The first is this: Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is Lord alone! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. The second is this: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

Before we dig into this reading we need to quickly reflect on the previous readings of this chapter. Jesus is sitting in the temple and He is surrounded by Pharisees, Saducees, Scribes, Herodians, and even some Romans. These disparate and antagonistic groups, that are usually fighting with each other, have found themselves perfectly united against Jesus. This reading comes at the end of a long string of challenges that these groups are making to Jesus. Most of them were conceived as traps to either get Jesus in trouble with His followers or with the Romans. The temple tax question, from a previous passage, is a good example of this.

There is also a direct connection to the typology of the Davidic kingdom in this reading. In Solomons kingdom, he would sit on his throne hearing questions from all comers. The jewish tradition (started with King David) required that the King would meditate on the law, day and night, and become an expert on it, so that he could answer all questions on that law that were presented to him. Jesus, here, is serving as the new son of david, sitting in the kings chair, listening to all questioners about the law.

This particular question in todays reading, is unlike the questions of the pharisees in the previous verses. It is not necessarily a trap but it is a test. The rabbis in Jesus’ time liked to play this game…, like lawyers, they wanted to understand the law down to the letter, to know exactly what was the legally right thing to do in all circumstances. They did this both for fun and pride, as an exercise to see who best knew the law, but it was also had a practical component, helping them all to figure out how to best navigate the law that had grown to be too large and unwieldy.

This particular questioner in todays reading, whether he knew it or not, was treating Jesus like a real Davidic king, and asking him a sincere question about the Law. But the answer Jesus gives is not unique to Him, it comes straight out of the Old Testament Law. The first part comes from the Shema, and the second comes from the holiness code in Leviticus. The Shema was the most common prayer in Jewish life, it was recited multiple times a day by all jews.

“Listen, Israel: the Lord is our God, the Lord is One. Blessed be the name of His glorious kingdom for ever and all time. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might. These words which I command you today shall be on your heart.”

The holiness code comes from chapters 17–26 of leviticus. It was part of the law of the torah, and was called the holiness code because of its repeated use of the word holy. In Letviticus 19:18 it specifically speaks of loving your neighbor as yourself, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself. I am the LORD.” All listeners, at the time, would have immediately understood what Jesus was referring to in His answer.

Jesus’ answer, while it is a “simplification” of the law, does not make the law simpler to live out. In fact, He made it much harder for them. The Pharisees had rigorous ritual practices but frequently submitted to low moral standards. They were loving God, only in their minds, using their knowledge of  loopholes in the law to get out of taking care of their neighbor.

Jesus is here criticizing them for having everything backwards. Without the love of God in your heart, you could not possibly love your neighbor as yourself, especially if that neighbor hates you. This kind of love requires a supernatural strength, the strength of God’s love in your heart. The converse is also true. Without the love of your neighbor (God’s beloved creation), in your heart, you cannot truly and completely love God. All humans are God’s children, and He loves them all dearly. You cannot fully and completely love God if you have hatred in your heart for one of His beloved children. Dorothy Day once said that “you can only love God to the extent that you hate one of His children.” This is indeed a high call, but we are not allowed to desist from it.

And as Peter Kreft wrote “Love is God’s commandment. But love is not essentially a feeling because feelings can’t be commanded.” What this means is that God has commanded you to love…, both Him and your Neighbor. So you have a choice, to either follow His command or reject it. To follow it means that you love regardless of how you feel about it. You do it because it is right, and because that is what God wants of you. To reject this command is to instead, put yourself first, and to find loopholes so that you don’t have to think of anyone else. This rejections separates you from everyone else, but most importantly it separates you from God.

When you stand before the Lord at your judgement, He will ask you why you did not love those people that hated you. If you are not willing to change your heart in this life, to love God and your neighbor, you will be eternally separated from God in the next. This is truly the whole law, and it is simple, but really hard to do… Can you do it? that is the real challenge in life. But you have to do it, your eternity depends on it.

Oh lord help me today to love all of your children more, and with the humilty that you did. Even if they drive me crazy. Amen.