two Sons - the one we call the Prodigal Son – as well as the story of the King who gave a great wedding banquet and invited all his friends – and others. All through these teachings, both the Pharisees and the Sadducees had been baiting Jesus – asking him trick questions, hoping to trip him up into saying something they could label as 'blasphemy'. And so we come to today’s story. Their question: “Which command in God’s Law is the most important?” And his answer: “Love the Lord your God with all your passion and prayer and intelligence.’ This is the most important, the first on any list. But there is a second to set alongside it: ‘Love your neighbor as well as you love yourself.’ These two commands are pegs; everything in God’s Law and the Prophets hangs from them.”
There is a term used in art and literature, called, “framing.” It refers to the effect of singling out a particular moment in time – an historical moment, a fleeting emotion, one day in a person’s childhood – anything, really – and by painting just that moment, writing about just that moment – the artist “frames” the moment and sets it apart and says to us - stop a minute and pay attention here. It may appear ordinary as any other moment but the artist sees something there and wants us to see it as well. Stop and pay attention - this moment may not come again.
In effect, that is what Jesus is doing here with this discussion of the greatest commandment. He has been teaching for three years – the prophets had preached for a thousand years. And yet, how often must it have seemed as if no one was paying attention – ever?
Now, back to the Buechner quote that first set me in search of this scripture. The quote comes from Whistling in the Dark, specifically an article about Art and Framing. Here it is in its long-form version:
Is it too much to say that Stop, Look, and Listen is also the most basic lesson that Judeo-Christian tradition teaches us? Listen to history is the cry of the ancient prophets of Israel. Listen to social injustice, says Amos; to head-in-the-sand religiosity, says Jeremiah; to international treacheries and power plays, says Isaiah; because it is precisely through them that God speaks his word of judgment and command.
And when Jesus comes along saying that the greatest command of all is to love God and to love our neighbor, he too is asking us to pay attention. If we are to love God, we must first stop, look, and listen for him in what is happening around us and inside us. If we are to love our neighbors, before doing anything else we must see our neighbors. With our imagination as well as our eyes, that is to say like artists, we must see not just their faces but the life behind and within their faces. Here it is love that is the frame we see them in.
Yesterday we fed some hungry people. I’m pretty sure they were genuinely hungry. They didn’t come take our pb&j sandwiches because they prefer them to a giant whopper with fries. They took them because they were hungry and they didn’t have anything else. So we did a good thing – and we will, I hope, continue to do it – but I would never think that what we did actually solved a problem. That would require that we – and a whole lot of other people – actually stop and look and listen to find just how we got this problem in the first place. And one small group of people can’t do that all by ourselves. We can only do what we can do. The problem is too wide for us to solve by ourselves.
Jesus’ 'stop, look, and listen' demands time and attention. His command that we see our neighbor requires more than putting a bandaid on a problem. Yesterday, Craig brought out an issue that bothers him. It bothers me too. We, as a people, have decided it’s time to raise the minimum wage so that more people have a shot at actually living on the wages they earn. I believe this is a good and fair thing. A justice thing. And yet – as Craig pointed out – it is causing a further hardship on seniors on a fixed income, because now prices on many items are going to go up to accommodate those raised wages. This becomes an in-justice. While we have bettered one group’s standard of living, we have worsened another’s. Why can't we right one injustice without causing another injustice somewhere else? I don’t want to get into a discussion of the minimum wage right now - it’s only meant as an illustration of a larger tendency in humankind.
This happened because we (the voters and writers of the ballot measure) didn’t stop to look deeply enough into the problem – we just saw one group’s need and attempted to right their wrong – without looking at a wider view to see who might be hurt by our actions. I suspect this will gradually even itself out over time – but it will be a long, acrimonious fight along the way – and the people who really make all the money from our transactions will go right along making money the whole while without a lot of concern for who suffers in the process. But real justice never comes at someone else’s expense. Real justice - the kind the prophets preached and that Jesus gave his live for – will only come when it comes for all people.
And that will require a lot of looking at each other and actually seeing each other. Because I was already mulling over this reading yesterday when Patti and I went out to distribute the lunches we’d all made I was perhaps more aware than usual. I really looked at the faces of those who came for the sandwiches. Some were stoic; some were, I suspect, already retreating into some other land the rest of us can’t see; all of them were beaten down by life; and I’d say all were grateful. They were orderly and polite and grateful that someone thought to help them eat. And every one of them was part of God’s creation - one of God’s children - my brother or sister.
In order to love our neighbor, we have to know our neighbor - and that requires taking the time to truly see them, and recognize them as more then a problem, but as part of the family.
Jesus’ 'stop, look, and listen' demands time and attention. His command that we see our neighbor requires more than putting a bandaid on a problem. Yesterday, Craig brought out an issue that bothers him. It bothers me too. We, as a people, have decided it’s time to raise the minimum wage so that more people have a shot at actually living on the wages they earn. I believe this is a good and fair thing. A justice thing. And yet – as Craig pointed out – it is causing a further hardship on seniors on a fixed income, because now prices on many items are going to go up to accommodate those raised wages. This becomes an in-justice. While we have bettered one group’s standard of living, we have worsened another’s. Why can't we right one injustice without causing another injustice somewhere else? I don’t want to get into a discussion of the minimum wage right now - it’s only meant as an illustration of a larger tendency in humankind.
This happened because we (the voters and writers of the ballot measure) didn’t stop to look deeply enough into the problem – we just saw one group’s need and attempted to right their wrong – without looking at a wider view to see who might be hurt by our actions. I suspect this will gradually even itself out over time – but it will be a long, acrimonious fight along the way – and the people who really make all the money from our transactions will go right along making money the whole while without a lot of concern for who suffers in the process. But real justice never comes at someone else’s expense. Real justice - the kind the prophets preached and that Jesus gave his live for – will only come when it comes for all people.
And that will require a lot of looking at each other and actually seeing each other. Because I was already mulling over this reading yesterday when Patti and I went out to distribute the lunches we’d all made I was perhaps more aware than usual. I really looked at the faces of those who came for the sandwiches. Some were stoic; some were, I suspect, already retreating into some other land the rest of us can’t see; all of them were beaten down by life; and I’d say all were grateful. They were orderly and polite and grateful that someone thought to help them eat. And every one of them was part of God’s creation - one of God’s children - my brother or sister.
In order to love our neighbor, we have to know our neighbor - and that requires taking the time to truly see them, and recognize them as more then a problem, but as part of the family.
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